I didn't even type in president. I simply searched "michael patak topstep trader" and that letter was the 2nd or 3rd link that popped up. I swear these people on ET are making me out to be some kind of superman. LOL. I guess it's gotten so bad in this country that just being literate puts you in the top 1%!
Nice try. You were responding to a question about what happens when a trader is sent back down to the combine. What, so to answer that question you googled "michael patak topstep trader"?? That makes no sense. You are cold busted on this, admit it.
Look guys, I've posted this before but what the hell, we're among friends here, let's try this again. In my opinion one has basically 3 or 4 routes available to becoming a trader. Let's go over them. 1) If you are right out of college and you have the resume, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind you should look for a salaried job. Provided you've got the the goods i.e top 10 school, quantitative degree, top grades and top internships, then go for the big banks, the tier one prop firms and the hedge funds. This is a no brainer. Now say you didn't listen to your parents and hit the books hard or you got a degree in women's studies or simply went to a lower tiered school, or maybe you're an older guy, then we need to move on to #2. 2) Go to a deposit prop firm. These include Bright Trading, Echo, Avatar, etc. Those are all equity firms. There are a few futures firms like HTG that accept deposits. Bright now requires 40k. Echo maybe 10k to 20k. Not sure. They will accept anyone with a clean background and a check in hand. Now, perhaps you don't have the money. On to #3. 3) This one is hard but can be done. You can, yes even with a hypothetical track record, set up a CTA. Go out and raise funds and manage other people's money. You better be a great salesman. On to #4. 4) Trade your own money. You will need 25k to 30k to trade stock around the PDT rule. And in my honest and humble opinion, you should not even consider trading futures with less then 25k either. Yes, I know you can, I'm simply not recommending it. If you don't have the capital, then 2 and 4 are gone from the list. And if you don't have the resume, 1 is gone. Now there are some other routes. If you have a solid 2 or 3 year track record with "real" money, there are prop firms that will let you come in and trade on a split. But paper trading is not going to cut it. The issue here is number 2 and 4. I believe most guys on ET are already out of school with a questionable resume. I believe most guys on ET have already blown out several accounts and are probably broke or near broke. And that means most guys on ET have no hand to play here. This leaves basically a firm like TST as their only option. And yes, even with TST, most guys really don't have a shot. This business is too tough for most people. TST is not a fix all. At the very least it should hopefully humble one enough to either look for another line of work or get them to bust their ass to make this work. Guys, there are no shortcuts here. Years ago it used to be a lot easier where one could move to Chicago, clerk on the floor when they were 18 year for a year or two and then get on a badge. A lot of working class kids from the south side of Chicago with nothing but a high school education became millionaires. Those days are loooong gone. LOL. If any of you are reading this thread and you are still in school, do not f*ck it up!!!!! Please. Whatever you do, you guys have the best shot at this. Get into physicals. Get the f*ck away from stock. Don't even look at another stock ticker again. Learn about energy. And seriously think about moving to Asia. In 10 years, Singapore will be the financial trading capital of the world. Get the best grades you can. Get the best internships you can. Join every club that's remotely related to your field. Take the quant classes. And if you did your undergrad at some southeastern northern regional tech school, then bust your ass to get into a good grad school. Print this post out and tape it to your wall. You're not going to get better advice.
You called me "some little shit". At least I never called you anything as cheap as that. Maverick, I think it is fair to say that you have lost 'some' respect in eyes of many guys on ET, who might not want to admit it openly, because they fear attacking response from your blind followers. The kind of attacks that I have witnessed trying to expose true motives of Patak has surprised me. Anyways, at least with your big final post, telling people the 4 options that they have to make as traders and telling them how even with TST their chances of making it is extremely low - you have redeemed maybe 2% to 4% of your lost prestige. Finally, with your long post, you have also agreed that TST is not a panacea. And most guys will in fact not make it with TST. Thank You for coming back to the bright side from the dark side!
Right, and he should come clean about his true relationship with Patak. He has clearly stated that he does not get compensated. But are there any other benefits he enjoys from promoting Patak? Maybe he can describe his personal relationship with Michael Patak or any other employees he has. That would go a long way to change many readers minds that there is no motive for you to constantly post intimate details about Patak.
I never called "you" a little shit. I was speaking in general of the policy on this site where anyone can attack a firm that is not a sponsor and then censor the defendant's response. It has happened repeatedly on this site. I'm sorry you took that post to mean you. It was a general response. And please for the love of God, link me to the post on this thread or any thread where I said TST is the "answer" for anybody. I simply refuted that they are a scam and defended myself from personal attacks from you.
How many times can I say this. I have NO relationship with Patak or TST. I'm with another prop firm for christ sake. My license is held at that prop firm and I have to disclose to that prop any and all outside business activity with ANYONE in the financial industry. This argument is getting really old guys. If you spent this much time working on your trading as calling firms scams, you wouldn't need to worry about how hard any combine was.
That was one of my first posts about TST. I clearly stated that I doubt many of the funded traders would make it. I've been in the prop firm industry for over a decade. I know what the failure rates are. They are VERY high. We had a 100k minimum at VTrader. And guys went through that like a knife with a butter. But knowing that most people will drop 100k in a flash, don't you think it makes sense for them to not risk that money and perhaps drop a few hundred bucks first to see if they can trade?
Alright, thanks for that clarification that your comment was not personal. As I have repeatedly said on this thread, I have absolutely nothing personal against you. All the questions I have raised about your thoughts about TST - should be taken as a discussion about the subject matter at hand - which is whether TST is mis-representing its business model or not? I am convinced that main aim of TST is not to partner with traders for long term, but to just churn them by making the combines super-hard. I will do another post maybe tomorrow with some more mathematics behind the required combine performance numbers. Its too late here and I need to sleep.
Does this make any sense though? TST wants to make money right? You want to make money right? OK great. So we have a market now. We have a bid, which is you and what you are willing to pay. We have an offer, which is TST and what they are offering. A sale takes place when you and TST agree on a price and a service. As a trader, you have to decide if you want make the trade. It's that simple. They put all the rules out there in plain sight. They couldn't be more transparent. They even let YOU make your own rules. I just for the life of me cannot make sense of your argument. That's like me saying Interactive Brokers is a scam, all they care about is my commissions. They don't care about my long term success. I swear to you, I'm really trying to understand your beef and I'm not getting anywhere with this.