It seems TST keeps improving the program in favor of its traders. If one can pass the combine and make it to Senior Trader, then it seems like a good deal. Receive an 80/20 Profit Split from the start! We are excited to announce the following changes, which are effective immediately, for our current and future Funded Traders! Get ready to reap the rewards of your hard work and take advantage of the new profit split. Industry Best Profit Split You may now withdraw your profits at any time, and you will receive an 80/20 profit split! This is the best profit split you will receive in this industry. Learn more --> Trade Additional Products After trading 10 days on the funded account, you may trade the most liquid products on the ICE or Eurex Exchange (ex. Russell 2000, DAX, etc.). Industry Low Commissions Trade on a funded account with commissions as low as $.53 per contract. Keep trading well and take advantage of the greatest funding opportunity, lowest commissions, and best profit split ANYWHERE! Sign up for a Trading Combine today. support@topsteptrader.com. As always, contact us with any questions at 888.407.1611 or support@topsteptrader.com.
Well, it seems that TST is enthusiastic in making their offer appealing to those who: - are ready to reap the rewards of their hard work Obviously, trading success is not a given.
They send out a group email when one makes it to Senior Trader, so the "carrot they are dangling" is obviously working for some. The questions remain the same: 1. Can I pass the combine and make Senior Trader so I can start taking checks? 2. Can I increase my lot size over time?
I misread the announcement. "Traders may also withdraw their profits at any time, that means there are no longer any Junior or Senior levels!"
I think all these changes are great and certainly will satisfy the naysayers but my original point still stands and I think is even more evident now. If one does not have a real edge, changing the superficial parameters won't produce a better outcome. I've said this before, you could take away all the rules and say do whatever you want, most traders will still fail. We know this to be true because this IS what most traders have now. Any guy or girl on here with a small retail or large account for that matter, CAN trade anyway they want without ANY rules that they don't impose on themselves. And the result? Most of them fail! The reasons are the same. I think there is some fascinating information in their data which I hope they are storing. That data has a treasure trove of information for a young aspiring PHD candidate.
Is anyone doing any size with Tst ? What would they require you to keep in the account to trade 50-100 Es intraday per trade ? Crispy any insight on the answer ?
It's subjective, and depends on how much equity you've built up. Here's what TST says on the site regarding scaling up: "All account sizes will start with a 2 lot maximum position, and the lot size will increase according to the graph below, as you build equity. In order to maintain the buying power you've earned, all traders must maintain the correlating account balance. Once your account balance is greater than $10K, you can request more buying power." According to their chart, you have to build at least a 7k cushion to start trading 20 lots on the 150k live account, so by that logic, in order to trade "50 to 100" lots my guess is you'd have to build even a greater cushion than 10k to get that size. http://help.topsteptrader.com/knowledgebase/articles/411527-funded-trader-scaling-plan However, the account balance can never go back to zero. In other words, you have to start out positive from day 1, or my guess is you will get sent back to the combine, especially if you exceed the max daily loss. It's not very clear on the FAQ's except that the P&L must be positive after 10 days of trading in the funded account.
Because I have been involved in this thread I wanted to be up front and say that I voluntarily left TST last week. It was under good terms and I left profitable. There are no regrets on my end. TST/Patak has been great. And I would recommend them to anybody that wanted to try day trading futs to go with a few combines and at least figure out if it's something they can do/scratch at before dropping many thousands in your personal account. Essentially after reviewing 200 days/trades worth of my data(Mar 2013-Nov 2014) day trading the ES I have come to the conclusion that the return was not paying me enough to warrant the time I spent on the instrument and time frame. However, the time spent and the data mined was not for naught. I made money. And I learned a great deal from the last 20 months about myself, risk and psychology. I am not leaving trading by any means. But I am leaving day trading index futures behind me.