Fuck this stupid fucking contest.
the1 TopstepTrader Combine Journal
- Thread starter julycotton
- Start date
roflmao
Haha that sucks man, I have had that feeling before while doing it! Did you go through the max loss for the day or something?
Ding ding ding!!! You hit it on the head.
I just seem to continually trade differently to try to "pass" the rules...
Maybe that's why they changed the format?
At the end of the day whatever the case may be I'm done chucking money at it.
:eek: 5th combine!!!!
Yes but only paid for 3. One was free because I passed all tests but didn't hit the profit target. Another was "free/do-over" because something in their DOM had me in trades that I exited and when it carried over to the next day I got DQ'd. So that one doesn't count.
So that's 1 too many. As "W" would say, "Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, not gonna fool me again..." oh wait I got fooled thrice. DOH!
No offence but you can't really blame anybody but yourself here. I mean how can you trade your own money if you can't shut it down before you hit a daily draw down limit be it 1k or 15k.
I see most people fail the combine because they can't shut it down on a bad day or take that last trade even if they know if this thing goes wrong I hit max draw down or daily loss limit. I mean really.
There are only certain things one have control over in trading and one of them is the amount of money you are willing to lose on a trade and on a day when things just are not going well for you. If you don't have control over this then you most certainly have no control over yourself to act appropriately and will be a net loser until you give it up.
Someone that hits a daily loss limit in the combine best sign up for another one and keep doing them because there is no way you should ever be trading real money if you cant keep yourself under control to follow the most basic rule of preserving capital to fight another day.
I see most people fail the combine because they can't shut it down on a bad day or take that last trade even if they know if this thing goes wrong I hit max draw down or daily loss limit. I mean really.
There are only certain things one have control over in trading and one of them is the amount of money you are willing to lose on a trade and on a day when things just are not going well for you. If you don't have control over this then you most certainly have no control over yourself to act appropriately and will be a net loser until you give it up.
Someone that hits a daily loss limit in the combine best sign up for another one and keep doing them because there is no way you should ever be trading real money if you cant keep yourself under control to follow the most basic rule of preserving capital to fight another day.
My respects to you for learning after each combine and getting better.
Thanks again for letting us know that passing the combine is not a "given".
I also realise you have been clever by taking as many combines as possible
instead of wasting your own money losing your own capital. Respect.
What you say is true but there is one major difference between live trading and combine.
In the combine you are forced to reach a certain profit in a limited time frame. This causes people to take unnecessary risk under less than ideal market conditions in an attempt to hit a target.
In real trading one never knows what the market will bring on any given day. I may trade an 18 hour session and only end up $100 for the day. I may trade the next session and be up $10,000 and give back $5,000. I may only make $3,000 on the next and may lose $4000 on the next. Drawdowns are a normal part of trading, but I know with my system's positive expectancy, if I keep taking my shot and controlling my risk I will end up net profitable over time. There is nothing wrong with having a max loss, but if it is too tight it will skew your results because the next trading opportunity the markets presents is independent of your previous trade.