One Prop Trader a Day – Thorng Romnea: The Goal Is to Trade Better, Not More

One Prop Trader a Day – Episode 122

What does a trader do after failing seven or eight accounts and breaching a 50,000 dollar one? Thorng Romnea, 24 and from Cambodia, kept going and became funded with Alpha Capital on a 50,000 dollar account after about two weeks of working toward the challenge. In this interview, he explains the 2,500 dollars he lost trying to win it back the same day, why he walks away from the charts after a bad day, and why a 1 million dollar account would not change his 1% risk.

My name is Romnea, I’m 24 years old, and I’m from Cambodia. I’ve been trading for about two years, mainly focusing on Forex, especially XAUUSD (Gold).

I became a funded trader with Alpha Capital after around two weeks of working toward the challenge. I got funded with a 50,000 dollar account, and for me, that was a big turning point. It showed me that trading could actually become something real, not just something I was learning or practicing on the side. Becoming funded also gave me a bigger opportunity to manage capital and potentially earn more from the skills I had been developing.

The first thing I did with my trading money wasn’t buy something for myself. I actually put around 1,000 dollars back into increasing my trading capital. My mindset was that if I could build more capital, I could take on more financial responsibility and potentially create greater rewards. That was probably the first moment where trading started to feel real to me. Knowing that I had been able to make money from trading and then use that money to grow my capital made me feel like, “Okay, one day, I can actually make a living from this.”

Before I became a funded trader, I failed quite a few challenges. Honestly, I’ve almost lost count, but I would say around 7 or 8 accounts. Looking back, most of my failures came from the same mistakes: revenge trading, emotional trading, and poor risk management. There were definitely times when I felt frustrated, but I kept coming back because I believed that one day I would make it. I started to look at trading more like an investment in myself rather than gambling. I knew that if I could learn from every mistake, improve my discipline, and stay consistent, eventually it could become profitable.

The most expensive lesson I’ve paid for cost me around 2,500 dollars. I was trading a 50,000 dollar prop firm account, and after taking losses, I became focused on making the money back on the same day. I overtraded and pushed past the firm’s daily loss limit, basically trying to force the market to give me my money back. That decision caused me to breach the account, and the account was closed immediately. Losing 2,500 dollars was painful, but the bigger cost was realizing that my emotions were controlling my trading. I’ve made similar mistakes more than once, but every time it happens, it reinforces the same lesson: you cannot trade well when you’re trading emotionally.

Trading has definitely taken a mental and emotional toll on me. There was a period of around two to three months where the emotional side was especially difficult. Even now, after a losing streak, there are moments where I question myself.

If I have a bad day or start losing control, I don’t look at the charts again. I get away from the market and do something completely different, go to the gym, spend time with friends, or be with my family. The goal is to break the cycle before it turns into revenge trading. Getting away from the screen gives me time to reset mentally instead of trying to immediately win the money back. That change in mindset has helped me control my emotions much better.

So far, Alpha Capital is the only prop firm I’ve traded with. When I’m choosing a prop firm, the two biggest things I look for are clear rules and trust. I want to know exactly what the rules are and, most importantly, I want to trust the company I’m putting my time and effort into.

My trading style today is pretty simple. I focus only on XAUUSD (Gold), and I’m a day trader. I use the 1-hour chart to understand the overall trend and direction, then move down to the 15-minute chart for execution. Before I enter a trade, I first look at the market structure and ask myself a simple question: Is the market going up, going down, or moving sideways? From there, I look for my point of interest and mark the important liquidity areas. I wait for price to come into my area of interest, then move to the 15-minute timeframe to look for the actual entry. Normally, I risk around 1% of my capital per trade. I’m not trying to enter every opportunity I see. I’m looking for the right setup and waiting for the market to come to me.

A typical trading day starts around 7 or 8 in the morning. After I wake up and prepare myself, I start by looking at the market conditions rather than immediately taking a trade. I usually take around two to three trades in a day, and I stop myself once I’ve reached three positions.

My most recent losing trade was also on Gold. I found an opportunity that matched my setup, waited for price to reach my POI zone, and entered with around 1% risk. Sometimes the market simply doesn’t move the way you expect it to, and that’s part of trading. Whether the trade wins or loses, I try to react normally and not let one trade affect my next decision. The important thing is following the process rather than becoming emotional about the result.

I’m not ready to share my biggest payout yet, but for me, the bigger milestone has been proving to myself that I can build consistency and manage capital. I think the payout is only one part of the journey. Being able to stay disciplined and protect an account is just as important.

One interesting thing about my trading journey is that I actually keep it private. No one around me really knows that I trade. I’ve chosen to keep it to myself rather than constantly explain what I’m doing to other people. For me, trading is about financial freedom. I don’t want to depend on working for someone else forever. I want to build something where I work for myself and have control over my own future.

Some days or months can be profitable, and some can be unprofitable. That doesn’t mean the business has failed. What matters is managing the risk, learning from mistakes, and continuing to improve. I think that’s one of the biggest things that separates me from someone who quits after their third failed challenge. I believe that trading can eventually give me the financial freedom I’m looking for, so I see the failures as part of the investment in myself.

If someone gave me a 1 million dollar funded account today, my first priority wouldn’t be trying to make a huge amount of money. It would be understanding how much I could afford to lose and protecting the account. I would still use around 1% risk per trade, because having a bigger account doesn’t mean I should suddenly take bigger risks. I would treat the 1 million dollar account like a business. Protecting the capital would be the priority. For those first seven days, I wouldn’t try to trade every market condition just because I had access to a large account. My goal would be to find the best entries, wait for the right setups, and only trade when the market gives me an opportunity that fits my strategy. Having a 1 million dollar account would give me more capital, but it wouldn’t change the way I think about risk.

Verified funded – the receipts