I don't see the point of this post it's just pure unadulterated negativity. Yes they relaxed the combine rules and it does look like it's easier to pass now so naturally we would expect more traders to make it through. Some months will be more some will be less, lots of reasons why this could be. i.e. january affect or traders not coping as well with this heightened volatility we are seeing. The combine rules have been made less onerous yes, but surely this is ultimately the decision of the financial backer at Topstep and his/her risk appetite. If more people make it through to the funded account then I think that's a great thing that more people get a shot. What is the root cause of this negativity? Do you somehow have a grudge against Topstep that they make profits from combines and profit splits? I am just guessing I have no idea where this is coming from. Maybe they make more in combine fees, I don't know but personally I am cool with that as they offer a genuine offer/service to the customer. For me it would be like any other successful business earning profits and providing a good service, it's great.
Yes I am aware of this rule for the FTP and live accounts. My understanding is they may waive this rule accept for the really big data releases NFP, FOMC, inventories for CL etc. IF a funded trader has a sufficiently large balance in their account. I totally agree with this rule. The trader is trying to build up capital and with relatively tight stops they should not be holding into scheduled news releases. In my own shorter term trading I will only hold through a scheduled news release if I am way onside in the trade. Yes not all the 18 economic releases have the same impact on volatility. I totally get it if you are trading oil you are not really concerned about the impact of the existing home sales data release. The issue here is clearly TST have to have a simple rule set to cover data releases, remember most traders at TST are beginner/intermediates they need simple/clear rules. What would you propose instead, perhaps a list of data releases that you can hold through for each separate product? That would just end up being a complete mess. I totally agree with their rule on data releases. It's what a trader who is trying to build an account should be doing. They should be avoiding all data releases until their account gets to a bigger size at which point they could hold through minor releases but still stay flat for the really sensitive data.
Day 3 combine update. The trade report covering days 1 & 2 has been updated overnight - see below. As planned I took a +1 in 6E (euro) this morning to maintain limits in that contract for the FTP/funded stages. 7 days to go now. The plan is to hit 1 tick winners in 6B(pound) & ES(S&P) in the next 2 days. I will then bat out the last 5 days on CL. Even though the target was hit early on day 2 I cannot submit the result to Topstep until I have traded 10 days. rules is rules lol. I have to confess at one point on day 1 my PNL was showing exactly $9000 + change but I held as I wanted a few hundred dollars cushion, price came back. I could have banked the target on day 1 lol. Maybe it's good I didn't otherwise it would look gamed. Looking ahead to the Funded Trader Preparation I will be sizing to 3 contacts in CL. The profit target is much lower than the combine. $3k compared to $9k so I will trade more conservatively. There are some extra rules included. The plan would be to make the 100 ticks in oil necessary to hit the target in days 1 to 5, then bat out the remaining 5 days with 6E, 6B & ES. If I really don't like the oil at the time I may just switch to ES as the main instrument. GL and be careful out there today on oil, it's inventory day and that means it's open season on tight stops.
Wow. I'm set up with VNC here as well "just in case" but I don't think I'd ever execute trades on such a tiny screen. Your workflow must be quite streamlined. Where could I get a copy of this? I exchanged a few messages with them in the past but still never get this monthly newsletter.
I just don't like bullshit. So when in January they already credited the increased number of passers to the rule changes when literally NONE of the Combines were done in January, that is either cluelessness or outright lies. Now a month later when we have finally people doing their Combines AFTER the change the number actually goes down, and by a lot. That was kind of unexpected to tell you the truth. Everyone was expecting more traders, not less. But anyhow, I don't like misrepresentation (lies if you wish). Last year when their average passers rate was 1 per day they were advertising 2-3 traders passing per day. That is a slight misrepresentation by 100-200%. And you say we shouldn't call them out for it???
Where are the facts Pekelo? They obviously market themselves. I go into a store its buy 1 get 1 free. Is that second item really free? You see what I am getting at. On the end they are funding plenty of people, most will go on to fail but most start up businesses fail its no different.
Yes, if you can negotiate to have this rule waived for ES with a few exceptions such as the definitive market moving events of NFP, FOMC, etc., then it makes sense to trade ES in the live account. If not, then you run the added risk of being sent back to the combine. CL is more volatile and only has the trading restriction pre/post the inventory report.
It's not a monthly newsletter, you simply have to be on their email list. I guess they send it to those who are active in their system or who have taken combines in the past.
Because it's a chicken$hit bait and switch approach to structure it like that which offers no other incentive except to put you at a higher chance of failing ltp so than can bill you another $165-$400. I can understand the 1 minute before but 1 minute after is only causing missed trading opportunities. The more rules reducing your trading opportunities, the higher chance you have of failing. My instinct since 2010 has always believed this was a just a combine money grab but once they removed the refund even if you passed it removed all doubt.
Joe that's news to me. So they have different rules for each contract? I was under the impression that it was the same rule for all contracts. Can you point me to where they show this info. thanks.