Home › Market News › Funded Trader Greg Breaks Down His Trading Strategy
Meet Greg, a two-year veteran of the Topstep program who is currently trading in a Funded Account®. Greg recently joined Topstep performance coach Dan Hodgman to chat about his evolution as a futures trader. During this interview, Greg breaks down his trading strategy in incredible detail, explains his favorite markets to trade, and shares his experience working with John Hoagland and the benefits of Performance Coaching.
Every market is different. You might even say that each market has a personality of its own; some move fast than others or have a tendency to trend longer than others. Therefore, it’s essential to know the details of the market you intend to trade for the simple purpose of understanding what you’re getting into.
Finding a market that fits your needs and trading style is a big piece of the puzzle. One way to get started finding which market is suitable for you is by sitting down and taking an earnest look at yourself. An honest self-assessment outlining your strengths, weaknesses, and expectations can give you a serious edge in avoiding some of the pitfalls many traders face early on in their careers.
A few things you might want to consider for your self-evaluation can be your sleeping habits, what times of day you feel the most productive, and whether you have a tendency to be a high or low-energy person. No matter what you may find from your assessment, there is likely a market out there that matches your personality.
Once you’ve finished your self-evaluation, you’re now ready to take the next steps of building stronger and more sustainable habits and developing a trading plan designed to play to your strengths. Trading isn’t easy, but the more work you put into preparing for each day, the better chance you have of finding long-term success as a trader.
We also highly recommend that you start journaling your daily trading performance as soon as possible. One of the easiest ways to avoid making the same mistakes over and over is to understand how and why you made a mistake in the first place. Start small, if you need to, by just jotting down your entry and exit levels, what you saw that made you take the trade, and whether or not the trade was profitable.
From there, you can expand into more detail, such as your risk parameters and whether or not you adhere to them, and how you were feeling physically and emotionally when you entered the trade.
The bottom line is, having a plan and sticking to it has the potential to save you a whole lot of hardship in the long run. Trust the process, and you might just find yourself with an entirely new set of skills and habits that positively affect every aspect of your life, not just trading.
Trade Well!
