How a trader from Dallas built consistency—and a simple lifestyle of freedom in Southeast Asia—with a 30% win rate.  Diego Ivan Cortes Lopez grew up chasing perfection on the tennis court, where winning came naturally, but it was trading that taught him how to win by losing.

Links + Resources:

 ●      Diego’s Instagram:  diegoivan__7

●      Diego’s Email: [email protected]

Sponsors of Chat With Traders Podcast:

Trade The Pool:  http://www.tradethepool.com

TastyTrade:  https://tastytrade.com/

Time Stamps:

Please note: Exact times will vary depending on current ads.

 ●    00:00 – Early Life & Tennis

●     04:30 – Tennis Coaching & Business Success

●     09:00 – Early trading and the six-figure drawdown

●     14:00 – Rebuilding & Moving Aboard

●     20:00 – Finding Oliver Velez, relearning

●     27:00 – Today’s playbook: daily levels, 5-min entries, first-hour focus

●     34:00 – Risk, sizing, psychology, and “becoming a great loser”

●     40:00 – Living/trading in Asia; consistency over perfection

●     46:00 – Struggles, losing streaks, and long-term confidence

●     50:00 – Brief chat with Tessa

Trading Disclaimer:

 Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.

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We’re joined by Jack Schwager—author of the legendary Market Wizards series and co-founder of FundSeeder—along with his partner and fellow co-founder & CEO, Emanuel Balarie. Jack shares what it really takes to be considered for a Market Wizards book: not one formula, but a mix of standout performance, disciplined risk, and an almost obsessive commitment to process and adaptation. Along the way, we dig into why survival so often hinges on position sizing and pre-planned exits, whether strategies like trend following can still hold up today, and the paradox of how fundamental convictions can actually work against risk management.

Emanuel then explains how FundSeeder discovers talented but undiscovered traders worldwide, using analytics to measure performance and the FundSeeder Rise accelerator (now part of RQSI) to help top performers make the leap from trading their own accounts to managing outside capital. Think of it as a “farm system” for the next generation of fund managers. Few will ultimately make the cut, but every great manager starts somewhere—and if you’ve been honing your craft and building a real track record, this episode might spark the thought: why not you?

Time Stamps:

Please note: Exact times will vary depending on current ads.

00:00 – Introduction and background

10:50 – What qualifies as “Market Wizards” performance

15:20 – Longevity vs. hot streaks

17:20 – Position sizing & cutting losses

19:20 – Obsession level + trainee mindset

24:20 – When edges die (index adds, VIX pattern)

27:20 – Trend logic vs. whipsaw reality

32:20 – Fundamentals vs. risk management

38:20 – “Know your exit before entry”

39:50 – FundSeeder origin story

42:20 – Evaluating traders (quant + qual)

48:20 – Why the Rise accelerator exists

52:20 – RQSI’s role in seeding talent

55:20 – Free analytics & benchmarking for traders

57:20 – How to apply / contact

Trading Disclaimer:

Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.

Links + Resources:

FundSeeder: https://fundseeder.com

FundSeeder Rise (accelerator): https://www.fundseeder.com/rise

FundSeeder on X:  https://x.com/fundseeder

Jack Schwager: https://x.com/jackschwager  | http://www.jackschwager.com/

Emanuel Balarie: https://x.com/emanuelbalarie

Sponsor of Chat With Traders Podcast:

Trade The Pool:  http://www.tradethepool.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A former competitive gamer, Mario Dimitroff from Bulgaria got his start on a local trading floor before discovering that the U.S. premarket session best fit his skills. Now trading for a living and doing nothing else, his news-driven, event-based scalping focuses on low-liquidity movers. Leveraging gaming-honed speed and pattern recognition, he quickly decides whether to ride momentum or fade to mean, enters/exits fast, sizes within liquidity, and sustains his edge by cutting losers quickly, avoiding drawdowns, and stacking small consistent wins. In this episode, you’ll hear how Mario turned his competitive gaming instincts into an all-in commitment to the markets and full-time trading career.

Links + Resources:

Sponsors of this episode of the Chat With Traders Podcast:

Time Stamps:

Please note: Exact times will vary depending on current ads.

01:30 Introduction and background

03:50 Early Experiences and Learning from Failure

07:38 Return to Trading During COVID-19

08:38 Working on a Trading Floor

10:51 Trading Strategies and Market Insights

11:14 Imposter Syndrome and Mental Challenges in Trading

14:57 Career Decisions and Trading Philosophy

18:49 Finding Trading Edge and Style

20:39 Scalping and Pre-Market Trading

21:40 Meme Stocks and Market Euphoria

24:07 Navigating Market Downturns

25:49 Understanding Euphoria and Market Psychology

43:54 Avoiding Drawdowns and Maintaining Profitability

45:48 Scalping Strategies and Risk Management

51:56 Biggest challenges as a trader

59:15 How to reach Mario

59:30 Chat With Tessa

Trading Disclaimer:

Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Online funding prop firms have captured the attention of traders in recent years. In this episode, the CEO of Trade The Pool, Michael Katz, joins the podcast to answer key questions and offer perspective from inside one of the leading firms. The conversation explores how these firms operate, what they mean for traders, and the common debates surrounding them.  The goal is not promotion of prop firms, but to pull back the curtain and provide a clearer understanding of the role prop firms play in today’s trading landscape.

