One Prop Trader a Day – Meet Péter Szakál: Make Your Mistakes as Fast as You Can
Interview byOmer
One Prop Trader a Day – Episode 35
About Péter
Péter Szakál is a 42-year-old Hungarian economist from Szigliget who trades the Dow Jones (US30) and Nasdaq (US100), and sometimes the DAX. He is a price action trader who works the London and New York opens on the M1 chart, framed by the trends and support and resistance levels of the higher timeframes. He first became funded in November 2022 – a hard-earned milestone after years that included a bankruptcy and a serious low – and his approach to learning is blunt: make your mistakes as fast as you can.
Q Who are you, and what do you trade?
A I am Péter Szakál, a Hungarian economist from Szigliget, 42 years old. These days I trade the Dow Jones (US30) and Nasdaq (US100) indices, and sometimes the DAX, the German stock exchange index.
Q When did you become a funded trader, and what changed for you?
A I became a funded trader on November 4, 2022. I was very happy about it, because it brought me my greatest trading success so far.
Q How did you feel when you became funded for the first time?
A I felt that I had arrived. However, when my trading capital was increased by 25% thanks to my consistent trading, my hands trembled with the larger virtual capital. I made many mistakes, reached the maximum loss limit, and was no longer a funded trader. Still, I had a very nice vacation paid for from the reward.
“Make as many mistakes as you can, in the shortest time possible. That is how you learn.”Péter Szakál
Q How many times did you fail before getting funded, and what kept you going?
A According to my story, I did not really fail before becoming funded. From what I remember, I could have failed a maximum of three times in total. I was lucky to have taken an evaluation at another company before, with different rules, so I took the obstacles relatively easily.
Q What was your lowest point, and did you ever consider quitting?
A My lowest point was when I accumulated a 27% loss on a friend’s money, instead of the 20% we had agreed on. The loss was a five-digit amount in USD. I had even founded a consulting company for this, and I went bankrupt. My only luck was that the USD/HUF exchange rate started to rise in the following years, which eventually surpassed the 27% loss I had suffered. That felt like a sign that I had to continue.
Q Did trading ever affect you mentally or emotionally?
A Stress during trading still happens often today, but not to the extent it used to. Towards the end of the Covid lockdown I was working on an FTMO challenge, and when I failed it – and had to go back to work – I fell into depression and had to go to the hospital. That was the lowest point I can remember. Overtrading still happens, but it doesn’t last as long as it used to, and sometimes I don’t dare to open a position, especially with a large account. I will never forget the optimism of trading gold on my first live account: I doubled it and soon after lost it all. I avoided the charts for two weeks and didn’t even want to hear about trading. By today’s standards it wasn’t a big amount, around 180,000 HUF (about 590 USD), but it hit hard.
Q What does your trading style look like today?
A I am a price action trader. I mostly trade indices around the London open and the New York open, on the M1 chart, while taking into account the trends and the support and resistance levels of the higher timeframes.
Q What’s a typical trading day for you?
A First, I check the day’s economic events on forexfactory.com. Then I check the support and resistance levels of the higher timeframes. Before trading, I decide which direction I am primarily thinking about for that day. And finally, the current price action and volume decide whether I trade or not.
Q Do people around you understand what you do?
A People generally accept what I do. I can report only a few cases of people expressing displeasure, and there have even been some who looked up to me.
“That felt like a sign that I had to continue.”Péter Szakál
Q How has trading impacted your lifestyle?
A Since I trade for a maximum of a few hours within the day on weekdays, it doesn’t really affect my daily schedule these days. If anything, I can build my daily schedule around it.
Q What keeps you motivated to continue trading?
A My why: I want to be a stable, successful trader with 20+ years of experience behind me, since I studied technical analysis in college. I would like to earn most of my income from this activity, and my bucket list is long.
Q What would you tell your younger self?
A Practice and make as many mistakes as you can, in the shortest possible time, as many times as possible. That is how you will learn.
Q If you were given a $1,000,000 funded account today, what would you do in the first 7 days?
A I would first open a demo account of that size on MT4, if possible, and get used to the scale. I would trade it risking 0.1% of the capital, with a position on only one instrument at a time, and practice like that for at least a week. Only when I feel the trading is going well would I start on the real account, risking 0.01% per position.
