FINALLY passed TopstepTrader's Combine!

[Gotcha]

The fewer ticks per given rally/sell-off as compared to, say, YM, makes it difficult to drill down and find edge.

Its funny you say this actually because once again, I see it completely opposite. I used to trade the NQ but then realized that the all the spikes were playing on my nerves. When I got into doing some stats analysis, given that there were so many levels, it seemed to make it more difficult. 10 ticks or 12 ticks is barely a difference for NQ, means nothing, and price can easily spike through 4-10 NQ ticks no problem. The ES will generally not spike more than about 4 ticks I would say unless its a move. But if I do stats analysis, a 6 tick stop vs. a 10 tick stop really does make a difference, so it seems easier to arrive at statistically significant numbers. But with NQ, 3 points, 4 points.. 5 points, its all the same thing almost.

Now granted, I do think the NQ moves more than the ES for the most part. If ES moves 20 points, the same dollar value would be 50 for NQ, but the NQ can easily move way more than this. Of course it tracks different stocks, but still, there is more money there, but that of course cuts both ways for being down more as well as up more.

 

[Xela]

Its funny you say this actually because once again, I see it completely opposite. I used to trade the NQ but then realized that the all the spikes were playing on my nerves. When I got into doing some stats analysis, given that there were so many levels, it seemed to make it more difficult. 10 ticks or 12 ticks is barely a difference for NQ, means nothing, and price can easily spike through 4-10 NQ ticks no problem. The ES will generally not spike more than about 4 ticks I would say unless its a move. But if I do stats analysis, a 6 tick stop vs. a 10 tick stop really does make a difference, so it seems easier to arrive at statistically significant numbers. But with NQ, 3 points, 4 points.. 5 points, its all the same thing almost.

Now granted, I do think the NQ moves more than the ES for the most part. If ES moves 20 points, the same dollar value would be 50 for NQ, but the NQ can easily move way more than this. Of course it tracks different stocks, but still, there is more money there, but that of course cuts both ways for being down more as well as up more.

Interesting - thanks. I was "wondering" anyway, but this his given me much to think about and re-examine and perhaps re-assess (as a mostly-NQ trader).

 

[gkishot]

For all who are interested, here's my update on my personal journey with TST.

In short, the journey with them stops here. I'm currently at day 7 in the "funded" account and down $541. As many have alluded to, if you can't perform consistently well enough to pass FTP/have enough profits after 10 days to be able to satisfy their "10 Day rule", you have no business entering the Combine in the first place if your goal is to actually get funded and stay funded.

But I still don't regret getting involved with TST...despite feeling as if I've been left empty-handed at the end of it (<- ALL my own doing). The proverbial carrot of a "funded" account (complete nonsense as they take the draw-down away from you after 10 trading days) was what I needed to harness the discipline to eventually pass the Combine. This proved to me the LONG-TERM viability of my edge and meant that I didn't have to win in the short-term to prevail over time. TST helped me become confident in my abilities as a trader and I am grateful for that opportunity even if I think it was a side-effect of them doing good business under the guise of "helping traders get funded".

Some will say, "why didn't you prove that to yourself in SIM and put that Combine money into an account instead?". I've asked myself that question- I would never have had the long-term conviction to prove the plan to myself without that end goal.

Trying to make enough to continue trading off of profits alone after 10 days is the worst thing that I could have done for my personal discipline and, as such, I'm not even going to attempt to finish the 10 Day period, nor will I take them up on their "redevelopment opportunity". I will go back to basics in my own personal account and build from there.

OK! I'm ready for all of you I-told-you-so'ers and naysayers!!!!

Would you recommend TST to other people who are looking for capital funding? That's the question.

 

[Gotcha]

Interesting - thanks. I was "wondering" anyway, but this his given me much to think about and re-examine and perhaps re-assess (as a mostly-NQ trader).

Glad you found it helpful. I watch both markets, and cross reference quite a bit. I almost need to see what is happening in one before I take a trade in the other. (ie. a short might setup in ES, but NQ is just above the LOD... so no way should you short because a bounce will happen, even if the levels will break. It just really helps with timing) But still, ES just seems to be less frantic.

