What he said! haha. There are some days that if you catch a good pivot bounce or a nice low or high to trade, your risk reward is awesome simply because when crude moves, IT MOVES! 11 am to 2pm are the optimal times to trade it. 8 am to 9 am is tricky, especially at the 8 30. You can be up 3k in 3 days or less off of 1 to 3 lots, but if the pressure is to make 10k for the month, and you got bots trading, the THETA game going against you (TIME IS AGAINST YOU IN THE COMBINE) etc....You will not hit the target, doubt yourself as a trader, and re deposit money into the TST Arcade. Crude is awesome, but you should start with NQ futures, first. If you badger Scott over at Thinkorswim, they will lower margins to stay competitive with LEGAL, DAY TRADING MARGINS ON FUTURES. You have options ladies and gentlemen. Get licensed, get funded, get money! You wont get money in life GIVING it to other people. Does not work like that. Its been 2 years or maybe more. Combines have gotten more expensive, the parameters are somewhat fair except for the time issue, stop loss size and you ARE NOT ALLOWED TO SWING TRADE! No holding postions, even if you have a hard stop re instated. Correct me if I am wrong on any of this. Then again, im just an idiot sour grapes TST Flunky, right?
Ok, last rant, i promise. What kind of firm treats profitable months as a losing endeavor? TST! Say you are up 8k on the 50k combine. Tough Sneakers! Do not pass Go and try again! For free this time. Because you know, time is free. Instead of looking for handouts and schemes, go mop a floor, or flip burgers, or join a brokerage, or gasp, get a regular job! Then you will have enough capital to learn to trade at your own pace. How long can it take you to raise 5k, or 10 k? At least at a prop you are meeting Hedge Fund owners, retail traders, wealthy retirees, Wall Street veterans, you are learning everyday, have someone to learn from, and most reputable props DO NOT CHARGE for training. This way you are getting a REAL TRACK RECORD, Networking and also learning the business end of this game. Being bitter about it and then sticking up for these people will NOT get you closer to your goal. Neither will posting on Elite Trader. Do others the service of denouncing bullshit when you see it and move on. I am currently on my Futures Licensing grind (series 3 and 65 for FA), soliciting capital and working a fulltime job to get to where I am going. I also work on call on the side. Thats my 2 and a half cents. Good luck to all.
2 questions: 1. What was your goal when you signed up?(practice, challenge,funding) 2. Didn't you see all these problems beforehand? By the way, just about the correcting part, in some of the Combine you only need to do 5% monthly (the higest is 8.5%), not 10% to pass...