Links +

●     Trade The Pool:  http://www.tradethepool.com

Sponsors

●      Trade The Pool:  http://www.tradethepool.com

●       Plus500:  Try futures trading with Plus500 >> Start with a FREE demo or claim a bonus up to $200 with an open account 👉https://us.plus500.com

Time

Please note - Exact times will vary depending

●     00:00   Introduction and background

●     05:02   Attraction to Funding Prop Firms

●     06:06   Risk Management and Evaluation Fees

●     10:08   Misconceptions About Prop Firms

●     11:58   Education and Community Support

●     15:35   Trading Evaluation Process

●     18:47   Success Rates and Trader Psychology

●     20:04   Adjusting Strategies for Prop Trading

●     22:07   Rules and Boundaries in Trading

●     27:51   Success Stories and Learning Curves

●     28:58   Psychology of Funded Trading

●     31:52   Trader Retention and Patterns

●     33:54   Scaling and Risk Management

●     38:42   Payout Rules and Compliance

●     40:29   Adapting Rules for Trader Success

 Trading

Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Growing up in Germany without a financial background, Julian Komar became fascinated by stocks as a teenager. He moved past complex German trading products to concentrate on U.S. equities. Specializing in momentum and growth stocks on the daily timeframe, he blends fundamentals, technicals, and story analysis to uncover opportunities that put him in the best position for high-potential setups and riding powerful trends. As a disciplined breakout trader, he prioritizes risk control, market trends, and intuition gained through decades of experience.

About Julian Komar

Julian is a trader, mentor, and entrepreneur. With over 20 years of stock trading experience, he trades growth and momentum stocks using a systematic strategy, holding winners for weeks to months and cutting losers within days — a style that perfectly matches his personality. Julian’s passion lies in uncovering innovative companies with the potential to grow sales rapidly and achieve significant long-term success. He devotes 95% of his energy to research, searching for the next potential “super stock.”

Trading Disclaimer

Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.

Links + Resources

Follow Julian on X:  https://x.com/BlogJulianKomar

Julian’s Website: https://julian-komar.com/contact/

Time Stamps

Please note: Exact times will vary depending on current ads.

00:00 Introduction and background

10:20 Fundamentals and technicals

17:30 Sister stocks

28:30 Trading the GFC

34:02 Worst drawdowns

33:00 The setup for the trade

43:00 Position sizing

52:30 Trading performance

1:08:35 How to reach Julian

1:09:00 Tessa Chats with Julian

Sponsors of Chat With Traders Podcast:

Plus500:  Try futures trading with Plus500 >> Start with a FREE demo or claim a bonus up to $200 with an open account 👉⁠https://us.plus500.com⁠Trading futures involves the risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor.

Trade The Pool:  ⁠http://www.tradethepool.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From academic struggles at SUNY Albany to holding the world record for the largest prop firm payouts—roughly $4.5 million in total, Kyle Ng a.k.a. JadeCap’s journey started out like many aspiring traders. Sparked by a childhood friend's success in forex about 14 years ago, he found his way into the financial markets.  Like many traders, he went through the pain, losses and sacrifices and struggles, but at the same time he’s also unlike many traders, slowly building his edge through discipline, risk management, and a long-term mindset.

Over the years, he’s leveraged prop firms to scale his returns, transitioning fluidly between forex and futures while adapting his approach to changing market conditions. Influenced by ICT’s teachings, his style blends patience, adaptability, and the wisdom to step back when the market calls for it.

In this episode, we dive into the mindset behind the milestones, the real-life lessons from his trading evolution, and what it truly takes to thrive in trading.

Trading Disclaimer

Trading in the financial markets involves a risk of loss. Podcast episodes and other content produced by Chat With Traders are for informational or educational purposes only and do not constitute trading or investment recommendations or advice.

Time Stamps

Please note: Exact times will vary depending on current ads.

00:00 Introduction and background

10:25 Early trade experiences

12:30 Evolving strategies

16:55 Blowing up accounts

21:10 Evolving into a full time trader

25:55 Utilizing online prop firms to minimize risk

01:55 The real money is made with processes

35:05 ICT trading system

39:40 Success tied to intuition?

