4M Funding in Forex: How I Became the Top Trader | Bernd Skorupinski DSH #559

And to get to number one, what do you have to do to reach that status?

Is it based off your based off like they have leaderboards?

It's based off the profit, or how does that?

Yeah, based on the profit, exactly.

So, they just gave you four million to trade with.

Well, with them, I trade 400,000, but portals throughout multiple prop firms actually.

Is it a profit split?

How does that work?

Yes, exactly.

There's a profit split.

So, the profit split is even like in favor of the trader, it starts at usually 80% for the trader.

Yes,

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All right, guys, all the way from Dubai, we got Bern Skorupinsky here today.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Thank you.

Pronounced properly.

Thank you so much.

I tried, man.

That was easy.

It's a hard name.

It's not easy.

Yeah, it's not easy.

That's a long flight, man.

16 hours.

Yeah, and I'm pretty chat-like.

It's crazy.

I arrived already three days ago.

Otherwise, I would have not managed it.

When did you move out there?

Um, 2009, so I live in Bisons now, yes, very early.

Actually, it was almost desperate.

I mean, yeah, yeah, I feel like it's really evolved the past few years.

A lot of people are crazy, yeah, yeah.

I've seen it grow, like it's it's it's it's insane, literally.

Did you move out of there because of your forex gains?

No, actually, um, I don't have my background is different.

I, when I moved out there, um,

I came right after my studies.

Actually, I studied also at UCSB in Santa Barbara.

So, it's not my first time in

California.

So, right after my studies, I moved to Dubai and I got a corporate job, a normal corporate job in the automotive sector, actually.

And then, basically, after a while, I realized that the corporate world is not for me.

I started trading, and everything else is history.

Did you start with stocks, Forex?

Actually, yes, so I'm now full-time trading actually since 10 years.

And trading in total, I'm

12 years.

Wow.

So, 10 years full-time.

I'm 40 years old.

I have a nine-year-old daughter.

I'm providing for my family since 10 years.

And so I started actually trading stocks.

And then I moved into futures and then just four years ago into Forex.

So that's why I consider myself a multi-asset trader, trading all assets.

And what was the first profitable year?

How long did it take?

It was, so my progress was quite smooth because I learned from some form of floor traders from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and also New York Stock Exchange.

Wow.

So that's why my progress was rather smooth.

And I would say compared to people today was also rather fast.

So it took me like a year or so to be like really consistent in my approach.

That's pretty quick.

It was, yes, it's pretty quick.

So that's why I always say like, I don't want people to see me as a benchmark

because I also feel like it was rather quick.

But obviously it's also like you evolve as a trader.

Now I'm a much better trader than like 10 years ago.

Yeah, yeah.

So you had good connections.

And is your strategy to be in and out within the same day?

No, no.

So I'm

apparently people like to classify themselves when they're traders, right?

You have scalpers, you have day traders,

and I would consider myself actually a swing trader.

So I call my approach set and forget and get a life.

So set and forget and get a life because my execution time frame is usually daily time frame.

So I stay in trades for like weeks.

So this gives me also the time freedom that everybody wants, right?

Otherwise, you're still, I'm coming from the corporate world, as I said.

Like the reason why I left corporate world, because I didn't want to be a slave of my desk anymore.

But if you're like a scalper or day trader, you're like sitting at your desk every day as well and you don't have the time freedom and the only reason why i quit my corporate job was like i wanted to have that time freedom right so that's why i moved towards that kind of swing trading approach a lot of anxiety in day trading Yeah, crazy.

And it's hard to make it work consistently, right?

In trading, it's all about being consistent.

Everybody can make money in trading.

It's like a 50-50 chance.

I mean, I can make money by closing my eyes and, you know, just pressing the buy or sell button.

