Amari Deshong
Amari Deshong is a 21-year-old futures trader from Barbados who trades Nasdaq and Gold futures around liquidity, market structure and order flow, and learned that psychology and risk management matter more than the perfect strategy. Here is his story, in his own words.
Verified funded - the receipts
My name is Amari Deshong. I am 21 years old and I am from Barbados. I have been trading for about four years, mainly Nasdaq futures and sometimes Gold futures. My strategy is built around liquidity sweeps, market structure and order flow during the New York session.
I became funded after years of learning through trial and error. The biggest change was not the money, it was the confidence. Passing a funded evaluation proved that my strategy actually worked under real trading conditions.
The first thing trading really paid for was my everyday expenses and improvements to my trading setup. That was the moment it felt real, because trading had started to support my life instead of just being a hobby.
I honestly lost count of how many evaluations I failed before I got funded. What kept me going was believing that every failure was teaching me something I needed to become consistently profitable. I would estimate I spent around $2,000 to $3,000 on failed evaluations, resets and mistakes. The biggest lesson was that psychology and risk management matter more than finding the perfect strategy.
My lowest point was failing evaluations right after getting close to passing them. There were moments where I questioned whether I was good enough, but I never seriously considered quitting, because I knew success would come if I stayed consistent. Trading challenged me mentally more than anything else. I have dealt with stress, self-doubt, overtrading and revenge trading, and learning to control my emotions has been one of the biggest parts of becoming profitable.
Today I mainly trade Nasdaq futures during the New York session, focusing on liquidity sweeps, market structure and order flow. I wait for the market to come to my levels instead of chasing trades. Before the open I mark my key liquidity levels and review the higher timeframes. During the session I wait patiently for my setup, and if I do not see it, I simply do not trade. After the session I journal my trades and review what I did well and what I can improve.
My most recent losing trade followed my plan but simply did not work out. I accepted the loss, respected my stop, and did not try to win it back right away. That is something I have improved a lot over the years.
One idea I ignore is that you have to trade every day or take every opportunity. I would much rather wait for one high-quality setup than force trades just because the market is open.
Most people do not fully understand what I do. Some think trading is just gambling, and they do not see the studying, discipline and risk management that go into becoming consistently profitable. Trading has made me far more disciplined and patient. It taught me to think in probabilities, manage risk and stay emotionally controlled, not just in trading but in everyday life.
What separates me from someone who washed out is persistence. I did not let failed evaluations define me. Every setback became a lesson, and I kept improving instead of giving up. The advice I would give myself a year ago is to stop focusing so much on making money and focus more on executing my strategy perfectly, because the money follows consistency. If prop firms disappeared tomorrow I would still trade - I would keep trading a personal account while building other income streams around trading, like education, content creation or mentoring. And if someone gave me a much bigger account, I would not change my strategy at all. I would trade the same setups with the same discipline, because a bigger account does not mean bigger risk, it means protecting capital even more carefully.
To Omer and the team, thank you for giving real traders a place to share the honest side of this journey. To anyone still grinding: do not let failed evaluations define you. Stay consistent, protect your capital, and trust that the money follows the process.
About the writer - Amari Deshong
Amari Deshong is a 21-year-old futures trader from Barbados who trades Nasdaq and Gold futures around liquidity sweeps, market structure and order flow during the New York session. After years of trial and error and countless failed evaluations, he got funded by focusing on psychology and risk management over the perfect strategy, and now trades with patience and strict discipline. He believes the money follows consistency.
