TL;DR: Dion Trades started during COVID after leaving a corporate consulting job he hated. His first year cost him more than $60,000 in personal losses, mostly from ego-driven overtrading and blowing evaluations (what many traders call prop firm challenges). The turning point came from a mentor who told him to stop moving stops and taking partials: set the trade and sit through the discomfort. He now trades NASDAQ and gold using ICT concepts on higher time frames, risks 1% per trade, holds $200K in simulated allocation with Alpha Capital, and has taken roughly 10 to 11 performance fees averaging $2K to $3K each.
Watch the full interview on YouTube
From law school and a 9-to-5 to full-time trading
Dion finished law school and went straight into corporate consulting. On paper it looked fine. In practice, it drained him.
"Classic not happy in a 9-to-5 story. Draining. Very bored. Just not very happy with the situation."
During COVID he had time to look for ways to make money online. He tried dropshipping and affiliate marketing. Trading was already in his orbit from an earlier crypto experience in 2017, when he turned $100 into roughly $1,700 in a bull run and walked away. That small win planted the idea that buying and selling could be a path out of client work and corporate hours.
A mentor introduced him to ICT concepts. Dion went deep: hundreds of hours of YouTube content, live streams, and eventually paid mentorship to help filter the noise. He chose ICT as his trade language, not because he thinks it is the only way to read markets, but because it gave him a structured way to identify when he wanted to communicate higher or lower with price.
"I am not an ICT cult member. Everything works as long as you can execute it consistently. I just got introduced to ICT, I like how I can read price based on ICT concepts, and I make money with it."
He went full-time in early 2024. He quit his job, started coaching a small group of traders, and built a YouTube channel after his audience asked for live streams and mentorship. He streamed live for 80 to 90 days straight that summer because trading itself only takes a few minutes once the setup is there.
"The cool part about transitioning to full-time that nobody talks about is you press buttons and that only takes like five minutes. Then you watch the candles and there is nothing to do."
The $60,000 lesson: ego was the real drawdown
Dion is direct about what cost him the most in his first year.
"The biggest struggle I have is a big ego."
He had income from his job. That meant he could keep funding evaluations, keep re-buying accounts, and keep trying to win losses back fast. He blew account after account. In his first year alone, he lost more than $60,000 of his own money.
"We talked about a $30K performance fee total. In my first year of trading, I lost over $60,000. Just big ego. I had money to spend because I had a job. That is very dangerous with prop firms, but with trading in general. You have money to just gamble away."
Every trader wins sometimes. Dion's problem was what happened when he started losing. The ego wanted the money back immediately. Position sizing crept. Rules bent. Accounts died.
He does not frame this as bad luck or bad firms. It was execution and psychology.
The fix that changed everything: set it and sit through it
The shift did not come from a new indicator or a new pair. It came from a mentor watching how Dion managed open trades.
"What I see in your execution is you take a trade and I see you taking partials. I see you moving your stops all the time. What we are going to do is very simple. You take your entry, you determine your contract size or loss size, you set your stop loss, you set your TP, and that is it. You are going to do nothing."
The hard part was not clicking the buttons. It was sitting through drawdown and watching paper profits disappear when price almost hit target and reversed.
"Sitting at drawdown is uncomfortable, but that feeling of losing your paper profits is maybe even worse. You almost TP and then it goes back."
Dion trained himself to hold the full trade for hours, sometimes all day. At first it was horrible. Over time it became the single thing that moved him from losing to winning consistently.
"I still have the ego, but it is more controlled because I know how to sit through those uncomfortable feelings."
That discipline is what eventually let him pass evaluations and hold qualified accounts without the same cycle of blow-ups.
The strategy: ICT on trending markets, NASDAQ and gold first
Dion's model is built for trending conditions. He starts on the daily, weekly, and monthly charts and asks one question: is there a clear higher-time-frame trend?
When the answer is yes, he looks for price to move from internal liquidity to external liquidity using ICT concepts: fair value gaps, order blocks, and key levels where price has previously reacted.
"All I do is try to catch the move from internal to external in trending conditions."
NASDAQ and gold are his favorites because they tend to trend more cleanly than many forex pairs, which can consolidate for long stretches.
"If you look now at NASDAQ and gold, those are nice trends to the upside. Forex pairs tend to consolidate once in a while as well."
In the interview he walks through a NASDAQ example: daily bullish order block and fair value gap, rejection from a higher-time-frame key level, then a drop to the 15-minute chart for entry once multiple arrays aligned. He allows himself two bullets on a valid setup. If the first entry stops out but the thesis is still intact, he can re-enter once.
His execution lives on the 50-minute, hourly, or 15-minute charts. He does not take entries off the daily alone. The daily gives bias. The lower time frames give timing.
Risk management: 1% risk, 1:2 to 1:3, and clear rules
Dion keeps risk management deliberately simple.
"I have a very easy risk management system. I try to risk 1% and shoot for one to twos, one to threes."
On $100K accounts that translates into performance fees of roughly $2K to $3K per withdrawal when trades hit. He has taken around 10 to 11 performance fees total and is cents away from crossing $30,000 in cumulative withdrawals.
