congrats and continued best wishes. Be aware that winning traders are not received well here on ET. Apparently trading is impossible.
You're welcome. If you could spare the time, perhaps you can provide some tips and advice on how to pass the combine and the LTP. Please be generous on the nitty-gritty details, things that wouldn't be found on the FAQ but only someone who has done the combine and LTP would be able to provide. Thanks.
Trading for the moment is an alternative income for me. Until I can develop a good cushion. I am a chef so I work weekends, take a weekday or two off. I can get three trading days in a week. I typically don't trade past noon anyway. But this is the point, if I can find an alternative to what I am doing now than I will take it. I have a5 month old at home and I want to be there to see her grow. That beats my mediocre salary, low quality of life and free meals. Without sacrificing my current income I will take the path that gives me
The following is directly from my newsletter, I took out the parts about my affiliate discount code, I don't want to sell anything here. I worked hard on my website so if by chance the people I help would like to help me, I'll get a small commission if they use the 20% of discount code at no extra cost to them. If you want it let me know,. It's about helping people first and foremost. But this should answer your query.... TopstepTrader Combine Getting Started: First you need to choose which Combine you would like to test for. The difference is in the amount of funding you would like. The biggest determination for me is to consider; 1. What can you afford? 2. What lot size (number of contracts) are you comfortable trading? 3. How much money would you like to potentially win with each trade? This depends on the market you choose to trade. If you can make the money you want only trading 2 or 3 lots at a time then choose the lesser of the Combines. If you require more size to make the profit you want than choose the higher of the combines. After choosing your Combine please read carefully the rules as follows: 1. Trade a minimum of 10 days 2. Always implement stops with an open position 3. Only trade permitted products, during the permitted times 4. Achieve at least 45% Profitable Days 5. Achieve an Average Net P&L greater than $0 for each product traded 6. Do not hit or exceed the Daily Loss Limit 7. Do not allow the Account Balance to hit or exceed the Trailing Max Drawdown The daily loss limit depends on the combine you choose. If you hit it any day you will not pass. This number is the combine's loss limit. As professional traders you should haveyour own daily loss limit chosen. Trailing Max Drawdown is the amount that your account can go negative. As you make money, the drawdown shrinks until the max draw down is $0. At a certain point, you cannot let the account go below $0. These are the rules! Follow the rules and meet the profit target. If you follow the rules and do not meet the profit target you will get the opportunity to take the combine again. If you follow the rules and meet the profit target you will get refunded to combine fee and move on to the next step. Setting Up: Once you choose the combine you want. You will be prompted to pick a day to start. Please keep in mind, you get 30 days to complete 10 days of trading minimum. Keep in mind your current work schedule and your availability. After 30 days, if you have not completed the test, you will be charged another combine fee for the next 30 day session. You will also be propted to choose the platform you wish to use. I use CTS T4, you all should have experience with other platforms as well through trading or simulator trading. Choose the platform you are comfortable with. Go through the motions of the payment process and get ready to begin trading. Begin Trading: You will soon be emailed a link to download your chosen trading platform with your login and password. Take the time before your start day to open the platform and set up your desktop the way you want. Set your indicators, moving averages, charts and so on to your likeness. DO NOT FORGET TO SAVE THE DESKTOP! So that you can open it up, just the way you set it, every time you open the platform. You begin trading on your start date. I suggest opening up the Squawk Radio room while you trade. They provide excellent market commentary and entertaining content while you trade. Before you place your first trade,remember the rules. Have a stop set. After Trading Day Is Over: Every night after a trading day your TopstepTrader profile will get updated with the results of the day. At least by 6:30pm, sometimes next day. Any criteria not met yet will be pointed out to you. Most of the criteria does not get enforced until after your 10th trading day. Strategy to Keep in Mind: You have 30 days to make 10 days worth of trades. Make every day count. If you don't make the profit target within ten days you still have time. After 30 days you will be charged the combine fee again. So it is best to try to make the target within the first 30 days. You have the option to reset the combine for $100. This is a last resortif you think you are not going to make it. Try to avoid getting to this point. After your 10th Trading Day, if youdidn't break any rules and you met the profit target your Combine will be closed. You will recieve a followup email shortly. After your 10 trading day if you have broken one of the rules you will be emailed with further action. After your 10 trading days, if you have not met the profit target, you still have the rest of the 30 day period to make it. Trade Wisely. After Passing The Combine: After passing the Combine you will be invited to take the next step. Funded Trader Preparation. Funded Trader Preparation is like another Combine with slight variation. 