The path to becoming a Freedom Day Trader

From SIM to Payout

I first traded futures in 1987 at ED&F Man, London. Nearly 40 years later I returned — this time trading ES on prop firm accounts from wherever I choose, done before noon every day. This course is the honest map of how to get there. Not a shortcut. A framework. Earned stage by stage.

Begin the journey — $500 What is a Freedom Day Trader?
$39,300+
Verified payouts received
From funded prop firm accounts since May 2025
3,283+
Trades analysed
Every trade logged and reviewed
79%
Valid trade win rate
Price Action + The Freedom Signal + The Setups = 92% win rate
24
Stages. Earned, not given.
The gate holds until you're ready
~40
Years in futures markets
Professional to independent trader
1987
Trading futures since
Coffee and sugar at ED&F Man, London — professional institutional trading
The story

Written from the middle
of the journey

I first traded futures in 1987 — coffee and sugar on behalf of ED&F Man, one of the most respected commodities trading houses in the United Kingdom. I understood price behaviour, market structure, risk, and the psychology of futures long before most of today's trading educators had opened their first chart.

Nearly four decades later, I made a deliberate decision to return to futures — this time trading the ES independently, through NinjaTrader, on prop firm accounts, as a retail trader starting from scratch in a completely new environment.

All that experience, and it was still the hardest thing I've done. The prop firm world, the technology, the psychology of trading your own account — it humbled me completely. And that, more than anything, is why this course exists.

Because if someone with a professional futures background from 1987 still found this genuinely difficult — still blew accounts, still overtrade, still fell into emotional traps — then the answer isn't more experience. It's the right methodology, executed with discipline, tracked with honesty.

That's what the 24 stages map out. Not a shortcut. A framework. Built from nearly 40 years of market understanding, filtered through the reality of what modern prop firm trading actually demands.

1987
Began trading coffee and sugar futures professionally at ED&F Man, London. One of the UK's most respected commodities trading houses. The foundation of everything.
Decades of market experience
Deep professional grounding in futures mechanics, price behaviour, risk management, and market structure across commodities markets.
May 2025
Returned to futures — this time trading ES independently on NinjaTrader through prop firm accounts. All that experience, and it was still humbling.
Late 2025
First payouts received. Began tracking every trade — valid rate, win rate, strategy breakdowns. The data changed everything.
Early 2026
Scaled to five funded accounts. Replikanto copy trading. $39,300+ in verified payouts. Still learning. Still improving.
Now
Building this course. Sharing everything — 40 years of market understanding filtered through the reality of modern prop firm trading.

Nobody signs up to learn about moving band pullbacks. They sign up because they want to own their mornings, trade from anywhere, and answer to nobody but the market.

The destination

What is a Freedom Day Trader?

From SIM to Payout is the journey. Freedom Day Trader is what you become when you complete it. Not just a funded account — a different life. Done before noon. Funded by the market. Answerable to nobody but yourself.

Time
freedom
The New York session runs 09:30 to noon ET. A Freedom Day Trader is done before lunch — every day, permanently. The rest of the day belongs entirely to them. Not as a reward. As a way of life.
Location
freedom
A laptop, a reliable connection, a funded account. That is the complete infrastructure. A kitchen table in Atlanta. A café in Lisbon. A mountain property with Starlink. The market does not care where you sit.
Financial
freedom
Not a salary. Not a bonus. A daily payout from prop firm accounts you earned the right to trade — with no personal capital at risk. Scalable across multiple accounts as your skill and confidence compound.
A Freedom Day Trader's morning
06:00
Wake. Exercise, swim, meditation. The body before the market.
08:30
Pre-market prep. Charts, levels, daily bias. Pre-trade checklist completed.
09:30
NY session opens. 15-minute range forms. Watch, read, wait.
09:45
The gate opens. Trade only if the setup is valid. Never before.
10:00–12:00
Active session. Maximum 3 trades. Quality over quantity. Always.
Noon
Done. Journal written. Screens closed. The day is entirely yours.
The infrastructure — anywhere in the world
Machine
A capable Windows laptop or VPS accessed remotely. NinjaTrader 8 runs on either. The office fits in a bag.
Connection
Reliable internet is the only infrastructure requirement. Starlink has made this possible from almost anywhere on earth — mountain, coast, countryside.
Accounts
Multiple prop firm funded accounts via Replikanto copy trading. One trade entered, five accounts filled simultaneously. Income scales with accounts, not hours.
Community
Discord with your mentor and fellow Freedom Day Traders. Accountability without obligation. Nobody trades alone.

