TST announced several new funded traders, however this caught my attention: "Funded Trader Shout-Out: bmoore just cashed a check and has a 4 week win streak going!" If you can pass the combine and make it through the first 10 days of the live account with a positive balance and maintain the 50% winning day rate, then the odds vastly improve of taking a check.
But they are going to say that aren't they, they want there $150 or what ever it is for you to use there demo account.
I have combine for 2 month. Trick is that you can loose only $300 , if you did you done for the day ,no more trading. So if you trade crude $300 is nothing . I have a stop 40 because of Volatility. I have same automated strategy that I run on IB and TST and guess what IB makes profit and TST loosing. One more point you pay for the 1 month but if after one moth you wont to quit you cant because minimal trial is 2 moth so they will charge you for 2 moth.
Ofcourse, I'm trading a lot higher lot sizes than when I first ran into TST, $150 doesn't seem as much these days, as I blew $200 on 1 trade in 10mins earlier.
Ya, it's very easy to lose a few hundred on crude within a minute or two. There is very little margin for error in the TST program, however it's a way to build discipline for a small fee.
Guys, I need an information from you. I finished the $150.000($9.000 objective) combine twice, but i got trapped into the "live trader preparation". The problem is that they don't specify what objectives should be achieved in the "LTP" on the website ( http://help.topsteptrader.com/knowledgebase/articles/231897-what-is-live-trader-preparation- ), and you will know where you really are after finishing the combine. What i do need from you is to know what is the commission where i can make a formal complaint, i am from Brazil and i don't know what are the regulations institutes in U.S. I could be far more detailed and harsh, but i will make an official complaint first. Needless to say, do not pay for a combine until they make "LTP" objectives public first.
So you mean that twice you were successful in the combine, moved up to LTP, and after 10 days of LTP you were moved back to the combine despite having been within LTP rules, without explanation? From what I understood from reading TST's FAQ several times, is that the LTP is a simulation just like the combine, with all the same rules, except without a profit target, you just have to be positive. Therefore if you achieved all of the other goals (50% profitable days, flat overnight, max weekly loss, etc.) you should've become funded. What were the exact reasons you were given for going back to combine after each LTP?
Heard this a fair few times on other forum's, don't think there are extra rules, it's how they feel about your trading style, if they like it your in if not then stuck. Sounds like a cop out to me, a universal go away and give us more $$$'s card.
That's the impression I had, too, but they set a tough target to achieve following the scaling plan that is not described.
It is a small fee, but it ads up, when the client takes multiple Combines. Some did over a dozen. Not to mention the time wasted on the effort. But here is an idea to make it an even smaller fee: Don't sign up for a Combine until you can pass the LTP rules using a sim. Use Collective2, a 6 months sim costs only $120 and you can restart the account as many times as you want. (if you set it up as a test, nobody sees it) Sure, you have to do the stats and everything by hand, but compared to 5-6 blown Combines it is basicly free. (1 Starbucks coffee per week) Another protip: If you trade multiple instruments, you can design the 100K account as separate ones, like a 33K-33K (equivalent to the smallest Combine) oil, gold and ES account, for example. So you might blow the gold part but make money in ES and oil. It is like running 3 Combines parallel, with 95% discount... TL; DR: As long as you can not pass a sim using the LTP rules, there is no point in messing with the paid Combine....