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This interview features Kimmel Raphael—known online as “Kimmel”—a Portugal-born, Germany-raised trader who’s become one of the clearest voices on the realities of prop firms. He walks through how he started in 2018, why early “signal” mistakes shaped his process, and how he built a reputation for transparent reviews of firms, tech providers, spreads, slippage, and the psychology traps that crush new traders. If you’ve ever wondered which rules matter, which “deals” are poison, and how to set goals beyond just “get funded,” this conversation is the straight talk you were looking for.
You’ll learn the core of Kimmel’s playbook: curate one strategy with real backtesting (100–500 trades), then bridge the psychology gap with forward testing and rigorous journaling before sizing up. He breaks down the profit-to-drawdown ratio, daily drawdown pitfalls, and the hidden “taxes” of commission and spread—plus when a two-phase challenge beats the “too-good” one-phase bait. He also maps the landscape shift for U.S. traders toward centralized, regulated futures and explains how to keep your edge while switching instruments. If you want a blueprint that favors longevity over lottery tickets, start here.
Kimmel Raphael Playbook & Strategy: How He Actually Trades
The Core Edge: One Strategy, Deep Proof
Kimmel keeps it simple: pick one clear, rules-based setup and prove it works before you scale it. The goal is a repeatable edge you can execute without second-guessing—built from real data, not vibes.
- Choose one primary setup (e.g., liquidity sweep → market structure shift → entry) and define it in 1 page: trigger, entry, stop, target, invalidation.
- Backtest 3–5 years on your chosen timeframe; collect 100–500 trades minimum before judging the idea.
- Track hard metrics: win rate, average R, expectancy per trade, longest losing streak, time-in-trade, and max adverse excursion.
- Standardize R: R for the test (e.g., fixed 1:2) before you optimize—prove positive expectancy first, then refine.
- Limit markets: 1–3 instruments that fit your setup (e.g., high-liquidity majors or one futures contract) to avoid signal dilution.
- Write disqualifiers (no-trade conditions): choppy sessions, pre-news windows, low range days under X ATR.
Build It in Stages: Backtest → Forward Test → Small Live → Scale
He treats funding as a by-product of being good, not the goal. You earn scale by passing each stage with data—then you size up, not before.
- Stage 1 (Backtest): Complete 100–500 trade sample; stop only when metrics stabilize across market regimes.
- Stage 2 (Forward Test): Paper trade in live conditions for 4–8 weeks; log every “as-if” trade with exact price, time, and result.
- Stage 3 (Small Live): Trade a small account (e.g., 10k notional or micro futures) at 0.25% risk per trade until you hit +5R net with <3R drawdown.
- Journal daily: screenshot plan vs. execution, note slippage vs. quote, and tag mistakes (late entries, revenge trades, news violations).
- Promote yourself only when the data says so: raise risk by +0.1% per step after two consecutive profitable weeks with no rule breaks.
Prop Firm Reality: Pick Terms That Won’t Kill You
The prop “deal” is often in the fine print. Kimmel’s lens is simple: choose rules that let a solid strategy breathe and avoid the booby traps.
- Prefer two-phase challenges over “easy” one-phase when the profit-to-drawdown ratio is tighter on one-phase; the extra phase can be mathematically easier to pass.
- Avoid trailing drawdown rules; they can liquidate you after a win, forcing ultra-tight trading and amplifying psychology errors.
- Skip firms with minimum payout percentages or other clawbacks that distort risk decisions near payout time.
- Model all frictions before you buy: spread, commission, swap/financing (if applicable), and slippage; re-run your backtest with realistic costs.
- Map daily loss limits into your plan: set your own daily stop at 70–80% of the firm’s max so one error can’t end the account.
- If you can’t pass a simulated forward test under firm rules, you won’t pass the real one—fix the strategy first.
Execution & Risk: Rules That Keep You Fundable
Good strategy dies without disciplined money management. These rules protect your edge from death by a thousand cuts.
- Risk 0.25–0.5% per trade on evaluation; start at the low end until you’ve logged 50 live executions with <2 rule breaks.
