So the average trader made $7.15 per hour after tax since they also pay self employment tax for being a 1099 independent contractor. Assuming the 10k person withdraws 120k in 12 months their take home after tax liability is $23.07 per hour assuming 40 hours of trading weekly.
Topsteptrader
- Thread starter deaddog
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So the average trader made $7.15 per hour after tax since they also pay self employment tax for being a 1099 independent contractor. Assuming the 10k person withdraws 120k in 12 months their take home after tax liability is $23.07 per hour assuming 40 hours of trading weekly.
My guess is the traders cashing checks aren't full time traders, especially the ones with the $1,600 withdrawals. They probably have other streams of income keeping them afloat, or trade their own retail accounts as well.
Pekelo estimated that the majority of the live accounts have sub $3k in equity on Day 11, hardly enough to build a solid revenue stream from trading futures unless they are generating income elsewhere. Regarding the person with the 10k withdrawal, how did you come up with the $23.07 figure? It's highly speculative, not knowing his tax filing status, expenses, deductions, and other income sources, if any.
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How can you possibly know how much they made per hour, without knowing how many hours they worked?!
As can be seen from TST's blog, loads of their funded account-holders also have full-time jobs and are just trading a little in their spare time.
(Also, the traders get to decide whether, when and how often they withdraw, so you can't even tell what average time-period the withdrawals represent.)
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Regarding the guy who pulled out 10k, it said he traded for a month before he pulled that money. With TST's 20% cut, that implies he actually made $12.5k, since his cut was 10k.
I think regardless of the "average time-period" it took, most traders looking at trading a combine would be quite elated if they made it to a live account and withdrew 10 grand in one month in a business where the success rate is reportedly 2%.
Everything being equal, for every 10K paycheck there have to be 13 other guys taking a 1K-1k paycheck to make it $1635 on average. Just saying...
Anyhow the reason I am here because our great white hope, Endicottsteel's time is up. If you recall, I gave him 2 months after passing the Combine to get a paycheck or learn something valuable about listening to old timers, and I am curious, how he has been doing?
Since I am too lazy (and he is not worthy) to take him off of my Ignore list, can somebody update me on his progress?
Did he make it to Live trader status and if so, did he actually got a check? My guess is that he probably didn't and too proud to acknowledge that we were right and he was wrong.
Or maybe I was wrong and he is pulling one of those 1K paychecks... I was really pulling for him...
Anyhow the reason I am here because our great white hope, Endicottsteel's time is up. If you recall, I gave him 2 months after passing the Combine to get a paycheck or learn something valuable about listening to old timers, and I am curious, how he has been doing?
Since I am too lazy (and he is not worthy) to take him off of my Ignore list, can somebody update me on his progress?
Did he make it to Live trader status and if so, did he actually got a check? My guess is that he probably didn't and too proud to acknowledge that we were right and he was wrong.
Or maybe I was wrong and he is pulling one of those 1K paychecks... I was really pulling for him...
His plan was to "shut up the naysayers" and take a check, however he limited it to three combines (one combine and two resets).
He never blamed the combine rules or the market, but instead claimed he was a "shitty" trader.
Apparently he then started a thread to provide advice to newbies that they should go to school and become programmers to learn code. I agree that younger aspiring traders will have opportunities with this route.
However, if one wants to pass a combine, then there's no need to learn code. The math isn't advanced, and will not require you to have a Phd. I highly doubt the guy who just had $10,000 sent to his bank account has a degree in quantitative discipline, lol!
Obviously it's tough, but it's doable, or Top Step wouldn't have traders cashing checks. Unfortunately, Endicottsteel isn't one of them, at least not yet. Yes, I was also pulling for him, since he DID pass the first combine, and that is why I disagreed with his own opinion that he was a "shitty" trader. However, if you "game" the combine, it's to your own detriment, because the rules are DIFFERENT in the FTP/Live accounts, so it may require more attempts to pass.
It's simpler to have ONE set of rules, which is why the Russian competitor, Proptraders.biz, is likely to gain market share with their model.
Thanks for the feedback.
So let's recall the last 4 guys who came here with the same idea in the last 2 years were:
1. AustinP.
His coiledmarkets.com website is defunct now.
2. Londonkid
Started an ET journal, hasn't posted since February.
3. Chef Morris
He is running other kind of businesses, beside being a TST affiliate.
4. Endicottsteel
Started an ET journal.
Out of these four, 3 of them were actually good traders and none made money out of TST. The funniest part is that the only guy, Chef Morris who was self admittedly NOT a good trader ended up making money from TST as an affiliate!
As Abraham Lincoln said:
"Don't try to dig for gold, just sell shovels for the gold diggers."
Or run a message board for traders...
So let's recall the last 4 guys who came here with the same idea in the last 2 years were:
1. AustinP.
His coiledmarkets.com website is defunct now.
2. Londonkid
Started an ET journal, hasn't posted since February.
3. Chef Morris
He is running other kind of businesses, beside being a TST affiliate.
4. Endicottsteel
Started an ET journal.
Out of these four, 3 of them were actually good traders and none made money out of TST. The funniest part is that the only guy, Chef Morris who was self admittedly NOT a good trader ended up making money from TST as an affiliate!
As Abraham Lincoln said:
"Don't try to dig for gold, just sell shovels for the gold diggers."
Or run a message board for traders...
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Or better yet, set up some type of subscription service. There's a lot of talk surrounding Jim Cramer with the recent movie "Money Monster" (which I saw and it sucked).
Reporters did some digging with Cramer's "Action Alerts Plus" membership service, and found that his stock picks over time still fail to outperform an S&P 500 index fund.
However, with 71,000 subscribers paying $15 per month, his service generates over $1m a month in revenues (according to a recent article posted by Marketwatch). To Cramer's credit, he did generate a fortune by running a hedge fund. Apparently his own profit was around $50 million (read his first book, "Confessions Of A Street Addict" which is actually quite good), but that was in the late 90's, when the market was much different than today.
Cramer's defense to his critics is that he's providing "education and entertainment" and he never promised to "outperform" the market.
The following adage still applies: "If you can't trade, teach!"
As long as you can provide some type of value, then it's all good.
