Josh Akabum

Trading Methodology: ICT | Smart Money Concepts | Market Structure

Josh Akabum (aka JoshTrades_ICT) is a full-time forex trader from Cameroon with over 6 years of experience, specialising in ICT (Inner Circle Trader) methodology and Smart Money Concepts. His approach combines deep market structure analysis with liquidity mapping — identifying where institutional money moves before retail traders react.

Josh discovered trading through a WhatsApp forex seminar, but what started as curiosity quickly became a calling. Coming from a background in MLM affiliate marketing, he immediately recognised trading as a business built on skill, not persuasion — and committed fully. In Cameroon, where trading is still widely misunderstood and labeled as a scam, Josh has become a pioneer — one of the first credible, verifiable traders to build a public track record from Central Africa.

His $1K-10K FLIP brand is built on a simple but ruthless premise: identify high-probability patterns, define the risk before entry, and execute without emotion. His signature setup is the EBP (Engulfing Bar Play) on the daily timeframe. He has been featured on the TradingNut podcast (Episode 142) and interviewed twice by Audacity Capital — making him one of the few African traders with verified international media recognition.

Beyond personal trading, Josh's long-term mission is to open trading academies across Cameroon and Central Africa — making financial markets accessible to a generation that was told their only path was government employment.

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Vitalii Kaminskyi May 2026

Josh, your TradingView account was registered back in 2019, meaning you’ve been in the game for over 6 years. Do you remember the exact day or event when you realized, "That’s it, I’m going to be a trader, this is my ultimate path"? What was the trigger?

To me it all clicked, when i was invited to a forex seminar via a WhatsApp group chat, i didn't have much expectation initially, but i has an open mind to explore new opportunities. After the presentation, i decided to give it a go and when i saw all the earnings others made from it, all from the comfort of their homes, it was a WOW moment for me, knowing you have absolute control over your time and you didn't need to try convince others to join you before you make money. Because i came from a failed background at MLM(affiliate marketing business), so to me this was the perfect business and the returns were astronomical as well.

You are based in Cameroon. Tell us honestly, what is it like to develop as a high-frequency, smart money trader in Central Africa? What unique challenges (infrastructure, community, local stereotypes) did you have to overcome when you started out?

Trading is a concept and a reality which is just recently being embraced by many in west and central Africa in general, in my country Cameroon it is still at it's early stages. Because the predominate belief here is that of getting good grades in school and securing a good job, preferably with the government. So in my early years of trading, most people including family didn't quite understand what i was venturing into, and till date most still don't get, as most thing related to making money online from the confort of ones home is considered as SCAMMING. This being a title is was labeled with in my early days. Another major challenge we face as traders from this part of the world is that of infrastructural limitations like ELECTRICITY and Good Internet Access, because the Internet providers offer shitty connection speeds making your trade others get filled at times several seconds after you have placed an order and these seconds at times might make all the difference. Couple to that are the constant Electrical outages that may at times make one no have access to open positions due to low battery and even device shut down.

Your handle and charts directly reference the ICT (Inner Circle Trader) concepts. In the trading world, the attitude toward Smart Money is highly polarized: some see it as the Holy Grail, while others dismiss it as just old-school technical analysis with fancy new names. For you personally, why is ICT fundamentally superior to classic indicator-based retail trading?

Now when it comes to the ICT trading methodology, i don't personally think it as superior to other retails ways or systems of trading because i know lots of traders that make money with those, but for me personally, i have tried the others and i didn't have much success with those as compared to using ICT notions and Smart money approach. Now with the ICT there is context and logic that most part of the other retail system lack, to the others it's usually just pattern no logic and no framework behind the patterns which is something the ICT and Smart Money concepts bring, and this to me made all the difference when i began understanding some of these logic and reasoning to why price will move a certain way and at certain specific levels.

Your profile avatar boldly states: "$1K to $10K FLIP. Go big or go home." Flipping accounts is always like walking on a razor's edge. What kind of risk management do you use when executing these "flips," and how do you handle the intense psychological pressure?