 

[JamesEM]

Would you recommend TST to other people who are looking for capital funding? That's the question.

I think I answered that somewhere above but I would say, if you really are confident in your profitability, it would be better to exhaust all other possibilities before going the TST route for funding.

If you are someone who knows they are "nearly there" and want a shot at getting funded, I'd say it's a brilliant option because the environment will mold you into a profitable trader if you take it seriously, use the community journal etc. Once you actually get to the point where you achieve funding, but lose it (the case with majority of traders there for obvious reasons), it might be time to take those skills and figure something out for yourself funding-wise.

 

[Overnight]

...After the goal I mentioned in my penultimate post (above), my next one will be to work on transferring this result over to the ES and maxing out the lot size there. i.e 100 contracts with a $300K account with those same 4.17 ticks gross/day. $1.22M a year ....

With 300K in your trading account, at 100 contracts in ES, you're playing a dangerous game. Sure, you may need only 50K or some amount similar to get into the daytrade. But get caught near the close of the electronic-trading day and have trouble getting out of your position, and you'd need $522,720 value in the account, INCLUDING whatever unrealized PnL you have in your open position, to get through the close. So even if your 100 ct open position is up 50-100K, guess what? You're gonna' get a margin call anyway, for upwards of 100K of margin, and would have to liquidate some of your position or have the broker do it for you. Not a good place to be in I think!

 

[algofy]

With 300K in your trading account, at 100 contracts in ES, you're playing a dangerous game. Sure, you may need only 50K or some amount similar to get into the daytrade. But get caught near the close of the electronic-trading day and have trouble getting out of your position, and you'd need $522,720 value in the account, INCLUDING whatever unrealized PnL you have in your open position, to get through the close. So even if your 100 ct open position is up 50-100K, guess what? You're gonna' get a margin call anyway, for upwards of 100K of margin, and would have to liquidate some of your position or have the broker do it for you. Not a good place to be in I think!

Easy solution, don't trade 30 sec before the close...easy. No day traders get caught not being able to close their positions before the close in ES, just dump it at market, plenty of liquidity.

 

[Overnight]

Easy solution, don't trade 30 sec before the close...easy. No day traders get caught not being able to close their positions before the close in ES, just dump it at market, plenty of liquidity.

You gonna' bet 300K on that, or more? Sudden move to limit down 2 hours before market close and now you're stuck at a loss (if your position is long)? I think the point of my bit was that there's no reason one should get that far extended into their positions, "just-in-case". Trying to trade 100 ES contracts with less than 7-figure in cash is not smart trading, that's just ham-fisting for profits. But with 300K? 20 cts would be cool IMHO. But again, that is just ME, and MY trading style. Some folks like to go bolder, some more humbly. YMMV. Just sayin'.

 

[smallStops]

You gonna' bet 300K on that, or more? Sudden move to limit down 2 hours before market close and now you're stuck at a loss (if your position is long)? I think the point of my bit was that there's no reason one should get that far extended into their positions, "just-in-case". Trying to trade 100 ES contracts with less than 7-figure in cash is not smart trading, that's just ham-fisting for profits. But with 300K? 20 cts would be cool IMHO. But again, that is just ME, and MY trading style. Some folks like to go bolder, some more humbly. YMMV. Just sayin'.

All depends on the broker he has. because, for all we know, his 100ES contracts could basically cost him nothing, and the 300K could be his account stop loss. In that case, at 1000$/tick, if he is into 8 ticks stops, then he is risking less than 3% of his capital per trade campain. At 4.7ticks gross profits per day, that's around 5k/day, so his targer of 1.2M makes sense. This assuming the psychology does not kick in.

 

[Pekelo]

I'll definitely keep everyone updated!

I think an update is due now...

In the main time in the spirit of this thread, a little motivation about the power of persistency:

I started trading in TopstepTrader in 2011, first funded account I got in 2015, second in 2016. So about 5 years for me.