Maverick74 and marketsurfer's TopstepTrader Combine (daily trade reports and journal)

[MichaelPatak]

Quote from asap:

cut the crap, is not an interview in the sense you allude to.

it is an interview/examination of skills that upon approval will lead to become funded by the company.

the company is not a charitable entity, so they charge an examination fee to filter out the wannabe and offset the costs of their IT.

asap- Correct. We provide a hell of a lot when you are on the inside (Membership or Combine). We take pride in the fact we don't charge thousands.

(generally speaking)

By all means go pay thousands sometimes 10's of thousand for that quote unquote "Harvard of trading education." We don't want traders or prospects doing that. You learn by repetition, being in the market, and being around a solid support group with feedback (think sports with coaches, working with others in practice and reviewing film and getting feedback). We want to keep it as fair as possible and give as many people an opportunity to get educated, develop and funded. But they must take it serious to get anywhere.

(Oh and to have a little fun with the point on the Harvard of trading education... lets all remember you have to pay an application fee just to see if you will be accepted to get into college..)

mp

 

[Brass]

Quote from CoolTraderDude:

If you look at it as an interview then sure... But I'll defend (no I'm not a shill for them everyone can relax) M. Patak and TST here with the following...

If you wanted live data and a squack box from the CME how much would you pay depending on the service you got...?

So when you look at it that way you might be paying slightly more for this package but overall the costs for what you get with the $175.00 10 day Combine isn't entirely unreasonable. They do offer some value for their price.

I mean check out eSignal here for a comparison... http://www.esignal.com/esignal/pricing.aspx?tc=

So overall... You get a live simulator, CME commentary, market data, charts and a squack box for 30 days if you don't use up your 10 Combine days immediately.

Not that bad of a deal if you look at it that way.

I can't imagine CME commentary being of much value. Are you going to trade what you hear or what you see? Same for the squawk box. NT provides free real-time unfiltered data and charts with no time limit, sim or live.

 

[ammo]

Quote from londonkid:

god will you give TST a break, you are making out that they are robbing people here and it's just not true. they are offering a genuine service, a track to run on for new traders.

and demanding answers from Michael like you matter. dude Michael is running a business he is a professional, does he really have time to respond to your girlish claims of 'it's paying for an interview'. just get over it and move on. maybe we should give you a free combine to shut you up, little point though you would probably say the rules are wrong or something.

keep trolling mate.

are you saying you matter as opposed to atticus and others posting on the topic of tst

 

[MichaelPatak]

Quote from atticus:

I don't dispute any of that. My point is simply that it's a convenient excuse if you're simply running a site to earn the cash from running sim accounts.

Pay $190 to pass a combine which only gets you an interview?

I really would like to avoid cluttering this thread. I've posted (and you've ignored) my questions on the Q&A thread, but thanks anyway.

atticus- You are not ONLY getting an interview. You are in a program that educates and develops traders. Below is what you have access to. Use it ALL or use none of it, this is your choice during your interview. I can assure you if you use some or most of these your aptitude for trading will increase as we see this with those we bring up to a funded account weekly:

Here's what you get:
Real-time Trading Simulator
Trade Reports
Trading Coaches
Trade Journal
Interactive trader chat room
Access to professional trading platform
Pre-market morning reports
Levels and Value Areas provided hourly
Charting software
Live chat support
Chat Room Trading Badge

ACCESS TO LIVE SQUAWK RADIO: (which includes)
CBOT pit activity
Breaking News (typically around $200 on average when companring to other breaking news services)
Daily trading classes (hour long class a day, each day is a bit different and you can ask question to the teacher.)
Market updates
Live market commentary
News affecting the markets
Real-time economic releases
Live Floor trader interviews throughout the day
bi- Weekly sessions with professional trading psychologist, Dr. Andrew Menaker


mp

 

[MichaelPatak]

Quote from Crispy:

Michael,

Has Patak ever funded a trader who didnt quite meet the profit objectives, but displayed good patience, risk/reward ratio, good hit rate? Just curious.

thanks.

We have funded many recruits that we had an approved NO profit target evaluation (these were notable recruits in the program though). We asked that they just not exceed certain criteria on their downside. Many traders don't watch their downside which we feel is the absolute most important.

We are scouts looking for traders, period. If our evaluation criteria is not a fit, don't knock the program. Send us a proposal on how you would like to be evaluated and if approved we will ask you to trade as advertised.

(http://www.topsteptrader.com/customevaluation)

mp

 

[londonkid]

Quote from ammo:

are you saying you matter as opposed to atticus and others posting on the topic of tst

no I am not saying that.

 

[Crispy]

Quote from MichaelPatak:

We have funded many recruits that we had an approved NO profit target evaluation (these were notable recruits in the program though). We asked that they just not exceed certain criteria on their downside. Many traders don't watch their downside which we feel is the absolute most important.

We are scouts looking for traders, period. If our evaluation criteria is not a fit, don't knock the program. Send us a proposal on how you would like to be evaluated and if approved we will ask you to trade as advertised.

(http://www.topsteptrader.com/customevaluation)

mp

Very fair.

Thanks for taking the response time.

 

[MichaelPatak]

Quote from Crispy:

Very fair.

Thanks for tasking the response time.

anytime.. good question.

 

[austinp]

Quote from baggerlord:

Austin, I'm glad to see you are doing this. It is kind of cool for me personally to see that the only people stepping up and doing this are from the very short list of people that I respect on ET.

I look foward to seeing who made more on crude today, mav or austin.

It's very important to keep in mind that this process has nothing to do with individual trader's competition or comparison. The whole focus is on each person meeting the combine goals and nothing else.

I do understand it's status quo for men to want some type of comparison whether it's tossing marbles or catching flies or snapping beer caps for distance.

But none of that has anything to do with this individual process for each

 

[atticus]

Quote from MichaelPatak:

atticus- You are not ONLY getting an interview. You are in a program that educates and develops traders. Below is what you have access to. Use it ALL or use none of it, this is your choice during your interview. I can assure you if you use some or most of these your aptitude for trading will increase as we see this with those we bring up to a funded account weekly:

Here's what you get:
Real-time Trading Simulator
Trade Reports
Trading Coaches
Trade Journal
Interactive trader chat room
Access to professional trading platform
Pre-market morning reports
Levels and Value Areas provided hourly
Charting software
Live chat support
Chat Room Trading Badge

ACCESS TO LIVE SQUAWK RADIO: (which includes)
CBOT pit activity
Breaking News (typically around $200 on average when companring to other breaking news services)
Daily trading classes (hour long class a day, each day is a bit different and you can ask question to the teacher.)
Market updates
Live market commentary
News affecting the markets
Real-time economic releases
Live Floor trader interviews throughout the day
bi- Weekly sessions with professional trading psychologist, Dr. Andrew Menaker


mp

Wow, I guess I can cancel my Bloomberg subscription. The CBOT pit activity will be highly relevant to my ES and 6E trading. Oh f*ck me I apologize for bothering with this thread. Thanks for the info.

whoosh.