One Prop Trader a Day – Ugochukwu (George) Nwoko: The 35,000 Dollar Lesson in Using a Stop Loss
One Prop Trader a Day – Episode 96
Ugochukwu (George) Nwoko
I am Ugochukwu Nwoko, a full-time forex trader. I am 36 years old and I am a Nigerian in Africa. I have been trading since 2016, I trade CFDs and I major on XAUUSD.
Does running a prop firm make you a better trader? Ugochukwu Nwoko, known as George, a 36-year-old Nigerian trader who pioneered the academy TradeWithGeorgeFX and built what became the first white-label prop firm in Africa, found that it did not, and a 35,000 dollar lesson about stop losses followed. In this interview, he explains the psychological levels he executes from on the 4 hour chart, the 75-inch television that marked his first withdrawal, and why he would spend a first week on a million dollar account without placing a trade.
I pioneered one of the early forex academies in Africa, TradeWithGeorgeFX, which became the first white-label prop firm in Africa in 2020 after an affiliation with BluFX that started in 2018.
It took me a while to start trading prop firm accounts myself. I was fully involved in selling prop accounts and doing retail prop firm business. In early 2022 I lost my business backing from the UK, because US-based companies had taken over the prop space. I bought an account with MyForexFunds and got funded. At that point something became very clear to me.
The first thing I bought with my MyForexFunds payout was a 75-inch Hisense Smart Android TV. I still laugh about it. I just wanted something hanging around the house to remind me of my first funded account with a withdrawal.
I did not fail my first challenge account, but I lost the account at the funded stage without a withdrawal. I guess I felt invincible at that point. I had to buy another one, pass it and get my first withdrawal. I made up to 10 percent profit on the account and I lost 5.5 percent, so I had to stop and wait for the withdrawal date. What really kept me going is the idea of being an inspiration to many, being supportive to myself and my family, and using my skills and wisdom to earn income for high-net-worth individuals.
My single most expensive lesson is the inability to use a stop loss on my trades. In the early days of my trading I had the illusion that once my capital is large, I can take any drawdown, but that is not true. Even if I close at 50 percent drawdown or less, recovering the account takes a very long while, and I may end up blowing the account anyway because the psychology is already ruined. This has caused me multiple blown accounts, up to the tune of 35,000 dollars.
My lowest point in trading was before Covid-19. I lost some investor funds due to a bad risk-management technique. It took me a long while to repay. It actually affected my learning and growth curve in the industry. I never considered quitting, but it was really a long and lonely journey.
Trading does affect me mentally and emotionally. I think it happens to everyone, whether you started making heavy profits from day one or you are properly funded from the start. The excitement and the euphoria have a mental and emotional impact. Wins and losses make an impact. When I blew accounts, I felt weak mentally and emotionally.
Now my trading style is very simple. I trade one asset, XAUUSD. I focus on psychological levels, meaning rounded-off price levels, and on weekly and monthly high and low sweeps and pivots. Once I see my buy or sell signals at these areas, I execute on the H4 timeframe.
I have a simple daily routine. In the morning I wake up, pray, meditate, clean, hit the gym, hydrate and rest. In the afternoon I trade, rest, review my trades and spend time with family. My trading falls into the New York session. I journal in the evenings, then focus on my family. My mornings are for me alone.
My most recent losing trade was a sell in XAUUSD. Gold is generally in a downtrend and I do not go against the trend, so I had my good trade set-up ready. I often use limit orders, a sell limit in this case, but I placed a sell trade before price went to my entry zone, and price hit my stop loss. My stop loss was within my risk for the trade. My set-up played out, but my execution was negative.
The advice I completely ignore is my own advice: stop executing trades on my phone without analysis. Stop clicking buy and sell. I make money with it, but it is a very bad habit, and I work every second to stop it.
People around me do not understand what I do. Most people around me are used to the traditional style of work. Some are exposed to remote jobs, content creation, programming and the like. Explaining to people what I do can be very strenuous, so I decide to leave things as they are.
Trading has helped me develop character traits that are essential to living, not only to trading. Profitable trading gives freedom in all aspects of life. It also allows one to have full time for the family. Profitable trading provides me with excessive money to put my life in order.
Nothing special separates me from someone who washed out at their third evaluation. Maybe the person gave up after the third evaluation, or had no money to buy another challenge. Maybe trading does not align with the person.
Just be sure that you are on the right path, then persevere. If I could speak to myself one year ago, I would advise myself to take fewer trades, journal all my trades, review all the trades, record all my mistakes daily and develop a methodology around my system to fix those mistakes.
Right now I am trading a funded account with FTMO. If prop firms disappeared tomorrow, I would continue trading with brokers, because I am more comfortable with normal live trading accounts than with prop accounts. And if you gave me a 1,000,000 dollar funded account today, the first seven days would go into drafting my work plan, my daily routine and my risk-management approach, analysing my charts and picking out high-probability trade set-ups if there are any. I would major on fixing my trading environment. Executing a trade would be the last thing on my mind.
Verified funded – the receipts
About the writer – Ugochukwu (George) Nwoko
Ugochukwu (George) Nwoko is a 36-year-old full-time forex trader from Nigeria, trading XAUUSD and funded through FTMO and FundedNext.
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