Who is the Top Trader at Topstep & similar firms?

N

newwer

By now at least 100k+ traders must have tried out for Topstep and many similar firms.
Yet strangely no stories about guys making 1mill or 10mill a year.
Just by chance surely there must be 1 guy out there.
Perhaps top talent gets picked off by hedge funds? But this is speculation as there are no stories in this regard as well.
Topstep paid out 1 million in all of 2020. And recently I think 400k/month in withdrawals which is decent but there should be 1 guy doing that much by now.
Perhaps day trading futures is just way too hard compared to stocks. There are lots of stories of day trading success in stocks.
Any thoughts?
 
newwer said:
By now at least 100k+ traders must have tried out for Topstep and many similar firms.
Yet strangely no stories about guys making 1mill or 10mill a year.
Just by chance surely there must be 1 guy out there.
Perhaps top talent gets picked off by hedge funds? But this is speculation as there are no stories in this regard as well.
Topstep paid out 1 million in all of 2020. And recently I think 400k/month in withdrawals which is decent but there should be 1 guy doing that much by now.
Perhaps day trading futures is just way too hard compared to stocks. There are lots of stories of day trading success in stocks.
Any thoughts?
More...

Why would you stay at such a firm if you make 400k a year and give away 10%-20% of the profits to the firm?
 
FTDK said:
Why would you stay at such a firm if you make 400k a year and give away 10%-20% of the profits to the firm?
More...

Heard some prefer the "Funding" way because it's not their money.
Imagine yourself losing 200k in your own account :p
But that's definitely the road I'd undertake.

Fck the Splits. Fck the Rules.
Be your own Boss.

As far as who's the best ?
YOU'RE THE BEST

Don't give a Fck about the competition.
You define your own game.

PS: Not sure the Funding firm offers rebate ...
Once you trade volume you can have close to zero commissions.
+ You have to give away 10 to 20% of your profits away as @FTDK said.

Real Traders trade Real Monies
 
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I still hesitate to call these places prop firms, but I guess they are the modern version. Why do people go with them if they are profitable and give up a part of their profits, because you have offloaded some of your risk if you make it to funded. They are no where near the same as prop firms I am used to where people not only gave up part of the profits or profits were shared, they also paid a desk fee and usually a bunch of other fees. These firms have you pay the pro data fee but no desk fee or other fees after you are funded. the people trading at the traditional firms are profitable yet they trade with them anyway, not sure why this is considered vastly different.
I would guess some eventually go on their own, and some blow up and quit all together, or start paying more to try again, which is part of the business model.
 
One explanation could be that these firms don't provide funding beyond the initial shoestring you're given when "funded". I use quotation marks because I wouldn't consider what they give you funding.

Since Topstep was mentioned in the OP, let's take a quick look:

upload_2023-7-26_23-37-40.png


They call it 50K/100K/150K accounts, but the funds you're given is effectively the maximum loss limit. Maybe someone alerted them that calling it a 150K account could be considered misleading marketing, since I now see they changed the wording to "buying power".

Anyway, what they're really offering you is a $2K/$3K/$4.5K account. There most certainly is not a $150K account. That's just smoke and mirrors.

Moving on.

If you actually managed to run your account up to say 20K or any number you'd like to imagine this money is now yours to put in your pocket (minus the profit split). If you withdraw your entire balance - your funding is gone. If you otherwise mess up and exceed the daily loss limit or lose your connection or whatever - your funding is also gone.

Earlier, I had the impression that these firms were actually interested in finding trading talent and funding traders, but it's clear as day to me that the only funding you ever receive is the initial shoestring they're providing you. As such, it doesn't really make sense for a trader to continue trading with such a firm as soon as he's in a position to withdraw a moderate sum of profits as he can then fund his own account and keep all profits (minus taxes).

So, it's up to each trader or would-be-trader to figure out if they think it's a worthy arrangement to receive $4.5K funding at best.

Now, it would be a different story if these firms actually provided funding and let a trader scale up and withdraw funds. That's not the case, though.
 
