TopstepTrader Combine - opposite positions in two combines

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lukas

@TopstepTrader

Has anyone tried passing the combine by having two opposite positions in two Combine accounts, for instance during economic news releases? This way it should be quite easy to reach the profit target. Is that allowed at all?
 
I think you are not allowed to hold positions into or trade close to economic news releases.

Also, even if they would let you through with this, how would this make sense in the long run ? Your goal is to make money, or no ? How would you continue once you have a funded account ?
 
I think this rule only applies to Funded Trader Prep and Funded Account stages. The point is to get as quickly through the Combine as possible to avoid paying too much in monthly fees - of course it is not a long-term strategy
 
Ok, but if you know what you are doing, how long should it take to pass the combine ? 1-3 months ? So thats 1-3 times the monhtly fee for one account.

If you do this thing with opposite positions, you will also have 2x the combine fee, 2x the market data fees... it adds up, so maybe not that much money that you would save here.

And really, I think this would be plain and simple cheating your way into a funded account. I dont want to be the judge if this is good or bad, but I am pretty sure that TST would very soon realize this and ban you. They are a professional company and put their money on the table to let you trade with, so I guess they closely supervise what is happening on their accounts and will step in as soon as they smell something might be wrong.

Even if they find out much later what you did to pass the combine, you could still be in trouble and would maybe have to give back all your profits. This could get you in even bigger trouble if you have paid already your income tax on these profits or maybe already spent all of that money.

We just had a thread about a guy who tried to play games with a big broker, and see how it turned out:
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...in-customer-profits-and-wins-in-court.312467/
 
There is nothing in the rules that prevents that - there is still a risk that you may hit your daily loss limit in both accounts so it is not a guaranteed method to pass. I will ask them this question and see what they say
 
You can do it but it is worthless to try. First, you can't trade during "events". Second you are not guaranteed a big move or a big enough move to make the profit target. Third you need to trade for at least 10 days I think, so plenty of time to lose back the gains.

And as it was pointed out, you are not really saving on fees either. So in short, you could do it, but it is pointless.

But hey, why don't you give it a try and come back and tell us about it?
 
lukas said:
Has anyone tried passing the combine by having two opposite positions in two Combine accounts, for instance during economic news releases? This way it should be quite easy to reach the profit target.
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Call me naive, but I'd always imagined that the objective of qualifying for a funded account with TST was to form a partnership or alliance with them, and trade one of their accounts on a profit-sharing basis, in which both parties profit together.

It seems to me that approaching them on that kind of basis, whether it's technically allowed or not, is tantamount to saying "I'm here to exploit a loophole in your rules" rather than "I'm here to form an alliance with you".

I'm just wondering how you'd expect TST to feel about someone doing that, even if it's allowed? Do you think they'd take it as inherently within their intended objective, or might it perhaps come across to them as slightly "adversarial"?


lukas said:
Is that allowed at all?
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For me, if I were potentially funding people as TST are, it wouldn't really matter whether or not it's "allowed": I'd know straight away what kind of approach I was dealing with and probably wouldn't have a good feeling about future partnership prospects with someone trying that.

Of course, that's only my own perspective, and I'm notoriously pedantic and humourless. TST themselves might feel completely different about it. :rolleyes:
 
If you have ethical concerns, you should not be robbing other people trading. This is a brutal world - either it is allowed by law and their rules, or not. There is no place for "feelings" in this business
 
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