He Blew 17 Accounts Before Realizing Trading Was “You vs You”
Seventeen Blown Accounts Changed Everything
Zacharia Rahman started trading about two years ago while working in his family business in northern Kenya. He was looking for something entrepreneurial that could eventually give him more control over his time. The first year was rough. Zacharia says he blew 17 accounts, including three funded accounts, while trying to find consistency. He started with ICT concepts, later moved away from Forex currency pairs, and eventually focused entirely on gold. Today, he trades full time and has received multiple payouts, but he says the biggest change was not finding a magical strategy. It was changing how he approached himself.
Daily Bias, One-Hour Structure, Five-Minute Execution
Zacharia's current process is deliberately simple. He begins on the daily chart to establish directional bias, then moves to the one-hour timeframe to identify structure and key levels. Once price reaches an area he considers high probability, he drops to the five-minute chart for execution and looks for displacement that confirms the direction he wants to trade. He does not use indicators. His focus is price action, structure, timing and predefined levels. Gold, or XAUUSD, is now the only instrument he trades.
Journaling Became His Feedback Loop
About four months into his trading journey, Zacharia started journaling almost everything. He wrote down what he was doing, what he planned to do the next day, his goals for the following week, and even his three-month targets. More importantly, he went back through those notes to study his mistakes. That process became one of the tools he credits most with helping him improve. His wife also played a major role. When he doubted whether trading was really for him, she was the person encouraging him to keep going. Today, she is still the first person he calls when a new payout arrives.
One Trade Wiped Out an Account That Was Up 4%
Zacharia can point to one trade that permanently changed how he handles news. In October 2025, he was trying to pass an account that was already up roughly 4%. Instead of protecting that progress, he traded a news event and hit the daily maximum loss on a single trade. The account was gone. He describes it as the stupidest trade he has taken so far, but it also became a clear boundary in his process. That was the last time he traded news. The experience reinforced a lesson he had already been learning through his earlier blown accounts: trying to force an outcome can destroy weeks of good work in minutes.
Trading Is You vs You
After experimenting with strategies, mentors and different approaches, Zacharia no longer believes one strategy is inherently better than another. His view is more uncomfortable: even if someone handed you a strategy with a perfect historical win rate, you could still fail if you execute it without discipline. For him, trading eventually becomes a competition with your own impulses, habits and decision-making. That shift in mindset is now at the center of his approach. Instead of constantly searching for a better system, he focuses on becoming the person capable of executing the system he already has.
Trading Strategy/ Mindset
Zacharia's Trading Strategy
Zacharia now trades only gold. His process starts on the daily timeframe, where he establishes his broader directional bias. From there, he moves to the one-hour chart to understand structure and identify key levels. Once price reaches one of those areas, he drops to the five-minute chart and looks for displacement in the direction of his bias before entering. He does not use indicators.
He trades across the Asian, London and New York sessions, but limits each session to roughly two hours. If he gets an entry, he places his stop loss and take profit, then walks away. Depending on the day's results, he may skip later sessions rather than continuing to look for trades.
Journaling is a major part of his process. He documents plans, mistakes and future goals, then reviews those notes to understand what needs to change. That self-review became especially important after blowing numerous accounts early in his journey.
His broader philosophy is that execution matters more than constantly changing strategies. In his words, trading eventually becomes "you versus you." A strategy can be good, but poor discipline can still ruin it.