FINALLY passed TopstepTrader's Combine!
- Thread starter JamesEM
- Start date
I wish you the best of luck as well.I appreciate your concern and effort for writing all of this out for me. You can check my blog for detailed answers to your questions and doubts. My answer doesn't fall into any one of the above scenarios so, if you are so inclined, you can find them in the post entitled, "The Problem With FTP".
In short, I do have the method and the psychology after a very long, hard trek up the mountain to CP (<- Consistent Profitability).
Best of Luck to you
It's interesting that you would compare TST to prison and confinement. Why not just use the door?Remember that scene from The Shawshank Redemption? How he tunneled through that brick wall using a little rock hammer over the course of 20-something years??
"Pressure and Time"- Morgan Freeman.
LOL! It's not TST that confines us...it's ourselves
I used that as an analogy (or is it a metaphor...never remember which is which!) because great things can be achieved with just a little effort, constantly applied over a long time. Interesting idea to consider all the same (the subconscious comparison)!
I know many have told me that even FTP means nothing but I thought I'd share this anyway!
http://bit.ly/FTPsuccess
PS I think every step, leap or jump towards your goals should be celebrated no matter how small, but that's just me! Next stop- the first check! (If it doesn't happen this time around, I'll just keep improving until it does )
http://bit.ly/FTPsuccess
PS I think every step, leap or jump towards your goals should be celebrated no matter how small, but that's just me! Next stop- the first check! (If it doesn't happen this time around, I'll just keep improving until it does
)I agree with you, except perhaps for the "just a little effort" part.LOL! It's not TST that confines us...it's ourselves
I used that as an analogy (or is it a metaphor...never remember which is which!) because great things can be achieved with just a little effort, constantly applied over a long time. Interesting idea to consider all the same (the subconscious comparison)!
Effectively, I don't see what purpose TST serves aside from being a form of external validation, and a relatively expensive one at that. Because, as I'm sure you're aware, you're essentially going to be funded with the combine fees that you have already incurred. As for the discipline part, that needs to come from the trader. Because if he doesn't have capital preserving discipline, he will invariably find himself having to take the combine again and again, and pay fees that will be the source of his future funding if and when he gets his act together. I understand why TST wants to play; I'm not sure why anyone else does.
In any event, I wish you well. You have evidently put in the time and effort.
Then you clearly haven't seen the large number of detailed reports (including some videos on Youtube) of the people who are making and withdrawing regular monthly profits from their TST-funded accounts, who had some trading skills but not enough capital of their own to start trading futures, and needed some kind of backing to get started.
If you'd seen those, you wouldn't be saying you're not sure why anyone else does.
I'm not criticising you, at all, Frederick: I'm simply pointing out that the reason you're not sure about that - when so many other people are sure about it - is actually that there's a lot of information available about it which you're either unaware of, or in any case not taking into account.
And some of that information makes it really clear "why anyone else does".
Fair enough.Then you clearly haven't seen the large number of detailed reports (including some videos on Youtube) of the people who are making and withdrawing regular monthly profits from their TST-funded accounts, who had some trading skills but not enough capital of their own to start trading futures, and needed some kind of backing to get started.
If you'd seen those, you wouldn't be saying you're not sure why anyone else does.
I'm not criticising you, at all, Frederick: I'm simply pointing out that the reason you're not sure about that - when so many other people are sure about it - is actually that there's a lot of information available about it which you're either unaware of, or in any case not taking into account.
And some of that information makes it really clear "why anyone else does".
However, what I'd like to know is how much they have already paid in combine fees and how many contracts they're now trading with real money. Just to make sure they're not merely paying their own way. Since the combines are fee-driven, I'd like to get a look at both sides of the ledger to get a complete picture.
It would also be instructive to see how many people have taken the combine over a period of time and what percentage have made money over time, just to see if the numbers are appreciably any better than they would be in the aggregate without a combine. In other words, has TST provided value to anyone other than themselves? Showing a few "winners" is the tip of the iceberg. But how big is that iceberg? Government lotteries also trot out their winners. Those lottery winners are not likely to win again. So how consistently are the TST winners actually winning? Or are they largely flashes in the pan where the only man standing is Mr. TST?
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Those are among the many things you can find, openly discussed, by being willing to look at them.
The last time the overall Combine pass-rate was independently audited, it was 20%, but it's increased quite a bit since then, after some rule changes.
Some people do pass it the first time. Some have published their Combine reports in this very forum, demonstrating that (and many more elsewhere).
The majority, of course, don't pass it the first time. That's to be expected, of course, given that there's absolutely no entry-barrier at all.
Some of the people who have failed it multiple times and eventually pass are still doing much better than paying their own way, and say so openly.
Others not, I don't doubt.
Few businesses open up the whole of their internal, management accounts for public inspection. Given the openness with which TST discuss, explain, respond and encourage their users to publish information and their own accounts of using TST, I'd say that they give, overall, a far clearer picture of what's actually going on than many businesses do.
But again, that's a picture you can form for yourself only by taking into account a lot of information which at the moment you're not taking into account. Again just a factual observation and in no sense a criticism.
They must all be hoping that "Mr. TST" is "standing", anyway, mustn't they? Otherwise the business would cease to exist.
Okay, admittedly, there is a number of moving parts here. And I confess that I am not interested in the combine personally, so I am disinclined to put in the work to tie it all together. I also acknowledge a negative bias, so anything I have said should be taken in that context. As with any undertaking, people need to do their own due diligence to objectively determine if they are getting value for what they are paying. I don't think it's quite as clear as you suggest, but that is for other people to decide for themselves.Those are among the many things you can find, openly discussed, by being willing to look at them.
The last time the overall Combine pass-rate was independently audited, it was 20%, but it's increased quite a bit since then, after some rule changes.
Some people do pass it the first time. Some have published their Combine reports in this very forum, demonstrating that (and many more elsewhere).
The majority, of course, don't pass it the first time. That's to be expected, of course, given that there's absolutely no entry-barrier at all.
Some of the people who have failed it multiple times and eventually pass are still doing much better than paying their own way, and say so openly.
Others not, I don't doubt.
Few businesses open up the whole of their internal, management accounts for public inspection. Given the openness with which TST discuss, explain, respond and encourage their users to publish information and their own accounts of using TST, I'd say that they give, overall, a far clearer picture of what's actually going on than many businesses do.
But again, that's a picture you can form for yourself only by taking into account a lot of information which at the moment you're not taking into account. Again just a factual observation and in no sense a criticism.
They must all be hoping that "Mr. TST" is "standing", anyway, mustn't they? Otherwise the business would cease to exist.
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