Hello lcwls - this is Sarah from the TsT support room. We are contacting you via email to sort out the discrepency. We processed your refund March 15. Refunds are completed within 5-10 business days.
Well folks another combine, another profitable month. I've been profitable 2 of the 3 monthly combines and 1 of the 2 accelerateds. However doing the accelerated made me realize the ridiculousness of the $500 loss limit. If I put out 5 contracts every point and got filled on all 5 I was already down the $500. Reviewing my trading during the accelerated, I realized on 2 occassions I was stopped out within 3 quarters of a point of the trading reversing my way (talk about frustrating!). I finally quit this past month for good (it was hard to do but I realized the loss limit just isn't reasonable). Also in the review of my trading I felt I was good enough to stay in the game but wasn't making the big gains to make it all worth it. I feel I just need tweaking or fine tuning.
Hello, this is Sarah from the TopstepTrader Support Team. I have read through the thread and wanted to clarify some questions and statements made in regard to the Combine program. If someone registers for a Combine and successfully completes it, they will be paired with an equity partner. The combine, while 4-weeks long, can be repeated as many times as necessary for a trader to go live. We generally see improvement in traders from Combine to Combine. This also helps the trader build a trading record with us. Many have questioned the loss limit. I understand it can be frustrating to many recruits, however, we are not catering to our recruits. We have set guidelines because they have been agreed upon by our equity partners. This is how we guarantee to hire any trader who successfully completes a Combine following the parameters we have set forth. Our live traders start out with a $500 daily loss limit. Once they prove they can remain profitable, the loss limit is increased. Tight risk parameters are in place to ensure that the trader continues to be successful. Our firm is not for everyone, we are not catering to people who want to start off trading with a large daily loss limit. Another item I want to address is our trading platform. We use the T4 trading platform, which is one of the most popular platforms used by traders on the CBOT floor. We prefer this platform because we want traders who know the product they are trading and trade with intuition. For traders who prefer trading from charts found on other popular platforms like NinjaTrader-- T4 is coming out with a new version soon which will include this.
A) Why does the combine need to be monetized? In researching Mr. Patak, it was discovered that he had a gaming site on the internet a while back and now it appears to me that his monetized combine is just a well thought out twist on his original idea which in a nutshell is to have a website that generates revenue. B) Can you provide financial statements showing that at minimum 20 combine graduates are earning adequate and acceptable incomes with your firm, over a period of at least 6 months?
Good luck to those trading 5 lots of SP's with a 2 point total loss limit. Also like the rule about not being able to trade contracts with more than a 1 tick spread. No Gold or Crude...then again....why would anyone want to trade a contract that is volatile and offers tons of opportunity. Actually if the student found a glitch and was creative enough to show a great track record based on trades he didn't do.....should be promoted to the top of the class. The TT simulator had a manual fill ability. Hell...half the new guys at Refco got promoted to live trading because of that. The "recruit must trade the same volume each day" is one of the dumbest things I have ever seen. So if day one it's volatile (ie Japan news a few weeks ago) and they trade 60 rt's, they then have to trade the same......even if the volatility slows down? That is a recipe for disaster....and is actually the exact opposite of what should be taught. Trade aggressive when it's there....scale back when it's quiet. Don't trade at 100 mph every day. This moving guys to live trading and back to simulator back and forth again and again is beyond ridiculous. Never heard of such a horrendous way to train guys. Find a guy, train him the right way...then back him..Let him trade. Their methods will create nothing but a bunch of scared traders who will be petrified to take a loss. Basically a firm like this will throw a ton of shit against the wall...and see what sticks. The ones who somehow do will realize they can do much better elsewhere.
What's wrong with wanting a trader to consistently make $8000 a month using only $2500 worth of intraday margin trading 5 lots with 2 point stops ? :eek:
The tight stops you use will produce nothing but a group of scared traders. 500 bucks loss trading 5 e-mini's ? If your goal is to become another Refco and just want guys churning a ton of commission then your plan is perfect. Some of the rules you guys have posted on here are horrendous. I have seen a lot in my time of trading....but the stuff I have read here is insane. Even worse you are actually charging people for it.
Nothing.....it's very possible......I actually traded there. My desk consisted of me, Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot. They must be getting a nice part of the commissions charged with that trading philosophy. Trade a ton, but keep tight stops. REFCO II.