Zhang Xinfu's career in gold and forex trading has reached its three-year mark since he resigned and entered the industry in June 2023. Unlike most who enter with a get-rich-quick mentality, his original intention was exceptionally pragmatic: "I planned to become a freelancer after 40 when I graduated. After comparing, I chose the path of trading."

Since he started trading, he has been fully focused on the gold and forex track, maintaining a full-time status throughout. Even after passing the EagleTrader assessment and operating profit-sharing accounts, he continues his full-time pace. In his plan, trading is not short-term speculation; it's a long-term career to be cultivated for over a decade.

Losing Control Is More Grinding Than Losing Money

In his three-year trading journey, a margin call was his most profound lesson. "The most tormenting part wasn't the moment of the margin call, but the week before it—couldn't sleep every day, kept opening the account to see the floating loss, closing and reopening it, repeatedly confirming if the numbers were real. I knew in my heart I should cut the loss, but my hand just wouldn't move. Looking back, if I had cut then, I would have had half left, but I waited until it hit zero to stop."

No external force was pushing him; it was all wishful thinking and emotions dragging the account into the abyss. This experience made him fully realize: the most unreliable thing in trading is on-the-spot emotions, and the most reliable are rigid rules.

Using Systems to Neutralize Luck

Now, Zhang Xinfu's trading decisions are entirely based on technical analysis, primarily employing the SMC trading strategy, a system he has been using for half a year. "I still have shortcomings in grasping effective support/resistance and liquidity sweeps, and I'm continuously learning." He makes trading plans in advance but isn't rigid: "When the market doesn't align with the plan, I adjust based on the market."

When asked about the key to long-term stable profitability, his answer is clear: "Only execute trades within my own rules, don't get inflated by consecutive wins, and don't get distorted by consecutive losses."

Regarding the element of luck in trading, he has a sober understanding: "Long-term profitability isn't about avoiding luck; it's about designing a system where luck statistically cancels itself out, and then mechanically executing it. Luck can't give you a positive expected value; only strategy logic can."

His understanding of trading consistency points to the essence: "Consistency isn't about making money every time; it's about the repeatable verifiability of the decision-making logic." Once a strategy deviates, he first pauses trading, analyzes market changes, and then adjusts the pace.

In terms of market preference, he never blindly chases high volatility: "I prefer volatility that can accommodate my strategy framework, not just high volatility for its own sake. Volatility is essentially the instability of price on the time axis; it's relative."

Bottom Lines Engraved into Operations

Risk management is the most important part of Zhang Xinfu's trading system.

He first sets the maximum tolerable risk for the account, then controls each single trade to 30% to 50% of that. For example, with a $100,000 account, if the maximum allowable loss is $1000, the stop-loss for each trade is typically set between $300 and $500, keeping every entry within a controllable range.

When facing significant floating losses after a heavy position, he doesn't rush to analyze the market but first handles the risk.

"First, reduce the position to a level where I can think objectively. That's step one, no analysis. Then recalculate how much more loss I can accept, set a hard stop-loss, and stop considering 'getting back to the entry price'—the entry price is a sunk cost, irrelevant now."

Even if the market later reverses, he won't add back the reduced positions.

"Losses significantly weaken the margin for error. Adding heavy positions again at this point is like gambling on low probabilities with a magnifying glass."

If a trade has already gained significant profit but experiences a noticeable pullback, his handling method also follows the established rules.

"First, close half the position to lock in profits. Then redefine the stop-loss line, not at the entry price to protect principal, but at the proportion of the current profit I'm willing to give up as pullback."

Currently, Zhang Xinfu mainly engages in intraday trading on the 15-minute timeframe. According to his statistics, after each significant pullback, the account can usually recover to its previous net value high within 1 to 2 days. This stability also comes from long-term adherence to position management and risk control.

Turning Knowledge into Action

Having long established a mature trading system, Zhang Xinfu participated in the EagleTrader proprietary assessment, never valuing it for the operational capital. In his view, the biggest gains from this assessment are threefold: strictly executing the trading strategy, executing trades according to rules, and refining the trading mindset.

Many traders understand these principles, but without external constraints, it's easy to slack off and compromise. Standardized assessment rules act as a rigid boundary, forcing traders to apply their knowledge to every single trade, truly completing the leap from "knowing" to "doing" under the pressure of rules.

At the end of the interview, Zhang Xinfu left five pieces of advice for newly registered Eagle traders:

1. Survive first, then think about making money.

2. Consistency isn't a talent; it's a habit.

3. A stop-loss isn't a cost; it's the price of admission.

4. The market isn't targeting you; it doesn't even know who you are.

5. Life outside of trading.

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