Earn 2 Trade the gauntlet

[caacapital]

I just heard about Earn2Trade and while Im waiting on my TST to renew next month I thought why not try it out there is a 50% off coupon(bigpromo50). Im always skeptical of these become a trader things. there are now (3) that i know of TST, Oneup and now Earn2Trade TST I've verified they give you a real account orders actually goto the exchange Oneup keeps you on a sim I didnt last long enough to know if they switch you to a live account once you meet the withdrawal limit with the live trailing stop this doesnt fit my trading style so its not even worth trying again. Earn 2 Trade seems more realistic in terms of a company that actually wants to give you their money to trade(I personally think a min of a year of results would be the bare min). The Rules copied from their faq page:


1) Trade over a period of 60 days
2) $25,000.00 virtual account
3) Generate a 10% profit by completion of the 60 day period
4) Trade a minimum of one trade per week
5) Trade consistently. ((Not sure what this means??))

Candidates have the option of choosing preset stop loss, daily loss and weekly loss limits, as well as setting their own rules for the 60-day evaluation period. It's important to note, that if a candidate chooses to set their own rules, they should do their best to abide by them in order to receive the best offer.


From the faqs it seems like they give you some latitude there is no static rule that will get you eliminated like TST or Oneup. Also since my goal is to not blow my real account for the summer this is a good alternative for me. Ill update on how it goes

 

[Pekelo]

There is already a thread about E2T where Ryan from the firm answers questions. So maybe this thread should be merged with that one...

 

[caacapital]

Mine is from a traders perspective the only thing someone that pays for this will be is it real.

There is already a thread about E2T where Ryan from the firm answers questions. So maybe this thread should be merged with that one...

 

[Pekelo]

Mine is from a traders perspective the only thing someone that pays for this will be is it real.

Alright, good luck, but should have posted under Journals then... What is the max. number of contracts you can trade intraday on he 25K sim account? Let's say ES...

 

[Earn2Trade-Ryan]

Alright, good luck, but should have posted under Journals then... What is the max. number of contracts you can trade intraday on he 25K sim account? Let's say ES...

You have full margin requirements. So on ES currently the margin is $7700, so 3 contracts on ES.

 

[MarketEater]

You have full margin requirements. So on ES currently the margin is $7700, so 3 contracts on ES.

Whoa, very high margins for day trading. 7700$ Per contract!? Do u mean $700? Averagedaytrade margin is around $500 at most places

 

[Earn2Trade-Ryan]

Whoa, very high margins for day trading. 7500$ Per contract!? Averagedaytrade margin is around $500 at most places

$7700 is the current initial margin from CME. That's what we allow and it's what we've found works best. We're not looking for the traders who trade 10-20+ contracts on ES on a $25k account. That's a setup for failure.

I would have to disagree with $500 being the average ES day trade margin. Maybe at discount shops like AMP. They offer this because they want the small $500-1000 deposits. Most bigger FCM's will give 25-50% overnight margin as their day trade margin. That said, most professional traders will not use anywhere near that kind of margin. For instance, 1-2 contracts per $100k in the account, or even less than that.

The way we do it is not for everyone but those who sign up, we've never received a complaint about it. If you can be successful actually needing that low of margin, I applaud you! If you have a $25k account and really need $500/contract ES, that's 50 contracts. That's crazy trading.

 

[Pekelo]

Whoa, very high margins for day trading. 7700$ Per contract!? Do u mean $700? Averagedaytrade margin is around $500 at most places

I was thinking the same. Even if they are playing it safe, 2K/contract or so intraday.

So technically speaking that 25K sim account is really just a 2K account in real life. Now making 2.5K (the requirement) on a real 25K account is different than making it on a 2K. So basically they want a 100% return in 60 days...

I think there is really no need to name the sim account a 25K account, just say the max. number of contracts for each instrument, then there is no confusion...

 

[Earn2Trade-Ryan]

I was thinking the same. Even if they are playing it safe, 2K/contract or so intraday.

So technically speaking that 25K sim account is really just a 2K account in real life. Now making 2.5K (the requirement) on a real 25K account is different than making it on a 2K. So basically they want a 100% return in 60 days...

I think there is really no need to name the sim account a 25K account, just say the max. number of contracts for each instrument, then there is no confusion...

Thank you for the feedback guys.

The reason we can't say the max contracts for each instrument is because the margin changes. You can use the full margin so how many contracts depends on what you trade. Since the 25k is full available margin, we see it as a real $25k account. As your balance changes, so does how much you can trade. So if you trade something like ES, that’s currently pretty high. If you trade other instruments it could be 1-3k per contract.

Our rules are meant to maintain maximum flexibility for our candidates and not impose on them rigid/unrealistic risk management rules to protect the account. We believe our system is as close to real life professional trading as exists in the market. We're here to answer any questions and provide any feedback we can.

 

[MarketEater]

$7700 is the current initial margin from CME. That's what we allow and it's what we've found works best. We're not looking for the traders who trade 10-20+ contracts on ES on a $25k account. That's a setup for failure.

I would have to disagree with $500 being the average ES day trade margin. Maybe at discount shops like AMP. They offer this because they want the small $500-1000 deposits. Most bigger FCM's will give 25-50% overnight margin as their day trade margin. That said, most professional traders will not use anywhere near that kind of margin. For instance, 1-2 contracts per $100k in the account, or even less than that.

The way we do it is not for everyone but those who sign up, we've never received a complaint about it. If you can be successful actually needing that low of margin, I applaud you! If you have a $25k account and really need $500/contract ES, that's 50 contracts. That's crazy trading.

The broker sets the margin for intraday trades. 100 YM DJIA points should be plenty so $500 margins make sense.