I failed my first funded account challenge in 3 days. Not 3 weeks. 3 days.

Here's what went wrong — and what I changed:

1. I traded without a plan.

I opened my chart, saw a candle I liked, and clicked buy. No entry criteria. No stop loss logic. Just vibes. Now I have a 3-point checklist I run before every single trade.

2. I revenge traded after my first loss.

Lost $200, immediately took another trade to "make it back." Lost another $300. The account was bleeding before lunch. Now I have a 2-loss daily limit. No exceptions.

3. I used way too much size.

I was risking 3-5% per trade because I wanted to hit the profit target fast. Math doesn't care about your ambition. Now I risk 0.5-1% max.

4. I didn't journal a single trade.

I had no idea why I was losing because I never wrote anything down. Now every trade gets logged — entry, exit, reasoning, and what I'd do differently.

5. I thought I was ready when I wasn't.

I watched YouTube for 2 weeks and thought I could pass a $100K challenge. The market doesn't care about your confidence. It cares about your process.

I'm building The Funded Grind to document every step of my second attempt — every win, every loss, every lesson. If you're a beginner trying to figure this out, you're welcome to learn alongside me.

No guru energy. No fake PnL screenshots. Just the raw truth about what it takes to get funded.