Started trading by phone. Now he’s got 2 Fintokei accounts and 4 payouts under his belt

What’s changed? A lot. But his calm, strategic mindset stayed the same. No crazy “all-in” moves – just thoughtful setups, risk management, and constant self-improvement. That’s what keeps him in the game.

In this interview, Luboš shares how prop trading reshaped his risk approach, why Ichimoku and intuition work better for him than strict systems, and how your first loss in prop trading might be the exact kick you need.

Hey Luboš, thanks for joining us! When did your trading journey actually begin?

Hey! Happy to be here 🙂 Well, it’s been a while – I almost feel embarrassed to say it, but it’s been 25 years. 😄

A quarter of a century? That’s wild. We’ve never had a Fintokei Star with this level of experience!

Haha, when you put it like that, it does sound intense 😄 But yeah, I started in 2000. It was all dial-up internet back then. Most people at Fintokei probably don’t even remember those days.

📞 Trading over the phone & $40 fees

What was trading like back then? How did you learn and actually place trades?

Oh, I’ll gladly take you down memory lane 😄 Education materials were mostly in English, but I grabbed anything I could – charts, broker articles, whatever was out there. After two weeks of “studying,” I was already convinced I knew everything. Spoiler: I didn’t.

The real shock came from trading costs. Back then, everything went through your broker – over the phone – just like in those Wall Street movies (which actually got me into trading).
You needed a lot of capital, hundreds of thousands of CZK minimum. A broker would call and suggest trades. You’d agree or not. My first trade came years later – buying 1 lot of silver. It worked out, I made $2,700 overnight.

But a few months in, I realized why I was losing: fees. I was basically breaking even on trades, but the $40 per trade commission was draining my account 😄

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🏖️ Passing a challenge – from the beach

That’s quite the evolution. So how did you discover Fintokei?

That was maybe two years ago, early days for you guys. I saw an ad on FXstreet.cz, I think. Decided to give it a shot – I was just getting back into trading again.

And your first try?

I was literally on vacation. From the beach, I passed the first round of the ProTrader challenge. A few days later, still on that beach, I nailed the second round. No “YOLO” trades – it all just made sense. So I celebrated with a drink. 🍹

Would you call that a turning point in your trading journey?

Not yet. That came after my first payout… and then losing the account. That’s when I really got it. In prop trading, you start seeing risk through a new lens.
When there’s a drawdown limit and your account’s on the line – you think differently.

Yeah, risk management is everything in prop. What’s your approach?

Still working on it, honestly 😅 Even after a year with Fintokei, I sometimes struggle to cut losses early. I don’t have strict rules – I rely on charts and intuition, which can be tricky.

But I’m improving. I aim for no more than 1% loss per trade… but sometimes it hits 4%, and that stings. You should see me driving after a bad trade – I blame everything but myself 😄

You’ve still managed 4 payouts, though – that’s solid. What’s your trading style like?

Ichimoku is my go-to. I trade gold, DAX, Dow Jones, and major currency pairs. I’m very aware of fundamentals too, but I stay out of the market during major news. Gold and indices move fast, so I try to keep trades under 2–3 hours. If something slips, I might hold longer – but never overnight.

I use TradingView, Investing.com, FXstreet.com/cz for info. I sometimes scroll through forums, but I don’t follow advice there 😄

🥇 Breakdown of a winning trade

Can you walk us through a winning setup?

Sure. It was a gold short – 0.4 lots – right after the European open on a Monday.

First entry made me 20k CZK. A few hours later, I caught another short for 10k.

The 9 AM candle formed below the Ichimoku cloud, under both Kijun and Tenkan lines – clear signs of a downtrend. On top of that, there was positive peace talk news, which typically hurts gold.

I waited about an hour. When there was still no upward signal, I entered. I could have gone full 1-lot, but I try not to go cowboy.

Thanks, Luboš. We hope you keep finding clean setups – and bigger payouts!

Thanks! It was a pleasure 😊