Interesting thoughts.. I'm not 100% sure if the risk limits are the same in the combine though. I don't believe they cut you off when you are down 2x the risk limit in the combine. You are not allowed to hit the risk limit on any given day but I think they allow you to keep trading.. I'm not clear on this but this could be a difference. Of course, true they have to clear so much over so few days that I'm nto sure how much it matters.
Maverick 74 From your experience on both sides of the fence , your opinion talking about pro's , what group has consistently more profitable day traders over the past few years Are there more profitable stock traders or futures traders out there ?
You can already get over 150:1 leverage trading retail on your own, if you can really trade then there is no reason to give 40% of your profits away when you can just compound starting with just 1 contract. The lowest combine is asking you to make 16.667 es points in 10 days using a 3.25 stop or less intraday. Considering only intraday is allowed you are asked to return $2500 in profit using only 900-1500 of intraday margin. So if you are good enough to generate 277% return in 10 trading days, why do you need pataks backing ? They are essentially asking you to make 65k a year on 900-1500 worth of margin. Does this sound realistic to you ? If you can meet their requirements, just take your 300-500 margin for 1 contract plus 500 for risk that you are given in the combine and open an account at global futures and after 10 days you should have and additional $800 in your account. Now scale it up every week and the world is yours since after all you are a pro who makes 16.667 es points every 10 trading days with less then $500 drawdown. The rules are written where hardly anyone will succeed. I ask again 65k a year on 900-1500 worth of margin. Does this sound realistic to you ?
All you ET superstars are free to move on if this deal is not what you are looking for. It's not like they are going to change it if you guys complain for x days in a row. I'm in the army. If I want to jump out of army planes, shoot bad guys with army guns, and get army money and benefits, I have to follow army rules. Some of them are dumb but that's just the way it is. You want the benefits of any organization, you have to play by their rules.
You'd hit $1M on day 21 and you would be at $536,870,912 on day 30. GMST is being very illogical and irrational. I think everyone gets it that he has an ax to grind but (I assume) these are two separate companies and two separate tax IDs etc so combine fees can't go to Patak just like commissions can't go to TsT. Lucias, I was going to send you a PM to this effect but I'll just put it out in the open since I'm pretty sure most everyone would agree. From what I've read it sounds like you have doubled your account and have had great success - congratulations! That said, it also sounds like you are way over leveraged, taking on far too much risk and perhaps have been lucky that your lack of risk parameters have not bitten you in the rear end. If you have an account with $1,000 and you have been fortunate enough to have doubled it that's great, now you have $2,000 of capital and you can trade exactly the same by risking less overall capital. That is a good thing. If you are consistent you should forget all together TsT and Patak (not because they are good or bad) and just keep trading on your own. In the bigger picture (from personal experience) trading on your own and collecting 100% of your own P&L is always going to be better than a split. So many guys want the world handed to them - you want tons of capital so you can keep the same risk parameters as you have now because you think it will allow you to make more money - that's false logic and it'll burn you. If you don't believe it ask Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Wachovia, Merrill and I'm sure you are smart enough to find a few others. Just keep trading as you are now. Reinvest the profits back into your account and don't withdraw. If you can't afford to live on the money you have saved or the profits then get a part time job outside trading hours. Nothing is free and scaling up an over-leveraged, risky strategy is most certainly not a smart move. (Sorry for the OT post in this thread)
you start with a penny but double it on day one, therefore day 30 would be 2 to the 30th power. =1,073,741,824
You don't double it on day one - you start with a penny on day one and double it every day which means two pennies on day two. Also you guys seem to be forgetting that its a *penny* not a dollar: Day Cash 1 $0.01 2 $0.02 3 $0.04 4 $0.08 5 $0.16 6 $0.32 7 $0.64 8 $1.28 9 $2.56 10 $5.12 11 $10.24 12 $20.48 13 $40.96 14 $81.92 15 $163.84 16 $327.68 17 $655.36 18 $1,310.72 19 $2,621.44 20 $5,242.88 21 $10,485.76 22 $20,971.52 23 $41,943.04 24 $83,886.08 25 $167,772.16 26 $335,544.32 27 $671,088.64 28 $1,342,177.28 29 $2,684,354.56 30 $5,368,709.12 If you interpreted it to mean doubled 30 times then the answer is $10,737,418.24, e.g. $10M not a billion