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

Quote from Samsara:

I hear that. The one trading loss scenario that personally makes me angry for a long time is getting stopped out at the very end of of a pull back right before price goes according to plan.

Nothing else gets on my nerves. Constant small losses, medium dd periods, not riding gains far enough, having a decent profit reverse into a wash, etc. Just that one scenario I cannot mentally get past and maintain my equilibrium.
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I kept shorting and shorting ZS because I "knew" it was high-odds to drop. And it did... but in too raggedy fashion for catching a ride.

All the stuff you listed above and everything else imaginable used to keep me up at night. After you do this long enough, everything just ceases to matter that much. Now it's just routine, 1,000 mental calculations per day while trading, then turn the mind off and focus on something else afterwards.

Decompress. That is a critical key to trading well. Don't carry the last trade's or last day's mental baggage into the next one. Euphoric and jaded are equally destructive emotions to performance.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

Yes, but this is why I have stated on this thread and the other TST threads that your goal cannot be exclusively to pass the combine.

But back to your main point, I don't see what objections they would have to getting rid of the time period and instead using periods as segments. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes.
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Yes, but I've also stated on the other thread that a trader WILL at least make the attempt to pass.

You can build all the good habits and consistency with the practice account. Once you sign up for the combine, you're going to try and meet the P&L objective. The CL traders who got funding prove that point.

Having a time period at least sets a deadline to accomplish a goal. Maybe one tweak to the combine is to allow traders the option to trade any amount of days within the period.

In other words, instead of restricting it to only 10 days out of 30 calendar days, trade any amount of days within the period, with a minimum of 10 days. For the 20 day combine, trade any amount of days to meet the objective within 60 calendar days, with a minimum of 20 trading days.

This lowers the net average required per day to meet the P&L objective, and allows the trader more days to work their way out of a draw.
 
Quote from ScalperJoe:

Yes, but I've also stated on the other thread that a trader WILL at least make the attempt to pass.

You can build all the good habits and consistency with the practice account. Once you sign up for the combine, you're going to try and meet the P&L objective. The CL traders who got funding prove that point.

Having a time period at least sets a deadline to accomplish a goal. Maybe one tweak to the combine is to allow traders the option to trade any amount of days within the period.

In other words, instead of restricting it to only 10 days out of 30 calendar days, trade any amount of days within the period, with a minimum of 10 days. For the 20 day combine, trade any amount of days to meet the objective within 60 calendar days, with a minimum of 20 trading days.

This lowers the net average required per day to meet the P&L objective, and allows the trader more days to work their way out of a draw.
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Not a bad idea and it gets closer to where I would like to see them go. Of course, a trader sets out at the beginning to pass the combine but what should he do after day 3 let's say. Say he has to make 3500 and after 3 days he is down 500. Now he has 7 days to make 4000. His per day avg has now doubled. See what I'm saying is, at some point he has to realize he has a bad hand and not focus now on trying to double what his original profit goal was and instead should say, look, I'll get it next time. Let me focus on just being profitable and consistent the rest of the way through.

Sure, as has been stated before, if one comes out of the gate strong and let's say makes 1500 the first 2 days. This is the same as a football team jumping to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter. They now have the luxury of running the ball and working the clock and winning on just playing good defense.

What I've seen more often then not, and perhaps I'm the example here, is you don't get that 3 touch down lead to start. And now your back is against the wall. I just can't for the life of me see what the value is now in suddenly gunning it going on full tilt simply to "pass" a combine. I think it will only frustrate you even more when you fail and now you have to be in the right state of mind to do it again if you choose to. That's tough man.

There is a logic to this process. And part of my goal here is to explain that. Too many guys here don't see the forest through the trees. I've played sports all my life hence the sports analogies, but the sports analogies work. It's why so many successful traders come from a sports background.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

There is a logic to this process. And part of my goal here is to explain that. Too many guys here don't see the forest through the trees. I've played sports all my life hence the sports analogies, but the sports analogies work. It's why so many successful traders come from a sports background.
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Thanks to you guys for this thread. Interesting both in the outcomes and the discussion.

I'd just like to suggest, Maverick, that maybe its not so much the sports analogies that work - its the mindset and thinking patterns you can develop in playing sports that work. People who didn't learn to think in that way find the probability and stick to it game that is trading much more difficult.
 
Trade only products permitted to trade, during the permitted times - OK
Do not hold a position into the electronic close of the product trading (recruits may trade overnight but must be flat when their product's electronic market is closed) - OK
Trade all required days of the Combine (10 or 20 days, each to be completed within 30 or 60 calendar days, respectively) - OK
Always use stops with an open position (auto OCO recommended) - OK
Overall Winning Day % of 50 or greater - Why? You don't need to win 1/2 the days to make money.
Do not hit or exceed the daily loss limit (NET P&L) - OK


Additionally, each product traded during the Combine must meet at least TWO of the performance requirements listed below AND have a trading average greater than zero ($0):

Overall Average Win greater than Overall Average Loss - OK
Overall Average Win Duration greater than Overall Average Loss Duration - Why? So what if it took your stop after chopping around for 2 hours or took your stop right away?
Total Win % of 45 or greater - Why? What if you have Win% of 35 and RR of 4x or 5x?

Wishing the best to both Maverick74 and marketsurfer.
 
Quote from eagle11:

Maverick, you do a lot for this board, thousands of posts, no question.
I do not want to offend you, but what did you tell cooltraderdude?
One should be familiar with the software before......

Michael, why let you do mav and surf a free combine, if they have no interest in getting funded? Makes no sence to me.

happy trading

eagle 11
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Indeed...! I have to confess that I'm enjoying the irony!:D

So maverick... It happened to you too huh...? :p
 
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As market karma always has it: I laid off ZS trading today, and it in turn spilled straight lower from one sell signal to another. Where the hell was that deliberate trending yesterday when I held one 10-lot short after another?

CL program spiked straight up early, backed off a tad from the highs late morning. I never had chance to methodically step into a 10-lot position... we did what we did with 5s alone.

Done for the day, time to get some work done outside and climb a tree stand for archery deer this evening :)
 

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Quote from austinp:
----market karma....
----time to get some work done outside....
----climb a tree stand for archery....
----deer this evening
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You get to "eat what you kill".....just like trading? :confused: :cool:
 
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