Summary
Highlights
Desi emphasizes that psychology is more crucial than strategy in trading. He believes that self-confidence in trading stems from having extensive data sets that prove long-term winning trends. This data provides the conviction to navigate losing streaks, knowing that the overall outcome will be positive. He learned this lesson early on after losing $10,000 in meme stocks, realizing that his bad habits in life were reflecting in his trading decisions.
After his initial losses, Desi focused on identifying common factors in his losing trades, primarily overtrading and oversizing due to an inability to accept losses. He learned to disassociate his P&L from his self-worth and developed a strict two-loss rule, which helped him become consistently profitable within eight months. He stresses the importance of routine, self-awareness, and separating trading goals from financial goals to maintain discipline.
Desi details his journey to a massive $936,000 payout. He initially faced a $20,000 loss on Apex Trader Funding but learned valuable lessons from blowing a $380,000 account due to over-leveraging and trying to quickly recover losses. This experience taught him the importance of patience and sticking to his system. He then leveraged strong market conditions and his refined discipline to achieve the significant payout by consistently following his rules and managing risk, demonstrating that past setbacks can lead to greater future success.
Desi outlines his blueprint for trading prop firms, emphasizing a gradual approach to building a buffer before increasing risk during favorable market conditions. He highlights the impact of trailing drawdown rules on his trading strategy, leading him to trade more passively and focus on one prop firm at a time. He also differentiates his approach to live cash accounts, treating them with greater conservatism, often employing swing trading and prioritizing long-term capital preservation over aggressive day trading.
Desi transitioned to ICT (Inner Circle Trader) concepts to eliminate randomness in his trading and gain clarity on market movements. He learned with his peers, Brian and Lanto, focusing on concepts like liquidity and using inversion fair value gaps for confirmation. He advises new ICT traders to focus on one or two core concepts, particularly liquidity, rather than trying to master every single PD array. His toughest trading advice is to avoid telling people to avoid mistakes, as falling and getting back up is essential for growth. His best advice is to let time do the heavy lifting in trading, emphasizing patience and consistency over seeking quick profits.