Table of Contents
In this interview, host Riz Iqbal sits down with Jessica—better known as “Jess,” the founder and former CEO of Funding Talent—to unpack how a prop firm really works from the inside. Filmed as a straight-talk conversation for traders, it covers her journey from retail trader to building a fast-growing firm, what went right, what broke, and why her perspective matters if you’re trading funded or planning to. Jess brings rare transparency on trader performance, risk controls, and the incentives that shape both firms and traders.
You’ll learn a practical trader strategy playbook from Jess’s experience: how to align risk per trade with real slippage, why mixing simple technicals with a light fundamental bias works for many consistent performers, and how to audit a prop firm’s rules so they don’t sabotage your edge. We’ll hit scaling plans, payout reliability, journaling that actually improves entries and exits, and building a repeatable routine that survives platform changes—so you can focus on trading well, not chasing the next challenge.
Jessica Playbook & Strategy: How She Actually Trades
Market Selection & Session Focus
Here’s the quick idea: trade what moves when it tends to move. Jessica favors liquid majors and indices during the sessions that actually produce range, not the sleepy hours. This section gives you simple rules to pick pairs and times so you’re not forcing trades in dead markets.
- Trade only 1–2 primary instruments for 90 days (e.g., GBPUSD and NAS100) to build sample size and pattern recognition.
- Limit active hours to London open → New York lunch (08:00–12:00 NY). No new positions after 13:00 NY.
- Skip Mondays’ first 2 hours and Fridays after 12:00 NY unless you’re managing an open swing.
- Require minimum 1H ATR(14) > 0.60% for indices or > 45 pips for majors to consider day trades.
- Avoid correlated doubles (e.g., don’t hold EURUSD and GBPUSD long at the same time). Pick the cleaner chart.
Top-Down Bias: Fundamentals Light, Technicals First
Keep it simple: a light fundamental read sets direction; clean technicals do the heavy lifting. You’ll define a bias using one or two top drivers and execute with structure on the chart.
- Set directional bias daily from D1/H4: price above/below 50-EMA and last week’s high/low. Trade only with that bias.
- Track one macro driver relevant to your instrument (e.g., USD rates for majors, yields/DXY for indices). If the DXY uptrend is intact, fade USD shorts.
- Mark two levels per day: session high/low and prior day’s value area (use simple previous day high/low if no volume tools).
- No counter-trend trades unless there’s a stop-run into HTF level plus immediate reclaim on 5-minute close.
Setup & Triggers (The Actual Entry)
You need a repeatable pattern with objective triggers. This section turns “looks good” into rules you can code or journal against.
- Core setup: HTF level + liquidity sweep + structure shift.
- Wait for a wick through the level (stop-run), then a 5-minute close back inside, then a pullback to the break point.
- Entry method: limit order at the retest with invalidation beyond the wick (1–2 ticks/pips beyond).
- Require confluence: 5-min structure shift (HH→LL or LL→HH) + RSI(14) divergence on the sweep or a 20/50 EMA cross on 1-min post-sweep.
- News filter: no new positions within ±15 minutes of high-impact data; widen to ±30 minutes for NFP/CPI/FOMC.
Risk, Sizing & Drawdown Controls
Survival first. Jessica’s style prioritizes small fixed risk, tight daily limits, and pre-committed exits so one bad day doesn’t spiral.
- Fixed risk per trade: 0.25R–0.50R (where 1R = risk unit). Cap daily loss at -1.0R; stop trading for the day immediately when hit.
- Max weekly drawdown: -3R. If hit, reduce size by 50% the following week.
- Initial stop: beyond sweep wick or 1.0× H1 ATR(14) projected to your entry—whichever is tighter, but never less than spread + slippage buffer.
- Hard rule: never widen stops after entry. If invalid, exit.
- Max exposure: 2 open trades total; no stacking in the same direction unless the first is risk-free.
Trade Management: From Open to Close
Entries are easy; management prints or erases the edge. These rules keep you from micromanaging and protect winners from turning into losers.
- Move to breakeven only after price closes beyond a key intraday structure (e.g., breaks and closes two 5-min swings in your favor) or reaches +0.75R.
- Scale-out 50% at +1R; let the rest run to the next HTF level or a session target (e.g., previous day high/low).
- Time-stop: if price hasn’t moved +0.5R within 90 minutes during London/NY, close at market.
- Trail only below/above 5-min swing lows/highs once position is > +1R; never trail with a fixed pip count.
- Don’t hold fresh day trades into major data. Close or reduce to the runner before the release.
