I'm getting a lot more PM's than I can physically type responses to, so I figured I'd just make a comprehensive post here to detail my experience.
I first started with Patak pretty close to when they first got up and running. I did 3 combines. Things were different then. The chat applet was ghetto, the combines were free, and you could talk to Mike (the principal, a floor trader at the CME) directly.
Then I took a 3 month break for summer. When I came back, the topsteptrader.com branch had been spun off. They were now charging a deposit to 'make sure traders took the evaluation period seriously.' It was something like $40 (now I think it is double). At this time, they wanted you to do ~ 60% on your account in a month to get selected (it is now 80%). I did 3 more combines in this period. I only paid for the first one. The other times my performance was high enough that my deposit was rolled over. I cleared the 60% threshhold twice during my evaluations and was told to keep trading, which caused me to dip below the balance.
Passing selection means they stake you with a 10k account. At the time, they didn't post this information, but it is now public here:
http://www.topsteptrader.com/LiveTraderSetup.aspx
The good part is that you get staked. They like to play this up as you having 'no risk.' But the truth is, anytime you have profits in your account in excess of your original stake, you are playing with and risking your money anyways.
Part of my decision to quit was this math: If you do a banner year and get +800%, you are still making a paltry amount of money, and the splits give you incentive to maintain and attempt to grow the account with them. Myself, I was looking for something I could use as a career... busting my ass, being in the top 10% of traders and taking home <50k/yr pre-tax under a best case scenario just didn't seem worth it to me. Having your money locked up in an account and being forced to take an unfavorable split to buy groceries and pay rent didn't seem like a good setup. I know another prop, Trillium is a lot better about making sure their people have money to meet ongoing expenses.
I was also having trouble trading the way the wanted me to. They want you to trade intraday because a 10k account can't be margined well overnight. The software, T4, also had problems handling more complicated trades than outrights.
Anyways, Patak is making most of its money off of people rushing into combines and getting crushed. Through the chat, I saw hundreds of traders wash out. They have no interest or infrastructure to help you succeed. You have no access to senior traders, and Eddy and Mike will only give you vague and useless advice.
Think about how the model works: They target college students and post on college job boards. These are people that by definition have minor and informal at best trading experience. They then set a very high bar of short-term performance, charge them what they can get away with, and let them flop. Hopefully, they get hooked on the game and come back for seconds.
It is as legitimate as a US prop firm gets, but that doesn't make it a good deal. If you're looking for a career in financial markets, look elsewhere.
I first started with Patak pretty close to when they first got up and running. I did 3 combines. Things were different then. The chat applet was ghetto, the combines were free, and you could talk to Mike (the principal, a floor trader at the CME) directly.
Then I took a 3 month break for summer. When I came back, the topsteptrader.com branch had been spun off. They were now charging a deposit to 'make sure traders took the evaluation period seriously.' It was something like $40 (now I think it is double). At this time, they wanted you to do ~ 60% on your account in a month to get selected (it is now 80%). I did 3 more combines in this period. I only paid for the first one. The other times my performance was high enough that my deposit was rolled over. I cleared the 60% threshhold twice during my evaluations and was told to keep trading, which caused me to dip below the balance.
Passing selection means they stake you with a 10k account. At the time, they didn't post this information, but it is now public here:
http://www.topsteptrader.com/LiveTraderSetup.aspx
The good part is that you get staked. They like to play this up as you having 'no risk.' But the truth is, anytime you have profits in your account in excess of your original stake, you are playing with and risking your money anyways.
Part of my decision to quit was this math: If you do a banner year and get +800%, you are still making a paltry amount of money, and the splits give you incentive to maintain and attempt to grow the account with them. Myself, I was looking for something I could use as a career... busting my ass, being in the top 10% of traders and taking home <50k/yr pre-tax under a best case scenario just didn't seem worth it to me. Having your money locked up in an account and being forced to take an unfavorable split to buy groceries and pay rent didn't seem like a good setup. I know another prop, Trillium is a lot better about making sure their people have money to meet ongoing expenses.
I was also having trouble trading the way the wanted me to. They want you to trade intraday because a 10k account can't be margined well overnight. The software, T4, also had problems handling more complicated trades than outrights.
Anyways, Patak is making most of its money off of people rushing into combines and getting crushed. Through the chat, I saw hundreds of traders wash out. They have no interest or infrastructure to help you succeed. You have no access to senior traders, and Eddy and Mike will only give you vague and useless advice.
Think about how the model works: They target college students and post on college job boards. These are people that by definition have minor and informal at best trading experience. They then set a very high bar of short-term performance, charge them what they can get away with, and let them flop. Hopefully, they get hooked on the game and come back for seconds.
It is as legitimate as a US prop firm gets, but that doesn't make it a good deal. If you're looking for a career in financial markets, look elsewhere.