The bitter truth about Patak Trading

Quote from MrMidnight99:

Just read through all this feed. I am new here and this is definitely not what I expected from a trading forum. I thought this was for people who trade...and want to talk about trading. That is not what I am seeing.

But, getting back to trading...I am in the topstep combine. I think their expectations are completely reasonable. I was in their chat today when their new trader was getting interviewed and they said he was able to choose his own combine objective. Definitely something i am going to do for the future.

You sound like me two decades ago.

I thought traders held hands, sang kumbaya, and made money together.

I was also cursed with beginners luck.
 
Quote from SteveNYC:

The Patak slaughterhouse is where noobs go to feed the hungry market.

What do noobs taste like?

Oh, noobs are the guys who give money to us professional traders.

Maybe I should ask ET mods to delete this thread. I might be making my own executions harder by talking too much on this thread. LOL :)
 
Quote from SteveNYC:

What's the third link?

I got a letter from M. Patak as the third link.

I read the whole letter and it's pretty clear.

Basically, it explains a recruiting program. Pass the program and you trade live.

It doesn't go in detail however. Just an overview.

Nothing really stood out except for a name: Melissa Footlick. Is this a real surname?

That said, the letter didn't put much confidence in signing up for the program.

You missed the earlier post. Someone asked how that letter could be accessed when there is no link on the website. The response was google it, and someone said nothing came up. I simply showed how to do the search.

I didn't read the letter as I have no interest in prop trading where people tell me what I can and can't do. Footlick? I better go back and read that letter.:D
 
Fun informative thread.

I see that the only way to resolve the cynicism is to have Patak traders who have succeeded chime in and prove everything is legit.

Even if you lose just pocket change from the combines, you, the trader, could still get screwed hard later on down the line when you are dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The whole scheme is designed to protect Patak. But where is the trader protection?
 
BTW, this has been bugging me for the last 20 or so pages. The assumption or even the desire to trade ES. Almost nobody at TST trades the e-mini. Most trade Crude Oil or Currencies. Some trade Gold and Bonds and recently the grains. I am only bringing this up because the ES is absolutely bar none the worst futures contract ever to trade and if you want to increase the failure rate at TST or anywhere, make them trade the ES. Luckily most guys are trading oil, which is what they should be trading. You can make a lot of money flipping 5 to 15 lot positions in crude. Hell, you can make a lot of money trading one lots in crude. Anyway, off topic I know, I just wanted to put this out there. I apologize in advance.
 
Quote from justrading:

You missed the earlier post. Someone asked how that letter could be accessed when there is no link on the website. The response was google it, and someone said nothing came up. I simply showed how to do the search.

I didn't read the letter as I have no interest in prop trading where people tell me what I can and can't do. Footlick? I better go back and read that letter.:D

I also don't like the tight leash. It's like dealing with a micromanager breathing down my neck monitoring every single trade and criticing them. I call this trading under duress bullshit.

It's like bush league management.

But I could understand. If you get bush league players, I guess you gotta bush league manage.

I just wish trading firms would tag themselves with bush league badges so that prospective traders know what they are getting themselves into.
 
I have no intention to respond anymore on this thread. I have spent a lot of time already and I have decided to cut my loss at this point. I am outta here. Good Luck to everyone.
 
Quote from Laissez Faire:

Regarding trading one`s own account and keeping 100% of profits versus trading with Patak and keeping 60-70-80%, it seems like Patak is a better choice to me regardless.

Someone mentioned $500 intraday margin on futures. Is the idea to start trading 1 ES contract with $500 in your account?

Okay, let`s say you have $5000 in your account. You are still running a high risk profile trading one contract per every $5000, but if you really, really know what you`re doing, you may pull it off.

But with Patak`s model, you can start trading 5 contracts on the $150K account, with a much more conservative risk profile.

Let`s assume an average of 3 ES points per day.

After 100 days, both accounts will have profits of $52 000 if Patak pays you 60%. Since you grew your equity beyond 15-30K, you get paid 70-80% of profits and the real number is higher. At this point, one could also increase leverage and probably gain access to substantially more volume and still trade within acceptable risk parameters giving a handsome pay-off even if receiving only 80%.

And this is ignoring the substantially higher risk of ruin with the more leveraged $5000 account.

Another thing is that one does not exclude the other. You can still trade your own account as well. You essentially pay $300 dollars to access more capital. The risk is clearly defined.

Am I missing something?



Yes you are not given a 150k account. You are given an account to trade intraday only max of 15 contracts with $3000 loss limit before you get booted back to the combine. 15 contracts x $500 intraday margin is a $7500 account.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

BTW, this has been bugging me for the last 20 or so pages. The assumption or even the desire to trade ES. Almost nobody at TST trades the e-mini. Most trade Crude Oil or Currencies. Some trade Gold and Bonds and recently the grains. I am only bringing this up because the ES is absolutely bar none the worst futures contract ever to trade and if you want to increase the failure rate at TST or anywhere, make them trade the ES. Luckily most guys are trading oil, which is what they should be trading. You can make a lot of money flipping 5 to 15 lot positions in crude. Hell, you can make a lot of money trading one lots in crude. Anyway, off topic I know, I just wanted to put this out there. I apologize in advance.


Just out of curiosity how do you know what the hundreds of recruits are currently trading ?
 
Quote from volente_00:

Yes you are not given a 150k account. You are given an account to trade intraday only max of 15 contracts with $3000 loss limit before you get booted back to the combine. 15 contracts x $500 intraday margin is a $7500 account.

Where can you trade 15 contracts intra-day of the full size Gold contract for 7500? Please list all the brokers. Same with 15 contracts of Crude Oil. I'm really curious about this.
 
Back
Top