My 2 cents.
Pros: If you have skills to trade no money(like me) , its a way to get back into the game.
so thanks for providing me that option.
The entry fee is pretty low.Even if you give 3-4 combines will not cost you a lot.
the data feed alone /month may cost around 100$(not 100% sure on cost), and paying a 200$ cost for the data feed is not too bad for me, since there is a chance to get funded.
I have been a fairly profitable trader, never really lost money in the long run, return about 20-25% on margin average per month, which admittedly isnt too great.Have about a 65-70% hit rate on net over a 4 year period.
Well i did all of this analysis after failing their combine.
The 30k combine is the best risk- reward combine , you risk 1500$, make 1500$ , you pass. It's fairly easy to get 6/10 days profitable and other metrics . But 500$ risk limit per day, which is admittedly fairly easy to hit in any volatile futures market.
50k combine is decent too. risk 2k, make 3.5k . But the thing i havent had experience with was the max drawdown. In a way risk isnt 2k, because theres an additional restriction that you cant come down 2k from your peak. So the room on downside doesnt increase even if you make money. Still quite a fair deal. Since daily limit is 1k USD , which is doable with 1-2 lots in crude, gold etc.
Can do a similar analysis on other combines.
The sim test is way easier than live environments since there is no slippage etc.
if you place an order , it gets executed at exactly the right price. so you know your exact risk every time
Also you can get a rollover , if you meet their criteria but not profit target, so there is the chance of that.
Also, can give it as many times as you want to.
Now there are few catches:
Cons:
I would say that if you are a decent trader, 70% hit rate, risk management is fine. there is about a 60% chance that you pass the combine .
Now the thing is you may have to give another sim test with the same metrics but reduced profit target to get funded. since profit target is reduced the chances of passing it are higher , though not 100.
After this you get funded (this test isnt always required apparently).
For the live environment , the same metrics apply, till you become a senior trader.
(Again this time no profit targets, chances are >60-70, that you make it)
All in all if you are a decent trader there is a 1/4 shot of getting funded and keeping your live funded status.
if you are too good(I know of only 2-3 traders out of 200-300 that i have seen that fit into this category,not necessarily most profitable but fit the risk profile), there is a 70-80% chance to get funded and stay being live (Initial hiccups only involve clearing 5-10k buffer since you'd have to lose many times in a row to lose to 0 , at which point you go back to sim)
Basically the firm doesnt risk any money . Due to Max. Drawdown, for funded traders too, there is little at risk for the firm(can easily do the math for many traders).
The risk/ rewards for the 150k/100k combines arent exactly great, but daily risk is more .
Now the cost for each combine is different - of course around 10% of the money the firm is going to risk if you pass. But, there is an additional cost that they ask for a custom combine. This doesnt make much of a sense to me, but perhaps they have their reasons.
If you pass and get funded the roundtrip cost is 5$/ roundtrip.
I have gotten as low as 2$/roundtrip at previous firms.
I did a cost evaluation for my own trading system , have a lot of scratch trades.
If i made 20k USD net profit , quite a large percentage of that amount was roundtrip costs.
They do however stated that this amount is negotiable if you are a senior trader. so its under initial hiccups.
The squawk is nothing of the quality of ransquawk which is paid. understandably so though.
If you are starting trading for the first time and think you can learn under this program , i am not sure if would recommend it ,nothing beats live money imo, under real conditions with firms that are willing to lose money in training you.(but of course hard to get into), but its cheaper than other shops offering training, simulator tests, eg maverick trading.
If you do have experience trading, then i suggest you know exactly how good you are at managing risk else you can find out
. imo you'd pass if can manage risk well. My own risk mangement isnt top notch, but system is good, so i survive on that.
Overall , at this moment i am quite thankful to have this option.
going to start another combine next week, as pseudo prop is the only option for me right now.