So you make money eventually, but it's all about consistency month over month over month and then years over years and this is hard to pull off with day trading or even scalping right and what percentage return do you aim for on a yearly basis that's a good question so as a professional trader you don't think in returns actually you think

yeah um this is by the way also what i would say how you can expose like uh scammers because they talk in percentage gains and that they and but at the end of the day this doesn't mean anything i talk in risk to reward Because now if I tell you I make 10%, I make 20%, I make 100%, what does it mean to you?

Nothing.

Because what is re really more important is the risk risk factor behind it.

I could say I make 100%, but I risk 200%.

So I'm a very bad risk manager right at the end of the day because I risked more than I made.

Leverage.

Yes, exactly.

I risked more than I made eventually.

So that's why if I tell you just a percentage percentage gain, it doesn't mean anything because you don't know the risk factor.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And how much capital did you start with?

Because a lot lot of guys now are trying to start with a few hundred thousand.

Is that even possible in your opinion?

So

in the past, I would have said to make money in trading, you need money, right?

I started off with a $50,000 account in the futures market.

But nowadays, you have all these prop firms, right, where you can trade,

where you can get funded by firms a very high amount up to $400,000, $500,000.

And

so nowadays, you only need the skill, you only need to develop the skill in trading, and then you can get funded through these prop firms, and then you can get funded even like seven figures.

Wow.

Yeah.

So I'm funded actually $4 million

in prop firm capital.

And I'm also the all-time record holder for the biggest Forex prop firm in the world, which is

that's insane.

And to get to number one, what do you have to do to reach that status?

Is it based off your based off like they have leaderboards and i have like 120 leaderboard appearances in like only one and a half years damn yeah and that's based on

all-time record it's based off the profit or how does that yeah based on the profit exactly holy crap yeah so they just gave you four million to trade with well with them i trade 400 000 but it totals throughout multiple prop firms actually so what you have to do basically

This is quite interesting for everybody who says

they are lacking in capital that, as I just said, you only need to develop skill nowadays.

And then you can make these tests through these prop firms.

It's basically what they call it a challenge.

So basically, you trade in a real market environment, but with demo money.

And if you pass these challenges, then you can get funded with these prop firms.

So these prop firms, they offer challenges.

Like, for instance, FTMO, if you want to get funded $200,000, you basically...

buy one of these challenges.

So for these challenges, you have to pay money, obviously.

It's like a driver's license at the end of the day.

So for a $200,000 account, you pay $1,000 for that test.

If you pass that test, then that challenge, then you get funded $200,000.

Wow.

And then you can do this with multiple prop firms, and then you can get funded $2 million.

That is crazy.

And it's a profit split.

How does that work?

Yes, exactly.

There's a profit split.

So the profit split is even like in favor of the trader.

It starts at usually 80% for the trader.

Yes, that's amazing.

That's crazy.

So with one prop firm actually that I'm funded.

So with one prop firm, I'm funded like $2 million and my profit split is 100%.

So, how do they make money?

Exactly, how do they make money?

So, what happens in the back end, they basically link all their own accounts to my account and basically just copy my trades.

And with that $2 million account, they basically just pay me out 100%.

Holy crap!

So, they're probably copying it with millions.

Potentially, they can, whatever they have.

Exactly, yes.

And how's the liquidity?

Like, because you're getting to a point now where you're trading millions a day, right?

Yes, exactly, millions a day.

Well, I'm swing trading, so, but I have like millions.

So, what I would do is basically, or what I do do is like I take on that $4 million account, right?

Overall, I take like 1% risk, which is like $40,000 per trade.

And I aim for like a monthly return.

So my risk factor is 1%.

And I aim for like profits, 2% per month.

Oh, so 1% to 2 ratio.

Yeah, exactly.

So 1 to 2 risk to reward ratio, basically.

Okay, so it's actually not that risky.

Well, yes, exactly.

So as a trader, you should always, when you risk one, whatever your risk factor is, right?

In this case, for me, it's $40,000.

You should always aim for two, three, or four, always more than one.

Otherwise, you cannot survive as a trader.

Well, when people think of four, actually, they think you could blow your money in a day.

