Month: February 2025

“Trade The Pool was a much better option—didn’t have to worry about PDT and time decay like with Options.”

Welcome to another Trade The Pool funded trader interview! Today, we’re joined by Tim M., a $160K funded trader from the USA.

Tim spent four years trading options, with good wins and crushing losses. Time decay ate at profits, and the PDT rule kept him stuck. It felt like a losing game.

Then he found Trade The Pool—no overnight holds, no time decay, just pure intraday trading. Finally, he wasn’t held back anymore.

Could you be Trade The Pool’s next funded trader?

Watch Tim’s Interview

Tim’s 160K Evaluation

He had a rough start on his first evaluation, quickly reaching his max loss due to his unfamiliarity with prop trading rules and limited knowledge of the trading platform.

By learning from that setback and fine-tuning his strategy and sizing, he passed his second evaluation—proving that learning from mistakes and smart adjustments can open doors to better trading opportunities.

 

Tim’s Trading Style

Tim’s trading strategy revolves around one-tricking the S&P 500, which he considers his “bread and butter.” Here’s how he approaches it:

• Setting Levels with S&P Futures: He uses Emini S&P 500 futures (ES) to establish daily key levels—weekly and daily support, resistance, and a pivotal bullish/bearish midpoint—based on order flow and volume profiles. The S&P’s high liquidity and trader participation make it a robust vehicle for analysis.
• Trading ETFs: He trades the SPY (S&P 500 ETF) and SPXL (a 3x leveraged S&P 500 ETF) on Trade The Pool’s platform, translating futures levels into actionable trades. The leverage in SPXL requires careful math, but he prefers it after mastering SPY.
• Focus on Cycles: Tim emphasizes understanding market cycles, noting that assets like stocks, gold, or bonds exhibit predictable patterns. By focusing on one vehicle (the S&P), he builds intuition, recognizing when price struggles at support or resistance to time entries and exits.

More About Tim

Tim has traded options for about 4 years but found it to be too hit-and-miss. He later found Trade The Pool, allowing him to finally give stock trading a good try

Normally, traders will take 3–4 attempts to pass the evaluation; Tim only took two attempts.

 

Tim’s Tips

• Find Your Niche: “I do think that a real key is to figure out that one thing… because a lot of these things are cyclical… the more you get to know that particular vehicle, the more your intuition can take over.” Whether it’s the S&P, gold, or bonds, specialize in one asset to leverage its cycles and patterns.
• Risk Management: “Know what your max is. And don’t go over that. And you can always get back in the trade.” He caps losses at 30% of his daily limit, ensuring he lives to trade another day.
• Recovering from near drawdowns: “A little bit of self-help, a lot of sticking with what has worked in the past. I started listening to Trading In The Zone. You’re not always going to hit home runs. But as long as you stick with the process, eventually the percentages will go for you.”

Funded Trader, Closing Thoughts

Tim’s journey from options to a funded stock trader with Trade The Pool highlights the power of a niche focus, discipline, and trusting the process.

His funded success shows all of us that mastering one market, managing risk, and sticking to a process-driven mindset lead to success in the markets.

“I have a small child, and I was on maternity leave when I started to trade”

Anna. M, a business analyst from Ukraine, successfully passed our $12K swing trading evaluation! With an impressive 80% success rate by trading small caps and penny stocks.

Let’s find out how a small-cap trader like Anna, a mother with a 9 to 5 job, passed the challenge!

Could you be Trade The Pool’s next funded trader?

Watch Anna’s Interview

Anna’s Journey

She started with her personal brokerage accounts, Anna, like many traders, faced the challenge of balancing work, life, and day trading before finding her niche in swing trading.

With Trade The Pool, she passed the $12,000 buying power evaluation within a month, adjusting and lowering her risk as she approached the profit target.

 

Anna’s Trading Style

Her strategy involves shorting small caps and penny stocks. She waits for bullish momentum to exhaust at strong resistance levels before making her move.

By combining daily chart analysis with intraday Level II data, she confirms liquidity and gauges market sentiment. She targets high-quality “A-plus” setups, holding them for a day or longer, depending on the stock’s potential drop and float size.

More About Anna

• During her evaluation, Anna initially traded aggressively. She soon adopted a more sustainable approach, ensuring she didn’t risk more than she could handle.
• She began her journey two years ago with an interest in investments.
• A year later, she went on maternity leave and started day trading. Finding it too emotionally taxing, she switched to swing trading.

 

Anna’s Tips

• On finding the right stock to trade: “Find very strong resistance levels and if a penny stock is up 100%, on the chart you can see where the huge part of liquidity is. When the stock is reaching it, I try to check what’ll happen next. It’s a more internal feeling, like an educated intuition. It’s very important to cut mistakes soon, and then you will get another chance.”
• To swing or day trade small caps: “I decide if it should be a day trade or a swing trade based on how far the stock is right now. If it’s a penny stock up 100-200%, it can be just a day trade. If it’s up 500-1,000%, it has a big room to fall, so I can open a swing position. I need to be careful with float; if it’s too small, I don’t keep it until the second day because it’s too dangerous.”
• On reaching the profit target: “To be honest, I felt nervous when I reached 75% of the goal. I started aggressively with big risk. When I realized it was doable, I slowed down and took less risk. When I closed the last trade, I thought, ‘Wow, I did it’. You don’t need to close trades too soon, and if you have a good runner, you can keep it.”

Funded Small Cap Trader (Anna), Closing Thoughts

In this interview, Anna demonstrates that, despite her busy day and night schedule, traders can still find opportunities in the market.

She offers a unique female perspective on trading, showcasing her ability to balance work and life, her methodical approach to finding good trades, and her strategies for managing emotions.

Anna is funded with $12,000 buying power, ready to take on the market.

