Forum Forexroasted

same core strategy, different risk management. my failed attempts werent strategy problems, they were me pushing too hard to hit the target fast and breaching drawdown. the pass came when i traded smaller and accepted taking the full evaluation period rather than rushing. the firm didnt change, my pacing did. most evaluation failures i see are pace and risk, not strategy.

evaluated e8 in summer 2025 but didnt pass. the higher difficulty op mentioned is real - their 8% target with 5% DD over 30 days is tighter than ftmo or alpha. for traders who get there, the funded experience is excellent. for those who dont quite pass, the experience can be frustrating.

both things are true at once, which is what makes it confusing. for a genuinely skilled trader, a reputable prop is a legitimate capital path, ive taken real payouts. but the industrys revenue overwhelmingly comes from challenge fees paid by people who fail, so the business model does depend on a high failure rate. you can be a real beneficiary of a system that is, in aggregate, a fee farm. judge the individual firm, not the category.

general rule for new brokers: regardless of how good they look initially, dont deposit more than 10% of your total broker exposure in the first 12 months. theyre not lying necessarily but they havent been tested by adversity. quality only proves itself over time and through difficult events.

opened a monex international account in mid-2024. onboarding was longer than typical brokers (took 3 weeks for full verification) but smooth once done. their yen pair pricing IS noticeably better than most non-japanese brokers. for JPY focused trading they have a structural edge. for non-JPY trading, no particular advantage.

ftmo updated their rules effective jan 1 2026. main changes that affect swing traders:

• holding positions through nfp now requires a separate disclosure
• minimum 10 trading days now applies even if you hit profit target early
• weekend gap risk now requires reduced position size (calculated based on instrument volatility)

for those of us who hold trades for days these are not trivial. the weekend size reduction in particular will mess with my risk management.

anyone else read these changes carefully? what are you adjusting?

traded blackbull for 14 months. ECN execution is genuinely good, comparable to mid-tier ASIC brokers. NZ FMA is real regulation but lighter touch than FCA - less prescriptive about specific operational requirements but still requires capital adequacy and segregation. they're a legitimate broker. one warning: their non-NZ entities may have different protection levels.

exness markets their zero spread account aggressively but the commission per trade is high to compensate. on paper the total cost works out similar to a tight-spread broker with commission.

for traders actually using exness zero: is the execution good enough to justify the marketing claims? do you actually see 0 pip spreads consistently or is that a moving advertised target?