- Set a daily hard stop at –1.5R (or less) and a session stop after –1R or two consecutive losses, whichever comes first.
- Only move to break-even on objective structure (e.g., after a BOS retest or +1R achieved), not just “because it’s up.”
- Predefine news filters: no trades within X minutes before/after Tier-1 releases; widen stops or stand down.
- Cap open risk: no more than 1.5–2.0% aggregate across correlated instruments.
- Log every slip: if average slippage > 0.2R on entries/exits for a week, reduce size or switch session/provider until it normalizes.
Clean Market Selection: Spreads, Sessions, and Structure
He optimizes for conditions where his setup behaves best. That means being picky about market, time of day, and microstructure.
- Trade the session your setup was proven in (e.g., London/NY overlap); if spread at session open > your max spread rule, stand down.
- Ban low-range days: if current ATR(14) < your threshold, cut size by 50% or skip trend-dependent setups.
- Limit concurrent pairs/contracts to avoid correlated drawdowns; if EURUSD is on, skip GBPUSD unless setups are uncorrelated.
- Use a “no-fill, no-FOMO” rule: if price tags your level during high spread and doesn’t fill at your limit, you don’t chase—next trade.
- Re-validate costs monthly: if average spread+commission adds >0.3R per trade vs. your test, renegotiate or change venue.
U.S. Pathway: Futures for Regulation & Clarity
For U.S. traders, regulated futures can simplify compliance and funding, but the rules (like trailing drawdown at some futures props) demand adjustments.
- Start with micro contracts (e.g., MES/MNQ/MYM/MGC) and target 1–1.5R/day cap; avoid scaling until 20 trading days net positive.
- Build a trailing-DD survival plan: keep 90% of closed profits in the account until your trailing buffer sits >2× your average daily loss.
- Flatten into major reports and at day’s end if your prop terms calculate DD on equity rather than balance.
- Journal per-contract stats: slippage per entry type (limit/market), time of day win rate, and heat map of rule violations.
Playbook Maintenance: Keep the Edge Alive
Edges decay unless you maintain them. Kimmel’s approach is to keep testing, keep journaling, and keep the incentives aligned.
- Run a monthly audit: update win rate, average R, expectancy, and max drawdown; if expectancy drops >25%, pause size and re-test.
- Keep a mistake quota: max 2 rule breaks/week; if exceeded, next week is half-size with mandatory pre-session checklists.
- Protect payout windows: cut size to 0.25% risk once you’re within 1R of your payout target; no “make-it-fast” trades.
- Keep the universe tight: when adding a new instrument, require 50 forward trades at breakeven or better before going live size.
- Refresh your sample: add 20 new forward trades per month to ensure the edge still works in current volatility regimes.
Size Risk Like a Pro: Percent, R, and Max Daily Loss
Kimmel Raphael hammers one idea home: survive first, scale later. He sizes each trade as a small, fixed percent of equity so losses are predictable and compounding works in his favor. Instead of dollar targets, he thinks in R-multiples—risk one unit to make two or more—so performance scales cleanly across accounts. He caps the day with a hard max daily loss, then stops trading to protect mental capital.
Kimmel Raphael also separates strategy edge from emotional swings by pre-committing to limits before the session starts. He keeps correlated exposure tight so total open risk never sneaks past his comfort band. When volatility spikes, he shrinks size or widens stops to keep the same R at play, not a random gamble. And if he tags his daily limit early, he shuts it down—because the only account that can grow tomorrow is the one you didn’t blow today.
Let Volatility Drive Allocation: ATR, Session Range, Trade Frequency
Kimmel Raphael treats volatility as the throttle for position size and trade count. He checks ATR and live session range before placing a single order, then adjusts risk so one R means the same thing on quiet and wild days. If range is thin, he cuts size and expects fewer, cleaner shots; if range expands, he keeps size constant in R terms and avoids overtrading just because the tape looks exciting.
Kimmel Raphael also ties trade frequency to realized movement, not mood. When spreads blow out or slippage rises, he stands down or switches to limit-only execution. If the session’s realized range is below his threshold, he halves risk or skips trend plays entirely. And on high-volatility days, he caps the number of attempts to prevent churn, protecting the edge by letting volatility guide—not dictate—how hard he presses.
