I think its indicative of the market itself. Remember, all we have are claims of long term success, even just survival. The funny thing is EVERYTIME i have witnessed one of these "internet" claims tested-- including with a fund and topstep, the traders fail miserably. There is in inherent disconnect between reality and what is claimed--- WHY? Because the methods taught and promoted are fundamentally flawed. The poor saps who just keep on trying thinking they will, with enough hard work and psychological control, make it one day are in for a rude awakening. Success in the market has nothing to do with work.
There is absolutely no point in paying for the 150K Combine since every Live trader has to start out small and earn the ability to trade big. Another missleading practice on their behalf... So pay for the smallest Combines, because as a Live trader, you will start out with 3-5 contracts max. anyway... No doubt, but that wasn't my point. By the way just to disagree, if you take multiple combines (some did more than a dozen) during a few months, you can lose just as much money as in a small retail account. Time is also money so as long as you feed your dream of becoming a funded trader and taking combines you are not doing anything else useful. So maybe it is better to lose quickly some real money and give up on the daytrader dream, then to stretch out the agony... TST's motto is: "Don't lose your money to the market, when you can lose it to us!"
Hm, this is the first time we are getting a feedback with real numbers on how the Funded traders are doing: "Funded Trader Shout-Out: Seabiscuit had another 5 day win streak for a profit of $2,400. Keep up the consistent profitability, Seabiscuit!" They need to do this more often for PR purposes.... Of coure Seabiscuit could have lost 3K the week before, but hey, that is a first step...
Yes I always wondered why they had 4 levels instead of just one, if we can "ask our manager" for more leverage when we've been live long enough. They even said in interviews that they favor the smaller combine winners because "it shows risk awareness". The reason I'm eyeing the 150K for now, is so I can demonstrate my current plan as designed and tested: it scales based on risk, from 1 to 12-15 lots and its performance gets a bit skewed when restrained to just a few. (Which I'm aware would be a problem during initial live trading, but potentially more quickly resolved with pre-approved scaling to 20 lots.) The combine rules are very clear and easy to abide by. I bring this up because TST claims that combines are "rolled over" for free, as many times as requested, as long as the risk management rules were respected (flat at specific times of day, maximum drawdowns, maximum position sizes). Until proven otherwise, I believe that claim. (Of course I'm not talking about the continuous combine, which is basically an expensive way to sim trade indefinitely.) Then that's where we disagree: screen time is screen time and it accumulates over our lifetime. I see TST, in that respect, as a neat way of showing newcomers the value of sim trading where they might've just gone straight to burning cash on their own. It's valuable education. (Something I for one don't need TST for, but you're talking about dreamers here.) Of course, if someone doesn't learn a thing from the time invested, that's entirely up to them... That does sound about right. If someone doesn't care about risk rules and keeps paying for new combines anyway, or goes "continuous", that's good income for TST. And who knows, maybe that person will eventually learn something and benefit, (if nothing else, maybe learn that trading isn't for them and move on).
Yes, and that's why I've stated in the past on this very thread that passing the combine is "irrelevant" since the only way to get a check in the past was to make it to Senior Trader. Now they don't have the levels, but they still have the 10 day rule in the live account. If one can get past that hurdle, then the odds improve of taking a check, or "a 3rd paycheck" as you point out.
soooo irrelevant that most ET traders could not even pass it. Why don't you give it a try and may be you'll be one of the first one to pass it.
Your comment is so irrelevant, that it is time for an analogy, so you understand better the process: Look at the Combine like the American Ninja Warrior competition. There are 3 stages and the 4th is climbing the Mt.Midoriyama under a certain time, and becoming the Ninja Warrior champion and getting the money prize and bragging rights. Now except for bragging rights, it is irrelevant if you failed Stage 1 or 3, the end result is that you didn't make it up to the top of the mountain. And guess who is failing Stage one? A bunch of Olympic medalists!!! So from the competition's POV, it doesn't matter you are a gold medal gymnast, as long as you failed Stage 1, you aren't better then an accountant from Kansas. So if you haven't got it: Plenty of profitable traders couldn't pass the combine, because their strategies just don't work well with Combine rules, that doesn't mean the Combine itself is so important or that they are not successful in real life... Here you can check who failed at where: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Ninja_Warrior#Notable_competitors
Thank you for your analogy: I actually knew about it thanks to some sports people. Now, I can only assess things as they went : Patak allowed people to decide for themselves any "flexibility", aka if the person needed more time, more lots, more whatever. EVEN with that - may be it was the scrutiny, may be it was bla bla bla - the fact remains that only one thing was obvious: very few managed to pass. That is what I remember. Now, if you have more than 5 ET members who actually passed the demo first, then the first few days of live trading ( aka trading exactly the same but live), then let me know. Because the truth is not what one would first believe. Now, what is your escuse for not giving it a go and telling us at what stage you stumble?
1. That is a sales trick. The Combine is Stage #1, and they can make it as easy as they want, just to hook people, as long as Stage #2 and #3 stays the same. But people keep thinking they have something going on, although most unavoidable will fail the later Stages. As long as the Combine rules are different than the LTP, it is rather irrelevant. What is the point of training for race A, if the real race B has different rules? 2. So? Lots of profitable traders said they couldn't pass the Combine because the rules don't fit their strategies. That doesn't mean they are not profitable... 3. Relevance? You keep making irrelevant points. 4. So if I pass the Combine, my points suddenly will have more value??? But I tell you what, American Ninja Warrior is coming to my town, I might give it a try!