Got it. I don't think there are many who love this model after learning the facts about how these business operate. I had a rough idea myself and it became crystal clear after my own experience. Does such companies exist for a retail trader? I talked to the T3 Group. They seem to have an offer to remote traders that are different than these get-funded (LOL) scam companies. However, they require a capital contribution from the trader. I have my own account to trade, so I don't need a company to trade through. But it could have been an opportunity to scale up faster.
I have some experiences with trading for different prop firms where there is capital requirements. The biggest thing I find difficult is that most risk manager on those prop firms are not always very smart. I had two occasion they just blew up, because a trader that was smarter and working longer then the risk manager in that firm, knew what he was doing. In both occasions I have lost all the money sitting in that account. And they have also rules you are not allowed to break... and your capital is the risk for your trading activity... when that is gone, you are out... and there is also a split...
When new rules keep being added to get a funded account and then to maintain a funded account, I would be worried about what is going on at the company. The latest one at one of the places where you can only take 50% of your profits and then need another 5 days of profits before you can take another 50% seems a bit off to me. I am left wondering if the number of people signing up for the trials has decreased and they are trying to maintain enough cash on hand to cover margins for funded accounts. I also wonder if a lot of people who manage to make it to funded, either quickly fail, or get their money back and walk away, again leaving them short of funds without the 50% rule. Question for those who have taken these things and been funded. Do you get your profits in a funded account after you break a rule and are dropped from funded, but still have profits in the account? Or do they keep that cash?
Yep there it is—-Topstep https://help.futures.topstep.com/hc...at-is-the-Withdrawal-Policy-and-Profit-Split- Another pathetic rule.
holy shit that is absolutely pathetic. i knew they recently added another rule where the majority of your trades have to be over 20 seconds for the combine but ANOTHER ONE? now they aren't even trying to hide the fact that they're doing everything in their power to make it as difficult as possible to make money from them. tst already had the most stringent rules esp with the 2-step combine + the weekly loss limit but they're going way overboard now. i was funded by TST years ago and it was horrible. once you're in the live account, you get assigned a risk manager. you have to be present in their chatroom anytime you're trading live. if, during live trading, the risk manager messages you but you aren't present, they reserve the right to close your account. that's already kinda bs but let's move on. what really ticked me off was this risk manager guy wouldn't stop breathing down my throat every time i was going through a meaningful drawdown. sometimes you have losing trades 3 times in a row. it's just the nature of a probabilistic game such as trading. but if your setup shows up, even if it's after 3 losing trades in a row, you take the trade to let your edge play out and maximize your expected value. but not at Topstep. if you have a decent drawdown, HOLY SHIT their risk manager will start aggressively demanding you to stop trading, sometimes using ALL-CAPS. lmao. it's like they're always in the background micromanaging you, telling you what to do, what not to do. one time, i was so fed up with his bullshit that i straight up asked him, "so M***, are you telling me to stop trading?" his response was, "well that's your decision to make", totally ignoring the fact that he had been pestering me to stop trading for like the past 30 minutes. it's like when i suddenly called him out for his bullshit, he suddenly walks back to absolve himself of any responsibility. fucking coward. but like i said, this was years ago. idk how they operate these days b/c i've never gone back after that absolutely bullshit experience.
Cash? You still believe it's real money? My account was liquidated at $7K. Prior to the trade I held overnight - my account was just below $4K. After messaging back and forth with their very rude customer service they told me they would wire me my share of the profits prior to the rule break. That's at least something, I thought, figuring I would get 80 %. I was paid 20% of the $4K. I'm not sure if it's a time limit or a profit threshold, but I think the fine print of the contract says if you withdraw money prior to the 5 or 8K hurdle, you're only getting 20%. So that's what I got. The rest they kept to themselves, but I can only assume it was simulator $$$ and not real $$$. Either way it was a win to them as they got to pay me $800 instead of 100% of the $8000 I was closing in on.
I will definitely not argue that these pay-to-play firms do not have a trader's development as their number one priority -- after all, they are a for-profit company. However, it is indisputable that if a trader is able to pass their evaluation, generate profit in a funded account....they will payout as long as there is no rule break. It is the traders' obligation to make sure 10,000% that they do not break a rule. Discipline must be dialed up to level 100. No carelessness with Bracket+OCO orders being left ATH. No trading during econ news if not allowed by the funder. Not easy. But if you don't like the rules, open your own brokerage account. Period.