I still remember the feeling. It was 2021, my third prop firm challenge, and I was out before the London session even closed. Blew the 5% daily drawdown limit on a stupid revenge trade on GBP/JPY. The account was gone. That failure taught me the single most important lesson I carry with me today: your first job every morning isn't to find a winning trade, it's to calculate the exact dollar amount that will force you to shut down your computer for the day. Profit is a byproduct of not losing.

So, let's run through what's on my screen this morning, always through that lens of risk management. News events are just potential volatility triggers. And price action is just a test of my discipline.

The big macro story is the data showing record US LNG exports, with a staggering 68% of it heading to Europe. This isn't just a number; it's a fundamental rewiring of global energy flows. Europe is now structurally dependent on US natural gas, which has massive long-term implications for the Euro. I know my friend Viktor Reyes is all over the commodity side of this, but for me as a forex trader, this adds a long-term bearish weight to EUR/USD. Any sign of US energy policy shifts or supply disruptions will hit the Euro almost as hard as it hits natural gas futures.

This brings me to the emails I get every week asking for prop firm challenge tips. Forget the fancy indicators. Here's my only real secret: your risk per trade should be so small it feels boring. On a $100k challenge, the $5k daily drawdown is your real enemy, not the $8k profit target. My rule is an iron-clad 0.5% risk per trade. That's a $500 risk on that $100k account. This simple funded trader strategy means I have to be wrong 10 times in a row to fail for the day. Most traders risk 1% or 2%, and they're out after two or three bad trades. The entire game is about survival, not speed. Learning how to pass a prop firm challenge is really about learning how to not lose.

And then there's the noise. Bitcoin is back over $64,000 and Solana is up over 6%. It's easy to get FOMO. But for a funded trader, this is mostly a distraction. Most prop firms have restrictive rules on holding crypto over the weekend, and the leverage is often terrible compared to forex or futures. I see it as a general 'risk-on' indicator, but I'm not touching it. I'd rather read what someone like Emma Blackwood has to say about underlying market sentiment than try to chase a crypto pump. My edge isn't there.

• EUR/USD: The 1.0700 level is major psychological support. If we lose that, sellers will likely take control for a move down to the 1.0650 area.
• ES Futures: The E-mini S&P is looking tired. I'm watching for acceptance below 5320 as a potential short trigger.
• My Daily Drawdown: I've written it on a sticky note on my monitor. My max loss for today is set. I will not exceed it. This is the only trade I know I'll win today.

At the end of the day, you can't control the market, but you can control your risk. That's the only edge that lasts. So here's my question for you: do you have a hard, written-down maximum daily loss, and in the last month, have you broken that rule even once?

Read More on TradersWeek:→ Trump's Speech & The USD: My Prop Firm Trading Plan→ Bitcoin's Weekly RSI Hits All-Time Low: My Trading Plan→ Flying Cars Are Here. Here's How I'm Trading the Hype.

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