The foreign exchange market (forex) is high risk, high reward. In fact, most of those who attempt forex simulated trading lose money. Aspiring traders are often deterred by the high odds, but some opportunistic traders see the statistics as a challenge. Going in blind, taking uncalculated risks, and dabbling in financial markets without careful research, planning, and resources are some of the surest ways to lose. However, those with solid strategies backed by experience have met astounding simulated trading success in the forex market.
Zaid Zaidy’s success story exemplifies how consistency can yield major returns. Zaidy is the youngest paid-out trader on The Funded Trader’s platform who, despite his age, never wavered from his long-term vision. Here’s how he used The Funded Trader to turn a hefty profit, plus lessons he learned along the way.
Zaid Zaidy’s Background
Zaidy was born in Iraq and raised in Jordan. As a young teen, around 15, Zaidy worked at his father’s restaurant as a bartender. He clocked long hours behind the bar and had fun spending time in the casual environment.
However, about three years in, Zaidy’s father called him into his office to ask a simple question that would change his entire outlook: do you want to be a bartender when you’re 50 years old? Zaidy’s answer was no. So, his father implored him to start working on a plan for his financial future without delay.
Just Starting Out
Zaidy took his father’s wisdom to heart and created a budget for himself. He portioned 20% of his income for personal spending, and 80% for investments. At first, Zaidy didn’t know how to invest and sustained major gambling losses. For several years these losses piled up, amounting to a sum of $12,000. Luckily, a friend introduced him to simulated trading around this time.
For the next two or three years, Zaidy struggled to implement successful simulated trading methods and continued to take on losses. However, at his lowest, he began to reevaluate his strategy and mindset.
Getting Focused
Zaidy buckled down and started seriously researching and evaluating the drivers of simulated trading success. He adjusted his risk management parameters, started simulated trading with the trend, studied the psychology of trading, and always set his stop-losses. His new strategy worked, and even though his wins weren’t huge, he started seeing returns. Around this time, he discovered The Funded Trader (TFT).
Achieving simulated Trading Success
Once Zaidy had developed a successful strategy, he began to look toward growing his virtual profit margins. The Funded Trader gave him access to the startup capital he needed to create exponential gains. He was able to use the firm’s money to his advantage, increasing his overall profitability. With his newly leveled-up strategy and access to the funding that TFT provided, Zaidy started to see his virtual profits grow.
Walking Through Zaidy’s simulated Trading Success Journey
Many people view the financial markets as a means of getting rich quickly, or they imagine investing as a complicated form of gambling. When done wrong, trading can be excessively risky. But what naysayers don’t know about achieving simulated trading success is that it can be a long and winding road.
The best traders didn’t gain their virtual profits all at once in a stroke of luck. Rather, they have a diverse and thought-out portfolio that yields more modest yet more consistent returns. Zaidy’s journey is no exception. He paid his dues and worked his way to profitability, starting small and eventually bringing in life-changing returns as a funded trader. His story is an example to those who are willing to stick out the initial losses and work for their long-term goals.
Zaidy’s simulated trading success isn’t a matter of luck but of dedication. His journey exemplifies how consistency and strategy are the surest ways to achieve long-term profitability in the forex market.
Strategy Building
Zaidy went through an exploratory phase where he backtested extensively to develop his simulated trading strategy. Backtesting is the process of recreating past trades with historical data and playing out a strategy to determine its statistical simulated trading success. This is how Zaidy became a profitable trader—with strategies developed through extensive research.
One of Zaidy’s top strategies is also his easiest to implement. On a long position (referring to simulated trading symbols bought as a directional bet that the instrument will go up), the price must close above 200 DMA (the average of a symbol’s closing price over 200 days). There also needs to be an upward cross from below the zero line on the MACD (a simulated trading indicator used to analyze trends). The risk-to-reward ratio will be 1:1, and the win rate will be 62%.
Zaidy says the most important part of this strategy is risk management. Be prepared to take on losses, and make sure you know how much you’re risking because consistency means losing every so often. Using this strategy as a funded trader, Zaidy was able to make around $90,000 in less than two months.
In addition, Zaidy warns new traders against implementing too many indicators. To him, simplicity is key. Analysis and backtesting are critical, but you can start to overthink every loss. Find a strategy that works and be consistent in your implementation. Expect losses, stay on track, and, most importantly, keep it simple.
Trading Success and Psychology
Zaidy stresses the importance of developing a strong simulated trading psychology. Trading has real-world stakes, and sometimes the markets are volatile. Traders can get too energized by big wins or too stuck in the lows of losing.
Trading success comes from avoiding these mental pitfalls and practicing a balanced outlook. Here are some of the most important psychological habits successful traders implement:
- Planning: Successful traders don’t act off whims. Leave trades that aren’t going in accordance with your plans, even if you still see the potential for gains. Follow a set of rules and measure the success of a trade not in terms of profitability but in terms of how well the chosen strategy was executed.