1. FTP has a much lower profit target. 2. FTP requires you to follow a scaling plan. Meaning you can only trade so many contracts until you reach a certain P&L. 3. FTP requires you to stay OUT of a position one minute before and after a major report/news announcement. What!? Another Combine!? Why????? Funded Trader Preparation is to show TopstepTrader that you can be CONSISTENT and DISCIPLINED. If you pass this easier combine your areguaranteed a funded account. FTP is also meant to show you what it would be like to trade in a real funded account. The same rules apply to this test as would be in a real funded account. If you do not pass FTP, you will be emailed shortly after with further action. If you do pass the FTP,Congratulations! You are getting your funded account! After Passing Funded Trader Preparation: 1. You will receive an email with what needs to be next. You should fill out your TopstepTrader profile and include a picture. You will be asked to submit a W-9 and sign the Funded Trader Agreement.Read it carefully. It will tell you the rules about being in chat rooms during trading, how and when you can withdraw your money and a lot more. 2. You will be scheduled a phone call with the funding department to discuss your combine and your trading strategy. Be ready for this call.Know your strategy and represent yourself well. 3. You will be scheduled for an interview on Skuawk Radio. Every funded trader has to do it. This may be exciting for your or daunting. Either way it needs to get done.TopstepTrader is so proud of their funded traders they love to introduce you to the community through this interview, and the community loves listening in. Listen to my interview here. Finally getting started trading your funded account: After the 3 items above are complete you will receive an email to pay for data fees. They are $85/mo per exchange. If you trade one exchange like the CBOT or even just one product all you have to pay is $85. This is the only cost you need to cover to start trading. Finally you will be given the download link for your Funded Account platform. Username and Password. You are ready to begin your new career trading! One thing to note. The Funded Account platform is basic. It will not have all the indicators you used for example in the combine. You will always have access to the platform you used for the Combine. So open both accounts up before you trade every day. Use your "Funded Trader Practice" account to analyze your indicators, and use the "Funded Account" platform to execute trades. You will have to redesign your desktop to make this more user friendly. Whew!!! That's it, that's the un-boxing.
The information value of your posts breaking the server's capacity. In the maintime we are still waiting for those charts showing the index gapping in RTH in the last 15 years....
Luckily value is subjective. Asking for examples of Black Swan's isn't a great line of thinking. It's like asking where the next aircraft is going to crash or where on earth a meteorite will next strike. Accounts get wiped out and balances owed. Things like counterparty risk, brokers going bankrupt, so may types of risk. I am writing this for other peoples benefit as I know you wont listen or take this on board and I am fine with that. It's a bit like me saying I am not going to wear my seat belt because I have never had a crash. i.e. a misunderstanding of risk
...I am driving in an empty parking lot 2 am in the morning. FTFY Could a tree grow suddenly in front of your car? Sure, anything can happen, and that is where probability comes in. But to repeat it again: The index gapping in RTH such a huge gap that you can not get out of the trade before whipping your account out has such a small chance (exactly 0.000367%) and only happens if you over leveraged yourself, so unless you are completely careless and you go all in all the time, you shouldn't worry about it. And again, if the index gaps 200 ES points in RTH, worrying about your account is going to be irrelevant and you probably want to put on that anti-radiation suit...
Right on! So I came into this thread to try and get an idea of the concerns people had about the combine and such. Please feel free to ask here still, I have an Ama started that is getting me done god questions tohttps://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3vd7s8/iama_executive_chef_and_day_trader_ama/