When you complete Stage 24, you are not just a funded trader. You are a Freedom Day Trader — defined not by how much you make, but by what you no longer have to do, and by the discipline it took to get there.

From SIM to Payout · Course completion statement

Done before noon. Funded by the market. Answerable to nobody but yourself.

The Freedom Day Trader
Freedom Day Trader
The Freedom Signal
The complete formula behind a 92% win rate
Price Action
Your read of the chart
+
The Freedom Signal
The precision prompt · $197/month
+
The Setups
7 original setups
=
92%
Win rate
From SIM to Payout teaches you all three. The Freedom Signal subscription is included while you are enrolled.
Subscribe to The Freedom Signal — $197/month
How it works

Six stages. Every gate earned.

This course teaches you three things — Price Action, The Freedom Signal, and the Setups. Those three components together produce a 92% win rate. Most trading education gives you one and calls it a system. This course gives you all three and shows you how they work together.

Each stage has a mastery gate — a standard you must demonstrate before the next stage unlocks. Your mentor reviews your evidence and makes the call. You cannot buy your way through. You cannot watch your way through. You earn it.

Stage 1
Foundation
Platform setup, NinjaTrader mastery, ATM strategies, order execution. You must be able to operate without thinking about mechanics during a live trade.
Execute all core setups on SIM without mechanical errors · 45-day limit
Stage 2
Core setups
Your first three setups: The Compass Gate, The Flow, and The Compass Return. Learn them, practise them on SIM, prove you can execute them correctly.
Submit proof of passed prop firm evaluation · 45-day limit
Stage 3
The valley
No new setups. Live funded trading. The reality gap. The funded mindset shift. Account survival rules. And when they come — the first losses. This is where most traders fail. The gate exists to make sure you don't.
Post-loss journal entry + 80%+ valid rate over 20 live trades · 45-day limit
Stage 4
Advanced setups
The Touchline and The Turnabout. Price action reading at a deeper level. Plus your data system — building your own trade log and tracking valid rate.
Demonstrate both setups on SIM with valid execution · 45-day limit
Stage 5
Expert setups
The Snapback and The Golden 50 — the final two setups. Multi-account scaling, Replikanto, income targeting. All seven setups now unlocked.
Payout confirmation from a funded account · 45-day limit
Stage 6
The long game
Emotionless execution. Kaizen and Kintsugi as a trading philosophy. Protecting your edge. The unfinished journey — because this never really ends.
30-day journal showing consistent routine + Kaizen reflections · 45-day limit
The setups

Seven setups. Your own language.

These are not generic trading patterns with borrowed names. Every setup in this course has been named to describe exactly what it looks like — original, precise, and entirely yours to earn. The Compass family (setups 1–3) are anchored to the New York session open at 09:30 ET. The remaining four setups are session-universal and work in any liquid futures market.

Setup 1 · Stage 2 · NY Session
The Compass Gate
The New York session opens at 09:30 ET. The 15-minute range forms immediately. At 09:45 ET the gate opens — not before. Price breaks the range, clears a pivot, pulls back to the midband. That pullback is your entry.
⚠️ NY session specific — 09:30 ET open only
Setup 2 · Stage 2 · NY Session
The Flow
The market has already left the 09:30 range and established direction. You step into a trend already running. Same logic as the Compass Gate — later in the session.
⚠️ NY session specific — builds on the 09:30 range
Setup 3 · Stage 2 · NY Session
The Compass Return
The breakout from the 09:30 range fails. Price comes back inside. You trade the rejection — the same family as the Compass Gate, the opposite outcome.
⚠️ NY session specific — 09:30 range defines the trade
Setup 4 · Stage 4
The Touchline
Price draws the line. Respects it twice. The third touch is your entry. The setup that gave the first profitable month — clean, structural, and patient.
Unlocks at Stage 4
Setup 5 · Stage 4
The Turnabout
Strong rejection at exhaustion — double top, double bottom, false break. Trend line breaks. Indicators confirm. You trade the new direction on the first pullback.
Unlocks at Stage 4
Setup 6 · Stage 5
The Snapback
The trend slows. Price attempts to reverse. That reversal fails — double cross of indicators confirms it. Price snaps back to the original trend. You trade the return.
Unlocks at Stage 5
Setup 7 · Stage 5
The Golden 50
Premium confluence — pivot, 80 SMA, larger SMA on the 1597 chart, all converging at the 50% Fibonacci level. The highest probability setup. The hardest to find.
Unlocks at Stage 5
All seven setups.
All original names.
All yours to earn.
The philosophy

Japanese wisdom meets
modern freedom

The philosophical framework woven through this course is not decoration. Each concept maps directly onto the Freedom Day Trader journey — from the first fumbled SIM trade to the morning you close your screen at noon and realise the day is completely yours.

