Clay Hodges, Co-founder and CTO of Top One Futures

Clay Hodges, Co-founder and CTO of Top One Futures

This week, I am joined by Clay Hodges, Co-founder and Chief Trading Officer at Top One Futures.  As is customary, I explore my guest's back story to find out what brought them to the world of trading, and Clay's story stands out. He has managed to turn his life around in a way most people can't even dream about, and pulled himself up from the gutter, to become successful as a trader, as an entrepreneur and business owner, and as a person. From there, I get to pick his brain about prop firms, accounts, rules, and the balance between developing good habits as a trader, and following prop rules. This episode is a must listen if you are looking for inspiration and knowledge to start or continue your own day trading and prop trading journey. I hope you enjoy the episode, and if you do, you help me create much more material, by simply leaving a 5 star review, like or share. Thanks! If you're looking for prop accounts, catch massive discounts with my code DANE right here  https://toponefutures.com/?linkId=lp_707970&sourceId=jesper-holst&tenantId=toponefutures TraderDane Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@UCL_wXCrGPSjmDuwU6z_wtyQ  TraderDane Instagram https://www.instragram.com/traderdane_ TraderDane on X https://x.com/traderdane_?s=11 TraderDane on Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/traderdance_/   Top One Futures - Use my code DANE for great discounts on your next prop account! https://toponefutures.com/?linkId=lp_707970&sourceId=jesper-holst&tenantId=toponefutures Tradezella: Journaling software for your trading https://tradezella.com?fpr=jesper46

DrewTrades on Futures Trading Consistency, First Payout, and Building the Futures Syndicate

I am joined by DrewTrades, who shares his path from paper-trading forex at the age of 17–18 to taking futures seriously from Oct 2024, starting with options, then prop trading NQ/ES and later natural gas before settling on ES for cleaner price action and easier risk management. Drew describes struggling during highly volatile market periods while learning ICT/smart money concepts, then finding consistency with a simple breakout approach and earning his first My Funding Futures payout in March followed by a second payout. Afterward he hit a slump, failed multiple evals, strategy-hopped, then refocused on trading VWAP and moved toward stricter instant-funded rules via a TopOne Ignite account. He also outlines launching a Discord community, “Futures Syndicate,” balancing a day job, trading, and content, and aiming to build a broader ecosystem based on his trading.  Hit Like and Subscribe if you enjoy this content - it helps me produce more! You can follow DrewTrades on Instagram, X, Discord and more via the following links: https://linktr.ee/_DrewTrades_ TraderDane on Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/traderdance_/   Top One Futures - Use my code DANE for great discounts on your next prop account! https://toponefutures.com/?linkId=lp_707970&sourceId=jesper-holst&tenantId=toponefutures Tradezella: Journaling software for your trading https://tradezella.com?fpr=jesper46

Freya Futures: Trading Mindset and Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

I am joined by Judy, the creator of Freya Futures, who began trading about a year and a half ago as a way to apply concepts from a book she was writing on overcoming limiting beliefs and identity shifts. Judy describes trading as a tool for confronting fears like loss aversion, greed, and FOMO, noting her biggest challenge was handling red days and placing stop losses too tightly when trading her own capital. Based in Sydney, she trades the London session after work and limits herself to two to three setups per week. She outlines an ICT-influenced approach focused on prior-day high/low sweeps, confirmations, and targeting liquidity areas, typically aiming for 1:1 to 1:2 with small risk. She now mixes prop and live accounts, finding prop firms reduce psychological pressure, and emphasizes process-focused goals and hard daily loss limits. Enjoy the conversation! You can follow FreyaFutures on Instagram https://instagram.com/freyafutures TraderDane on Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/traderdance_/   Top One Futures - Use my code DANE for great discounts on your next prop account! https://toponefutures.com/?linkId=lp_707970&sourceId=jesper-holst&tenantId=toponefutures Tradezella: Journaling software for your trading https://tradezella.com?fpr=jesper46

From Side Hustles to First Prop-Firm Payout: Ryan Fuss on Trading Mindset and Playing the Game

This time, I welcome Ryan to the TraderDane podcast, where we discuss Ryan’s path as a 21-year-old entrepreneur who left plumbing in favour of car detailing and couch flipping businesses. Ryan became drawn to trading to obtain financial freedom. Ryan describes starting with stock investing and then prop firms, initially failing multiple evals without a clear strategy, struggling with small winners and max-loss losers, and later finding clarity through his friend's introduction to a coaching community and a VWAP-based approach. A major turning point came from reading Tom Hougaard’s The Best Loser Wins, which improved his ability to let winners run and cut losers, leading to his first payout on a 25K account after months of grinding. He now trades a 50K account, emphasizes accountability via a trading community, and advises beginners to slow down, learn market psychology, treat trading like a business, and size up only after consistency. TraderDane on Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/traderdance_/   Top One Futures - Use my code DANE for great discounts on your next prop account! https://toponefutures.com/?linkId=lp_707970&sourceId=jesper-holst&tenantId=toponefutures Tradezella: Journaling software for your trading https://tradezella.com?fpr=jesper46

What actually stands between you and profitability - conversation with Dr. David Bonanno

Jesper hosts the TraderDane podcast, this time with guest Dr. David Bonanno, a clinical psychologist and author of The Consistently Calm Trader (see link below), who has worked in the mental health field since 1993 and served over 17,000 clients. Dr. Bonanno explains how adrenaline activates fight-or-flight, taking the logical brain “offline,” leading to execution problems like FOMO, impulse entries, hesitation, and especially revenge trading. He describes a “robocat” model of two brain systems (logical vs. emotional/instinctive) and argues willpower and rule-making often fail when emotions take over. Drawing from PTSD work, he introduces eye-movement exercises (based on EMDR/REM-like processing) to reduce emotional intensity, separate sadness from anger after losses, and build acceptance to reset faster. We discuss optimal arousal levels, mindset leakage, limits of journaling alone, prop-firm pressure, and coaching as performance support, and share where to find Bonanno via his book, YouTube exercises, and website. If you're interested, you can find Dr Bonanno's 1 on 1 coaching program here http://www.maxdiscipline.com/ or by visiting https://maxdiscipline.com/1on1 to engage. Use my code DANE50 for exclusive discounts on the Max Discipline program! You can find Dr Bonanno's book "The Consistently Calm Trader" here https://www.amazon.com/Consistently-Calm-Trader-Between-Discipline-ebook/dp/B0GCW6HV8D TraderDane on Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/traderdance_/   Top One Futures - Use my code DANE for great discounts on your next prop account! https://toponefutures.com/?linkId=lp_707970&sourceId=jesper-holst&tenantId=toponefutures Tradezella: Journaling software for your trading https://tradezella.com?fpr=jesper46