I have been trading futures for about a year options since 2015 I decided in 2016 to start trading futures. I went directly live and had limited success blowing several small accounts. The last blow out I decided to trade sim for a few months since I had the blow out experience I could kind of treat demo realistically meaning I wasn't buying 10 contracts at a time riding a loser for 10 points and adding until i goes my way but still found myself taking entries that I know I wouldn’t have taken in a live account. I like other traders though maybe I can be funded by someone else thinking a could make just enough money to pass. Hence my first attempt with OneUp trader(reviewed already)
First off the same thing exist here as it does with Oneup they are out for money from combines but for me at least if feels as if Topstep is more professional. I haven’t heard of funded traders being put on Demo accounts like they do at One Up(though this could be good for profitable traders because you dont have the adverse affect of your orders affecting the market). Both companies have really unrealistic passing conditions that lend people that pass to being lucky or really good if you can continue being funded for more than a few months. I choose the 30k which is the 1500 max draw 500 daily draw down and 1500 profit target mainly because this is what has been possible in my live account. I think people that choose the larger accounts really are gambling because you don’t start off with the full size when you goto the funded accounts unless you can make 3000-9000 on 2-5 lots I wouldn't pick these options.
Bottom line I blew out in 3 days Topsteps has a different rule on the max daily drawdown instead of just closing your positions for the day and allowing you to continue the next day your done on the combine. I get it but I think its stupid for me I had the max 500 draw down after being up so on my 500 losing day I was about 100 above the starting balance. As with both the trailing stop moves up with unrealized profits which is why they call these combines the hamster wheel. You dont have the chance to ride profits without being punished so therefore you are more likely to take smaller winners or take profit on the slightest pullback another reason why I think picking the higher levels are less likely to be meet.
Even with all this for day traders(people that want to be flat at the end of the day and want to keep draw downs low) I think the combines are a great deal. Given you have experienced live trading already and arent having much success this is a great environment to learn or confirm your low draw down strategies. The 1 in 10,000 chance of being funded makes trading this demo account unlike trading one from your broker where your likely to take more unrealistic trades and get bored of having no skin in the game. I believe you can really refine your trading faster with these combines and its much cheaper I know for me it would have been. I got a great nugget from the free coaching session that comes with the combine basically its what you should already know but they looked at my performance and saw that the lowest drawdown day that I was able to recover from was about 200 so they suggested that be my personal draw down limit be $200(I probably did this before but stopped doing it for some reason). Also place sticky pad rules on your screen to stop you from making excuses or entering trades that don’t meet your criteria. I read this but never did this before I will try these on my next combine.
Lets say it take a beginner blowing a $5K-10K or even larger account to decided wow I really don’t know what the hell im doing let me go to Topstep/Oneup lets pick the most expensive combine $500/month for 2 years which is $12K. In 2 years plus a few months or less that it took to blow the first account it would have cost you $17k-$22K. How much do you think a new learning trader would have lost in 2 – 3 years trading with a real account?
I actually like Oneups rules better than Topstep but I like the TST trader since it’s the platform that I use for my live account since I still have a day job a can still trade online instead of having to remote log into my computer to place a trade. But with my first experience at Oneup I think topstep is much more professional. I think topstep is more confident in their money making strategy than oneup they know most people will fail and there is no reason to ban people that ask questions or are suspicious. Note I heard of topstep and oneup both closing funded accounts for trading during events or for slight differences from there combine trading some say they were given warning some say none was given. I think I’ll try and give Topstep a try though.
First off the same thing exist here as it does with Oneup they are out for money from combines but for me at least if feels as if Topstep is more professional. I haven’t heard of funded traders being put on Demo accounts like they do at One Up(though this could be good for profitable traders because you dont have the adverse affect of your orders affecting the market). Both companies have really unrealistic passing conditions that lend people that pass to being lucky or really good if you can continue being funded for more than a few months. I choose the 30k which is the 1500 max draw 500 daily draw down and 1500 profit target mainly because this is what has been possible in my live account. I think people that choose the larger accounts really are gambling because you don’t start off with the full size when you goto the funded accounts unless you can make 3000-9000 on 2-5 lots I wouldn't pick these options.
Bottom line I blew out in 3 days Topsteps has a different rule on the max daily drawdown instead of just closing your positions for the day and allowing you to continue the next day your done on the combine. I get it but I think its stupid for me I had the max 500 draw down after being up so on my 500 losing day I was about 100 above the starting balance. As with both the trailing stop moves up with unrealized profits which is why they call these combines the hamster wheel. You dont have the chance to ride profits without being punished so therefore you are more likely to take smaller winners or take profit on the slightest pullback another reason why I think picking the higher levels are less likely to be meet.
Even with all this for day traders(people that want to be flat at the end of the day and want to keep draw downs low) I think the combines are a great deal. Given you have experienced live trading already and arent having much success this is a great environment to learn or confirm your low draw down strategies. The 1 in 10,000 chance of being funded makes trading this demo account unlike trading one from your broker where your likely to take more unrealistic trades and get bored of having no skin in the game. I believe you can really refine your trading faster with these combines and its much cheaper I know for me it would have been. I got a great nugget from the free coaching session that comes with the combine basically its what you should already know but they looked at my performance and saw that the lowest drawdown day that I was able to recover from was about 200 so they suggested that be my personal draw down limit be $200(I probably did this before but stopped doing it for some reason). Also place sticky pad rules on your screen to stop you from making excuses or entering trades that don’t meet your criteria. I read this but never did this before I will try these on my next combine.
Lets say it take a beginner blowing a $5K-10K or even larger account to decided wow I really don’t know what the hell im doing let me go to Topstep/Oneup lets pick the most expensive combine $500/month for 2 years which is $12K. In 2 years plus a few months or less that it took to blow the first account it would have cost you $17k-$22K. How much do you think a new learning trader would have lost in 2 – 3 years trading with a real account?
I actually like Oneups rules better than Topstep but I like the TST trader since it’s the platform that I use for my live account since I still have a day job a can still trade online instead of having to remote log into my computer to place a trade. But with my first experience at Oneup I think topstep is much more professional. I think topstep is more confident in their money making strategy than oneup they know most people will fail and there is no reason to ban people that ask questions or are suspicious. Note I heard of topstep and oneup both closing funded accounts for trading during events or for slight differences from there combine trading some say they were given warning some say none was given. I think I’ll try and give Topstep a try though.