改善
Kaizen
Continuous improvement
Freedom is not a destination you reach — it is a practice you maintain. 1% better every session. Better at reading the setup. Better at waiting for the gate. Better at closing the screen when the session is done. A Freedom Day Trader is never finished improving — they are just further along the path.
金継ぎ
Kintsugi
Gold in the broken places
Every blown account, every emotional trade, every week of sub-40% valid rate — repaired with gold. The Freedom Day Trader is not someone who never broke. They are someone who learned what the breaking taught them and kept going. The cracks are visible. The gold is real. Your losses are your most valuable credential.
侘寂
Wabi-Sabi
The beauty of imperfection
Freedom does not mean perfect trades. It means accepting that impermanence and imperfection are the natural state of markets — and of life. A 79% win rate means 21% losses. A Freedom Day Trader holds both, trades the edge, and does not mistake a bad week for a broken system.
我慢
Gaman
Enduring with dignity
Stage 3 — The Valley — is where most traders quit. Gaman is what gets you through it. Not white-knuckling. Not suppressing. Enduring with patience, composure, and the quiet confidence that the methodology works when executed correctly. Freedom is on the other side of the valley. Most people turn back too early.
Your mentors

Real traders.
Real accountability.

Every gate is reviewed by a human mentor — not an algorithm. Three mentors, three perspectives, one standard. They will tell you honestly when you are ready and when you are not.

We didn't find a course like this when we needed one. So we built it. Not because trading doesn't work — because teaching makes the trading better.

I
Iain Prentice
Lead mentor · Course creator
Started trading futures professionally in 1987 at ED&F Man, one of the UK's most respected commodities houses — trading coffee and sugar futures at an institutional level. Nearly four decades later, returned to futures trading ES independently through NinjaTrader and prop firm accounts. Five funded TPT PRO+ accounts. $39,300+ in verified payouts. 3,283+ trades logged and analysed. The professional background didn't make it easy. That's the point.
J
Javier Flores
Mentor · Trading partner
Trading partner and collaborator. Brings a complementary perspective to gate reviews and student feedback. Between us we cover the full range of what this journey looks like — from the first evaluation to consistent funded trading.
J
Jennifer Faiaipau
Mentor · Student turned teacher
Jen joined this journey as a student and took the core setups seriously from day one — learning them deeply enough to teach them to her own family, building a path to financial freedom for her nieces. With a background in the casino industry, Jen understands risk management, probability, and the psychology of staying disciplined when the stakes are real. She knows exactly how prop firm challenges work — and she knows the difference between Buttinsky and the Dog. Get into the course and she'll explain everything.

Most trading education profits from your failure. This one only works if you succeed. The Freedom Day Trader is our only measure of success — a trader who made it to live, stayed there, and trades for a living.

The Freedom Day Trader principle
45
Days per stage
Stages 1 through 6
60
Days for The Valley
The Valley
Hard stop. No extensions. No exceptions.
The clock starts when you pay.
Pricing

Pay to enter.
Pay to progress.

A deposit gets you started. Each subsequent stage is unlocked only after your mentor approves your gate submission — and only then do you pay for the next stage. You never pay for something you haven't earned access to.