43:30 When to put the foot on the gas

50:00 Resisting the urge to change strategies

56:05 What Kyle struggles with

58:20 How to reach Kyle

58:40 Bonus Section:  Tessa Chats with Kyle – more on prop firms

Links + Resources

Reach Kyle on X:  https://x.com/jadecap_

Kyle’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JadeCap

Kye’s Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/jadecapofficial/?hl=en

Sponsors of Chat With Traders Podcast:

Plus500:  Try futures trading with Plus500 >> Start with a FREE demo or claim a bonus up to $200 with an open account 👉https://us.plus500.comTrading futures involves the risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor.

Trade The Pool:  http://www.tradethepool.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when a teenager growing up without TV in rural Canada stumbles across CNBC in a college dorm and sees people making $100,000 in a day? For Chris Vermeulen, that moment changed everything—and kicked off a 25-year journey of trading triumphs, painful losses, and profound strategy shifts.

In this episode, you'll meet a trader who’s lived through the tech bubble, the 2008 financial crisis, and everything in between. Chris doesn’t chase headlines or hype—he follows price, momentum, and something most traders overlook entirely: vibration and cycles.

From blowing up accounts to walking away from day trading altogether, Chris now rides the market’s waves with a calm, calculated edge—making just 5 to 12 trades a year, knowing exactly when to sit still and wait for the right wave. His approach might challenge what you believe about risk, emotion, and even diversification.

About Chris Vermeulen:

Chris is a seasoned position trader with over two decades of experience navigating market cycles—from the tech bubble to the 2008 financial crisis and beyond. He’s the author of Technical Trading Mastery and the newly released Asset Revesting, where he introduces a disciplined, momentum-based strategy for managing risk and maximizing returns. He also founded The Technical Traders.

Rejecting traditional buy-and-hold thinking but also having moved away from day trading, Chris believes that true portfolio growth comes from owning assets in confirmed uptrends and rotating out of those losing strength. His approach emphasizes technical analysis, price action, and timing over diversification, aiming to protect capital while achieving above-average returns.

Links +

●      How to reach Chris – Visit The Technical Traders

Sponsors

●       

●       

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Dylan Maltman, an intraday futures and forex trader and founder of Apex Capital, must have had exceptional clarity starting at a young age. Introduced to the markets in a high school presentation by a prop firm, Dylan caught the passion for the potential of the markets and persuaded his way into a position at the firm. Learning about back testing, he became obsessed with dissecting every nuance of past data so as to create a system with high returns with minimal drawdowns by understanding where edge can be found, as evidenced in the performance of the algorithmic strategies. Emphasizing the significance of order flow analysis and robust back testing, he offers important insights for algorithmic, systematic, and discretionary traders.

Links +

●      How to reach Dylan – Visit Apex Capital Website:

Sponsors of Chat With Traders Podcast:

Trading futures involves the risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erik Smolinski returns to Chat With Traders after his first appearance on episode 272, joining Tessa for a trader-to-trader conversation about the intricacies of options trading, a topic Erik is deeply passionate about. In this episode Erik digs into one of Tessa’s own options strategies, offering thoughtful feedback and sharing his expertise and experience from years in the game. With so many myths floating around about options, their discussion clears up some of the biggest misconceptions and gives listeners a practical perspective on how to approach this trading style.

About Erik Smolinski:

Erik is a Marine veteran, options trader, and investor in both real estate and startups. It started when a high school teacher introduced him to investing in 2007, which then changed the direction of his life. Over the years, he’s put in more than 30,000 hours to master his craft and became a first-generation millionaire before turning 30. From his school days to his time in the Marines and his work as a trader, Erik has always set his own standards instead of following the crowd. That independent approach—what he calls the Outlier mindset—has shaped his life. Investing lets him spend time on things he cares about, like traveling, working on cars, training, and helping others learn what he knows.

Sponsors of Chat With Traders Podcast:

Trading futures involves the risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode we catch up with Patrick Petersson, who returns two years after his first interview on Chat With Traders on episode 260, where he shared his incredible story of overcoming hardship to attaining success in trading as a professional trader. Patrick has become best known for his intuitive, price-action, news-based, scalping trading style. Shifting from trading as a lone wolf to collaborating with others, Patrick shares his personal transformation that he underwent by mentoring and guiding other aspiring traders to realize their greatest potential.

In a refreshingly blunt conversation, Patrick shares practical, real-life trading topics and issues that traders are experiencing today, including the psychological and practical challenges of trading, and the role community and engagement plays in one's trading development. He also shares his thoughts on the sharp divide between traders risking their own capital and those cycling through prop firm evaluations, and the shortages of honest guidance for traders, and so much more.

More about Patrick Petersson:

Patrick has over 20 years of experience in the U.S. stock and futures markets. As a retired professional trader, he now guides traders of all levels and has been a driving force in trading communities such as the Chat With Traders and MenthorQ communities. Currently at MenthorQ, he developed the MenthorQ Blindspots and Trading Roadmap principles, which aim to simplify trading with the principle: Keep It Super Simple. He also hosts MenthorQ TV, where he interviews guests and shares trading strategies. Additionally, he is a father of two and resides in Dubai with his family.

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