My Next Prop Firm Account - $100k Aqua Funded

Finance-Focused Summary (Prop Firm Trading Criteria & Risk Rules)

Key Decision for 2026 (Prop Firms)

• The main decision is choosing the right prop firm to avoid situations where you’re likely to fail a challenge or where rules make payouts unfavorable.

Firm Selected / Experience

• The chosen firm is AquaFunded.
• The speaker previously traded with Aqua in January 2024, citing:
  • $4.3K payout
  • $5.7K payout
• They interpret this history as higher confidence that passing + following the rules → payout.

Challenge Type Preference (Step Structure)

• The speaker avoids:
  • Instant funding
  • One-step
  • Free-step
• They prefer two-step challenges as the best fit for their strategy.
• Platform mentioned: MetaTrader 5 (MT5)

Profit Targets / Phases (Explicit Numbers)

• Phase 1: 8% profit target
• Phase 2: 5% profit target
• Comparison:
  • Typical industry targets are often 10% & 5%
  • Here it’s 8% & 5% (i.e., 2% lower on phase 1)
• Rationale:
  • The speaker says this better matches their style and reduces missed-profit behavior.

Risk/Reward & Implied Payout Efficiency

• Strategy described as 1 to 3 risk-to-reward.
• Claim: if they win, they make about 3% profit.
• Passing logic described:
  • Phase one: requires 3 winning trades
    • (They reference 3 × 3% ≈ 9% implicitly, while the stated target is 8%.)
  • Phase two: requires 2 winning trades
• Rationale:
  • If a firm requires a higher target (e.g., 10%), the speaker suggests you may need extra trades and might have to close early, potentially missing about ~2% over time.

Daily Loss / Drawdown Context

• Daily loss: 5% (described as “normal”).
• They state lower profit targets generally correlate with slightly lower drawdown.
• They also say 8% is “normal” based on past experience.

Leverage

• Leverage described as 1 to 100.

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Rules Checklist & Risk Management Framework (Step-by-Step Points)

What They Focus on in the Rules

Max Loss Per Trade Rule

• If floating P&L drops below -2% of starting balance, the account is permanently closed.

Total Loss / Drawdown Rule

• If equity (realized + unrealized) falls below 92% of the initial balance, the account breaches/blows.
• Example:
  • On a $100K account:
    • 8% loss = $8,000
    • breach occurs below $92,000

They also emphasize that the rules are binding after purchase (“you are agreeing to the rules on their website”).

How They Manage Risk Operationally

• They avoid “near-the-limit” trading to prevent accidental breaches from:
  • market volatility
  • slippage
  • unexpected news events
    • (illustrated as “a random tweet from a worldwide politician”)
• Practical guideline:
  • Instead of risking close to the 2% limit (e.g., 1.9%), they prefer risking about 1% to 1.25% maximum.
• They avoid high-impact news during prop firm challenges/funded accounts because of elevated risk.

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Performance / Dashboard / Leaderboards (Non-Ticker Content)

Market Conditions Note

• The speaker says “markets have not been great” recently.
• They argue that historically many of their passed challenges didn’t start in drawdown.

Dashboard Capabilities

• The account dashboard provides:
  • trade overview and performance stats
  • progress monitoring toward targets

Leaderboard Caution

• They warn not to treat leaderboards as competitive targets:
  • “don’t try to beat everybody else”
• Leaderboards should be viewed as showing what’s possible, such as:
  • large outcomes (e.g., $200K)
  • smaller milestones (e.g., $1,000)
• They should not be used as a benchmark to chase.

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Recommendations / Cautions (Explicit)

• Choose prop firms where:
  • rules are objective and clearly quantified (e.g., “2% max” stated directly)
  • payouts are likely if you follow the rules, based on available history
• Use safer risk sizing:
  • Do not risk too close to max loss thresholds
  • use 1%–1.25% instead of ~2%
• Avoid trading during high-impact news due to slippage/volatility risk.
• Do not use leaderboards as a goal to “compete”—use them for “what’s possible.”

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Tickers / Assets / Sectors Mentioned

• None explicitly named (no stocks, ETFs, bonds, commodities, crypto, or macro indicators).
• Only platform context mentioned: MetaTrader 5 (MT5).

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Disclosures / Disclaimers

• No explicit “not financial advice” disclaimer appears in the provided subtitles.
• The video notes:
  • AquaFunded sponsored the video
  • includes a purchase link

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Presenters / Sources

• Presenter: the YouTube creator speaking in first person (name not provided in subtitles)
• Sponsored firm: AquaFunded