Prop-Firm Friendly Rules (Also Great for Personal Accounts)
Whether you’re funded or not, these constraints force discipline. They’re built to avoid common violations while keeping your edge intact.
- Daily loss buffer: target max -0.8% if the firm’s limit is -1.0%; never start a new trade when your buffer is <0.3%.
- Payout protection: pause trading 48 hours before payout request unless you’re up > +3R on the cycle.
- Consistency guard: cap best day at ≤ 40% of your total cycle profits by partial-taking and stopping after +2R on the day.
- Weekend risk: no positions held over the weekend unless it’s a pre-planned swing with hedged exposure or options cover (if available).
Pattern Library (Use or Lose)
You’ll be more consistent if you run a small library of plays, not a hundred patterns. Here are two that fit the overall approach and are easy to journal.
- Reversal Play (Stop-Run Reclaim):
- HTF level marked → liquidity sweep beyond it → 5-min close back inside → limit on retest → stop beyond sweep wick → take +1R at first intraday pivot, runner to HTF opposite level.
- Continuation Play (Break-Retest-Go):
- Bias aligned → clear 5-min range break → retest the broken boundary with absorption (small wicks, low delta if you track it) → enter on rejection → stop below last micro swing → partial at +1R, trail below/above 5-min swings.
News & Event Playbook
News can add velocity or chaos. Treat it like weather: plan around it instead of pretending it isn’t there.
- No initial entries inside ±15 minutes of standard red-folder events; ±30 minutes for NFP/CPI/FOMC/central banks.
- Only hold through news if the trade is already > +1R with stop locked and position size reduced by 50%.
- After a major release, wait for the first 5-minute range to break and retest before taking continuation.
Journaling That Actually Improves Entries
If you can’t measure it, you can’t refine it. This is the minimal journal that produces insights instead of busywork.
- Record for every trade: screenshot with levels, bias (up/down/neutral), setup type (reversal/continuation), entry/stop/targets, R planned, R realized, session, and notes on the sweep/structure shift.
- Tag outcomes by reason for exit (target, time-stop, invalidation, news). Review weekly to cut low-yield tags (e.g., patterns failing > 60%).
- Keep a “Would Take Again?” checkbox. If you repeatedly mark “no,” define the disqualifier and add it to your pre-trade checklist.
Daily & Weekly Routine
Edge lives in routine. Keep it short enough to do, strict enough to matter.
- Daily (30–40 min): HTF mark-up (D1/H4), note macro driver direction, pick A-level and B-level zones, set alerts, write one sentence on bias.
- Pre-session (10 min): economic calendar check, violations buffer check, max daily loss reminder, confirm ATR and volatility meet thresholds.
- Weekly (45–60 min): review journal tags, update win-rate and expectancy per setup, drop the worst tag for the next week, and pre-mark three HTF levels per instrument.
Risk Psychology & Self-Policing
Discipline isn’t a mood; it’s the rules you’ll follow on a bad day. These keep you from turning a speed bump into a crater.
- One-and-done rule on red days: after -1R, platform closed.
- No revenge trades: wait 20 minutes and require a fresh A-setup plus confluence to re-engage after any loss.
- Micro-burner reset: if you take two breakevens in a row, step away for one 5-minute bar, re-assess bias, and only return if conditions still meet plan.
Scaling & Capital Growth
Grow in size only when the process proves itself. This prevents size from outpacing skill.
- Level up size after any 30-trade sample with expectancy > +0.20R and max drawdown < -3R. Increase risk per trade by 25% only.
- If you draw down 3R from equity highs, revert to prior size and rebuild with two green weeks before attempting to scale again.
- Withdraw a portion of gains at pre-set milestones (e.g., every +5R net) to reduce psychological pressure and lock progress.
Size Risk First: Fixed R and Volatility Filters Beat Guesswork
Jessica keeps it simple: know your worst-case before you click buy or sell. She talks about fixing risk per trade in “R” and refusing to let emotions or a flashy setup change that number. According to Jessica, if you size from a hard stop and a predefined R, a losing day is just math—not a meltdown. That frame lets her judge trades on process quality, not outcome noise.
She pairs that with a volatility gate, so she isn’t sizing blindly. If ATR says the market is sleepy, she passes or cuts size; if it’s hot, she widens stops and scales risk to keep the dollar loss constant. Jessica stresses that this combo—fixed R plus ATR/vol filters—beats the illusion of precision you get from predicting direction. The point is durability: protect the account first, then let the edge express itself over a clean series of trades.
