Topsteptrader

K-Pia · Apr 27, 2016

Pekelo said:
Jason mentioned 10 traders who he helped through the Combine. Now we can debate what actually this help meant (copying trades or actual mentoring and doing it on their own), but the point here is that I want to know how many are actually getting a paycheck from TST, thus profitable with a live account. Now that would be a really good advertisement for Jason and his method, but of course we won't hear that stat...

If Good traders get paid.
That's the only thing that matters.

Pekelo · Apr 27, 2016

K-Pia said:
They removed the 10k combine.

Hehe, advised and predicted 2 months ago:

Pekelo said:
I predict TST will simplify it and go down to 3 types of combines in a year.

OK, they still have a way to go, it takes them time to get it right.

By the way, the bad boys took out the cheapest Combine, so we can look at this as price increase.

K-Pia · Apr 27, 2016

Pekelo said:
Hehe, advised and predicted 2 months ago:

OK, they still have a way to go, it takes them time to get it right.

By the way, the bad boys took out the cheapest Combine, so we can look at this as price increase.

Yes in average the price increased.
But the 10K combine was kind of suicidal.
The daily loss limit was too tight for daytrading futures.
If one just wants to SIM he can get a cheaper pack than TST 10K combine.

legionx · Apr 27, 2016

K-Pia said:
They removed the 10k combine.

Yes they did, but I think it's a huge mistake since the 10k can help a trader refine their skills and discipline with consequences. One can learn really fast to micro manage their trades with one lot size instead of going "big".

Xela · Apr 27, 2016

legionx said:
the 10k can help a trader refine their skills and discipline with consequences.

Very true.

And the $95 price, which included the $85 one would otherwise have to pay CME for the data-feed, made it very attractive to some people: it was effectively about as close to "free" as you can get.

On the other hand, it's easy to see that making a 10% target trading a single lot/contract must have been far more difficult for people than making a 6% target trading a flexible number of lots/contracts, so perhaps its pass-rate was very low? That's my guess, anyway, and that would make their decision to abandon it completely in line with all their other recent changes designed to increase Combine pass-rates (and already doing so, apparently). So maybe it's understandable, in that context?

traderob · Apr 27, 2016

ScalperJoe said:
If he's moderating a chat room then he cannot show a real time LIVE DOM as it would violate CFTC rules. The trades must be simulated. This is standard for chat rooms that have a moderator who isn't registered and shows his/her DOM.

Maybe he would rather earn commission from subscriptions than obtain a backed account. It's his choice, as long as the customers recognize he's on SIM.

this is COMPLETE nonsense.
the cftc are ALL in favour of traders showing live dom. SOME ROOMS DO.
what the CFTC do not allow is faking it and claiming a sim dom is real. or making up results.

any room that does not show ACTUAL live trades is almost guaranteed to be a scam

ScalperJoe · Apr 27, 2016

traderob said:
this is COMPLETE nonsense.
the cftc are ALL in favour of traders showing live dom. SOME ROOMS DO.
what the CFTC do not allow is faking it and claiming a sim dom is real. or making up results.

any room that does not show ACTUAL live trades is almost guaranteed to be a scam

Yes, I was going to post a correction on that statement. Pekelo found some rooms where the traders are on live accounts, however they still place the disclosure on their site, so you'd have to specifically ask if the moderator is on sim or live. The rooms I've seen have the standard CFTC disclosure according to Rule 4.41. They place the disclosure before entering the chat room.

I don't think the CFTC is "in favor" of you trading live or sim, as long as the proper disclosure is made. And of course, they do not allow "faking it and claiming a sim dom is real" or as you stated, "making up results."

One would get penalized for that, just as this guy did here (public document from CFTC's files):

http://www.cftc.gov/files/enf/03orders/enfsoftrade-complaint.pdf

ScalperJoe · Apr 27, 2016

Pekelo said:
Now the real question is this: Why would TST be happy with "newbie, know nothing traders" whom Jason had to push through, passing the Combine and possibly getting backed with real money? The obvious answer is that nobody would want such traders unless they are after the combine fees only...

The combine fees must offset the risk of backing the traders. You have to consider there's a cost of having so many funded traders...the traders could "blow up" in 10 days! One can claim they are "only after combine fees" IF there were no funded traders, however that isn't the case.

Remember what the owner of Savius claimed on the Trade2Win site. They had to rely on 2% of traders to make money for the firm for every 100 that took the challenge, the rest were all a wash.

The OTG room has a more appealing model from a cost/benefit perspective. Just find enough suckers who will fork over $500/month to watch you trade in sim, lol!

ScalperJoe · Apr 27, 2016

Xela said:
Very true.

And the $95 price, which included the $85 one would otherwise have to pay CME for the data-feed, made it very attractive to some people: it was effectively about as close to "free" as you can get.

On the other hand, it's easy to see that making a 10% target trading a single lot/contract must have been far more difficult for people than making a 6% target trading a flexible number of lots/contracts, so perhaps its pass-rate was very low? That's my guess, anyway, and that would make their decision to abandon it completely in line with all their other recent changes designed to increase Combine pass-rates (and already doing so, apparently). So maybe it's understandable, in that context?

The target is relative to the risk to achieve that target. The 10k had a 3% daily risk, with a 10% trailing draw, which was actually the most liberal of all combines. Yes, the target was also 10%, however that is compensated due to the trailing draw being three times that of the larger combines.

Pekelo · Apr 28, 2016

TST had a webinar yesterday on BMT. Here it is for your education:

It is a 15 mins intro by Conor Meegan from TST then the rest is Q&A. I went through it quickly, so you don't have to:

In the very beginning Conor drives home the point, that they are a backing firm, not a platform or an educator. Oh, how far the mighty has fallen! I still recall the TST University days just 2 years ago, when signing up for private mentors were the rage. For those who are new here, here it is the screenshot from the old glory days when TST tried to educate you:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140706015631/https://www.topsteptrader.com/learnmore

I guess it went the way of Trump University...The reason I mention this education thingy is because that was one of the excuses here by apologists, that even if you don't make money by being backed up, at least you can learn something...

Anyhow there were only 2-3 interesting highlights of the Q&A, Conor usually sidestepped any performance or survival rate question.

--387 funded traders in 2015, they are on the way to 700 this year (projected)
--largest ES trader is using 20some cars (at 46 mins)

Best response: (at 36 mins)

Q:On the 100K account the max. DD is 3K, so you only have a 3K account in reality??

A:Um, I guess, technically, if you want to get into semantics...

Yes, Conor, I do. I love to go into semantics. But you are right, semantics schemantics....What is a 97K difference between friends anyway?