One Prop Trader a Day - Meet Or Malkyel Mirzayev: The Ultra-Marathoner Who Trades Once a Day

A My name is Or Malkyel Mirzayev, 21 years old, from Tel Aviv, Israel. I specialize in futures trading – ES and NQ, day trading Monday through Thursday. But before prop trading, I was already in the markets during my military service – making solid money in crypto through swings and leveraged trades, and building a personal equities portfolio. The markets were never new to me. The discipline was.

A I got funded in 2025. The moment it happened, I was convinced I’d cracked the code. What actually happened is I discovered that a code exists – and that I was nowhere near cracking it. That shift in perspective changed everything. I stopped looking for the perfect strategy or indicator and started looking inward. The real turning point wasn’t getting funded – it was realizing the road ahead was much longer than I’d expected, and making peace with that.

A Like I’d finally arrived. Then almost immediately – humbled. The first funded account taught me that confidence without process is just ego with a deadline. I thought I’d found the answer. I’d actually just found the right question.

A Many times, and fast. I had zero awareness of how the game actually worked. I was firing 20 trades a day across multiple sessions, trying to blast through challenges as quickly as possible. Every account blew up. Every time, the ego took a hit. But the curiosity was always stronger. I wasn’t chasing money – I was chasing understanding. That’s what kept me in the game. Curiosity beats frustration every time, if you let it.

A After my first withdrawal, I was certain the money would keep flowing – that I’d unlocked something permanent. Then came two months where I couldn’t pull a single dollar. That period broke a lot of illusions. But those two months were the most educational of my trading life. I learned exactly where my control ended and where my ego began. Quitting never felt like a real option – more like a door I could see but couldn’t bring myself to open.

A Without question – especially early on. The results hit me hard because trading is a mirror. It reflects exactly who you are. Your patience, your discipline, your emotional state – it all shows up in the P&L. What I came to understand is that the result is just a byproduct of your process and your actions. In trading, you have to choose the path, not the outcome – because you’ll never know when your best trade is coming. What remains in your control is risk management, every single time, and making sure your expectancy is positive over the long run. Once I internalized that, the emotional noise quieted down significantly.

A One trade per day. Sometimes zero – and that’s completely fine. I open the chart 30 minutes before the New York session opens, mark my areas of interest, identify where I believe the market will react, and from there I wait for an entry with a minimum 1:2 risk-to-reward ratio. No volume, no entry. No forced trades. Because our job as traders isn’t to find or invent setups – it’s to react to market moves according to our own rules and parameters.

A I prepare before the open – macro calendar, key levels, areas of interest on ES and NQ. The actual trading window is focused and short. One opportunity, executed with discipline, then done. Outside of trading hours, I train. I’m an ultra-marathon runner preparing for 100km trail races, training with a structured heart rate zone methodology. The overlap between elite endurance sport and trading is real – both demand that you choose process over outcome, every single day.

A They always ask how it works. I tell them to imagine a massive candy store – and my job a few times a week is to walk in, grab one lollipop, and walk out without anyone noticing. They always ask: why not grab everything off the shelf? I tell them: if you try to take too much, they’ll hear you – and the shelf will fall on you. That’s risk management. They usually get it after that.

A Trading made me a more professional person in every area of life. When you truly understand that everything has a price and a process – that results will come if you show up consistently enough – your brain stops seeing challenges as impossible. It starts seeing them as things that simply require time, belief, and persistence. It’s the same mental model I use for ultra-running. You never see the finish line. The only thing you can do is own the three meters your headlamp is lighting right now. In trading, that’s your next trade. That’s your responsibility. No one else to blame.

A The complexity, and the honesty. The market never lies to you. It shows you exactly who you are every single session. Combined with the physical challenge of preparing for 100km races, I live in an environment where complacency is expensive. That keeps me sharp. And I genuinely believe in the process – which makes showing up easy, even on the hard days.

A Slow down. The challenge isn’t the market – it’s you. No strategy or indicator will flip your P&L overnight. Only you can change your behavioral patterns, because those patterns come directly from your life outside the screen. Learn the rules of the game before you try to break them. And protect your curiosity at all costs – because the losses will try to kill it, and it’s the most valuable thing you have.

A I wouldn’t touch it for the first three days. Not because I’m afraid – because I respect the process. I’d use that time to quiet my mind and build the perfect risk framework for that account size. Daily stop, weekly stop, maximum loss per time cycle – all defined before a single order is placed. Then I’d start slowly, with full composure, operating from a place of calm and business-minded planning. I’m not in a rush. I choose time and process, because I believe in them. The account will grow – if I let it.