Topsteptrader

[Clint]

I really like this argument and of course I completely agree. Don't lose your money fast to the real market, when you can lose it slowly to sim trading and dream building.

It reminds me of my childhood (oh those happy days), when the guy with the van playing music told us:

Hey kids, don't lose your teeth quickly to meth, when you can lose them slowly to icecream and candy!!

At the end in both cases you will be out of your money/teeth.....

I guess you are trying to take a hack at me. But I can assure you, if I would have started trading real money without some sort of plan, I would have lost way more then $190, and probably would not have survived the ass kicking that the market gave me on SIM, and my 25 share positions . I wish they had this program for equities, I would sign up in a second. Most people are gamblers and cannot reign themselves in, similar to the guy who burned up his $2500 account by trading 300k shares of fanney mae in one day.

The TST combine will weed those people out, if they are smart they will lose $190 rather then the 2500$ account that he blew up in 2 days.

 

[shortskirt]

So if one passes the combine and gets funded to go live, how much capital do they assign to you? Is it the same starting balance as the combine you passed?

 

[JamesL]

You trade the same size account/same limitations that you did in the combine. Once a profit level is reached (determined by account size) parameters change, such as number of positions and DD limits. All this is on their site.

 

[austinp]

How would this one be different from the others you did?

the others I traded were in mid to late 2012 where CL transitioned from a 150 - 300 cent daily range and high volatility to +/- 100 cent range, more sideways and more congestive vehicle. That was right around the time all those futures prop shops in Chicago you spoke of where guys were flipping 200-lot CL positions closed their doors.

secondly, I've adjusted my game on the trades management side to reflect contracted markets. I used to lean on higher-beta symbols and bigger swings to overcome losses. Now I'm managing trades for smaller gains in a much more methodical (and liquid) symbol than the high betas.

this is no different than all of your stock trading friends adjusting from what used to work in the heydays to what works now in the current environment

 

[austinp]

Man, you really like to keep making a fool out of yourself. You've failed all your combines so far. Where was your real edge and hindsight charts then? I would never make fun of a losing trader or try to belittle him, but you're trying to bullshit people (and possibly even yourself?), so you're asking for it. By the way, have you posted the blotters you were talking about last we spoke?

Seriously? If you know that much about me, you can easily find today's ES trading sequences on youtube where the gameplan was called ahead of time... before 9:30am bell even rang. Then you can see the entry levels called ahead of time, see the trade taken in real time, see the results unfold in real time.

After that, you can see where I called four more trades in real time, ahead of time in front of real people inside a timestamped room software platform that does not permit editing after posts... unlike mickey-mouse message board forums where timestamps and post-editing are a joke.

Lastly, I realized that all these years later I'm still banging my head against a wall here. I had these exact same conversations with many other now-dead aliases who were just like you. And guess what? Soon your alias here will be dead & gone too. Why? Because you have no serious intentions about succeeding at this profession like Volente` pointed out. You are here for cute quips, cutting remarks and passive-aggressive snide comments. Why? What motivates you to waste so much of your time inside here without constructive benefit?

Whether you realize it or not, you are here trying to pull everyone else down along with your own past failures. Now maybe you will commit yourself to success at all costs and the price to succeed is high. But judging from your questions and comments, trading in general ain't suitable for you, or you ain't suitable for it. Or both.

There's your real, honest truth. I wish you the best in your financial future out there, which assuredly does not involve successful trading.

 

[Maverick74]

if TST still offers public promo combines like they did with yours and surfs, I'm good to go starting Monday. If they no longer offer that type of promotion, then my next combine will be never. So we'll see what the reply to my email proposal is and we'll go from there.

I take it this didn't go anywhere?

 

[volente_00]

I take it this didn't go anywhere?

Does that really surprise you ?

 

[elchapo]

I know a couple of people who had rotten experiences with TopStep not including myself. From what I can tell, their game is to make money off of the combines and other "educational" materials or whatever they do now. I got an email recently asking me to try this College of Trading thing...don't waste your time. Anyway here is basically how my experience with TopStep went:

-Passed combine (twice)
-Was told I had to do what basically amounted to ANOTHER combine before trading live, even though at that point I was already "live." This was called the "live prep" or something
-Completed that - pretty sure that was just another way to shake people out, not "prepare" them
-Got live account finally
-Had trades micromanaged by the coaches. Normally their input led to diminished profits - they seemed to be fans of taking small winners to "build a cushion." That doesn't work
-Eventually after a few weeks I was down a fraction of my total loss-limit but I was told that I was being sent back to the combine because I broke one minor rule that quite ironically, was largely their fault for micromanaging my trades

I am the last person to blame someone else for my own poor performance, but TopStep and their traders' interest are not aligned. They are trying to make money off of the gullible and I don't think they have any real interest in backing traders. I would highly recommend staying away.

 

[Laissez Faire]

Whether you realize it or not, you are here trying to pull everyone else down along with your own past failures. Now maybe you will commit yourself to success at all costs and the price to succeed is high. But judging from your questions and comments, trading in general ain't suitable for you, or you ain't suitable for it. Or both.

Actually, I'm having constructive and positive conversations with a few traders right now, I only call out people on bullshit which there is in ample amounts on this site.

Happy trading, Austin.

I am the last person to blame someone else for my own poor performance, but TopStep and their traders' interest are not aligned. They are trying to make money off of the gullible and I don't think they have any real interest in backing traders. I would highly recommend staying away.

Thanks for sharing your experience. With only 3 posts, you may not have the best credibility here at this point (no offense), but what you say are making a lot of sense.

I started out being very negative towards TST since it seemed like a scam at first, then a guy I trusted at the point being convinced me that it was a legitimate operation (although he had never traded with them) and looking at it again, I did think it seemed legitimate.

I talked to one of their coaches and actually did a Combine.

As I'm getting back into trading this fall, I have considered TST as a way of getting back into the game, but I'm now pretty much conviced it's not the way to go and will rather get $500 somewhere so that I can open an account with Mirus or AMP.

 

[Clint]

I know a couple of people who had rotten experiences with TopStep not including myself. From what I can tell, their game is to make money off of the combines and other "educational" materials or whatever they do now. I got an email recently asking me to try this College of Trading thing...don't waste your time. Anyway here is basically how my experience with TopStep went:

-Passed combine (twice)
-Was told I had to do what basically amounted to ANOTHER combine before trading live, even though at that point I was already "live." This was called the "live prep" or something
-Completed that - pretty sure that was just another way to shake people out, not "prepare" them
-Got live account finally
-Had trades micromanaged by the coaches. Normally their input led to diminished profits - they seemed to be fans of taking small winners to "build a cushion." That doesn't work
-Eventually after a few weeks I was down a fraction of my total loss-limit but I was told that I was being sent back to the combine because I broke one minor rule that quite ironically, was largely their fault for micromanaging my trades

I am the last person to blame someone else for my own poor performance, but TopStep and their traders' interest are not aligned. They are trying to make money off of the gullible and I don't think they have any real interest in backing traders. I would highly recommend staying away.

I can totally see this. That being said, if you passed the combines and live prep to get funded, you are definitely doing something right in the market. You must have a profitable plan and should move on to trading your own account.

Like mav has said...don't worry about the funding aspect as many here seem to do, use the combines as a training tool so that you don't lose a ton of money on the "practice field" before you have your plan polished.

Good luck to you