Entry deposit
$500
One-time · unlocks Stage 1 · Freedom Signal included
  • Full Stage 1 — Foundation
  • The Freedom Signal indicator included
  • NinjaTrader configuration guides
  • ATM strategy templates
  • Reading list and resources
  • Access to mentor review system
  • Discord community access
Stage 1 gate must be passed before Stage 2 is available. The Freedom Signal ($197 value) is included — no separate purchase needed.
Per-stage unlock
$500
Per stage · Stages 2 through 6 · paid after mentor approval only
  • Paid only after mentor approval
  • Never charged until gate is passed
  • Five stages · $2,500 total
  • Full course value: $2,999
  • Unlimited resubmissions within the time limit
  • 48-hour mentor review turnaround
  • 45 days per stage · 45 days for all stages
  • Three mentors reviewing your progress
The standard does not move. The timeline is yours.
Questions

What you need to know

Is there a time limit to complete each stage?
Yes — and it is a hard stop. You have 45 days from the moment a stage unlocks to submit your gate evidence and pass. Every stage has the same standard. If you hit the limit without passing, the stage expires and you pay the stage fee again to re-unlock. There are no extensions. This is not a punishment — it is the standard that separates serious traders from those who are not yet ready to commit.
What if I get stuck at a gate and can't progress?
You can resubmit as many times as you need — within the 45-day window. The student who keeps trying honestly is exactly who this course is built for. Submit early, get feedback, resubmit. The standard holds. The clock does not stop.
What if I stop engaging completely?
If there's no submission and no contact for 30 days, your mentor will reach out once. If there's no response within 7 days, access is suspended. Your progress is preserved and you can re-activate within 12 months at no penalty.
Do I need a funded account before starting?
No. Stage 1 and Stage 2 are SIM-based. You'll choose and pass a prop firm evaluation as part of Stage 2. The course walks you through which firms to consider and how to approach the evaluation.
Which prop firms does the course support?
The methodology works across any NinjaTrader-compatible prop firm. The course draws on experience with Take Profit Trader, Tradeify, Bulenox, and others. You are not locked into any specific firm.
Is this course relevant outside the US timezone?
Partially. The Compass family — The Compass Gate, The Flow, and The Compass Return — are anchored to the New York session open at 09:30 ET. The 15-minute range is defined by that market open, not by whenever a trader sits down. These three setups require trading the NY session. The remaining four setups — The Touchline, The Turnabout, The Snapback, and The Golden 50 — are session-universal and work in any liquid futures market regardless of timezone.
I've passed evaluations before but always fail when I go live. Is this course for me?
This course exists specifically for you. Passing an evaluation and surviving live trading are two completely different skills — and almost nobody prepares you for the gap between them. We've seen genuinely talented traders blow account after account at the live stage not because they couldn't trade, but because nobody gave them the funded mindset framework, the account survival rules, or an honest account of what the psychological shift actually feels like. That's Stage 3. That's the valley. That's what this course is built around. The setups get you to the gate. Stage 3 is what keeps you alive once you're through it.
The honest answer is that teaching this methodology makes me a better trader. When I review a student's submission and tell them their Compass Gate entry wasn't valid, I'm also reminding myself of the standard I need to hold. There's no hiding behind vague self-assessment when you're accountable to someone else's progress. Beyond that — Javier and I have been through this journey together. We wanted to build something that captured what we've actually learned, not a polished version of it. The course exists because we needed it to exist when we started. Nobody gave us this map.
After two rejections, a mandatory mentor call is required before your next submission. This isn't a punishment — it's a direct conversation to understand what's missing and what you need to focus on. Most students who reach that call leave it with clarity.
Also from Freedom Day Trader

The Freedom Signal — the indicator behind the methodology

The Freedom Signal is the precision prompt at the heart of the course formula. Buy it standalone and see it on your chart — or take the full course and learn everything it needs to reach 92%.

92%
Win rate with full formula
Signal + Price Action + Setup
12/11
Live trading day
June 5th 2026 · documented on chart
3,283
Trades behind the signal
Every one logged and analysed
Signal alone is a starting point. Signal + price action analysis + setup is 92% win rate. That formula is what this indicator is built around.
Learn about The Freedom Signal — $197

You don't watch your way
through this course.
You earn your freedom.

The deposit is $500. It gets you into Stage 1. Complete all 24 stages and you will have mastered all three components of the formula — Price Action, The Freedom Signal, and the Setups. That is what produces 92%. That is what makes a Freedom Day Trader.

Begin Stage 1 — $500
Full course value $2,999 · paid across 6 stages · Freedom Signal included · only after mentor approval

Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss and is not appropriate for all investors. Past performance — including the results referenced on this page — is not indicative of future results. The payouts and win rates referenced are the verified results of the course creator and do not represent a guarantee or projection of student outcomes. All trading involves risk. Only trade with capital you can afford to lose.

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