So

this is actually risky.

If you don't be like a proper risk manager, one of my mentors always said, we are not traders, we are risk managers, actually, and that's what you are, right?

If you don't manage your risk properly, then of course it's risky.

But in fact, if you do it professionally,

it's a business that is,

I think, way less risky than any physical business because it's always calculated risk.

It's always calculated risk.

You determine what your risk factor is.

I say my risk factor is $1,000, $2,000.

I determine that, and it's the maximum I can lose as a professional one.

But yeah, of course, but if you're like a newbie, you just open up a brokerage account, that's where these people

wipe out their accounts.

But I would not consider them traders, that's a problem.

I would consider them market participants.

Yeah, that's more.

Because I consider myself a trader, right?

And then you have somebody just open up a brokerage account, they call themselves a trader.

So there's a big gap between me and somebody's a newbie, right?

What percentage of traders are profitable, you think?

Well, Well,

so

broker firms, they have to

give you kind of their statistics, right?

And it's roughly what they are saying is that

80 to 90% are not profitable.

Wow.

Right.

Crazy.

It's only 10% that are profitable.

That's high, but it's probably similar with stocks, too.

Well, it's similar in just in general trading, right?

Because it's quite interesting because at the end in trading, it's quite interesting because trading is another profession, like any other profession, like becoming a doctor, becoming a lawyer, becoming a pilot, becoming an engineer.

It's just another profession.

And there's a process to

basically earn that profession, right?

To become proficient in something.

But when it comes to trading, people just basically think it's completely different.

They open up a brokerage account and then they wipe out their account because they're not skilled, right?

It's like I would drive now a Ferrari without having a driver's license, never driven a Ferrari.

What do you think's going to happen, right?

I'm going to crash the car eventually.

And that's why so many people blow up their accounts because they're not skilled.

Right.

Discipline.

Well, it's all like this comes on top, right?

Yeah.

Like all these characteristics, disciplined,

following your rules, perseverance, all these kind of things comes on top.

Being objective, controlling your emotions.

Objective, yeah, or robotic in your approach, because if you're not objective, then you cannot become consistent.

One goes with it with another, right?

Right.

Do you ever worry about AI replacing what you're doing?

Not really.

I think actually it's always going to be a hybrid model.

AI can give suggestions, but it's always like the human who has to execute at the end of the day.

Do you use any AI to research or anything?

Well, we developed our own tools that I call like hybrid AI in a way,

where we basically ask the system, give us the best trades in a specific month, in a specific timeframe, on a specific day, including holding period, percentage risk, and so on and so forth.

But it's still like for us traders to execute then at the end of the day.

Yeah, that's interesting.

Because I've seen some people run ads on their traders on Instagram ads, but I don't know if it's legit.

No, it's usually not legit.

I mean, again, this is like that notion that people have that, hey, there are people out there that have these magic, let's call them bots, right?

Selling them for 50 bucks that you just have to press the button and magically it's going to make you consistent income, right?

I always tell people, use a little bit of common sense.

How does it sound to you, right?

You don't have skill at all.

You buy something for 50 bucks where you just have to press the button button and then magically it's gonna make you money forever like how does this sound to you like like ridiculous right

but people that's why they want to believe these you know that it's for them like getting out of the you know um retrace basically and that's why they believe in these things but yes it's just nonsense have you been able to trade with similar results during recessions yeah during recessions actually you make i would say um during covet this was like one of my best years because yeah of course because in trading obviously you can make money on both sides.

Actually, I called,

and it's on my Instagram.

So everything I do,

I make very transparent.

So back then, we called the market crash.

So

we are basically selling short, right?

You can make money on both sides, right?

Buying into the market, but also selling into the market.

And there are two emotions in the market.

There's fear and greed.

So

obviously fear is

a way stronger emotion.

So when the market is dropping, the market drops way quicker.

So you can make money faster if you know how to do it.

Right.

that makes sense.