He also learned the hard way that prop firm rules exist for a reason. He had one performance fee denied because he broke max lot size on a $100K account: 24 lots open across two trades when the limit was 20.
"There are very clear rules about lot sizes. I was trading with 24 or something. I had two trades open, 24 in total. I got an email like, that is not how it works. And I said, yep, true. That was more on me than on Alpha."
For Dion, that transparency mattered. The denial was frustrating, but the reason was clear and documented.
Why he chose Alpha Capital and what he tells other traders
Dion has used many prop firms, including some he describes as shady and some with strong reputations. What he wanted was straightforward: good trading conditions, available pairs, and performance fees paid when you follow the rules.
"Trading is hard enough. Once you stick to the rules and you made your money, you should expect to get your performance fee. With most prop firms that is not the case. They will find some way to deny your withdrawal for vague reasons."
He points to IP geo restrictions and vague denial reasons at other firms. With Alpha Capital, even when a withdrawal was denied, the explanation matched the rules he agreed to at the start.
"What I love about Alpha Capital is the transparency. Even with some denials, it is like, hey, these are the rules, you did not adhere to what we talked about at the start. The rules are clear. You do not need to agree with the rules, but you know how it works."
He also values having a choice between bi-weekly performance fees and on-demand withdrawals with extra consistency rules. He prefers bi-weekly: minimum trading days, no consistency rule, and less friction for how he trades. Other traders prefer the on-demand structure. Having both options is a reason he refers people to Alpha Capital.
Three tips for beginners from Dion Trades
When asked what he would tell a new trader starting today, Dion kept it practical.
One: Do not buy courses. Pay for mentors.
"Everything is available for free on YouTube. But you need someone who can glue the puzzle pieces together. All the puzzle pieces are everywhere. Very overwhelming information overload."
Two: Pick one trade language and commit for six months.
Support and resistance, supply and demand, or ICT. Choose one. Grind the free content from serious educators. Do the chart work.
Three: Treat trading like a language, not a holy grail.
Markets have billions of variables. Your job is to find a filter, an edge, and a way to communicate with price consistently. Dion does not claim ICT is the only path. He claims consistency with one framework beats jumping between systems every month.
FAQs
Who is Dion Trades?
Dion Trades is a full-time trader from the Netherlands currently based in Spain. He started trading around COVID after leaving a corporate consulting role, initially through ICT mentorship, and transitioned to full-time trading in early 2024. He also coaches traders and creates educational content on YouTube.
How much has Dion Trades earned from Alpha Capital?
Dion Trades is closing in on $30,000 in total performance fees across roughly 10 to 11 withdrawals. He trades $100K qualified accounts, risks 1% per trade, and targets 1:2 to 1:3 reward-to-risk setups, which typically produces $2K to $3K per performance fee cycle.
What strategy does Dion Trades use?
He uses ICT concepts on higher time frames: daily, weekly, and monthly bias first, then entries on the 50-minute, hourly, or 15-minute charts. His focus is trending markets, moving from internal liquidity to external liquidity using fair value gaps, order blocks, and key levels. NASDAQ and gold are his primary markets.
Why did Dion Trades fail evaluations before he became consistent?
Dion Trades lost over $60,000 in his first year of trading, largely due to ego-driven behavior: moving stops, taking partials, revenge trading after losses, and blowing accounts when he had income to keep re-buying evaluations. His breakthrough came when a mentor forced him to set entry, stop loss, and take profit once and hold the trade without interference.
What markets does Dion Trades trade on prop firm accounts?
He trades forex, indices, and gold. NASDAQ and gold are his highest-conviction pairs because they trend more consistently with his model. He analyzes from daily down to 15-minute charts depending on the setup.
Why does Dion Trades recommend Alpha Capital?
He cites good trading conditions, reliable performance fees when rules are followed, and transparent communication even when a withdrawal is denied. He also values being able to choose between bi-weekly performance fees and on-demand options depending on whether he wants extra consistency rules or a simpler performance fee path.
What is Dion Trades' advice for passing a prop firm evaluation?
Pick one strategy language and commit for at least six months. Use free YouTube education but invest in mentorship to connect the pieces. Risk small (he uses 1%), follow lot size and account rules exactly, and stop managing trades emotionally once you are in. Read the FAQs before you trade a large evaluation account.
Ready to start your evaluation?
Dion's path was not clean. A corporate job he hated. More than $60K lost to ego in year one. Evaluations failed until he stopped touching trades mid-flight. The structure of a prop firm evaluation gave him the rules and the accountability he needed once his execution caught up.
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Alpha Capital Group is a proprietary trading firm based in the United Kingdom. All accounts operate in a simulated trading environment with simulated funds unless a specific product states otherwise. Performance fees are based on eligible simulated trading results and outcomes are not guaranteed. Dion Trades' story describes his individual experience and is not a forecast or guarantee for future traders. Always confirm live rules, pricing, eligibility, and evaluation requirements on alphacapitalgroup.uk and help.alphacapitalgroup.uk before purchasing an evaluation.
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