FINALLY passed TopstepTrader's Combine!

[Overnight]

...FTP is the hamster wheel that keeps traders in the Combine...

Has nobody stopped and considered what exactly is going here? If you have a $150,000 combine account, which is essentially $150,000 cash in your account...

If you lose $3000 on a bad day...That makes you reset? That's it? The other $147,000 in cash in the account is gone? If they would let you trade a few more days, you could make the $3,000 back. The day after that, another $3,000. By making you reset on an unreasonably tiny margin of what your NLV is, you are guaranteed to fail. It is a business model, because TST is a BUSINESS TO MAKE PROFIT ON YOUR PREMATURE FAILURE. It is not to help you. It is to help them.

I am sad that it took you so long to realize this, JamesEM. Two years of Combines, month after month? Just do paper trading, then go to real trading, and be realistic. How much money do you have to toss into the jaws of the market that you can afford to lose and not be bothered by it? THAT is what you should use to trade with. Not some arbitrary Combine amount. It's not REAL.

 

[Overnight]

...why trade opm for only a 1 lot ?

So I can mitigate my risk and make money. One "lot" in a commodity future is a lot, man. I am happy as a clam making money with one "lot". Here in the futures world, it's called a "contract". One "contract". Not one "lot". Futures trade by "ticks" (or tics), not by "pips". Not by "cars".

Futures are so simple, a caveman can do it. Ticks and contacts. That's it. No muss, no fuss.

 

[ScalperJoe]

...Combines are great for those who want to establish consistency IF they can believe in the pot at the end of the rainbow!

The "pot at the end of the rainbow" will depend on the equity balance on Day 11 of the LIVE account. You correctly figured out the nuances of the TST program by the following post in your blog:

"Of course, if they were to set the same rules for the Combine, they'd find that their clientele would drop off as the offer would be far less inviting."

You mentioned a "Plan B" if you were to continue. Perhaps you can attempt the combine using the scale up profit rules of FTP/LIVE, and take the combine during periods where you feel the market will have ten days of elevated periods of volatility (e.g. pre/post elections).

I mentioned something similar on the other TST thread: If you can't make it in the combine using the LIVE account rules, then you're probably not going to make it in the LIVE account where you must trade with the new rules.

 

[Pekelo]

James, you are adorable. You have registered here 9 years ago, yet you are not aware that there are at least 4 VERY LONG threads about TST on ET, and guys whom you call negative have participated in those threads thus they know way more than you about TST.

Thus your education of us about TST is adorable...

1) The rules changed mid-flight. There was a time when some people didn't even have to do FTP. Then there was FTP but without the infamous 10-day rule (have to be, and stay, positive from then onwards). I got so invested that the changes sneaked up on me and,

OK, James, let's stop right there, because you have just broken my Bullshit-o-Meter. And that was a brand new machine!!!

First FTP has been around for 5 years at least and although TST kept saying not everybody had to do it, in practice pretty much everybody did. Second the 10 days rule has been enforced for at least a year if not two, so saying that the new rules sneaked up on you is total bullshit!

Now why would you trade the combine NOT according to the FTP rules? If you are familiar with the system, and after 2 years of trying you certainly are, what you did is just plain stupid. Who cares if you can pass the combine following rules X if for the next and way more important test you have to follow rules Y? And you circlejerked yourself dry for passing the combine.

Not to mention you chose the worst combine to pass with the less chance of surviving Live trading. Had you followed the above mentioned threads, you would have chosen more wisely.

Anyway, you own me a Bullshit-o-Meter, you can find a cheap one on Ebay, I don't need a brand new one...

 

[ScalperJoe]

Now why would you trade the combine NOT according to the FTP rules?

Pekelo,

Traders will have a tendency to take more risks in the combine just to try and pass, irrespective of whether or not they know about the FTP and its rules. This will continue to occur until TST makes the rules of the combine/FTP/Live uniform.

 

[JamesEM]

Has nobody stopped and considered what exactly is going here? If you have a $150,000 combine account, which is essentially $150,000 cash in your account...

