@frank7, you know the saying: beggars can’t be choosers? No offense but you are nothing but a headache/expense for them for at least a year. Thank your lucky stars that anyone is even taking their time talking to you. If you think like a trader, you can easily see that risk to reward for taking you in is not favorable unless they extract some money upfront. Sorry but it’s the reality.
The psychology of trading is in my opinion about 80% of what seperate winners from losers, this can't be taught, it takes a lot of experience & few have the grit, hustle, guts, persistence, self analysis, & pain tolerance to get their mindset dialed in before they run out of cash. Will working in a 'professional' environment help? From what I have heard prop churn rate is high - although it has worked very well for some. Only you can make that decision. I suggest identifying the things that top traders mention as why the did so well, also look at published studies why most day traders lose in order to be mindful of avoiding these pitfalls. You trading plan should cover draw-downs & focus a lot on trade/risk mgmt. If you cant win over your critics in a 5 min elevator speech of why your plan is bound to succeed than the plan sucks - redo it. Our hard wired human nature has us riding losers & taking profits way to fast. This can be overcome but it does not come easy. A few links on traders psychology, remember this is 80% of it. https://www.daytradingpsychology.com/causes-of-trader-failure/aversive-conditioning/ https://mindmusclesfortraders.com/our-trading-brain-and-trading-loss/ http://stanford.edu/group/spanlab/Press/bk0206press.html https://lindaraschke.net/maintain-your-mindset/ https://www.trade2win.com/articles/1732-why-traders-lose-their-discipline
When it comes to the world of science, psychology isn’t one. It is a subject area that is too subjective; conclusions are mushy, and not falsifiable or repeatable. As a college major, it is not in the top 20 (or 30) highest paying majors but in fact one of the lowest. The same is true for graduate school salaries. Trading psychology recommendations are outright silly: Consider the statement: “The most important attribute for making money in financial markets is self-confidence” but how is confidence, self or otherwise, defined and measured? If self-confidence cannot be defined or measured, it cannot be understood so how can it be the most important? The same can be said for this statement: “Do not trade money until you are fully confident in your strategy”. Since “fully” cannot be measured it is useless. Consider the list of 6 keys to managing trade psychology which include “have an edge” (what is that exactly?); know thyself (who me?) and avoid emotional mistakes (My, oh my). Putting psychology to the curb, there are defined situations where we are defeated by aberrant choices (hyperbolic discounting, gamblers fallacy) that we can avoid.
imo that's one of the two benefits of going with an arcade like T3. you will have someone looking over your shoulder so you are less likely to self destruct. that's a valuable service. the other benefit is leverage but all of that comes at a price
I don’t trust T3 they sound very dirt bagish over the phone. Theirs was one trader who got an account with T3 and after his account was funded and he gave his deposit they told him he could not trade the strategy he was told he could trade and it took him a while to get his money back. I do trust SMB and currently trade with them
A couple clarifications/corrections: (1) T3 was not formerly The Pristine Method. T3 existed as a prop firm/trading education entity on its own, and actually acquired Pristine in 2015. (2) Amber Andrews (formerly "Amber Capra"), formerly Greg Capra's DIL, does not run T3. She's listed as a "Senior Trader Counselor" -- essentially handles customer service, marketing, etc. I see that Sean Hendelman is T3's CEO. (3) I've heard a few people say that Capra & Velez took/adopted some of Weinstein's concepts. Whether that's true or not, there are some definite similarities, and so Weinstein's book could provide some useful background as to Pristine's concepts. But that book alone does not come close to covering the full "Pristine Method," for whatever one might think the latter is worth (or not). IMO, the former "Pristine" traders now with T3 Live are legit, solid traders. *But* I don't know how much they get involved with T3's prop program and/or how much the "Pristine" material is covered. T3 has essentially absorbed or partnered with a number of trading services -- each with its own particular approach/style -- that do not necessarily share much in common. I knew prop traders from the former Pristine prop program, but not from T3's.
SMB is (or at least, used to be) a division of T3 Trading Group. From the SMB website: "SMB is a division of T3 Trading Group, LLC, a CBSX broker dealer. SMB is not a broker dealer and all of its traders are registered members of T3 Trading Group, LLC." I don't know how that might affect their respective prop or education services, though.
I think a changed management is what has lead to some changes. But I’ve heard people have had good experience dealing with them, even of late.