Dan Cheung joined us at the Alpha Capital Casino Royale event as a guest speaker. With a background working in the City of London at a brokerage and attending professional trading summits, he was asked for his top three tips for intermediate traders. His answer focuses on eliminating emotional outliers, keeping your trading circle tight, and turning your journal into an actual review process, not just a log.
Watch the full interview on YouTube
What brought Dan to Casino Royale
Dan has been around professional trading environments for a long time. He has attended industry summits in Cyprus, worked in London's financial district, and seen both sides of the market, from institutional brokerage to the retail prop trading space.
So when he walked into the Casino Royale event, his read was immediate.
"The prop space has created a quite nice community, but at the same time it is money, it is finance. You need some sort of professionalism in it. If you don't have that yin and the yang, it doesn't really work."
The event sold out in under 24 hours. 200 traders in suits, guest speakers, fund managers, and research analysts in the same room. Dan's point was that environments like this matter in trading, not just for networking, but for shifting how you carry yourself.
"When you look like a million bucks, you feel like a million bucks. When you're in a hoodie you feel relaxed, comfortable. Guess what, you're going to act relaxed. When you're in a suit, you're already in a state."
That mindset point is not about dress code. It is about the standard you set for yourself before you sit down at the charts.
Why events matter for traders
Most traders, Dan points out, are completely isolated. Discord friends, Telegram groups, Twitter follows. But no one in real life who actually trades.
"When you're by yourself banging your head and not knowing what's wrong, it could just be one piece of advice that can change everything. You can get that from places like this."
He also makes the point that events work differently for different people. Some traders walk out energised, use that energy long term, and let it spark something that makes them profitable three, six, or twelve months later. Others feel it for two weeks and go back to where they were.
The difference, he suggests, is not the event. It is what you do with the one thing you took away from it.
Three tips for intermediate traders
Dan was asked for his top three tips for an intermediate trader: someone who has a strategy, has tasted some wins, but is not consistently profitable yet.
1. Remove the tilt days
You already have something working. The wins are there. The problem is the big loss days are wiping them out.
"If you just remove those big tilts, everything just cleans up. That is actually one of the easiest things to do, but it would change absolutely everything."
This is not about improving your strategy. It is about identifying the emotional trading sessions where you broke your own rules, and stopping those. Your actual edge might already be positive. The tilts are the noise that buries it.
2. Find one or two trading peers, not a group
Not a Discord server. Not a Telegram group. One or two people you can actually speak to and be honest with.
"Just a handful of people, one or two, not more than two because the noise can start to get a little bit over the top. Hey, I just got my results, check this out. Is this right? What are you doing? What has worked for you? What has not? Then you take that and implement it on your own."
Community matters. But more voices means more confusion when you are at the intermediate stage. Keep your circle small and specific.
3. Journal, then actually review it
Everyone journals, or says they do. The part most traders skip is the review.
"Collect all of that data and then do a massive, massive review. Once you do that massive review you will be able to level up, understand, and take it to the next level."
The journal is not the tool. The review is. The journal is just data collection. If you never sit down and look at patterns across fifty trades, you are missing the entire point of tracking anything.
The bigger picture
Dan's perspective on what events like Casino Royale represent goes beyond networking tips.
"You are now that pinnacle. When you create an environment where one person could completely change their life, where someone says 'I was so close to giving up' or 'I found out about this journey,' and then their life changes because of an event, that is a little bit more meaning to life."
Trading can be a lonely pursuit. The prop firm evaluation model, or the prop firm challenge structure as many traders know it, strips away the social side of markets and leaves you alone with a chart, a set of rules, and a performance target. Events like Casino Royale exist to put the human element back in.
FAQs
What are the top tips for intermediate traders?
According to Dan Cheung, intermediate traders who have a strategy but lack consistency should focus on three things: eliminating emotional tilt days that wipe out gains, connecting with one or two trusted trading peers to compare notes, and conducting regular deep reviews of their trading journal rather than just logging trades.
Why do traders struggle to go from intermediate to consistent?
The strategy is often not the problem. Most intermediate traders already have an edge that produces wins. The consistency gap usually comes from a small number of big emotional loss sessions, insufficient peer accountability, and not reviewing trading data thoroughly enough to identify patterns in mistakes.
What is the Alpha Capital Casino Royale event?
Casino Royale is a live trading event hosted by Alpha Capital in London. The event brings together retail traders, verified Qualified Traders, guest speakers, fund managers, and research analysts. The first event sold out in under 24 hours with 200 attendees.
How do I find trading peers to improve faster?
Dan Cheung recommends keeping your trading circle to one or two people, not large groups. The goal is honest feedback on your actual trades and results, not general motivation. Find traders at a similar or slightly higher level who will give you direct, specific input on your setups and process.
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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. Trader and speaker opinions expressed in interviews are their own and do not constitute financial advice. Always confirm live rules, pricing, and eligibility on alphacapitalgroup.uk and help.alphacapitalgroup.uk before purchasing an evaluation.
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