If you lose $3000 on a bad day...That makes you reset? That's it? The other $147,000 in cash in the account is gone? If they would let you trade a few more days, you could make the $3,000 back. The day after that, another $3,000. By making you reset on an unreasonably tiny margin of what your NLV is, you are guaranteed to fail. It is a business model, because TST is a BUSINESS TO MAKE PROFIT ON YOUR PREMATURE FAILURE. It is not to help you. It is to help them.

I am sad that it took you so long to realize this, JamesEM. Two years of Combines, month after month? Just do paper trading, then go to real trading, and be realistic. How much money do you have to toss into the jaws of the market that you can afford to lose and not be bothered by it? THAT is what you should use to trade with. Not some arbitrary Combine amount. It's not REAL.

I don't regret my time in the Combines Overnight. I did paper trading for much more than two years before and never saw the growth that I've seen in the last two. Plus, if you check my blog post, I would have spent a lot more in trading losses had I have traded my own accounts while trying to find my way (<- and I did just that many years ago without establishing consistency). Thanks for your comment.

 

[JamesEM]

James, you are adorable. You have registered here 9 years ago, yet you are not aware that there are at least 4 VERY LONG threads about TST on ET, and guys whom you call negative have participated in those threads thus they know way more than you about TST.

Thus your education of us about TST is adorable...



OK, James, let's stop right there, because you have just broken my Bullshit-o-Meter. And that was a brand new machine!!!

First FTP has been around for 5 years at least and although TST kept saying not everybody had to do it, in practice pretty much everybody did. Second the 10 days rule has been enforced for at least a year if not two, so saying that the new rules sneaked up on you is total bullshit!

Now why would you trade the combine NOT according to the FTP rules? If you are familiar with the system, and after 2 years of trying you certainly are, what you did is just plain stupid. Who cares if you can pass the combine following rules X if for the next and way more important test you have to follow rules Y? And you circlejerked yourself dry for passing the combine.

Not to mention you chose the worst combine to pass with the less chance of surviving Live trading. Had you followed the above mentioned threads, you would have chosen more wisely.

Anyway, you own me a Bullshit-o-Meter, you can find a cheap one on Ebay, I don't need a brand new one...

Thanks for your warm support Pekelo

You are, once again, incorrect my friend. When you ground your way to profit targets over a longer period of time and with a large N (number of trades), they NEVER made you do FTP. I know this because I spoke to almost every person who passed into a live account over a period of a year. When I say "sneaked up on me" I mean I had my head buried in the task at hand and refused to consider/acknowledge what lay ahead. Stupid? Maybe...human, definitely! That's their model and it worked on me.

Having said that, the Combine stopped being about funding for me and became more about proving to myself that I could follow rules, manage risk and achieve targets of the long haul.

"Not to mention you chose the worst combine to pass with the less chance of surviving Live trading. Had you followed the above mentioned threads, you would have chosen more wisely." Now you owe me a Bullshit-o-meter

I chose the BEST Combine for my methods risk parameters. Again, I know this because I tried 4 different sized Combines. I follow my OWN EXPERIENCE not that of invisible thread-warriors behind their keyboards! lol.

You must be a millionaire trader to be lacking so much in humility....wait a minute, it's ALWAYS the most critical who have achieved the least *high five*....I'll go back to being my polite self now....

PS I don't know where those threads are and, if I'm honest, I'm not that interested! Do share though and I'll have a look if/when I get the chance. Ta!

 

[Surprise]

You wont be really funded with 100k or 150k thats just a gimmick ....

 

[Surprise]

The whole tst business model is to make money from combine fees ...

 

[Pekelo]

Thanks for your warm support Pekelo

PS I don't know where those threads are and, if I'm honest, I'm not that interested! Do share though and I'll have a look if/when I get the chance. Ta!

You are as always, welcome!

This thread has ran for 3 years with 2500+ posts, so this is the most relevant:

https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/topsteptrader.275976/page-258

"When you ground your way to profit targets over a longer period of time and with a large N (number of trades), they NEVER made you do FTP."

I simply don't believe this, because forcing them to do the FTP has no disadvantage for TST except a little time lost, not to mention the different rules, but let's not debate it. Maybe N is an infinite number.

Anyhow, read that thread, you will learn a lot from it, and if not, you will learn from your own experience. But please keep updating us, so the next time a similar guy comes along (and there sure will be a next one), we can show him this thread.

Godspeed....