No trading today for me. Had an MRI this morning. Been dealing with some medical issues this week so hope to get this all behind me. Have another test tomorrow. I believe I have 4 days left to go.
Austin, my suggestion on the other thread was very simple and I think it solves everything. Just get rid of the time limit. I mean, I'm looking at your trading and you are doing exactly what I told Michael a lot of guys will do. They are going to swing big and go for broke and once they have a few down days or flat days, they are going to completely change how they normally trade simply to pass the combine. And in return, they are going to change their trading style and develop bad trading habits that they will never get rid of. I would really like to talk to Michael about this. This is the one criticism I do have and it has not been addressed.
as I said before, by no means am I complaining or denigrating the program... not for a minute, no one bit. my real-time participation analogy is this: applicants sign up for a career driving school bus (risk control) and the driver's test is performed in a nascar style hot-rod with road test that includes driving 150mph in order to qualify both instances include driving... but the actual job description versus the test are incongruous.
We are speaking to different things. Let me give an analogy. A fat guy comes up to me and says he wants to run in the Chicago Marathon. That's 26.2 miles. He is in lousy physical shape. Now he has two options. He can say f*ck it and just do it as he is now. Pop some pills, take some running course and practice for a few weeks. Maybe diet a little and do it. Or, he can take the longer term approach. Spend a year preparing for it. Slowly lose the weight and get in shape and be ready to run. In my opinion, learning to trade well is like running a marathon, not a sprint. Most traders want to sprint. This is why guys make a killing selling indicators, books, weekend courses, etc. because that is the "fast track". Nobody wants to spend 5 years and 10,000 hours to do this right. This combine with a time limit is a sprint. I think they would produce far more profitable traders who have staying power if they made it a marathon. I mean I read what you are talking about, trading 15 crude at a clip? Shit man. of course you "can" do that. But that is just plain stupid in my opinion. Shit, a .20 move and you hit your daily loss and your done for the combine. How is that building good long term habits? This combine must be approached from the long term perspective. Not the quick hit. Not the all in go for broke approach. Traders already trade like that in their own accounts and it's why they blow up. Anyway, just my opinion. Could be wrong.
We are saying the same thing The only way I'm trading 10 - 15 lots is by scaling in over two - three staggered entries. That is why sideways chop days like this morning are brutal to this approach... by the time a scale is complete, price is whipsawed back the other way. I'm working it like that in order to control downside but maximize upside for runners. Banging in & out with 2-lots all session ain't gonna make $12k in ten sessions. I'd be happy to see a +$25,000 goal with no time limit on $150k (along with all other existing parameters) to qualify. That would filter out those who cannot methodically trade, and relieve all artificial pressure from those who can.
those are two of the parameters, yes. Now again, by no means am I complaining or suggesting TST is doing anything out of line or wrong. Just so we're all perfectly clear on that fact At 8am this morning with a booked "profit' of $3,000+ and account balance at $152,000+ my mindset was fixated on how far off the pace that left me. Had I been a funded trader with no upside performance pressure right now today, I'd have personally never slipped back below +$2,500 for the day at worst. But even if I did, the program for funded traders includes giving back no more than 50% peak equity or in this case ceased trading at +$1,500 minimum. So that's the difference in mentality I pointed out. The qualifying parameters are such that it practically necessitates trading to outperform rather than trading to make money while not losing any. What good does it do to trade profitably but behind pace and finish at +$11,000 at the close of day ten? +$11,000 or -$11,000 is the same thing: failure to qualify. Not to beat this particular point to death, I think we've hit it from every possible angle. The combine is what it is unless it changes in the future. I fully intend to finish profitable, I have an idea that I'll make the +$12,000 objective but the manner in which it takes to get there probably negates the other details of this program. Six sessions to go, I'm specifically hunting +50 cent to 100+ cent CL trades riding ten or fifteen contracts at a clip. How that all shakes out in the end remains to be seen
To austinp, If I may I would like to suggest you slow things down rather than speed things up. You are only down 3k so I think you should rather now scale down in size and focus on meeting the performance goals and just get back to break even for a roll over. That way you can start of fresh for free without your mistakes made because of the new platform and will be more prepared to tackle this thing in the next round with a more steady approach. 6 days is plenty so I think you should be trading no more than a 5 lot. Remember that you also have to get more than 50% win day ratio. Ian