I look at Topstep a bit different than most, I don't see most of traders as a possibility of getting funded, but as a way for some to fine tune their abilities to perform at the best they can be because of tight rules. If I was them, I probable have same tough rules to trade my funds. It is like this, you want the find that guy who might be in a financial predicament of being under funded but they have traded well before, most likely in few months they are doing 1000% and you hoping they stay with you. There is no way in this world I would give anyone who passed a two week activity my funds as those who do Topstep as generally very inexperienced. If they had even small funds and were experienced, they can make ten times that amount in couple months and less. Topstep I bet had found out early on that many who passed in beginning was on luck and then went on to loss money. But anyone good would stick around few months till they have funds they need and split to make 100%.
Why not? One contract can work with "OPM", as you call it. But TST would not allow this sort of thing in the journal, so I have to trade "MOM"(My Own Money) to make it happen.
Yes, those figures are simply a representation of "equity" based on a daily risk amount of 2% and $10,000 of equity per lot size traded. The "true funding" is the $4,500 figure for the $150k account, since that is the trailing maximum allowable draw, or 3% of "equity" in the account. However, if you can make $9,000 using the scale up rules during the combine and within 10 trading days, then you stand a greater chance of repeating the process during the live account while you build your equity, since you only have 10 days of "true funding" once you're live. On day 11, your balance is simply the amount of equity, at which point the "true funding" switches to day trade margin only.
I do not know what that all means, sir, since if I am using MOM, I can do it outside of the combine ruleset. I do not know what you mean by a "lot". Futures traders do not trade "lots", they trade "contracts". My equity is already there, just like in a combine. Where you are getting your "equity" numbers from I also do not know. "Trailing maximum allowable draw"? *shrugs* Look...Trading is a business. If you wish to start-up a business, what do you do? You go to the bank and say "Hey, I want to start a new business!" So the bank says, "Great! Here's $150,000 to get you started!" I guess that is what TST is. They are a bank, in a way, that allows you to start your business. But when you open up your business and you lose some money in a few days, the bank does not immediately call in the loan. You have much more time to try to get profitable to be able to pay back the loan in installments. Not just 10 days. And if you have a string of losing days, the bank will STILL not call in the loan. But if you are your own bank, you are the only person responsible for calling in the loan. So why bother spending money on a system designed to keep you from being successful, rather than spend the money on yourself? YOU are the business. Who the hell in their right mind spends a measly $10,000 starting a small business unless they have a sure-fire, proven product/service? It is no wonder that most small businesses fail within a year or two of the start date. What is the figure? About 90%? Sound familiar? It's not a magic formula. It's not a secret. If you want to start a trading business, scrape together at least $100,000 and work it from there, and just do one contract. Because while your business through the bank loan of $100,000 may survive ups and downs for that first year, your trading account of $10,000 may not. But it WILL be profitable in the end if you follow your business plan. Banks know this. That is why they give loans to new small businesses. Since you do not have overhead in a trading business, you are in a better position than, say, a brick-and-mortar. But there is that one catch, and that is margins. Ahh yes. That is the devil in your side, poking you with it's little pitchfork. Just think of margins as the brick-and-mortar landlord coming after you, with his/her pitchfork, demanding the rent payment on the property for your business. But the margin landlord comes around EVERY DAY! So be mindful of it. Appease that bugger, and you're fine! Risk management is where it is at. And that is really the end of line. The Nash Equilibrium. Look it up. Flom.
I was responding to the post made by Surprise, not your post. Since you posted a response, I might as well address it: This thread is regarding JamesEM, who took a TST combine and passed, with some discussions regarding TST's rules. Yes, of course futures trades in "contracts" but you can also substitute the word "lots" and any competent futures trader will know it's one and the same. The "equity" numbers come from TST's own site! Surprise used the word "gimmick" and that is why I put the word "equity" in quotes. The $100k or $150k combine represents the total amount of "equity" as per the daily risk, whereby the daily risk of $2,000 is 2% on the $100k, just as the daily risk of $3,000 is also 2% on the $150k. The 100k has a maximum of 10 lots, or 10 contracts, and the 150k has a maximum of 15 contracts. Hence, each contract represents having $10,000 of equity in the account. It's not my calculation, it's TST's own metrics. Therefore, a combine's equity is measured by the total amount of daily risk you are allowed to take per contract traded. However, the true risk for TST in the live account is only the maximum allowable trailing draw, which for the $150k account is $4,500. You're right, a bank might not call in the loan after 10 days, but TST does, except you aren't liable for the losses, hence the opportunity of getting a backed account.
Indeed, I think this might have been an unintentional thread hijack on my part. My total bad. This discussion would be best addressed in a separate thread. My apologies to you and the OP.
No problem. Your spreadsheet reveals that you can trade 1 lot of crude and bank $9k within 9 days. Unfortunately, as you stated, it doesn't fit within the parameters of the combine simulator, otherwise you could just pass it and trade their funds on a live account. The real benefit of TST's live account is to scale up size without putting up any day trade margin.