Some of us here appreciate your posts.Thank you for your opinions and displayed wit and to the point. Don't be discouraged by the mean comments.
So I came across TopStepTrader when researching other prop firms and looked up their stats. * 18% move from combine to funded * 50% fail in funded * 2015 around 320 funded traders * $150 to $375 per month for combine So that's around 1,800 people per year paying monthly, let's say they do it for 3mths which is realistic, averaging $200/mth across the four plans, that's over $1million in fee income where 91% of them fail. Let's leave out the hidden exchange fees and commissions, that over $5k payouts are 80/20 not 100% on the frontpage, lack of mentoring and support, when you look at it from the top down ... "By contrast, a pyramid scheme compensates those at the top of the pyramid with participation fees paid by those recruited at the bottom. It eventually collapses when the scheme can't recruit more people." The two prop firms mentioned before and TST, when you consolidate each companies data, which new traders will not have experience in doing, you come out with something rather toxic. We have entities that run closed prop trading, mentoring, academy, quant dev, analytics, they are structured to hit 80% passthrough with an absolute minimum of 50% for custom, and 80% to 95% in the case of blackbox. Coming from an institutional background where you have transferable methodologies, these are the sort of figures we're used to. Now, 91% failure rate is better than the 99% failure rate of retail, however the lack of transparency from these firms is incredible.
They are not hidden, they are on their site, plain as day. "As a funded trader, you are responsible for covering the data fee charged by the exchange. This is a monthly fee that is not prorated based on start date and it is being charged by the exchange directly to your data provider. Fees may vary if you require a direct connection. The data for each exchange is charged separately as follows: CME products $85.00 CBOT products $85.00 NYMEX products $85.00 COMEX products $85.00 ICE products $110.00 (effective 04/01/16) EUREX products $69.00 USD For example: A trader trading one product (or more) on the CME (i.e. E-mini S&P) would be fee liable for $85 per month. Multiple products on one exchange do not increase the fee. Add Crude Oil (a NYMEX product) and you would be responsible for $170 ($85 x 2) per month. Add Gold (a COMEX product) and you are responsible for $255 ($85 x 3) per month. Add another product like Soybeans (a CBOT product) and your responsibility increases to $340 ($85 x 4) per month. " https://help.topsteptrader.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000174188-Do-I-have-to-pay-exchange-data-fees- So $340 per month for something I can get for $15 per month through a regular broker?
Buried in a faq, a normal transparent company puts a footnote on their site. If you spent a few minutes actually exploring people who have used it, the fees come as a surprise to them. Don't you just love people using hindsight bias, a beginners mistake with 600 posts now there's an oxymoron, it's easy to find something once someone has explained it. But as usual, IYIs pick up the irrelevant information "let's leave out ..." instead of concentrating on the important part, the 91% failure rate with $1million fees.
If you are directing that to me, I am simply pointing out a fact in the error of your statement about "hidden exchange fees". I knew about TST's "hidden" fees for a lot longer than the date of your post here in this thread. Truth is, they are not "hidden". That is all I was alluding to. P.S. What is an IYI? I'm not up on the new Internet jargonation.
I think the TST people are geniuses. They must be raking in the money just from all the people hoping to make it big.