Topsteptrader

[austinp]

The results of my 17-day TST combine efforts are attached. 14 of 17 days were closed net profitable. Two of those (highlighted in red) were shut down late morning net profitable by $100+ and $200+ respectively. Then later on each day, I second-guessed the decisions to cease early and tried to wrap up the combine profit objective inside continued high volatility.

See how well second-guessing myself worked out?

Third net-loss day was straight out impossible to trade profitably, and again I pressed it trying to reach the $3000 objective. Pretty much spent a whole week from $51,000+ to $52,000+ going back and forth trying to gain traction until closed out Tuesday. In hindsight, had I simply stuck with initial decisions to cease early in adverse tape conditions, the -$700 and -$1100 intraday equity swings in both sessions pictured above would have easily reached all metrics with a 100% win rate several days earlier.

Impatience? Greed? Brief lapse in discipline? Or do we just agree that trading is a personal performance profession, nobody's perfect and it's all about risk control to overcome all of life's adversity lumped together?

 

[Pekelo]

why the hell didn't you simply do exactly that in a TST $50k combine?

I have literally a few hundred posts in this thread explaining that just because I could pass the Combine that doesn't mean I like their business plan.

And the reason I included this little sim result is because I have been asked to do the Combine so many times so there it is. Insta credibility!!!*

*this is a joke but I have to explain to the dull. Some people think you can only criticize TST if you are able to pass the Combine.

 

[londonkid]

View attachment 156656

The results of my 17-day TST combine efforts are attached. 14 of 17 days were closed net profitable. Two of those (highlighted in red) were shut down late morning net profitable by $100+ and $200+ respectively. Then later on each day, I second-guessed the decisions to cease early and tried to wrap up the combine profit objective inside continued high volatility.

See how well second-guessing myself worked out?

Third net-loss day was straight out impossible to trade profitably, and again I pressed it trying to reach the $3000 objective. Pretty much spent a whole week from $51,000+ to $52,000+ going back and forth trying to gain traction until closed out Tuesday. In hindsight, had I simply stuck with initial decisions to cease early in adverse tape conditions, the -$700 and -$1100 intraday equity swings in both sessions pictured above would have easily reached all metrics with a 100% win rate several days earlier.

Impatience? Greed? Brief lapse in discipline? Or do we just agree that trading is a personal performance profession, nobody's perfect and it's all about risk control to overcome all of life's adversity lumped together?

well done. hopefully you wont have to do the FTP, you did 17 days of trading and other combines so I think your chances of going straight to funded are good.

Re - 100% perfection. I have struggled with this too. Over time I have managed to 'let go' of the need to have 100% green days, it's nice when you get a long run of green but I found striving for the 100% nearly always leads to excess tension and adverse performance. It took me a long time (years) to just be ok with small losers - its a character flaw lots of people have and I needed to unlearn it. So now I have the mindset that I do not fear small losers, I fear losing discipline and letting losers run though. One of the hardest things to do for me is to not re-enter after taking a small loser, it nearly always seems like a good idea at the time but often it isn't. Another one is stopping for the day when you are on a small loss for the day, that is a tough one to crack. Its a constant battle.GL

 

[austinp]

I have literally a few hundred posts in this thread explaining that just because I could pass the Combine that doesn't mean I like their business plan.

And the reason I included this little sim result is because I have been asked to do the Combine so many times so there it is. Insta credibility!!!

Well I really don't care what you do or not do, what you like or dislike. Freedom of choice. But what you think you did there outside of TST means less than nothing about TST, you or the pairing together.

For someone who dislikes everything about TST, you have a world-class unhealthy obsession with the topic. Now just imagine if you invested the time and energy in those "few hundred posts" towards any other topic, constructively. Imagine what you might have accomplished over these past few years now and counting?

 

[londonkid]

Some people think you can only criticize TST if you are able to pass the Combine.

Nobody is saying that Pekelo. When someone puts huge effort into dissing TST and admits in the thread that they couldn't pass a combine it tends to look like they are a sore loser.

Its hard to pass a combine, the vast majority of people cannot do it. It is telling that right after Austin posted up news that he had passed you immediately posted up your 'collective2' or whatever it is. Geez dude. You could just say well done to him and stfu.

 

[austinp]

well done. hopefully you wont have to do the FTP, you did 17 days of trading and other combines so I think your chances of going straight to funded are good.

