I can see the value to a developing trader as it holds them accountable with constraints not necessarily present in a private account. As far as the monetary issue, if you can't be profitable on 1 contract, you won't be on 25.
I agree unreservedly with this. If you can't be profitable trading small, then you certainly can't be profitable trading big, either. That said, and acknowledged, I did find the point at which I eventually managed to move up from trading 2 contracts to trading 3 very beneficial, and it felt that things became easier from there just because of the ability to scale in and out of positions, add to winning positions, etc. Some of it might be attributable to a modicum of "additional experience", of course, but in the three months after switching from 2 contracts to 3, I did almost 80% better (i.e. rather than the 50% better one would expect pro rata simply from the bigger position-sizing) than in the the three-month period before that.
There is no fucking way you can see Youtube videos with Live traders (many people) talking freely about their profits in previous months. So you are either a TST insider or you get your info from their chatrooms. Both are fine, but please knock off referencing Youtube, when you are clearly not up to the challenge to show us just 3 such videos...(and I obviously don't mean Newly Funded Trader videos) So yes, this post is calling BS on your Youtube claim... Actually, I think there is some kind of gag order in place, so it would go against policy for a Live trader publicly advertising his returns... But someone knowing better can correct me...
Wrong again - I didn't even know they had "chatrooms" (do they?), and I have no connection with them at all. I'll reference Youtube all I want. You don't get to tell other members what they can post here. And no - I'm not about to use up my time looking through the 3,800 videos on Youtube brought up by putting "TopStepTrader" into their search-function to try to find three that will satisfy you. Everyone reading this thread can see your prejudice for what it is, and although I'll continue to correct the misinformation you post here, I have no interest in trying to persuade people who vocabulary doesn't include the words "Sorry, I may be be mistaken" or anything similar.
None of these numbers are meaningful to your or my trading, because they're only indicative of the success of those traders' systems. Success comes from trading, regardless of being executed at TST, IB, AMP, or any other cool acronym. I believe that's incorrect, however. Don't you remain a non-professional while you're using a simulator, and only graduate to the high professional fee once you actually start trading?
True, but we are also evaluating TST as a business. And again, they are still more meaningful just as a dream maker than the number of Combine passers. Interestingly, even most of this week's NFTs started their Combines in the last year, thus before the January changes. So the real increase in numbers after the big change will come out next week, 2 weeks after they already took credit for it... One thing to note, looks like it takes 4 weeks on average to get funded after passing the Combine...
So what exactly are all the rules for the three different stages till your funded?.. What is the most anyone is managing or allocated so far?..