One Prop Trader a Day - Joel Broos: It’s Always You Against Yourself

Quick intro – who are you, and what do you trade?

My name is Joel, 32 years old. I was born in the Netherlands and live in Belgium. I trade NQ, XAUUSD, and EURUSD. Three markets, each with their own character, and I have learned to read all three on my own terms.

When did you become a funded trader? What changed for you at that point?

I got my first funded account in 2021 with FTMO. That moment shifted something in my mindset. Suddenly the ceiling on capital was gone. You realize that your skill, not your wallet, is what determines how far you can go. That was a turning point.

What is the first thing you bought with trading money that felt like proof it was working?

The first thing I did with my trading profits, and I do not recommend this to anyone, was booking expensive weekends away. It felt amazing at the time, like proof that this was real. But looking back, it was not the smartest way to spend your early profits. Lesson learned the hard way.

How many times did you fail before getting funded? What kept you going?

In the beginning I failed somewhere between 25 and 30 challenges before I seriously started studying how to beat the prop model. What kept me going was that I was passing challenges regularly enough to know the skill was there. It was not a question of can I do this. It was a question of how.

What is the single most expensive lesson you have paid for?

7 Bitcoin. Gone. Through inexperience, long before I ever touched prop trading. Bitcoin was around $3,000 at the time. Do the math on what that would be worth today. I try not to.

What was your lowest point in trading? Did you ever consider quitting?

My lowest point came after I had to close my prop firm. Emotionally I was not in a stable place, and financially I did not have the strength to keep going properly. That combination is deadly in trading. You make one mistake, then another, then another. The pain of closing the firm was one thing, but trading without the capital to back yourself up, knowing every challenge fee hurts, that was a different kind of low. I never fully considered quitting, but I understood in that moment why people do.

Did trading ever affect you mentally or emotionally?

Of course. In the beginning, when you get funded, you go chasing the big payouts. You overtrade. And then there is the other trap: a good win streak makes you feel untouchable. That is exactly the moment you should stop for the day, but your mind says just one more. And that one more is always the one that costs you. I have been there more times than I would like to admit. Trading is 20% strategy and 80% managing what is going on between your ears.

What does your trading style look like today?

My trading style has not changed much over the years. I work top down. H4 and H1 need to be aligned before I do anything. Once that picture is clear, I drop down to the lower timeframes, 15M and 5M, to find a clean entry. Supply and demand is the core of everything I do. No indicators, no noise. Just price and structure.

What is a typical trading day for you?

I wake up on my own time, no alarm stress. I have breakfast, start my computer without rushing, and open my charts. I go through my assets one by one. If something is aligned, I look for my setup. Once the trade is placed, I do not even look at it anymore. After that it is gym, building my business, and family. Trading is maybe an hour of my day. The rest is life.

Walk us through your most recent losing trade.

My most recent losing trade was on gold. I had a solid setup but entered before the 9:30 New York open. The volatility around that session shook me out before price hit my take profit. Honestly, the setup was the setup; I would not change much about the analysis. But timing around major session opens is always a wildcard. Sometimes you get stopped out on the way to your target. That is part of the game.

What is a popular trading rule you completely ignore, and why?

Never trade around news. Everyone preaches it, and yes, with prop firms you have to respect it because of the rules. But on my personal account I do not really follow it. If my setup is there and the structure is aligned, I take the trade. News creates volatility, and volatility creates movement. Sometimes the best moves happen around news. You just have to know what you are looking at.

Do people around you understand what you do? How do they react?

Not at all. The world I operate in is foreign to most people around me. The reaction is usually something like, how can you make money just sitting behind a screen, or you need to work for your money. There is a real gap between my world and theirs. But I know what I know, and honestly that makes it kind of funny. You stop trying to explain it and just let the results speak.

How has trading impacted your lifestyle?

Trading has made me know myself on a deep level. It wakes you up in a way nothing else does. Your view of the world changes, in a positive way. You start to understand yourself completely because you have no choice. You cannot blame the market. You cannot blame anyone else. It is always you against yourself. That mirror is uncomfortable at first, but once you learn to look at it honestly, it changes everything, not just your trading but how you move through life.

What separates you from someone who washed out at their third evaluation?

Willpower. It has driven me my entire life. I simply cannot deal with authority or having someone above me telling me what to do. Trading removes that completely. It is just me and the market. That is why I keep going when others quit and go back to their comfort zone. Except for me, that comfort zone is the real hell. A 9 to 5 with a boss is my nightmare. Trading is my freedom, and I will do whatever it takes to protect that.

What advice would you give yourself one year ago?

Do not stand still. Big things are only reached through small steps. Even when you are at your lowest, even when it feels like nothing is moving, keep taking the small steps. You can get there from the bottom too. I know, because I have been there.

If prop firms disappeared tomorrow, would you still be trading? Doing what?

Of course I would still be trading. The goal was never to be dependent on prop firms forever. They are a tool, a way to build capital, to invest, to grow. The real goal is to use prop firms to make your own capital powerful enough that you do not need them anymore. If they disappeared tomorrow, I would still be trading, just with my own money. That was always the plan.

If I gave you a $1,000,000 funded account today, what would you do in the first 7 days?

Nothing different. I wake up, have breakfast, start my PC, and look for a trade. Same routine, same process, same risk management, just with more zeros. That is the point. If your process only works on small accounts, you do not have a process. A million dollar account should feel the same as a ten thousand dollar account. The market does not know the difference, and neither should you.