Speaking of crash, guys like Robert Kiyosaki and Michael Burry are calling a stock crash this year, right?

Well, yeah, it's quite interesting because they're calling it every year.

And so, if you're calling it every year, you might be right once, right?

And Michael Burry was right in 2008, but ever since, he's calling it every year, and it's never right again.

And I actually, you know, on my YouTube channel, I called him out even last year

in October, where he actually bet $1.6 billion against the market.

I said the market's going to make new all-time highs.

Well, I said basically he will not be right and he doesn't know what he's doing at this stage, right?

Damn, so he lost it all?

I think he lost it all, but because he was wrong, and the market made new all-time highs.

Holy crap.

So, and again, this year as well, there's something

called, and this is very powerful, presidential election cycle.

And obviously,

the U.S.

presidential election plays a crucial role on how the stock stock market behaves in the market.

And this presidential election cycle is four years, and every sub-cycle is basically one year.

So it starts with pre-election cycle, then you have election cycle, then you have post-election cycle, then you have midterm cycle.

Then again, everything starts again pre-election and so on.

And this year, obviously, 2024, we are in election cycle, right?

So in the election cycle, it's quite interesting.

If you do like just statistics back testing in the past

in the past 15 years,

during that election year, in the past

50 years, only during that election year, you have an average return of roughly, only if you had bought during election year of roughly 8 to 9 percent.

And the market only dropped, didn't make a new all-time high three out of 12 times.

So 12 times it made a new high, three times it didn't make a new high.

So just by that statistics alone, your chances that if you just buy into into election year is 75%.

Why would you bet against that statistic?

It's good odds.

And it's good odds.

And by the way, it's also statistically proven

because people are commenting, what's happening when Trump is going to be president?

What happens if Biden gets re-elected?

Statistically, it doesn't make any difference whether Trump, Biden, Democrat,

Republican, or even, I don't know, Twain Deroc Johnson becomes president.

Statistically, during election year, the market makes new all-time highs.

Wow.

That's surprising because everyone's saying Trump will skyrocket the economy if he gets elected and then if Biden does, he'll crash.

Yeah, exactly.

But that's all like, you know, just

this is just an opinion.

It's very subjective, right?

So it's again, we just talked about you have to be objective and the data, statistical data, just speaks volume by itself.

Yeah, so you don't even look at the news to base your trades.

I couldn't care less.

Wow, a lot of people look at the news.

Yes, but I think, I firmly believe these people cannot be consistent.

Again, another sign for me to call out scammers when people are so subjected to news and base their decision on news.

You cannot be consistent how, because it's very subjective, how you interpret these news.

That's true.

Plus, a lot of the news are paid for by certain people.

Exactly, right?

You could go down this rabbit hole, like talking about conspiracy theories.

But it's true, right?

It's true, right?

They're paid by certain agencies and certain companies and they control the news, right?

It's just like, for instance,

all these big corporations, right?

Yeah, it's refreshing to see someone like you be the face of the forex stuff because there's a lot of forex cameras with Lambos and all the cards and watches.

Yeah, it's crazy.

So I'm actually pretty new to social media in a way because I only opened my YouTube channel like a little bit more than a year ago.

And

well, my public appearance basically was driven by my FTMO all-time record.

Can't deny those results.

You cannot deny these results, right?

But again, when it comes to trading, the problem is that there is no, again, this is the only profession where you don't have like any accreditation system, right?

Where you don't have any certification system.

Anybody can call themselves a trader, right?

Sean, you could call yourself a trader tomorrow just by

no license needed, right?

You just read a trading book and you can articulate yourself well and then you just call yourself a trader and then you're selling XYZ to people

courses and stuff.

So that's a big problem in this business.

And obviously, that's why people are taking advantage of that.

And it's so cringe to me, to be honest you know like that this business forex especially has such such a bad reputation terrible reputation terrible right i'm you know i'm very proud of being a trader but i'm kind of ashamed for like this kind of you know business because you know i have to justify for all these scammers as well and you know like always these you know that

um pretending, you know, these expensive, having these expensive lifestyles and they made all this money through like forex trading.