Allocate by Volatility, Not Ego: ATR-Driven Position and Stop Placement
Jessica’s rule is blunt: the market’s volatility decides your size, not your confidence level. She uses ATR to translate noise into numbers—if the ATR expands, Jessica widens the stop to live outside the chop and trims the position so the cash risk stays constant. When ATR contracts, she tightens the stop and can increase the size while keeping R unchanged. That way, a fast GBPUSD day and a slow one both risk the same dollars even though the stop distance is different.
Jessica also ties stop location to structure first, then checks that the distance aligns with ATR so she isn’t parking stops inside noise. If the structure stop sits deeper than ATR suggests, she either reduces size or skips the trade—no compromising the fixed R. She points out that this removes ego from allocation and prevents “oversized because it looks good” errors. In her words, let the tape set the distance, let ATR set the dollars, and keep your process the only variable you control.
Diversify Smartly: Mix Underlyings, Strategies, and Holding Durations
Jessica’s play is to diversify on purpose, not by accident. She keeps a small basket of uncorrelated underlyings so a single story—like a runaway dollar—doesn’t dictate every outcome. Then she splits execution between a continuation play and a reversal play, so she isn’t married to one market regime. Finally, she staggers holding durations—scalps for quick distribution of outcomes, intraday swings for meat, and the occasional planned multi-day runner.
Jessica warns that fake diversification is holding three USD pairs in the same direction and calling it risk spreading. She suggests tracking correlation and win-rate by instrument and by setup so you can drop the laggards fast. If the morning belongs to momentum, she runs the continuation playbook; if it’s a stop-run day, she flips to the reclaim reversal. Time filters help her avoid overlap—no new scalps while a swing is near its add/trim zone. The result is smoother equity and fewer “all eggs in one thesis” drawdowns.
Trade the Mechanics, Not Forecasts: Rules, Triggers, and Time-Stops
Jessica’s mantra is clear: stop guessing, start executing. She treats every trade as a checklist—bias, level, trigger, risk, invalidate—so the same inputs create the same behavior. Forecasts are just narratives; mechanics are the plan you can actually repeat under pressure. Jessica waits for objective triggers like a liquidity sweep and a 5-minute close back inside the level before touching the keyboard.
She also time-boxes opportunities to avoid slow bleeds and hope. If a position hasn’t reached +0.5R within 90 minutes during London or New York, Jessica closes it and frees capital for cleaner setups. She pre-commits to partial at +1R, moves to break-even only after structure breaks, and refuses to widen stops—ever. News windows get a hard filter (no fresh entries inside ±15 minutes, ±30 for CPI/NFP/FOMC), and if a loss happens, the next trade must be an A-setup with full confluence. The edge isn’t prediction; Jessica’s edge is following the same rules until probabilities show up.
Prefer Defined Risk, Enforce Process Discipline, Review and Scale Methodically
Jessica builds everything around defined risk, so bad days stay small and survivable. She treats the stop as law, not a suggestion, and locks in a daily loss cap that ends the session if hit—no “one more try.” Process discipline is her moat: pre-trade checklist, news window filter, and a fixed routine that doesn’t bend just because a chart looks tempting.
She reviews weekly with ruthless honesty and scales only when the data says the process is working. Jessica bumps size after a clean sample shows positive expectancy and shallow drawdowns, then instantly dials back if equity slips a set amount from highs. That rhythm—define, execute, review, scale—keeps emotions out of risk and lets compounding happen without drama.
Jessica’s core message is brutally practical: survive first, then compound. She hammers fixed-R risk, stop placement outside noise, and volatility-aware sizing so every trade risks the same dollars whether the day is slow or explosive. Jessica leans on a light fundamental bias and clean technical structure, waits for objective triggers (like a sweep and reclaim), and time-stops anything that stalls. She diversifies on purpose—by instrument, setup, and holding duration—so one macro story or regime shift can’t wreck her week. And when it comes to prop firms, she’s clear-eyed: protect your daily-loss buffer, avoid fresh risk into major news, and don’t rely on a single firm or payout cycle for your livelihood.
From the Funding Talent experience to her on-chart process, Jessica keeps everything rule-based. Journal every trade with bias, setup, entry/stop/target, and reason for exit; review weekly, cut what fails, and only scale after a clean sample shows positive expectancy and shallow drawdowns. Never widen stops, never “one more try” after the daily cap, and pause before payouts to lock in realized gains. The punchline is simple but powerful: trade the mechanics, not the forecast; build a routine you’ll follow on your worst day; and let consistency—not conviction—do the heavy lifting.