- Skepticism: Overconfidence can be risky. Remain skeptical of wins and always remember that risks can easily turn into losses. Measure simulated trading success by overall performance instead of individual trades.
- Risk Management: Smart traders don’t risk anything larger than a loss they can take. Entering a big lot size trade might be very profitable, or it might make a devastating dent in your capital. Either way, in the long-term, sticking to manageable amounts will eventually bring in greater returns. Implementing a stop-loss (an order that limits losses when a price threshold is triggered) helps traders set hard limits.
Just as a trader must anticipate and learn from their losses, they also must not become overconfident about wins. The markets go up and down, as will virtual profit.. It’s critical that a trader protects their capital by managing risks and following strategies. A winning strategy accounts for losses, so traders should never risk more than what would be an acceptable loss.
How Did Zaidy Become TFT’s Youngest Paid-Out Trader?
At 19, Zaidy is the youngest paid-out funded trader, proving the right strategy and mindset brings simulated trading success regardless of age. The uninitiated often view simulated trading as a game of chance. However, Zaidy shows calculated investing doesn’t need to be risky. In fact, trading can be a career like any other; it just takes a self-motivated person.
He built the groundwork for his success by learning about the market, consistently implementing his strategies, and gaining access to funding. Zaidy says the turning point was when he stopped listening to the advice of others and began relying on his own experience as a guide. That isn’t to say he wasn’t listening to experts; rather, he was augmenting their information with his own experience.
Zaidy started using the information he gathered to put together his own strategies. In the end, the years he spent were worth it: in the financial markets, hard work pays well.
Advice to Future or Amateur Traders
Zaidy champions real-world experience. He believes the advice of others is no match for action. No video or article will help you internalize a lesson half as well as experience. With a mindset focused on growth and development, losing is a trader’s greatest teacher.
Here are some of the key lessons Zaidy had to learn to start turning a virtual profit in the forex market and his advice to up-and-coming traders:
Turn Mistakes Into simulated Trading Success
Profits come when a trader can utilize the lessons from their losses to guide and correct their methods. Because while consistency is a key component of Zaidy’s methodology, he knows consistency without correction leads to repeated mistakes.
So, be consistent in implementing a strategy, but be open to improving said strategy. The ability to learn from mistakes is a key component of a trader’s psychology. Avoiding excessive risks and instead mindfully correcting methods when losses occur leads to continuous improvement.
Harness Perseverance
Zaidy also encourages perseverance. He spent several unprofitable years honing his psychology and strategies before he started seeing returns. Now, he believes a funded trader with good methodology and strong psychology can’t help but be paid-out.
To Zaidy, there’s nothing special about his trading. Anyone bold enough to try their hand, determined enough to learn, and persistent enough to keep going can achieve simulated trading success. He describes being paid-out as a huge relief and a driving force. All his hard work comes to fruition, which motivates him to keep investing and strategizing. This mindset has carried him through his journey from a bartender living off $150-$200 a month to an investor living off $10,000 a month.
Most people dream of financial freedom. Zaidy achieved it by putting his all into prop firm trading. As he says, no one was born knowing how to trade; you have to learn how it’s done. Zaidy believes that if he can master the tricks of the trade, anyone can. But those who want to follow his path need to be prepared to sustain their motivation through wins and losses.
Find Resources and Community
Once an aspiring trader has picked a strategy, has their mindset in order, and can properly manage risk, it’s time to expand their horizons. Zaidy’s virtual profits initially picked up with the help of a prop firm, and the timing was no coincidence. Not only was he able to trade the firm’s capital instead of his own, but he also had a community to reach out to and ask questions.
New traders have an easier go with access to resources, for both their financial and consultation needs. Plus, for those who want to make a career as a professional trader, a trusted prop firm like The Funded Trader is an entry-level way into the industry.
Funded simulated Trading Success
Aspiring traders can learn a lot from Zaidy’s simulated trading success journey: experience is the best teacher, try a new strategy, be prepared to lose, and learn from those losses. However, starting out can still be intimidating and costly, and most people don’t have the capital to invest in hand.
Luckily, there are ways to get around the financial barriers that hold people back from becoming profitable in the forex market like Zaidy. The Funded Trader is the preeminent platform for forex and cryptocurrency trading, providing a gateway for aspiring retail traders who are serious about building a professional career but lack capital.
Become a funded trader to gain access to capital and try your hand at simulated trading forex currencies, commodities, crypto or indices without risking your own money. Start by completing TFT’s evaluation process—a two-part challenge to prove your knowledge and skills. In phase one, traders must prove they can stick to their strategy and perform adequate risk management to achieve objectives. Phase two follows the same prompt, just in a more relaxed environment.
Upon completion of phase two, traders officially join the proprietary simulated trading firm as Funded Traders, where they get up to 90% profit splits. From there, practice proper risk management and stay consistent, and the returns will follow. Sign up for The Funded Trader’s two-step challenge now.
