Imagine that you could have an 18-year winning streak. What would that look like? How would you do it? If you are like Victor Sperandeo, you would focus on avoiding losses rather than making huge gains.

Sperandeo is one of those traders that got their starts playing poker (similar to Blair Hull). Sperandeo knew the odds of each hand and he would fold if he felt the odds were not in his favor and press if he felt they were.

Sperandeo found the way to wealth is “to preserve capital and wait patiently for the right opportunity to make extraordinary gains.” He does this by examining a trade to know what loss he could sustain, being consistent in balancing risk relative to profits, and seeking out superior returns after he has had periods of high profitability.

What do futures traders Larry Benedict, Linda Bradford Raschke, and Marty Schwartz have in common? Each of them suffered losses that would have sent most traders packing, but ended up being some of the most successful traders in recent memory.

When it comes to the markets, it seems the road to success with paved with big mistakes — especially at the start. Here are a few of our guesses as to why.

It's safe to say that Fez M. from Northampton, England's trading is going really well right now. He just became the first trader funded by TopstepFX in forex and TopstepTrader in futures after passing the TopstepTrader Trading Combine® yesterday. Plus, in a month of trading  a live TopstepFX Funded Account®, Fez has racked up profits, even making $2,700 in withdrawals. 

We recently sat down with Fez, a former techno DJ, to talk about his journey trading, what got him into markets and what advice he would have for others. Here’s what he said.

Nikhil O. in Illinois, U.S.A. got off to a troubled start in his TopstepFX Funded Account®.

In his first three days trading, he lost more than 70% of his overall cushion — losing $930 of his overall $1,300 account loss limit for the $200K Trading Combine®.

But he turned that around, and five days later, his overall P&L was $325. In another week, he built a nice base of profits that led to more than $4,100 in withdrawals.

So what’s his secret? No secret — just a lot of hard work, lessons learned and dedication.

The real lesson is that Nikhil is just like you. He has a full-time job, but a passion to make a living trading. And to reach that goal, he’s working on maximizing his trading strengths and minimizing his weaknesses, which is why TopstepFX is a great place for him.

We recently sat down with Nikhil to talk about his journey trading and what he would tell other traders in the TopstepFX Trading Combine. Here’s what he said.

The following was written and emailed to TopstepFX subscribers on Wednesday, May 16. To subscribe, start an account at https://app.topstepfx.com/register.

Heading into the summer, you might not expect this to be one of the most active times for the forex market. But in 2018, you can't make that assumption. 

Between the U.S. and China in a trade war — or trade dispute, depending who you ask — overall market volatility is staying high, presenting lots of opportunities to capitalize on. The GBP/USD has come $0.10 off its high, while the EUR/USD is down $0.08. 

The recent surge in the U.S. Dollar is among one of the three opportunities for forex traders to take advantage of. Here they are all the opportunities and why.

Yesterday, we talked about hedge fund manager John Paulson, who made what was called The Greatest Trade Ever. And just as that trade had three important lessons, so does John Paulson’s performance a decade after it was made.

While Paulson’s firm made money for a bit, some of his top funds have not done well in the meantime. For instance, Paulson’s Advantage Fund was down double digits for three years. The Paulson Partners Enhanced fund fell 35% in 2017.

In total, Paulson may have lost more of his investor’s capital since 2008 than he made in his $15 billion run. That’s because money poured in and his performance changed. Here are three lessons you can learn from his reversal of fortunes.

One series of trades — $15 billion in profits. That’s what Wall Street Journal reporter Gregory Zuckerman dubbed The Greatest Trade Ever.

If you don’t know the reference, we’re talking about when Hedge Fund Manager John Paulson made a series of calculated bets against the subprime mortgage market starting in 2006. The bets took his hedge fund from relative obscurity to household name, earning himself and his investors windfall profits.

To put it in context, there were single days where Paulson made $1 billion in profits. Here are three tactical lessons that you can learn from Paulson’s execution of the Greatest Trade Ever.

With the prevalence of OTC forex markets, traders can trade forex nearly 24 hours a day, five days a week. But just because the market is open doesn’t necessarily mean it presents you with the best trade opportunities. In forex, the best time to trade is when the market is moving. Here are those times and what to look for when trading them.  

If there's one thing that more than 13 years of trading teaches you, it's that trading is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's a lot of hard work, setbacks and persistence. These are traits that Jacqui W. in Maryland, TopstepFX's latest funded trader, possesses.

Jacqui passed Step 1 of the Trading Combine® in just five days. From there, he says that he became overconfident and eager to to earn a Funded Account® to start trading live capital. As a result, it took him a little more than two months to pass Step 2. 

We caught up with Jacqui last week to learn more about his trading strategy and what advice he would give other traders in the Trading Combine. 

Think you have to trade a lot of contracts to put up four-figure days? Wrong. Sarah S. in Jersey City, NJ made $3,200 her first day trading in a Funded Account®, $1,000 her second, and $3,500 two days later. All trading a max of one contract at a time.

Sarah is the first to admit that these were “unusually” profitable days where she was able to capture the right side of a trend. But still, there’s a lot that traders can learn from this performance.

In this interview, Sarah provided robust examples of the three trade setups that she looks for in trading Nasdaq futures.