The Grinder
“Never break a rule. Never chase a trade.”
You know this person
The prop-firm challenge passer. The FTMO / Topstep / MyFundedFX trader who treats the rulebook like gospel. The ex-corporate risk manager who actually trades now. Anyone who has ever preached 'risk 1% a trade, full stop' and meant it every single day.
In character
Obsessively disciplined. Treats every trade as exactly 1R. Moves stops to break-even the instant a trade is in profit. Stops trading the moment he hits his daily loss limit — even if the next setup is 'obvious.' Not flashy. Compounds.
Current tournaments
Strategy
Fixed-R risk per trade with break-even stops and daily loss cap
Prop-firm challenge discipline. Each trade risks exactly 1R (≈1% of equity). Stop moves to break-even once the trade hits +1R in profit. Take-profit at +2R. Hard daily loss cap: if cumulative equity drops 3% below tournament start, stops opening new positions — he's 'hit his limit' and sits out.
- Daily loss cap: if equity ≤ 97% of tournament starting equity → do not open new positions.
- Entry long: price > SMA(50, 1m) AND RSI(14, 1m) > 50 AND 5-minute return > +0.2%. Size: 50% equity at 5× (→ 1R at 0.4% stop = 1% equity).
- Entry short: mirror of the above.
- Stop: 0.4% from entry (hard 1R stop).
- Break-even stop: once the trade hits +0.4% in profit, move stop to entry. If price retraces through entry → close.
- Take profit: +0.8% from entry (2R).
- Time stop: 60 minutes per trade.
- 1-minute cooldown between decisions.
Real-world analog
The FTMO / Topstep / MyFundedFX playbook — the discipline that prop firms explicitly pay traders to follow. Conservative, survivable, compound-friendly.
Thrives in
Two-way markets with clear pullbacks and trending micro-structure. 1R-2R setups trigger cleanly, small wins stack.
Struggles in
Choppy ranges that repeatedly hit stops. Once the daily-loss cap trips, he sits out — letting other bots catch any bounce.
Strengths
- +The safest bot. You need a bad week of setup quality to beat Pete badly.
- +Break-even stops mean the worst-case trade is tiny.
- +Daily loss cap is a circuit breaker — he can't blow up mid-tournament.
Weaknesses
- −Misses explosive moves. The +2R exit caps the upside.
- −Once the loss cap trips, the rest of the day is unrecoverable.
- −Conservative sizing means beating the aggressive bots in a strong trend is nearly impossible.
What beating them proves
Beating Pete means you took real risk and it paid off. Lose to Pete and you were out-disciplined.
What this archetype teaches
- ·Rule-based risk management survives markets that destroy conviction traders.
- ·The circuit breaker you didn't want is the one that saved you.
- ·Consistency is a strategy. Most retail traders eventually learn this — usually too late.
“Respect the rulebook.”
— Prop Firm Pete
Recent trades
- ◂ exitBTC-USDT0.628105 @ $77372.10+$40.85
- ▸ shortBTC-USDT0.628105 @ $77452.61
- ◂ exitBTC-USDT0.630502 @ $77426.88$-116.22
- ▸ shortBTC-USDT0.630502 @ $77258.05
- ◂ exitBTC-USDT0.630173 @ $77607.72$-133.23
- ▸ shortBTC-USDT0.630173 @ $77411.81
- ◂ exitBTC-USDT0.630607 @ $77538.17$-78.80
- ▸ shortBTC-USDT0.630607 @ $77428.71
- ◂ exitBTC-USDT0.629550 @ $77462.75+$37.05
- ▸ shortBTC-USDT0.629550 @ $77537.09
- ◂ exitBTC-USDT0.628552 @ $77684.43$-13.39
- ▸ shortBTC-USDT0.628552 @ $77678.66
- ◂ exitBTC-USDT0.627125 @ $77700.73$-223.27
- ▸ longBTC-USDT0.627125 @ $78041.21
- ◂ exitBTC-USDT0.631114 @ $78094.32$-233.19
- ▸ shortBTC-USDT0.631114 @ $77740.45
- ◂ exitBTC-USDT0.629669 @ $77977.49$-27.86
- ▸ shortBTC-USDT0.629669 @ $77948.84
- ◂ exitBTC-USDT0.628184 @ $77970.65$-233.47
- ▸ longBTC-USDT0.628184 @ $78326.72