“I really like the dashboard, even the help desk. It’s been a wonderful journey so far with Trade The Pool.”

Sahil K., a university student from the United Kingdom, successfully passed our $80K evaluation within 5 days! With a remarkable 1:6.2 risk-reward ratio by trading small caps like VLCN, AMOD and SGN.

Let’s find out how a small-cap trader like Sahil, with just 8-months stock trading experience, did it!

Could you be Trade The Pool’s next funded trader?

Watch Sahil’s Interview

Sahil’s 80K Evaluation

Sahil took a crucial lesson from our funded trader interviews — that is, to build a cushion by starting with small share sizes, slowly taking profits and gradually build confidence until a comfortable spot.

This method minimizes losses, builds confidence, and paves the way for taking bigger risks later.

In just five days, Sahil passed the evaluation by focusing on trading small caps and sticking to effective niche strategies. He achieved a remarkable risk-reward ratio of 1:6.2 and a 47% success rate.

 

Sahil’s Trading Style

Admittedly, he is a long-biased trader, particularly focusing on small-caps, capitalizing on its momentum. Sahil’s strategy involves managing share size to control risk, cutting losses quickly, and maximizing the holding time for his winners.

He uses tools from our partner Tradervue, for post-trade analysis to fine tune his approach, as well as to instill discipline and a set of daily trading rules.

More About Sahil

• Sahil began his stock trading journey in June 2024, and is currently reading the book, Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas.
• He draws insights from fellow Trade The Pool traders like Arbnor, emphasizing cushion, discipline, and niche strategies.
• Having traded with Robinhood and TradeZero before, he lost thousands of dollars.

 

Sahil’s Tips

• Maximizing winners and limiting losers: “When I analyze with Tradervue, my average winners have been 4 to 5 minutes and my loses two minutes, I was utilizing share size whenever there’s momentum. I build a cushion, cut the losses and get out as soon as possible. You need to have that mindset and cut straight to it, focus on the next one. It paid out in this challenge.”
• On Discipline and Strategy: “I focus on one strategy, replicating it every day, like this time of day I’m going to trade, as well as Tradervue for analyzing my trades. I can analyze where I perform well or what time, and what’s my profit loss ratio, you can eliminate things that are not working”
• For beginner traders like he once was: “Take one challenge, see how it’s like, doubting, but you never know until you take it. Even if you fail one or two, it doesn’t matter, don’t get demotivated, it’s not easy and still you can pass it after a couple tries.”

Funded Small Cap Trader (Sahil), Closing Thoughts

This interview showcases Sahil’s impressive ability to balance his university life with his stock trading journey. His commitment to his niche and understanding of trading psychology, allowed him to flourish and achieve success remarkably quickly.

Sahil also thrived with Trade The Pool’s prop firm structure, succeeding while avoiding the pressure of risking substantial personal savings.

Now funded with $80,000, ready to take on the market.

“After a red day, it’s about rebuilding my confidence. The stock market always humbles me”

Morgan M., from the USA, has successfully scaled her account to $22K within her first year of day trading stocks. She’s also already received multiple payouts.

Despite an early setback in her trading career, losing $1,000 in her personal account, she remained persistent.

Morgan’s trading evolution, offer insights into short-selling strategies, the psychological battles of trading, and benefits of trading with a prop firm.

Could you be Trade The Pool’s next funded trader?

Watch Morgan’s Interview

Morgan’s 22K Funded Account Journey

Although she’s only been trading for less than a year, she is aware about putting an emphasis on discipline, writing down mistakes and extracting lessons from her losses.

With her funded account, she identifies opportunities with small caps and penny stocks, maintaining a risk-reward ratio of 1:2.9 and a success rate of 26%. She may not always get the win, but when she does, it is massive!

 

Morgan’s Trading Style

Her strategy revolves around shorting pre-market gainers, particularly momentum stocks. She identifies key resistance levels and uses Level 2 data to analyze order flow and market depth before executing trades.

Given the high volatility of penny stocks, she implements tight stop losses to manage risk while navigating the challenge of stop hunting.

More About Morgan

• Emphasizes the importance of trading without fear, suggesting that her best trades come when she’s not scared to make mistakes.
• Grateful for the daily pause, giving her a chance to just step away, and try again tomorrow
• One of Morgan’s key areas of focus has been managing her losses.

 

Morgan’s Tips

• When is the right entry?: “My entries are improving through experience. Many traders use different indicators, but I don’t rely on anything set in stone—I mainly focus on timing and execution. The only indicator I use is VWAP since stocks often bounce off it. I considered making it a rule to exit when price hits VWAP, but I didn’t follow it today. I’m still a work in progress.”
• How she short pre-market gappers: “I check stocks at certain times to see if they’re hitting a high or key level, like $6 or $6.50. If a stock runs up and slows down, I use Level II to assess interaction before taking a position. These momentum stocks can make major swings, and without a stop, they can get out of control. Accepting losses is hard, but it doesn’t always mean I made a mistake—the market moves in mysterious ways.”
• On thinking about losses: “I realize that if I stay in my head about it, it drags on longer. So I try to look at what I did—sit down, review my rules, focus on what went wrong, and bounce back. Today, I’m trading a little scared, but my best trading happens when I’m not afraid to make a mistake. After a red day, it’s about rebuilding confidence and getting back on the horse. The stock market always humbles me—it gives me a little humble pie.”

Funded Trader (Morgan), Closing Thoughts

Morgan’s journey is a story of learning beyond practice. As a trader, she focuses on managing trading discipline, self-awareness, and being an autodidact. Additionally, she benefits greatly from having a trading partner like Trade The Pool.

She is currently profitable in her scaled $22K account and have already received multiple payouts with Trade The Pool.