All the guys who are going live everyday are first timers. This means they are getting at approximately 300-500 combiners per month. Maths for the guys who reach live the first time is pretty straightforward and 2200$ per 10 guys does hold (ignoring overheads). The only number that is causing confusion is the below category: So, please go to your emails and count and (please tell me also) how many guys went live, were sent back to combines and then went live again. And also the number of guys who repeated this process 2 times. This number will make all the difference. And my contention is that this number is incredibly small. I showed this mathematically in a post earlier - SteveNYC also seeked a clarification on my numbers and then agreed with my response. Not sure where that post is - maybe in this thread itself.
For simplicity lets assume - all first timers (first timers means not those people who are doing combines for the first time, rather it means those people who are moving to live for the first time (they could be in their 5th combine or 2nd - that doesn't matter here). So, assuming 5% success rate, they have roughly 200 first time combiners currently. For 2% success rates, 400 first time combiners. EDIT: How many of these 8 guys are 2nd timers in the sense they went to live first time, then back to combine and then back to live again? It will be great if you can review traders from Jun and July also, if you have access to that information.
500? No way! I'll take that bet right now! No way are they getting 500 "new" combiners every month. Michael, I know you don't want to give out numbers, but please verify this. The closest data we have is back in April they had 500 total combiners. Which Michael said a large part of were guys that rolled over their refund. And April was a really good trading month as well so a lot of guys were compelled to jump in. No way is this company getting 6k unique combines a year. I'm offering size on this market right now!!!!!!
Agreed, given 8 live in August, they are not 500. Pls read post above this one. I had said 500 here, assuming 20 live traders everyday - since you had mentioned that you are getting emails everyday with a trader going to live.
Lucias/gmst/critics- you guys are hard to please. Sorry we are not negotiating the terms. It is a reasonable fair offer for both parties. You show us you can produce. We will stake you. A deposit for the Combine is required or anyone who entered the program would not take it seriously and instead would do whatever they wanted. That wastes everyone's time. And yes, Combines are costly to set up, manage and evaluate. The rules to receive your money deposit back, which you call silly are as follows: Deposit will be refunded once all Combine trading days (10 or 20 days) have been completed, if the following requirements have been met: 1. Daily loss limit has not been hit or exceeded (this is basically don't lose $1,000 in a day. Hell, stop at $999 and you're good.) 2. Overall Winning Day % of 50 or greater (so in 10 trading days (which is the Combine length I proposed to the critical ET member) we are ONLY asking that the account be in the positive for 5 out of 10 of them. Whether that is $1 or $10k. Again you are good if you do this) 3. Each product traded has a Trading Average greater than zero ($0) (If you want to trade a bunch of products you better make money in them or why trade them? we recommend trading less markets, preferably one, and make sure you make at least $1 and again you are good) 4. Each product traded has met 2 out of 3 performance requirements, which are as follows: - Overall Average Win greater than Overall Average Loss (averaging more in your winners than losers is something a trader should be looking to do, keeps the account growing) - Overall Average Win Duration greater than Overall Average Loss Duration (we've all heard cut your losers let your winners ride. Well that saying isn't just a saying because it is fun to say.. it makes sense) - Total Win % of 45 or greater (how low should this be? this is a fair standard you should set for yourself.. in our opinion of course) (now, the above are basic trading mechanics. We only want to see 2 of the 3 met) You can see a Trade Report of a 10-Day Combine that has met ALL (3 out of 3 performance requirements, which are listed directly above) here: http://www.topsteptrader.com/ViewSoftwareTutorial/t4 -- Keep in mind, to meet the Combine objective and deposit refund requirements, ONLY 2 out 3 of the performance requirements have to be met. Now, if our standard evaluation criteria for meeting the Combine objective or refund/rollover requirements as mentioned above does not work for you WE WILL listen to your evaluation proposal if it falls within the guidelines here: http://www.topsteptrader.com/customevaluation In conclusion, if all of this does not work we are clearly at a point that you as a trader are not a fit for what we are looking for and it is best we both move on. Fair enough? mp
Here is the last guy to go live this week. Lucias, if he can do it, so can you!!!! http://www.topsteptrader.com/fundedtradereport
If a sceptic tries and fails, all it proves is that someone who did not believe it could be done failed to do it. There were a couple of chaps here who expressed interest in doing this. Why not extend the free offer to them? At least even if they fail, you know it is something they really wanted to do.
Thanks maverick I see you are on our email list. ha. Yes Lancer started trading LIVE on Tuesday. He is up in his account, so that is good to see. He has the same parameters as his Combine. I really like this guy as he scratched two Combines prior to meeting the objective. That shows me he is a sound trader and we are happy to have him aboard. All live trader know it is now up to them to keep themselves on the funded account. He is remote as all live traders are... We try not to bother live traders as they get accustomed to the live market. Thanks for the help with the link. mp
Michael, its your casino. Just a few notes 1. It will be hard for me to pass. At my best I can do 25%-30% of my max limit per day (while rarely hitting that limit) but I don't always trade at my best. I've did extremely well in my live account since going live (challenging the 100% net level) and during no month would I ever pass the combine. I came close 1 month though. In fact, to achieve combine results live.. one needs to achieve a 48x return on risk. I've never did this. I can do 100%-200%-300%-400% returns and not pass the combine objectives consistently (based on my current performance). Hell, if you can do that.. all you need to do is scrape together 1k to trade for a living... scrape together 2k and you can be making 100k per year... wow now that's selling the dream! 2. You claim from get go that the combine fees were to demonstrate seriousness. I've already demonstrated seriousness by risking my real capial in the market. I already showed you that there are other ways to measure seriousness and combine fees aren't the best way. 3. You claim to treat your traders like franchisee athletes... as a serious trader, I demand serious tools. I'm not going to have my performance and possible confidence suffer because you insist on using the sub standard T4 DOM. I tried the demo and did much better in my live acccount then I did on the T4 because the T4 DOM was so poorly designed. Micheal, let's get real... you're not going to attract the best. Let's get real also.. there's no way your going to be $1 off your risk limit in the live markets.. the trader who wants to ensure he doesnt hit that limit has to cut it to about 85% .
hitnrun- You are correct in saying it is difficult to find traders that can produce. We have quite a few that are net profitable each month though profits are not out of this world. They tend to do their Combine performance cut in half when live. Many do not pull from their account (withdraw as you say) though we do have a couple do it from time to time every month or so. The live traders like to keep it in their account. It helps takes the pressure off. They will have weeks or months that they make $5k for example then lose half it next month and back and forth. We work with those types on their consistency.. some get it and some don't.. lots of learning curves whether live or in the Combine. mp