Let's take a look of the "complaints" and see if any of them have genuine merit:
- Its a hamster wheel
- I thought that once I passed the combine, I would receive a trading account that was identical to the combine
- I didnt know that I had to pay the exchange $85 to $200 a month in “professional” exchange fee’s
- Nobody told me about the Trader Prep Period
- They only give you 10 days to make money
- I wasted money on a TopStep Trader recommended mentor
- They intentionally confuse to keep collecting monthly combine fee’s
"Its a hamster wheel"
Where does it state that the combine is "easy" to pass, lol. The smaller combines (in my opinion) are NOT designed to make you money in the live account, given the 10 day rule. You simply won't have built up enough equity. To avoid the "hamster wheel" one may want to consider the smaller combines for training purposes only, and then take the 100k/150k combines only when ready. The larger combines at least provide higher odds of generating enough equity.
"I thought that once I passed the combine, I would receive a trading account that was identical to the combine"
Apparently, traders who make this complaint have a deficit in their ability to conduct proper due diligence (and obviously haven't read this thread on ET or the BMT site). If you look at the TST site itself, then you will find ALL of the parameters spelled out in the FAQ's and within the links to the rules! Obviously, the live account is NOT the same as the combine account, given the added rules.
"I didn't know that I had to pay the exchange $85 to $200 a month in 'professional' exchange fees"
Here is what the site says: "Funded Traders are responsible for the data fee cost charged by the exchange." However, I think TST could have more transparency with this fee, especially for those who choose to trade contracts on multiple exchanges.
"Nobody told me about the Trader Prep Period"
Why does anyone have to "tell you" about it, lol! Again, this is the fault of the trader who fails to conduct proper due diligence. The rules are CLEARLY spelled out on "Step 2" of the funding program on the TST site.
"They only give you 10 days to make money"
Ok, I agree this is a legitimate complaint. Yes, the "10 day" rule is quite restrictive. The combine is continuous, but the live account only allows for the equity build up over 10 days.
This IS the biggest drawback in the TST program, and has been discussed extensively on ET and the BMT site.
There was a trader from Taiwan who took six months to pass the combine, but if you reviewed his stats, he was very consistent. He never hit the daily draw, and stayed away from the max draw. In my opinion, adhering to the TST combine rules for SIX STRAIGHT MONTHS is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Most traders posting here couldn't do it (myself included). But this particular trader did. However, given the 10 day rule, his average equity balance would have been less than $200 in his live account. My guess is he blew up the live account, because $200 is a PIKER account, and you cannot make money in a highly leveraged environment as a piker. He had several days in the combine where he lost $200, however he was still able to generate the $1,500 required to pass the combine, trading part time at night while working full time. TST's 10 day rule means even though he had potential, he would get "kicked back to the combine" much sooner, and thus trading a "funded" account is meaningless.
"I wasted money on a TopStep Trader recommended mentor"
Education isn't mandatory, it's an option, and of course subject to one's opinion.
"They intentionally confuse to keep collecting monthly combine fees"
TST has changed its rules from time to time, however the rules have been mostly in favor of the trader. Besides, if you simply read the FAQ's, the rules are spelled out. If there is still "confusion" then why not just ask?
Perhaps traders who approach the TST model have difficulty separating fantasy from reality. Prop shop equity traders think they will turn a $5,000 account with 20x bp into a sustainable monthly income stream. An AMP customer may think placing a $500 minimum account balance to trade 1 lot of ES will make him rich. He may not have conducted the basic research that 1 lot of ES is equivalent to trading 500 shares of SPY. Under normal market conditions, SPY has an ATR of $2, so a daily swing of 500 shares will move your P&L by $1,000. Obviously, $500 is not enough, except to attract dreamers who will end up churning commission.
TST suggests (by the combine metrics) that it will take
$10,000 of EQUITY, not margin, not buying power, but EQUITY to trade ONE lot of whatever product you choose. This is directly correlated to the daily draw allowance of 1.6% to 3% of the simulated funds.
So using their own rules as a guide, if it takes $10k of EQUITY to trade ONE lot, then how do you expect to make any significant gains, especially when you only have 10 days to build up your equity from the "$0" starting balance in the live account?
Apparently nobody on Emmett's site asked another math question: "why does the 10k 'piker' combine allow for a
10% trailing draw, whereby the largest 150k 'big boy' combine which is much more difficult to trade, has a
3% trailing draw?"
If you simply conduct proper due diligence, then it's reasonable to conclude that the combine offers a way to learn the process of examining your strengths and weakness(es) as a trader in a real time simulated environment with strict risk parameters. The key is to then find ways to improve your stats. THAT is the true value of the combine, where the opportunity cost is the "blow up" of your own retail account.