It's just pure nonsense, right?

Again, like if you see somebody like flashing lumbos flashing you know expensive watches you know like showcasing you know the pile of money on instagram this is so embarrassing these are all scammers like yeah i get a lot of them apply on the show and i turn most of them yeah it's horrible yeah the reason i i wanted to do this with you is because your results are you can't deny them so number one on the leaderboard i'm number one like uh ftmo all-time record holder right so everything i do is transparent i right now by the way also do like we just talked about these challenges that you can do right to get like funded.

So what I'm doing now transparently on YouTube, basically a $2.1 million challenge across like six prop firms.

And I'm

telling people like what trades to take.

And I'm like calling out all these trades in advance, basically, just for people to see again, another layer of transparency.

So I see me basically.

My goal is that I want to, I mean, it sounds a little bit corny, but change the kind of space a little bit, you know, to better and show people, you know, what it takes to be transparent and tell also people, hey, setting a new standard in the business,

you only trust somebody because I also run a licensed investment consultancy in Dubai.

And that licensed investment consultancy that is controlled by the UAU authority, we basically offer trading education.

So for me, it's just common sense that everything I do is very transparent, right?

Yeah.

And so, yes, I want to set a standard in the industry and show people really, okay, you need to do this to showcase transparency.

And if you're not transparent, then most probably, and you offer something, like the course or whatever, like some signals, Telegram group access, whatever it is.

Signals, right?

That's how they call it.

Anyway,

if you offer that, but you cannot show transparency in any kind of way, right?

Then most probably and very likely you're a scammer.

People have two signal chats.

So they'll have one chat that says one thing and another chat that says the other.

Yeah.

Crazy, right?

Yeah, even faking like statements.

Something that actually also got very viral that is like one trader, right?

Very big trader in the space at this time was actually faking my FTMO certificates and publishing on his social media and pretending it's his certificate.

But you know what's funny, actually, you know, what he did, he removed my name on the certificate, put his name on the certificate.

But you know what you don't know is on these certificates, they're QR codes.

So if you scan these QR codes, you get to the real certificate.

So he was actually posting it as a story.

And then people was like, of course, scanning, you know, know, wanted to see like the certificate said like he made like in one month like $60,000, $70,000.

But then it had this QR, it had this QR code.

So people were like scanning that QR code through his story and then it showed my name and then they were forwarding it to me.

And, you know, funnily, I mean, at the end of the day, this was good PR to me because it was a big guy in like Miami.

You know,

sounds like Miami, yeah.

Yeah, it's exactly.

That's why, you know, funnily, I call them, you know, these, all these scammers.

Like to me, these are like the Miami boys because most of them, like, it's.

I haven't met a legit one in Miami.

I'll tell you that.

Miami in general.

Yeah, it's horrible.

Yes, exactly.

It's full of scams.

And he was like one of the big traders.

Like, he's even organizing one of the summits there, the FX summits in Miami.

The FX summits in Dubai is even like the main organizer.

Yes, exactly.

We'll look up to that.

That's crazy.

Exactly.

It's crazy.

So

you need to become the face of this shit, man.

Yeah, I would love to.

Yes.

I mean, your YouTube's doing very well.

It's doing, yeah, it's...

Ah, thanks.

Thanks for real.

I didn't know it was only a year old, but you're old.

Yeah, I started in March last year and like, it's growing up.

Already 40,000 subs, right?

Actually, 66.

Popping off, my man.

It's growing nicely.

You got to get that 100K plat.

You know, it's funny because my daughter, she's nine, and all she can talk about is like her role model nowadays are not like

actually YouTubers, right?

She's watching, you know, all the YouTube channels that you can imagine, Mr.

BB

stuff.

And she says, like, even when I started and I had like 100 subscribers, she was like, when do you get that, you know, that play button?

