"I Blew Up Three Retail Accounts": Scope Markets SA CEO Shares Hard Trading Lessons at FMAS:25

Retail trading has surged in popularity worldwide, attracting many with promises of quick profits, freedom, and powerful tools. However, at FMAS:25, a session titled “The Badass Trader, Revisited: Trade Your Way to Riches in 2025” offered a harsh truth about the realities of trading.

Robert Van Eyden, CEO of Scope Markets South Africa, delivered a raw confession: he had blown up three trading accounts. “Not one, not two—three,” he admitted, adding: “We blow up not because we don’t know better, but because we ignore what we know.”

Funded Accounts: A Double-Edged Sword

He also discussed the rising interest in funded trading accounts, calling them “leverage Leverage In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders In financial trading, leverage is a loan supplied by a broker, which facilitates a trader in being able to control a relatively large amount of money with a significantly lesser initial investment. Leverage therefore allows traders to make a much greater return on investment compared to trading without any leverage. Traders seek to make a profit from movements in financial markets, such as stocks and currencies.Trading without any leverage would greatly diminish the potential rewards, so traders Read this Term in disguise.” While they may offer access to larger capital, they require the same discipline and consistency. His advice: never risk more than 1–2% per trade, and always withdraw a portion of profits. “Don’t get drunk on your own success.”

Supporting this caution, a recent Swiset study of nearly 10,000 traders highlights the difficulty of securing prop trading funding. Only around 20% pass one-phase challenges, with even fewer succeeding in two-phase formats.

South America leads Leads Leads or lead generation are an essential component of marketing and powerful tool by brokers. In its simplest form, leads can be defined as the outreach of customer interest or enquiry into products or services, most often associated with brokerages.These can be created for purposes such as list building, e-newsletter list acquisition, or for sales leads. Amongst marketers, such lists are one of their most important assets and instrumental to sales.There are a variety of methods for generating Leads or lead generation are an essential component of marketing and powerful tool by brokers. In its simplest form, leads can be defined as the outreach of customer interest or enquiry into products or services, most often associated with brokerages.These can be created for purposes such as list building, e-newsletter list acquisition, or for sales leads. Amongst marketers, such lists are one of their most important assets and instrumental to sales.There are a variety of methods for generating Read this Term in trader participation, particularly Colombia, the US, and Brazil. Most traders opt for the popular $10,000 challenge. Despite the low success rates, many traders continue to try repeatedly, averaging 1.6 challenges each, indicating strong and ongoing global interest.

The Danger of Wanting to Be Right

Van Eyden warned that many traders are addicted to the illusion of certainty. They ignore stop-losses, double down on bad trades, and focus more on being right than making money. “Trading punishes that,” he stated. He emphasized three key pillars for success: humility over hubris, emotional discipline over ego, and process over prediction.

Why You Need a Trading Edge

He reminded the audience of the “90-90-90 rule”—90% of traders lose 90% of their capital within 90 days. According to Van Eyden, avoiding that fate requires a trading edge, which includes a repeatable method, proper money management, and strong psychology. “Even a 90% win rate means nothing if your losses are too large,” he said.

Van Eyden closed with a reminder that cuts to the core of trading psychology: “You need to decide—do you want to be right, or do you want to make money?” He summarized his talk with a final thought: “Trading is the hardest easiest thing to do.”