How to make $10,000 from Futures Prop Firms:
Not overnight.
Not by gambling on 10 accounts.
Not by passing challenges as fast as possible.
Here’s the realistic blueprint 🧵
STOP SETTING SMALL TRADING GOALS!
Want to know the most dangerous mistake ambitious developing traders make when setting career goals?
Hint: It isn’t aiming too high. It’s setting the bar way too low.
Let me share a story from our prop desk.
During a recent monthly review with Team Max, one of our traders announced his numbers: he pulled in $1 million in net trading profits in August.
When he first sat on the desk, his lifelong dream was to make $1 million in a year. Last month, he did it in 21 trading days.
Max had an even better month, and I wanted to get his reaction to his monster performance.
After the meeting, I reached out to Max directly on Gchat:
Me: "You ever think when you were starting you would make 2m plus in a month?"
Max: "Def not lol"
A couple of years back, we actually kicked around the idea of publicly tracking Max for the trading community to see if he could break $1M in a month. At the time, he hadn't broken this level yet. We ended up scrapping the project as we were worried it would focus on the wrong things. Fast forward to today: Max cleared over a couple of million dollars last month alone and is heading into his second consecutive 8-figure year. For him now, a million-dollar month isn't even close to the benchmark he aims for.
Yet during that exact same review, a couple of our younger traders who made solid six figures were lamenting their month. They felt dejected comparing their numbers to the seven-figure producers on the desk. Three years into their careers, an outcome that would stun 99% of independent traders felt unsatisfying to them.
That psychology reveals a critical truth about trader development:
Arbitrary P&L Goals are Self-limiting: When you fixate on a dollar target early in your career, you anchor your ceiling to who you are today—with your current limited skills, risk tolerance, and PlayBook.
The Process Multiplier: When you double down and triple down on your daily process, build technology, trade alongside elite traders, collaborate, and push size on your A+ setups, your growth becomes exponential. Your early career goals end up looking comically small in the rearview mirror.
Happy, But Never Satisfied: As Chris Mullin, former NBA Hall-of-Famer, used to say, and as we preach to our desk constantly. Even after pulling millions out of the market, this desk spent the meeting dissecting where they left money on the table: leaving 25% on the Bitcoin breakout, breaking down what worked on MRNA, and focusing on pumping the brakes during low-opportunity tape.
Trading can be a tough game at the start, but the upside is limitless when you stop capping your potential.
Don't let arbitrary dollar targets limit what you can accomplish. Double down on your process, surround yourself with peers who raise your standards, pump the brakes during slow markets, and aggressively press your A+ setups.
Your ceiling is far higher than your wildest imagination.
#Trading #DayTrading #SMBCapital #PropTrading #TradingPsychology