Re - 100% perfection. I have struggled with this too. Over time I have managed to 'let go' of the need to have 100% green days, it's nice when you get a long run of green but I found striving for the 100% nearly always leads to excess tension and adverse performance.

A personal ego goal was to finish with 100% win-rate days but as for real-life, real money trading? One can achieve almost no losing days over long periods of time but in the end, total net profits will be less than if the same trader opens it up a bit and accepts more small-loss days in the process. Limiting loss to nil likewise limits some of those days being solid gains in the end.

Tricky part is, learning when to say when. No one can teach that, or many other things about this profession which require individual, personal self-management. Teaching technical analysis, key entry points, knowing market direction and future targets with high degree of accuracy is simple. But the human side of trading operation is an individual journey which never ends

 

[Pekelo]

I like you Austin, don't get me wrong. But after taking a look at your Combine, I am not particulary impressed with the first 16 days. You only made $1400, when volatility has been huge and there were major trends too. That is less then $100 per day for 3 weeks.

But you did nicely on your last day! Nevertheless if I was your backer I would want to see another 10-15 days just to see if it wasn't a fluke...

So I am wishing you good luck and plenty of profits on your journey! Please don't hate me because I am young and beautiful, hate me because I could pass the Combine what you are longing for!

And keep us updated on your progress...

 

[austinp]

I like you Austin, don't get me wrong. But after taking a look at your Combine, I am not particulary impressed with the first 16 days. You only made $1400, when volatility has been huge and there were major trends too. That is less then $100 per day for 3 weeks.

But you did nicely on your last day! Nevertheless if I was your backer I would want to see another 10-15 days just to see if it wasn't a fluke...

So I am wishing you good luck and plenty of profits on your journey! Please don't hate me because I am young and beautiful, hate me because I could pass the Combine what you are longing for!

And keep us updated on your progress...

huge volatility doesn't mean huge opportunity... one of many misconceptions that arm-chair traders assume.

A lot of those days I was trading in the direction of price, had numerous trades move in favor = whip out stops = resume huge moves in favor. Had a lot of trades no-fill as price blew off and away from signal zones.

Actual trades executions inside big volatility with modern-day low liquidity can be damn tough... which of course is not apparent to hindsight observations when looking at static charts with "all that potential"

 

[austinp]

#1: But you did nicely on your last day! Nevertheless if I was your backer I would want to see another 10-15 days just to see if it wasn't a fluke...

#2: So I am wishing you good luck and plenty of profits on your journey! Please don't hate me because I am young and beautiful, hate me because I could pass the Combine what you are longing for!

#1: LOL @ fluke! Go read my blog and see where on Friday evening I predicted the solid directional trade potential inside the following Tuesday's session... and nailed it exactly as planned four days prior. Fluke? LOL II

#2: I passed the combine in spite of my own self-directed pitfalls and could pass ten more straight without fail. You on the other hand are no younger than me, we ain't as pretty as we used to be, and you've never passed an actual combine yet.

There is no hope for either of us getting any younger or prettier... but there is hope for you to complete a combine successfully, someday. If you need a few pointers on that, look me up and I'll do what I can to help

 

[ScalperJoe]

View attachment 156656

In hindsight, had I simply stuck with initial decisions to cease early in adverse tape conditions, the -$700 and -$1100 intraday equity swings in both sessions pictured above would have easily reached all metrics with a 100% win rate several days earlier.

Impatience? Greed? Brief lapse in discipline? Or do we just agree that trading is a personal performance profession, nobody's perfect and it's all about risk control to overcome all of life's adversity lumped together?

Two things I noticed from your combine: "8" is a powerful fib sequence, so after EIGHT days of consecutive wins, it's best to remain extra cautious on day 9 and trade light. I'm not sure if you've noticed this before, but if you take a look at your stats in your personal accounts (or prior combine), you'll probably find lots of streaks (winning and losing) that will mimic a fib sequence (most common are 3, 5 and 8).

The second thing is the avg daily win. Simply take your average daily P&L and multiply it by 10 (high range), and then divide it by 2 (low range).

That is the "expected" value range of what you can expect to make on the first 10 days of the live account if you trade the same way. Whatever you have made by Day 11 will be your total available draw. Also, review your stats and make sure you did not scale up beyond 2 lots per trade before making the minimum threshold as per the scale up rules in the live account (and LTP), or your results are skewed.

In any case, nice going on the combine, good luck in LTP (if they require it) and/or the live account.