Matthias's Trading Journey

Key Insights

• Consistent risk management (one trade/day) is crucial for long-term success.
• Market cycles dictate trading activity; scale back during sideways markets and capitalize during trends.
• Patience and discipline in handling drawdowns and losing streaks prevent impulsive and damaging changes to strategy.
• Technical analysis and trend trading are preferred over fundamental speculation for consistent edge.
• Avoid trading during highly volatile or unpredictable events to minimize risk.
• Limiting asset focus deepens understanding and improves trade quality.
• Prop firm environment is becoming more restrictive, but Audacity’s recent rule softening benefits traders.

Summary Table: Key Quantitative Data

Introduction and Background

• Matthias is interviewed for the second time, providing an update on his trading journey since the last interview in July.
• He started trading with Audacity approximately one year ago.
• In his previous interview, Matthias mentioned a first payout of around $6,000. Since then, he has experienced stronger and more frequent payouts.

Recent Trading Performance and Payouts

• Matthias has received multiple payouts ranging around $3,000 every 1–2 months.
• Recently, he achieved his largest single payout of $8,900 from one account.
• He emphasizes that if such a payout can be made monthly, it provides a sustainable living for a full-time trader.

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Full-Time Trading Insights

• Matthias confirms that trading with consistent monthly profits above $2,000 is sufficient to trade full-time.
• He acknowledges that traders will face dry or unprofitable months, but the key is balancing those with profitable months.
• Key insight: Not every month needs to be profitable 100%; the goal is to have winning months cover losses or breakeven periods.

Timeline and Journey Overview

• Started with Audacity at the beginning of 2025.
• First payout of $6K received by summer 2025 (~5-6 months after starting).
• Progressed to larger payouts recently, with the biggest payout received last week.
• Trading career began during COVID in 2020, totalling over five years of experience.
• Early challenges included trial with demo accounts and a difficult start with prop firms.

Philosophy on Success and Practice

• Matthias reiterates a favorite quote: “The more success you get in passing challenges and getting payouts, the easier it gets.”
• Practice is critical in trading, as repeated execution leads to ease and better results.
• He continues to follow his strict risk management rule of one trade per day, which has been consistent over years.
• He believes in not changing a working system, especially during profitable periods.

Consistency and System Stability

• Since developing his system over several years, Matthias has remained consistent with his strategy and framework.
• He actively monitors for potential optimization but avoids drastic changes triggered by short-term losses.
• Recognizes the market moves in different cycles with winning streaks and losing streaks.
• Focuses on maintaining the same strategy but adjusting activity levels based on market conditions.

Adapting to Market Cycles

• Prefers trading during strong trend phases (big uptrends and downtrends).
• When the market becomes sideways or choppy, he scales back:
• Reduces the number of trades from about 10 to 5 per month.
• Takes fewer, more selective setups.
• Risks less capital during these phases.
• Emphasizes patience and waiting for favorable market conditions rather than forcing trades.
• Notes a dry period from late July to mid-October 2025 with lower payouts and some losses, including losing funded accounts.
• Maintained discipline by not overhauling his system during this dry period.
• November 2025 marked the start of a renewed profitable cycle with a rising win rate and better payouts.

Focus on Win Rate Over Risk-to-Reward Ratio

• Matthias prefers monitoring win rate rather than risk-to-reward ratio to capitalize on momentum.
• During periods of momentum loss (e.g., July–October), he re-evaluated but did not abandon his strategy due to strong backtesting over five years.
• Journaling trades helped him stay disciplined and aware of performance trends.
• Warns against common pitfalls like revenge trading or increasing risk size to recover losses quickly.
• Asserts that advanced traders must accept natural win rate fluctuations and maintain patience until the market reverts to favorable conditions.

Handling Loss of Funded Accounts

• Matthias lost a funded account during a challenging period but quickly passed the challenge again on a single attempt.
• His approach is to recognize bad market cycles, avoid forcing trades, and wait for better phases.
• Reinforces the concept that trading is a probability game, not a guaranteed win every time.

Impact of Broader Market Conditions

• Matthias acknowledges a connection between his profitability cycles and broader financial market factors such as:
• Geopolitical risk
• Market volatility
• Seasonality
• However, he does not rely heavily on fundamental analysis or attempts to predict specific events like interest rate announcements.
• Prefers technical analysis focusing on supply and demand dynamics and market structure.
• Notes extreme volatility events, such as gold moving $200 in a single day, are unprecedented and affect his trading approach.

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Trading Big Market Moves and Uncertainty

• Big market spikes caused by fundamentals or news can disrupt his standard setups.
• Such spikes offer potential for big wins but also big losses, which reduces overall profitability for his system.
• He tends to avoid trading during uncertain times triggered by unpredictable events (e.g., tweets from influential figures).
• Emphasizes trading with an edge and probability rather than guessing or luck.

Preferred Assets and Trading Focus

• Matthias mainly focuses on:
• Gold (trend trading on large moves)
• Major indices like German DAX and Dow Jones
• Forex majors, especially EUR/USD and USD pairs
• Avoids frequently changing assets to build deep experience and “gut feeling” for price action in chosen markets.
• Advocates for traders, especially beginners, to limit the number of assets they monitor to avoid confusion.

Feedback on Audacity Platform Updates

• Matthias primarily trades the Audacity Ability Challenge, which fits his trading style.
• Notes the industry trend of many prop firms tightening rules and making payouts harder.
• Appreciates that Audacity has softened some rules, such as:
• Removal of the consistency score rule
• Adjustments to daily drawdown limits
• Views these changes as favorable to traders, helping them focus on long-term consistency rather than single lucky trades.
• Considers Audacity a positive partner for prop traders due to these accommodating changes.

Closing Remarks

• The interview concludes with well-wishes and openness to future follow-ups.
• Matthias’s journey reflects steady progress, disciplined risk management, and adaptation to market cycles.
• His experience offers valuable lessons on patience, system consistency, and market awareness for prop traders.

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