Diversify Smartly: Underlyings, Strategy Types, and Holding Durations
Kimmel Raphael diversifies on purpose, not by accident. He splits risk across a small basket of uncorrelated underlyings so a single macro theme can’t sink his day. Then he layers different strategy archetypes—trend-continuation, mean-reversion, and breakout—so one playbook is working even when another stalls. Time helps too: mixing intraday scalps with short swing holds smooths equity curve chop.
Kimmel Raphael pre-allocates risk by bucket—underlying, strategy, and duration—so no single lane can consume more than a set percentage of daily risk. If two instruments share 0.8+ correlation or move on the same driver, he treats them as one and halves size. He rotates capital to the bucket with the cleanest tape and steps down exposure when buckets overlap. The result is durability: fewer cluster losses, steadier payouts, and a strategy that survives regime shifts instead of guessing them.
Trade Mechanics Over Prediction: Triggers, Entries, Stops, and Exits
Kimmel Raphael doesn’t guess where the market “should” go—he executes a checklist. He waits for a precise trigger, like a liquidity sweep followed by a market structure shift, then enters only at pre-marked levels. Entries are chosen for fill quality: limit if spread is normal and level is fresh, market only if momentum confirms and slippage is within his cap. Every trade has a written invalidation before the click, so the stop lives where the idea is wrong, not where it “hurts less.”
Kimmel Raphael’s exits are equally mechanical. He scales at objective points—first partial at +1R or a prior high/low, then trails behind structure rather than emotions. Break-even moves happen only after the market proves itself, not at random time intervals. He uses a time stop if the setup stalls beyond a set number of candles and stands down around scheduled news. The edge isn’t the forecast; it’s the repeatable sequence: trigger → entry → stop → exit, executed the same way every time.
Choose Defined Risk, Crush Drawdowns: Rules, Checklists, Journaling Discipline
Kimmel Raphael builds everything around defined risk so losses are capped and recoveries are mathematically realistic. He commits to a pre-trade checklist—context, trigger, stop location, target logic, and max daily loss—before he even opens the ticket. If a single box isn’t satisfied, he skips the trade and protects the equity curve. When a losing streak starts, he auto-cuts risk and reduces frequency rather than “earning back” with size.
Kimmel Raphael journals like an engineer, tagging each trade by setup quality, execution error, slippage, and rule adherence. He reviews weekly to remove the one mistake costing the most R, not to obsess over winners. If drawdown hits a preset threshold, he pauses, backtests the same conditions, and returns only with a revised, written protocol. Defined risk plus disciplined review turns setbacks into smaller, shorter dips—and keeps the account alive long enough for the edge to pay.
Kimmel Raphael’s core message is ruthless practicality: understand how prop-firm rules really work, or they’ll work against you. He urges traders to see through flashy “one-phase” marketing by doing the math on the profit-to-drawdown ratio—often finding a two-phase challenge is actually easier and safer once you account for constraints. He also stresses that firms always monetize somehow, so if a condition looks generous, ask where the catch is—spreads, commissions, hidden payout thresholds, or daily limits that quietly trip most traders.
Mechanically, Kimmel breaks down drawdown types—balance, equity, trailing—and shows how “equity-based” and “trailing” rules can nuke an account during normal retracements if you size too aggressively or run ultra-tight stops. He recommends building plans that breathe within those rules: cap daily loss well below the platform maximum, model all frictions (spread, commission, slippage), and favor conditions that won’t force bad behavior. When in doubt, pick cleaner terms (often two-phase), avoid trailing drawdown unless you’re prepared for its discipline, and treat regulation and execution quality as edge multipliers—not afterthoughts.
Zooming out, his philosophy is to survive first, scale later: fixed-percent risk, hard daily stops, and a single, well-tested playbook before sizing up. He began by calling out industry smoke-and-mirrors, but the takeaway for traders is constructive—know the rules, price the costs, and align your process with terms that let a real edge show up consistently. That’s how you avoid the grinder of daily drawdown breaches and turn consistency into withdrawals instead of wasted time.