Laissez Faire said:
One explanation could be that these firms don't provide funding beyond the initial shoestring you're given when "funded". I use quotation marks because I wouldn't consider what they give you funding.

Since Topstep was mentioned in the OP, let's take a quick look:

View attachment 319717

They call it 50K/100K/150K accounts, but the funds you're given is effectively the maximum loss limit. Maybe someone alerted them that calling it a 150K account could be considered misleading marketing, since I now see they changed the wording to "buying power".

Anyway, what they're really offering you is a $2K/$3K/$4.5K account. There most certainly is not a $150K account. That's just smoke and mirrors.

Moving on.

If you actually managed to run your account up to say 20K or any number you'd like to imagine this money is now yours to put in your pocket (minus the profit split). If you withdraw your entire balance - your funding is gone. If you otherwise mess up and exceed the daily loss limit or lose your connection or whatever - your funding is also gone.

Earlier, I had the impression that these firms were actually interested in finding trading talent and funding traders, but it's clear as day to me that the only funding you ever receive is the initial shoestring they're providing you. As such, it doesn't really make sense for a trader to continue trading with such a firm as soon as he's in a position to withdraw a moderate sum of profits as he can then fund his own account and keep all profits (minus taxes).

So, it's up to each trader or would-be-trader to figure out if they think it's a worthy arrangement to receive $4.5K funding at best.

Now, it would be a different story if these firms actually provided funding and let a trader scale up and withdraw funds. That's not the case, though.
More...

That is a good damn point.

Most people probably go through 4-5 rounds of resets. I think I read somewhere people end up spending like 2-3k before giving up completely
 
Laissez Faire said:
One explanation could be that these firms don't provide funding beyond the initial shoestring you're given when "funded". I use quotation marks because I wouldn't consider what they give you funding.

Since Topstep was mentioned in the OP, let's take a quick look:

View attachment 319717

They call it 50K/100K/150K accounts, but the funds you're given is effectively the maximum loss limit. Maybe someone alerted them that calling it a 150K account could be considered misleading marketing, since I now see they changed the wording to "buying power".

Anyway, what they're really offering you is a $2K/$3K/$4.5K account. There most certainly is not a $150K account. That's just smoke and mirrors.

Moving on.

If you actually managed to run your account up to say 20K or any number you'd like to imagine this money is now yours to put in your pocket (minus the profit split). If you withdraw your entire balance - your funding is gone. If you otherwise mess up and exceed the daily loss limit or lose your connection or whatever - your funding is also gone.

Earlier, I had the impression that these firms were actually interested in finding trading talent and funding traders, but it's clear as day to me that the only funding you ever receive is the initial shoestring they're providing you. As such, it doesn't really make sense for a trader to continue trading with such a firm as soon as he's in a position to withdraw a moderate sum of profits as he can then fund his own account and keep all profits (minus taxes).

So, it's up to each trader or would-be-trader to figure out if they think it's a worthy arrangement to receive $4.5K funding at best.

Now, it would be a different story if these firms actually provided funding and let a trader scale up and withdraw funds. That's not the case, though.
More...
Maybe someone alerted them that calling it a 150K account could be considered misleading marketing, spot on .. real prop firms don't play this game .. they hunt talent at own cost .
 
FTDK said:
Why would you stay at such a firm if you make 400k a year and give away 10%-20% of the profits to the firm?
More...

I’ll list few reasons;

Have you tried trading a large size from home alone?

Have you tried trading a large size from a trading desk with people around you?

If so, then you’ll notice that there is lots of accountability when you have a boss (head trader) and other traders around you, and therefore for many people it is much easier to trade larger size for a prop firm than from a home office in terms of accountability and psychological support.

I’m not saying that ‘s the case with Topstep, I’ve never dealt with them, but there are many benefits from trading for a decent firm.

There is no need to be worry about others knowing one’s trading strategies. For example in FX prop firms one trader can be very technical, anotherone can be very good at trading news. Each trader has his own method that fits him.

Paying percentage from profits is not an issue at all because you have access to large capital, it can be a win/win situation for both parties.
 
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