Interview with EagleTrader Trader｜Is it really freedom if you don’t follow the trading rules?

For many traders, the real difficulty is never the market itself. It’s about still being willing to believe in the rules between profits and retracements; it’s about continuing to make choices that “do not look so exciting” on trading days without applause and supervision.

This type of situation is often only persisted by a few people for a long time. Zhu Feiyu is one of them. During the five-year trading cycle, he experienced liquidations, retracements, and repeatedly overturned his own system and then re-established it. It was in the process of being continuously educated by the market that he gradually realized that if trading is to become a lifelong career, then system, discipline, and awe of risks must always come before gains.

Therefore, after passing the ET proprietary trading exam this time, he was not eager to label himself a “successful trader”, but regarded it as a re-verification of his own trading logic.

Treat trading as a lifelong career, not a short-term opportunity

When it comes to why he chooses and insists on trading, Zhu Feiyu’s answer is not complicated.

He admitted that he truly loves trading and clearly feels that this is a field that is highly suitable for his personality. Rather than chasing short-term huge profits, he prefers to regard trading as a long-term undertaking and continue to invest in thinking and efforts for a healthier and smoother capital curve.

It is this long-term perspective that made him not rush to switch to full-time trading immediately after passing the exam. Instead, he chose to manage profit-sharing accounts part-time first, waiting for the opportunity when his own status, system maturity and external conditions better matched, and then entered the full-time stage.

This kind of restraint is itself a manifestation of mature trading thinking.

Direction, execution and emotion each perform their own duties

In terms of the composition of trading decisions, Zhu Feiyu’s allocation ratio is relatively rare and has a very personal style.

In his system, fundamental analysis accounts for about 60%, mainly used to judge the medium and long-term direction; technical analysis accounts for about 20%, serving the selection of entry and exit, increase and decrease positions; while intuition and experience are controlled at 20%%
the following.

He particularly emphasized that the nature of trading is anti-human and orders should not be placed based on feelings, but market sentiment still deserves attention. Experience can be used as a reference, but it cannot override the system. This restrained attitude towards “intuition” also explains why he can maintain a relatively stable execution state in a rules environment.

The core of stable profitability is never a single method

When asked about the key to long-term stable profitability, Zhu Feiyu did not give any “secret”.

In his view, what really determines the trading results is a complete and sustainably executed trading system, as well as an overall framework based on product characteristics and trend judgment. At the same time, those factors that are mentioned repeatedly but are the most difficult to achieve—execution, position management, and continuous review—are the fundamental reasons for the gap between traders.

His strategy has undergone a major revision in the second half of 2024, and the future optimization direction is not to pursue complexity, but to make the strategy more sophisticated, concise, and easy to execute through review and market review.

Luck is uncontrollable, but risks can be “framed”

Zhu Feiyu’s views on the inevitable luck factor in trading are relatively rational.

He believes that after placing an order, the stop loss is determined, and where the profit can go should be left to the market to decide. What traders really need to do is to stay in the correct direction that the market is currently showing.

Short-term fluctuations are random, while band and medium- and long-term market trends are more based on fundamental logic. If a large profit is achieved, it will of course include luck, but the more important prerequisite is still the stability of the system, execution ability and the trader himself.

Because of this, he always remains extremely vigilant about “heavy positions”.

Whether he suffers a large loss due to a mistake in judgment, or encounters an obvious retracement after making a profit, his first principle is always to give priority to position management.

If an error is caused by overweight positions, there is only one conclusion – leave the market immediately; if it is a profit retracement, you need to judge the key price and market structure, but at least reduce the risk exposure by reducing the position.

Liquidation is not the end, but a very costly lesson

Zhu Feiyu does not shy away from his experience of liquidation many times, but he also made it clear that similar situations have not happened again in the past two years.

Recalling his mentality during that period, he summed it up in a very simple sentence: That was a state that almost all liquidation traders would experience.

But he also believes that only by truly getting through that period of darkness can a turning point be possible.

In his experience, after a large retracement occurs, the most important thing is not to “carry” it, but to quickly cut off the wrong position and reset the state. After completing self-adjustment, it often only takes a few hours or days to have the opportunityReturn to previous net worth highs.

In the rules, clearly see the necessary conditions for stable profits

When it comes to the biggest gain from taking the EagleTrader proprietary trading exam, Zhu Feiyu’s evaluation is very direct-the gain is huge.

For him, this is not just an account assessment, but a further understanding of the conditions necessary for stable profits through each clear rule.

Rules are not restrictions, but an externalized trading discipline, which forces traders to face their own execution problems, risk preferences and cognitive boundaries, thereby achieving all-round improvement.

Understand the rules first, then talk about freedom

At the end of the interview, Zhu Feiyu also shared his advice to newly registered ET traders.

He emphasized that first of all, we must strictly abide by the account rules, and more importantly, we must understand the logic behind each rule. Trading is against human nature, and it is not easy to dare to enter and take money; if you are really willing to regard trading as a lifelong career and long for the growth of your account numbers, you must continue to practice and maintain your inner determination. In his view, staged success is never accidental.

In Zhu Feiyu, we clearly see that freedom is never without restrictions, but that you can still survive stably within restrictions.

The rules cannot make you a profit, but they will constantly expose your problems; the system cannot guarantee tailwinds, but it can prevent you from losing control when the winds are against you.

When trading is regarded as a lifelong career, what really matters may not be how much you make on this trade, but whether you are still willing to continue to make moves according to the rules on the next trading day.