One Prop Trader a Day – Matthew Morgan: Radical Acceptance

One Prop Trader a Day – Episode 60

What is the first thing worth buying with trading money if it is not a thing at all? Matthew Morgan, a 26-year-old futures trader from Chicago who trades NQ and ES through TopstepX, says he bought time horizon and left his day job, after roughly 15 to 20 margin calls in his first two years. In this interview, he explains the top-down framework he found in 2024, the Asian and London session highs and lows he times entries around, and what he means by radical acceptance.

My name is Matthew Morgan. I’m 26 years old, I’m from Chicago, Illinois, and I currently trade NQ and ES futures through TopstepX on the ProjectX platform.

I became a funded trader several times in 2022 and 2023, but fear of missing out, over-leveraging, and plain immaturity led to margin calls and late nights full of doubt. What I actually needed was a more systematic approach – to the thought process, and to the implementation of the market conditions I had internalised and experienced. In 2024, that change was found. The framework I operate out of now allows me to be patient and lets the market bring me opportunities instead of me chasing them.

The first thing I ever paid for with trading money was “time horizon.” It sounds abstract, but not everything you buy comes with a physical receipt. I was able to stop working my day job and put more focus on my relationship with God, my family, and of course the markets. The benefits are endless, as long as you are willing to observe your own conduct on a daily basis.

Getting there was not clean. Before I got funded I took maybe 15 to 20 margin calls over my first two years of trading. What kept me going was an idea I call radical acceptance. I would suggest any trader reading this internalise the understanding that everything is how it should be in the present moment. You have to be willing to acknowledge the lack of knowledge, experience, and expertise within your complex. Once you are aware of it, you can choose to change states through a more concentrated approach to what you do not know, what confuses you, and how to build a framework that specifically supports your central nervous system. As Manly P. Hall put it: “Nature has decreed that the ignorant can never be happy, and in their lack of knowledge is the secret of their own misfortunes.”

My most expensive lesson came in December 2024. I was managing two $150,000 Express accounts through Topstep. My birthday was about ten days out and I wanted it to be a special one. I was in profit around $5,600 on each account, and I wanted $6,000 before requesting a payout. There was news coming that brought me to a place in my reasoning where I felt I should short equities, so I placed a short order for four contracts at the session low, assuming the report would send price straight to my take profit. Then, for some reason, I changed timeframes and noticed a bullish opportunity I could scalp for the $400 that would get me to $6,000. I cancelled the short and reversed it into a long. Big mistake. The report came out and brought the market down ninety points. I did not just lose the trade – I liquidated both accounts and lost $11,200 in fifteen seconds. Always believe in yourself; lesson learned.

That was my lowest point. All year I had worked to build a framework around being patient and letting the market come to me, and it felt like I had thrown all of that work away. I did not consider quitting, but I did not trade again for the rest of the year. I came back in January charged up, full of positivity, and began that cycle known as my life again. Trading has absolutely affected me mentally, especially in 2022 and 2023, when I knew less and was too focused on enjoying the benefits of trading inside my own mind, instead of building the framework that would let me actually realise those visions.

These days, most days I trade equities, and some days commodities – gold, and every blue moon maybe silver. My approach to timeframes is simple: the daily, 4-hour, and 1-hour tell me where price is headed; the 30-minute and 15-minute tell me how it is getting there; the 15-, 5-, and 1-minute tell me where to enter. Most of my strategy is built around observing geopolitical events and socioeconomic conditions in the United States, Europe, and Asia, and being patient near session highs and lows – specifically the Asian and London sessions – for my entries.

My day starts at 4am. I meditate and focus on my upper faculties, run a mile and a half, and prepare a breakfast centred around nutrients and antioxidants. Afterwards I usually speak with my family and prepare my charts for the day. Once New York has begun I am in my chair until noon, back at one after lunch, and there until four in the evening. I do not leave my station until I have analysed what went wrong, what went right, and how to improve for the next day, based specifically on how the markets have traded that week.

My most recent losing trade was simple, and honestly it happens to the best of us. NQ had traded lower and was making a move to the upside. The retest had already come, so I was prepared to go long. I was right – but my stop loss was too close, by four points, before the market decided to move back to the upside. If I could do it differently I would have sized down, allowing for a wider stop and the potential to scale into the trade once in profit. As for popular advice I ignore: the rule that you should always aim for at least a 1:2 or 1:3 risk-to-reward ratio. I admit those ratios are ideal, but I have noticed in both institutional and retail traders that their ability to win can experience extreme lows, and profit is left on the table as a result.

Do the people around me understand what I do? Yes and no. The people I associate with in finance understand to a degree, and the same can be said for family. Anyone can imagine why a young man would want to work in finance, especially in a nation encompassed around capitalism. What I do not think they understand is the transcendental – what you might call an Omega point. If you take a moment and observe society, it seems the unconscious collective is always working towards bringing it all together; there is a very real planetary intuition that suggests all functions are being brought into co-relationship with each other. From that perspective I am left in awe. Operating in finance – the science of economics, a fourth-dimensional factor, as you cannot see it or feel it – allows me to make that ascent and be part of the cutting edge of complexity, whatever that may mean in the present moment.

On a simpler level, I am a lot healthier now than I was in my teenage years. Through trading I became aware of my bad habits, filtered them out, and from there created a scalable framework that not only I can work with, but my family, my friends, and any other person who may come across me in life.

What separates me from someone who washed out at their third evaluation? In Plato’s Sophist, he says: “No one should be discouraged…who can make constant progress, even though it be slow.” In other words, my soul comes to me and says: worry not brother, I know you do not have it all right now, but in time, with hard work, sacrifice and dedication, you will make it – I will make sure of it. I do not give up. Never. If I could give myself advice one year ago, I would say keep doing what you are doing; you will get to the place you seek. Have faith, continue to integrate your knowledge into how you conduct yourself daily, and you will be just fine. If prop firms disappeared tomorrow, nothing would change for me – most proprietary accounts are leveraged at 1:30 or 1:50, so a $150,000 Topstep Express account is more along the lines of a $3,000 to $5,000 account. No worries. And if you gave me a $1,000,000 funded account today, I would thank what is above me, and my family, for getting me that far in life. The first couple of days I would set my parameters for risk management, and then get right on the charts. As long as I take the time to set my frame properly, the first seven days should be like any account I trade on: focused and patient.

His Topstep Certified Funded Trader certificate and funded account overview.