Introduction
As the founder of the funded trader, Angelo speaks on Business Ninja and gives more insights about what “The Funded Trader” is all about . He talks on how TFT engineers a two-step challenge so people can get the opportunity to trade with better capital. From whatever virtual profit is made after getting funded, the trader gets to keep 80% of it in remuneration.
Angelo’s background and getting into the Forex Industry
About 5 years ago, like most people, Angelo used to work a 9-5 in the IT operations. Along the line, he started to look for other means to make more money. He stumbled upon simulated trading and started with doing it himself. He made some but also lost some and knew he wanted to build an online community where he could meet more people with similar mindset and experience.
It was through this he met his partner at the time and they both saw a lot of power in collaborating and sharing ideas which made them start Instagram and YouTube. They also started to grow the telegram channel, discord and email lists.
They didn’t stop there and delved into affiliate marketing which led them to a partnership with a company that was doing a similar business model. However, the way this company was running wasn’t that professional. With Angelos background in operations and IT, he knew there was a lot more that could be done to create more efficiencies in their business.
When the company went down, Angelo immediately knew he had to establish something and to be the first company in the US that was doing it. This was one of the origins to the ideation and innovation of the funded trader.
What is the TFT challenge for Forex Traders?
Angelo says a lot of traders are day simulated trading and although they might have built up so many skills to trade, they do not have the capital to trade like they’d want to. The challenge was then created with the hope to give traders an opportunity to make more money; up to $600,000 in capital if you pass.
Before delving into the challenge, Angelo’s advice to beginners is to first get educated about simulated trading by using some of the many free resources available on the internet. He also advises to go through the TFT website and check out some of their YouTube videos.
When a trader makes up their mind to take the challenge, the first step is to pay a sign-up fee which ranges from within $300-$1500. This unlocks a certain amount of capital if you pass. For instance, after paying $300 for the signup, an email is sent with your account details for access to the first stage; phase 1. In this phase, you have to make a certain amount of profit; could be 10%, 8% or 12% depending on the rule of the challenge. Other important rules and barriers for this phase can also be found in the FAQs section of the TFT website.
Also, if a challenge length is 35 days and you pass within it, you get to proceed to the next phase of the challenge. At this point, you’re given access to the web app called the ‘Trade Hub’ which has a dashboard where you’re able to view all of your results, trades and notifications.
If you end up passing phase 2, you must do a KYC and submit your documents for verification purposes.
After getting verified, you’re given your own funded account where you get access to the virtual profit share tab on the Trade Hub. From whatever virtual profit you make after, you can go to the Trade Hub and request for a payout.
TFT’s Revenue and Virtual Profit Split with Forex Traders?
One of the ways revenue is generated at the company is through a sign-up fee from people registering for the challenge. On the simulated trading aspect, however, research is ongoing to determine how simulated trading data can be monetized and tools are currently being built in that respect to leverage on trades traders are taking. Angelo believes as time goes on, this will become the main source of revenue for the business.
A contract is signed to form an agreement where, from any virtual profit made from the funded account, the trader agrees to get paid a percentage of that fee, usually 80%. For someone with a 50k account, if he hits a number of great trades and makes a 10% profit ie. $5,000, the payout for this individual would be $4000 which is 80% of his total profit.
TFT is not a Brokerage but hopes to Evolve
TFT is not a brokerage and other simulated trading activities are done with another entity in the Cayman Islands. As a US entity on paper, TFT is a simulated trading company and does not have the license to conduct such activity.
In future, Angelo thinks there might be an opportunity to evolve to become a brokerage. However, the majority of TFT targets right now are on fairly average people from across social media who might be working in different industries and who are not professional in any way.
Company protection and Engagement with Traders
Angelo says there’s a lot of risk when it comes to people simulated trading the company’s capital. However, the company has built and is still building risk tools that basically grade all of the trades and traders and forms a risk profile letting the company know through signals and alerts who the company should and shouldn’t be putting money on.
The main source of community right now in the TFT is the discord with about 40,000 people. In regard to dedicated account managers for people that are funded, TFT does not have that but instead has 24/7 live support available on the website. They, however, hope to look into it to give the funded traders a more VIP experience.
Content marketing as a huge part of the TFT
With TFT there’s never too much content. Angelo believes content marketing is invaluable and one which you can’t put a price to. From his perspective, TFT is a very data-driven company that uses different applications to track all of where the revenue is coming from so results of the socials are easy to be seen and understood.
Although, compared to other sources of revenue, TFT’s social media only brings about 5-10% of the total revenue, Angelo believes it is still a very important and integral part as the social channels are needed to reach new customers and clients and gain lots of impressions. It also helps to share the success stories of people in the community.
Angelo says the company has paid more than $20,000,000 in the last year and his projection for the next year would be to payout 10 times more than what TFT has paid traders in the last year.
