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Interview 1:
@BaintzCEO - CEO of @BlueGuardiancom
Hi Sean, the entire prop trading industry knows you as the guy who started BlueGuardian right after turning 18 and you've been running it ever since. But tell us a bit about yourself. What do you do in your free time when you're not working? Where are you from, and what inspired you to start a prop firm?
Hi, I’m from Birmingham, in the West Midlands of England, although I moved to Dubai with the company late last year. Currently, I’m working about 8-10 hours every day, but when I get time off, I love to travel. As a child, my family could not afford to travel, so now I try my best to experience different cultures and countries. I started BlueGuardian in 2021 because there were only a handful of affordable and trader-friendly options in the market. It’s a pleasure being one of the longest-lasting firms in the industry.
How did you get into trading, and when did you realize it was something you wanted to pursue seriously?
I originally got into trading when I was 15 years old after coming across a fake guru online selling signals. After failing with his product, I became determined to find a way to become a profitable trader on my own. I then began following NoNonsenseForex on YouTube, which offered a free course. From there, I moved into quantitative analysis and purchased my first algo-generating software, StrategyQuant. I later managed to pass an FTMO challenge with my algos and went on to sell them commercially. With the money generated and a passion for the prop industry, I launched BlueGuardian.
You've been the CEO of BlueGuardian for three years now. Since then, many prop firms have been founded and many have also gone under. How would you evaluate the past three years? Has BlueGuardian ever faced a situation where things looked grim, and you thought you might have to shut it down?
Over the past three years, we have faced probably every single issue a prop firm could encounter and managed to overcome them. It shows that we are not just lucky; we have been tried and tested and have come through stronger than ever. There was a time towards the end of 2022 when not many people were interested in purchasing BlueGuardian challenges, and the community was dying out. We had to work on a new rebrand to revamp our image and take a larger market share. Since then, we have continued to grow strong and overcome many issues.
What's your role at BlueGuardian? Are you involved in the daily operations, or do you mostly oversee the important stuff and leave the day-to-day tasks to your team?
Recently, my role has focused more on the sustainability of the firm and company structure, while @EricGairns is in charge of day-to-day operations. I spend a lot of my time ensuring we have a profitable business and coming up with future business ideas.
Do you plan to stay in the CEO role, or are you thinking about stepping back a bit and focusing more on the overall direction of the company?
At the moment, the company needs me to run it, and I do enjoy it. Perhaps in the future, I might step back and relax, giving control to someone else, but not any time soon.
Recently, BlueGuardian has been criticized for banning people for gambling. Could you give us your take on this and specify what you personally consider gambling? Is your new BlueGuardian shield tool something that you hope will work against this?
We have banned a handful of gamblers recently, but we noticed no one likes a rule that is not properly defined and stated. Therefore, we introduced two new rules recently that are easy to follow and make the chances of gambling at BlueGuardian slim to none. This includes a minimum profitable days requirement on challenge phases (similar to 5%ers) and a 2% max risk rule on funded accounts. These simple rules ensure the company stays healthy with risk management and provides traders with clear and straightforward guidelines.
The prop trading industry changes every year. What trends do you think will shape the future of the industry? Will new firms keep popping up, or will we see a consolidation where big players take over?
The industry has completely changed. We saw a trend where influencers were starting prop firms with no experience, offering cheap challenges and easy rules. I believe the industry is much harder to enter now and even harder to become a top firm. I think the top 15-20 firms will continue to grow, and the rest will likely shut down.
Is there a prop firm you admire and would like to emulate?
Obviously, FTMO is very well respected by me. What they have achieved is amazing, even outside of the trading industry. They have moved into real estate in Prague, which is incredible. Besides FTMO, I admire the more professional firms such as ACG and FXIFY.
Tell us why you think traders should choose BlueGuardian and how you are better than the competition.
Blue Guardian has been around for 3 years now so has faced every single issue imaginable. We have proven our robustness when others haven't even been living for a quarter of our time. We are a safe reliable option with a rules that are still competitive to the market with great pricing.
Where do you see BlueGuardian in three years? What are you currently working on, and what are your plans for the coming months?
I have two big projects I am launching before the end of the year as part of the Guardian brand. We believe these will be innovative for the industry, although we have seen one other firm working on a similar project. Hopefully, we can get it launched first. In three years, I hope we will be 10x larger and offer multiple solutions for traders beyond just Forex funding.
Is there anything that irritates you about the propfirm industry that you would like to see changed?
At the moment theres a negative sentiment around prop firms meaning anything slightly negative said about a prop is instantly believed and jumped upon. It seems theres a lot of people on twitter especially who spreads a lot of nonsense without knowing the full stories or having the right knowledge. Due to this miss-infomation it further tarnishes the prop industry.
What advice would you give to aspiring traders looking to break into prop trading?
Take it slow. As a CEO, I see many traders taking challenges prematurely and failing. There’s no rush to get funded. First, prove you are profitable with backtesting and forward testing on a demo account or trial account before purchasing a challenge.
Thank you, Sean, for the interview. It means a lot to me that you were my first guest.
If you have any questions for Sean, please do so in the comments, I'm sure he'll try to give you answers.
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