I Have a long and successful History with flipping accounts, and truth be told it is like walking on a razor's edge, and just like the text on my profile states go BIG OR GO Home, meaning i am tell you already if it is a flip you want it can go both ways and you must be ready to accept wither outcome and still walk with your head up high. So before any flip i define the risk and i accept it even before taking the very 1st trade on the account, and i always spell this out for any investor ready to partake in one of my flips. Now with my extensive knowledge of over 7 years in the trading industry, i have come to critically recognize patterns that repeat themselves which based on my stats gathered across these number of years i turn to be successful 7 times out of 10 when doing flips so i am kind of confident most times when indulging into them, and this experience has reduced the psychological toil a newbie might face when attempting a flip.

Imagine a top-tier fund manager approaches you today and offers you $1,000,000 in assets under management (AUM), but on one strict condition: you can only trade one specific pattern on one specific timeframe. What would that pattern and timeframe be?

Very interesting question, to me that pattern will be the EBP (Engulfing Bar Play) from a daily timeframe.

Trading can be a pretty lonely journey—just you, the charts, and the order flow. What is your ultimate long-term vision? Are you aiming for a multi-million dollar private fund, building your own massive trading academy, or simply achieving absolute personal freedom somewhere on an island?

My long term vision in this space 1st is to create more awareness 1st at the local level of my country, making more youth understand that they don't have to wait for help from the government and push trading as a business anyone can study and make a livelihood from. I this will be through Opening several Trading hubs or academies throughout Cameroon and as well Central Africa. I derive fulfilment in teaching people about trading and seeing people's success stories after my trainings give joy. So yeah my long term vision is own several trading academies to train and teach as many people as i can and though this positively affect their lives and finances.

If you could meet your younger self from 2019—the guy who was just starting to click the Buy/Sell buttons—knowing everything you've been through, what 3 things would you strictly forbid yourself from doing during your first year in the markets?

Amazing Question, to me i will say:

1st year of this journey should be giving to learning the right way under a mentor who has proven results, just as we do in learning any other professional skill, trading shouldn't be considered any different, so trying to get it all sorted out by myself will be a NO NO.

2nd i will not quite my day job just to focus on trading as i formerly did, because the day job becomes the source of livelihood till trading starts paying all the bills.

3rd stop looking for public validation on your growth or performance as a trader, no social media posting after small wins, keep it humble and grow at your own pace without external social media pressure.

Let’s be real for a moment. Smart Money Concepts are built on the premise that large institutional players (Market Makers) constantly manipulate price and "hunt" retail stop-losses. But liquidity delivery algorithms evolve. Don't you think ICT has become too popular now, to the point where Market Makers are now hunting the stop-losses of SMC traders themselves? How do you adapt to this?

True that liquidity algorithms evolve, but what will never evolve is the LAW of demand and Supply, not in the way retail traders plot it on the charts, but in terms economics, liquidity equally thrives on this and this is the true nature or logic behind smart money concepts and ICT as well. For every buyer in the markets there is a seller so liquidity will always be hunted, and just for this reason i don't think the changes will be too drastic allowing room for growth if changes arises.

Most traders only post pristine screenshots of 1:5 or 1:10 R:R trades and flawless take-profits. Tell us about your most brutal, embarrassing failure in trading. What was the maximum amount of money you lost in a single day, and what was the stupidest rule violation you committed?

To me in my early days it was a lost of my savings from my former job before getting into trading which was about $4500 (about 3Million xaf ) in my local currency at that time, that amount was a lot of money for anyone to loss in a single day. And the reason for this loss was because i revenged traded and overleveraged trying to recover previous loss i made earlier that day which was initially just $750, i ended up losing the entire money just because i didn't know when to stop myself. Ever since that day, i learnt my lesson in the most painful of manners, losing money i saved up for about 2-3years in a single day, yea i won't ever forget that loss.

A lot of skeptics argue that if a trader is genuinely profitable and making consistent money from the markets, they don't need public profiles, communities, interviews, or trading tournaments—they just sit quietly and compound their wealth. Why is visibility important to you? Is it about personal branding and ego, or is it a pragmatic business strategy?

I will say it is both and i wish to equally say that if knowledge and information isn't transferred, then the entire society is doomed, because what happens when those having all the knowledge are no more there...., what will the rest of society do and it is no different from trading. Teaching, communities, interviews and tournaments are means to create awareness and transfer knowledge to the next generation of traders so they don't get lost trying to figure it all all by themselves. This as well is a means to show others that you have done it and you are not too different from them, so they too can be inspired and eventually have success just as one they looked up to did. So to me knowing all what one knows or those who think a profitable trader should be trading and never teach others how to do same are the true selfish ones.