I want to have that play button in my room.

I said,

I have only 100 subscribers, but once I get it, you will.

You're close.

I'll show you some stuff with YouTube ads.

You'll go quick.

Cool.

I hit a million in a year.

I would love to.

I got you.

I got you.

So how much time are you doing this seven days a week?

How many hours a day on average?

So, yes, since I preach a set and forget and get a life approach, right?

The spring trading approach where I have all the time freedom in the world.

So my process looks like basically that i during the weekend i do my analysis during like all the markets that i trade let's say it's 40 markets i go through them i do my analysis the markets that are um setting up for the week ahead i put in a watch list on monday i might place the orders already and then during the week i need maybe 15 minutes 30 minutes max a day to basically that's that's my that's my actual trading work right 15 to 30 minutes a day like digitally yes and then on the weekend i do all the prep work and this is and that's and that's why you know i always tell people, because it's also quite interesting.

If you look at Instagram, for instance, people don't say they are traders.

They're either saying, because it might sound cool, they're day traders, right?

They're saying they're not saying they're traders.

No, they have to say like specifically they're scalpers or they're day traders.

Nobody's saying they're a swing trader because it might not sound cool to them.

I don't know.

I haven't seen that much.

Exactly, because that notion of

having seven screens on the wall, you know, and being like active every day, but it's not the real, like,

that's not I would say that's not

yeah the real trading

and you have to make it work for everyone out there like nobody is born as a trader and everybody has like a corporate job a nine-to-five grind right they have families they have social obligations they have kids how can how could they possibly incorporate that kind of day trading approach right it doesn't fit into the schedule so you have to make it work for the um for the mainstream as well and the mainstream can only make it work if they have kind of that swing trading approach, right?

To kind of incorporate it in their lifestyle.

Have you had to change your styles over the recent years, or is it pretty consistent?

It's pretty consistent, to be honest.

I mean, I started off as well as more like day trading because day trading has the advantage that you get immediate response, but then you know, slowly when you evolve, you go to higher time frames, basically.

And then you, if you, if you, if you then get consistent with higher time frame trading, basically, daily execution time frame, and you see like the benefits of time freedom and all yeah you know um that you're not clued to your screen and also like mentally it's way easier right

um

then it's like um the benefits outweigh the yeah absolutely any long-term goals do you want to start your own prop firm wonda oh that's maybe

i cannot tease that yet but we are we are looking into that definitely i heard they make a ton of money because most people fail the test right

that's how they make the most money because exactly so why do most people fail the test because they for them, it's like going into the casino, right?

Yeah.

Sitting in front of the slot machine, buying test after test after test.

But again, these are not traders.

These are just market participants, right?

They're not skilled at the end of the day.

They're waiting for the lucky shot for them.

It's like a lottery ticket, right?

Buying a challenge, hopefully, you know, passing that challenge somehow and then getting a super high payout.

And that's basically their approach.

And that's obviously the majority of people.

And that's why the prop firms make so much money on these failing people because that's the majority is just skilled right and they don't apparently they don't want to get skilled otherwise they would not do it I don't know yeah well it takes time people aren't willing to spend a year studying and that's the point it's like again you need to get into that business mindset entrepreneur mindset like if if you start basically with trading you're at the end of the day you're an entrepreneur right you're starting your own business so it's a startup in a way so to make this successful that startup that your business that takes time like any other business again it takes time like any other business so two two or three years is nothing, but people they don't want to go through that, you know, um, through that time period.

They want to have to, that's what I see, they want to have the success tomorrow.

Absolutely, yeah, burn.

Where can people find you and learn more about Vorax, man?

So, uh, they can find me on all social media channels basically.

Uh, on YouTube, Bern Skoropinski, Instagram, Bern Skoropinski, Twitter, X, Ben Skoropinski.

So, yeah, perfect.

We'll link it below.

Thanks for watching.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, thanks for watching, guys.

Check out the links below.

Peace.

Bye-bye.