Happy Tuesday, Larkers! This is Lark Digest, the trading newsletter that keeps you sharper than Joe Biden remembering if he's running for 2024—just like in trading, sometimes it's all about staying focused!

On today’s menu:

• Your Guide To Getting Funded In July 🚀 

• Get Over $4,000 of Free Trading Courses 🤑

• Get Paid To Pass Your Challenge? 🤫 

• Why Are Firms Introducing Weird Payout Rules? 😕 

🚀 Your Guide To Getting Funded In July

Can you believe that we’re already halfway through 2024? 🤯 

It’s pretty nuts. And while asking yourself, “Where did all the time go?” it’s a great opportunity to reflect on the progress you have made or haven’t made.

Here’s the harsh reality: If you’re not any closer to becoming a funded trader than you were on January 1st, then 2024 isn’t going to be your year.

But there’s good news.

I traded full-time for 2 years without a single source of income outside of my trading. And yet, I’d only consider myself a 5 out of 10 trader.

So if I can do it, you can too.

If you're dreaming of the day when your name will be on that payout certificate, here’s what I would suggest.

1/ You’ve Just Got To Get Profitable. Other firms won’t tell you this, but signing up for a challenge BEFORE you’re consistent and profitable is a complete waste of time.

By the time you sign up for a challenge, 90% of the hard work should already be done.

What I Did: Once I was profitable for several consecutive weeks, only then did I sign up for a challenge. Not before.

2/ Intense Discipline Is The 🔑. After signing up, everybody goes crazy. Everybody gets excited. Everybody starts trading right away. And everybody fails. So don’t do that.

What I Did: I exercised extreme discipline in filtering what trades I took and didn’t take during my challenge. If it wasn’t an A+ setup, I didn’t take it. No exceptions.

3/ Keep Perspective. You need to remember that in trading, the next trade doesn’t matter. Focus on the next 10.

No matter how much work and research you do, the market simply doesn’t care. You CAN’T control the outcome of any trade. So forget about it. Just focus on the next one and roll with the punches.

What I Did: Keeping a journal of my trades, while boring, was helpful. I also think there’s more value in non-trading related books than actual trading books.

Some that helped me:

1. Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh

2. Awareness by Anthony De Mello

3. Anything related to Stoicism (Ryan Holiday is a good start)

4/ Lean Into The Fundamentals. I can’t even count how many times I’ve gotten burned simply because I took a trade without knowing there was an upcoming news event or because I went against the trend. Following the fundamentals is one of the easiest but most underlooked aspects of trading.

What I Did: If there was a major news event coming up, I didn’t trade. If the macro environment was unclear, I didn’t trade. If my trade was against the fundamentals, I didn’t hold it for long.

My favourite fundamental resources:

1. Forex Live

2. ZeroHedge

3. Custom Twitter Board

4. Our Skool Community 👇️ 

🤑 Get Over $4,000 of FREE Trading Courses

Want to get $4,650 of free trading courses?

We’re building the #1 community for traders, and the best part is that it’s FREE!

When you join, you’ll receive:

🎁 The 12 Video Technical Analysis Course That I Used To Quit My Job ($3,000 Value)
🎁 The Ultimate Guide To Currency Fundamentals ($1,000 Value)
🎁 The 9-Minute Never Get Burned On News Trading Masterclass ($500 Value)
🎁 The Trading Plan That Helped Me Pass 4 $100,000 FTMO Challenges ($150 Value)

🤑 Total Value = $4,650.

And the best part is that the community will only improve over time.

😕 Why Are Firms Introducing Weird Payout Rules?

If you thought July would end the 2024 prop drama we’ve seen, you thought wrong.

As always, a handful of firms are gaining attention on social media, and it’s not all good news.

Over the last couple of weeks, some popular firms have changed their payout rules.

Some of the changes are simple. Others are complicated. Some were publicly announced. Others were hidden in FAQ sites.

1/ What’s The Problem?

Why are traders complaining? It’s simple. When a trader signs up for a firm with fast payouts and rules that are easy to understand, that’s what they want.

So when payouts are no longer fast, and the payout rules are no longer clear, traders feel like they’re not getting what they signed up for.

And they’d be right.

When a firm only includes the new rules on its FAQ site and doesn’t make an official announcement, it just makes things worse.

2/ Why Is This Happening?

At Lark, for over a year, we’ve been shouting one word from the rooftop: Sustainability.

I know, I know. You’re probably tired of hearing about it. But every single issue we’ve seen from firms in 2024 is due to a lack of sustainability.

That includes:

• Challenges that are too easy.

• Excessive leverage.

• Prices that are too low.

So, every quick change firms make is to compensate for operating in an unsustainable way.

And that, in summary, is why we don’t have the easiest rules or cheapest challenges at Lark. But it’s what’s allowed us to reliably and quickly pay our traders over the last 762 days.

PS: Want to get paid for passing your challenge in July? We just launched our July promo that includes a 200% refund.

☕️ Pre-Market Fuel

1. A new firm just launched, backed by ThinkMarkets. Will more brokers enter the evaluation space?

2. An awesome quote on becoming great. Don’t fear boredom.

3. An interesting stat on our 3-Step Program.

🍪 Digestible Memes

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