1) ?.... ! .... that "trader" had to have been under massive stress on his 9th and 10th day of his evaluation period. :eek: :eek: 2) Was he really "consistent" given the fact he had a large loss (worst day) followed by a large profit (best day). 3) He was treading on the tails on his "bell curve", not he middle. Oh well, I hope he can make some real money.
Exactly. Not sure if you missed it, but TST offered a FREE Combine earlier in the thread, but as far as I know, no one has taken the offer yet.
CoolTraderDude. Yes, the way things go in circles it's easy to miss. I believe a new thread was started because of all the clutter in the previous one. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=248798&perpage=6&pagenumber=11 WOW...! Patak buddy you called my bluff...! Allright... I did talk the talk... Now I'll attempt to walk the walk...! I'd be interested in this... I'll send you a PM... Regards, CTD CooltraderDude- Just catching back up with the ET posts. Sorry for the delay. Great news you are interested. We have a couple other people at Big Mikes Trading doing the same things and updating the thread daily. They are not getting the nice deal that we worked out here as they signed up on their own; but we are more than happy to have you apart of this test or if successful apart of our live (funded) trader team. If you are still interested in proceeding please contact our scout desk at 312.252.9858 or email
I've already e-mailed... Michael wants to talk to me personally and we're trying to set up a suitable time for the call... That's about it...
ScalperJoe- 1. Why do you require the IDT course to be taken PRIOR to the Combine to get the 70% vs. 60% payout? There is NO incentive to pay for a course if the passing rate of the combine is low. The fee was also raised from $250 to $300. And having that extra cost just adds fire to gmst's case that TST is more about fees than actually backing profitable traders. The course is optional, however a trader has no access to gaining a check until they actually get a live account and prove themselves by building the cushion. Why not allow a new trader the option to take the course AFTER they make the live account, and then have the payout switched from 60 to 70%? mp- We do not require IDT. It is an option you can take to get the 70/30 split right away. We partnered with Ray who teaches this class. We believe in the class as it teaches intuition and anticipating opportunity and responding. We recommend recruits finish this class prior to going live as it will help your learning curve and development. We want you educated and in-tune BEFORE ever trading real capital. As for the price going from $250 to $300 for a particular Combine. I believe you are mentioning a time when we raised this about 6 months ago. We raised this due to our increased cost. Since we started the Combine we have added many tools to help traders develop while working towards a funded account, due to this we raised the refundable deposit amount. ScalperJoe- 2. One trading collegue asked me how his live account would be protected if the 5k cushion is held by PTP? In other words, since PTP is willing to shoulder the burden of risk for all of the unprofitable traders, what happens to the 5k cushion if PTP fails to meet its financial obligations? If the trader doesn't give it back to the markets and actually maintains it in order to collect distributions on amounts above the cushion, does the trader have to agree via contract that those funds are subject to the risk of not only the firm, but also of other traders who lose money in their live accounts? For example, a prop trader at an equity firm has to sign such an agreement, but there are oversights in place via regulations and net capital requirements. Does PTP have to maintain any net capital requirements if they offer sub-accounts? mp- As with both clearing firms and prop trading firms they are subject to the risk of another entity creating massive losses that could cripple them. That is why we have two levels of risk management within our firm and a risk manager of the clearing firm watching all our account at all times to ensure we avoid this situation. ScalperJoe- 3. Since a Series 3 license does not require sponsorship, is there any benefit to taking this exam before joining TST/PTP? mp- There is no benefit as you do not need to have a series 3 when you are brought up to trade on a funded account. Since PTP is strictly proprietary capital their traders do NOT need to be to be licensed. ScalperJoe- 4. Maverick and I have exchanged posts regarding the profit cushion. Maverick has explained why he believes there should NOT be a cushion. PTP has explained why they require a cushion. I posted that PTP could lower the cushion to match the profit objective of the combine ($2,500 for the 10-day/30k account, $3,500 for the 10-day/50k account, etc). Since PTP claims that performance drops off when a trader goes live, why not lower the cushion to allow a trader to gain a check faster if they're profitable? mp- We want our traders to build capital and not continually keep their account low by drawing checks. This does not help a traders mental capital as traders do go through slumps from time to time. The cushion of $5,000 or $10,000, depending on what Combine they completed prior to going live, helps the trader to stay confident during these times. ScalperJoe- 5. Does the platform have an "auto liquidate" feature to cap a trader's loss intraday which can be set BELOW their daily risk such that a trader can minimize their draws while improving their trading discipline? mp- Our program (the Combine) looks for traders who have this downside control. There is nothing in the trading platform that we currently have that does this. We are adding Ninja shortly and I am not familiar if their platform does this either. A trader can build their our trading app to do this but ultimately we like a trader to manage this as this teaches and instills discipline when you learn to shut yourself down manually. I hope that helps. Let me know if I do not cover a question well enough for you. mp
Our Squawk Radio and Breaking News chat room is open to guests today. I am going to be doing my Drill a Scout session (which I hold every Tuesday and Thursday) today at 12pm CST (15 minutes). I invite any one who has questions about the program or becoming a funded trader with TopstepTrader to join us. Log in here: http://www.topsteptrader.com/Chat/1001 (enter a username and select "Login as guest"). Please ask all questions in the "Lounge" Trading Pit of the chat room. All questions are welcome.
Stoopidly- "Do not hold a position into the electronic close of the product trading (recruits may trade overnight but must be flat when their product's electronic market is closed)" What does this mean exactly? Am I not allowed to hold a position over night? mp- You can trade any hour of day you choose but if the market is closed your position needs to be closed prior. Stoopidly- "Trade all required days of the Combine (10 or 20 days, each to be completed within 30 or 60 calendar days, respectively) "Do I have to put in a trade every day, or is it enough to hold a position from the previous day? mp- You do not have to trade every day. A trading day is a day in which you have a filled order. So if you are working an order and it never gets filled that day if will not count as a trading day. Also you are not permitted to hold positions from the previous day. You may customize your Combine objective if our standard evaluation criteria does not fit your trading style. To do this you need to go to the link below and send a proposal to our scout team. I hope this helps. mp http://www.topsteptrader.com/customevaluation