According to Mav, you don't need to pass or make Sr Trader. You just need to use TST as a training tool, then go fund your own account. But Mav has a point that eventually traders decide to go on their own. We can speculate on the stats of who ends up doing what. There are basically three outcomes: 1. You're going to pass the combine AND make Sr Trader. 2. You're going to pass the combine and NOT make Sr Trader. 3. You're NOT going to pass the combine. Outcome #1 is a live profitable trader, and you can still choose whether or not to open your own account. (Although as Jr Trader one may be profitable, it doesn't qualify for withdrawals). With outcomes #2 and #3, the only alternative is to open your own account.
Mav, I've traded clients money as well, but not in a prop firm.Had my own clients. Could never trade with a gun to my head. I have to trade when I see my set up.I had my clients setup with a fixed rate of return. Took a lot of presure off.
Crispy passed the combine. Crispy is a live profitable trader. According to you, Crispy must be some mythical Greek God with three heads and 10 flat screen monitors of course.
Nothing is according to me. Just look at the stats of the entire population. Hell, just read ET. How many threads are on here about "working for the man" and how the dream lifestyle is to be self funded. Look, people are both greedy and ignorant. When the times are good and they think they have it all figured out, they are NOT going to want to work with TST anbd give up 40% of their p&l. They are super traders at that point and they want ALL the money and ALL the freedom. When they hit a drawdown they will run looking for backing. I've seen this over and over and over again. The cycle has not changed much in 50 years. Now if a guy is just a scratch trader, no, I don't think he will be as eager to run out and fund his account. But if the guy is consistently profitable day after day after day, he is not going to be interested in accepting TST's deal, he probably wants to start his own hedge fund. Of course this is silly, but this is how people think. I'm sure you remember, we use to have these kind of debates with Don Bright when the decision came down to not allow prop traders to keep 100% of their profits. Did you see how angry guys got? Most of the traders on here absolutely refuse to trade for a prop where they were not going to keep 100% of their p&l much less 40%. Don knew he was going to go out of business if he did not find a work around. I mean all his guys were threatening to leave. I got a call at the time from his largest group in Vancouver to come over to my firm. This is not a trivial matter. Giving up 40% of your p&l is a huge consideration. Hell, my firm lost tons of business when we went to a 95/5 model. A lot of guys walked. That shit really matters.
1) Isn't the "Ninja Simulator" created from a random number generator? It can't "properly represent" what any market is doing in real-time. It can even be detrimental because one can become accustomed to the "quirks" of the Ninja that will never occur in a live market. To trade an "ES simulation" on Ninja where the "VIX" is programmed at ~16 is useless if the actual market is trading 10 or 25. :eek: 2) TopStep's combine simulator is done off of live data. It's as close as you can get to the "real thing" so that one is gaining "trading experience" that is genuinely related to live markets. But again, there is a price to pay for it.
1) That may not be do-able because of possible non-compete agreement(s) that a trader has to sign-off on before being funded. :eek: 2) If a funded TST trader loses his funding, is the non-compete still binding? 3) Does a TST non-compete agreement have "teeth" in it that genuinely makes it effective for the benefit of TST?
There is a different countability of trading for someone than yourself. Some might have stricter rules in place trading for others. With your account no one is watching but you, trading people's money, clients are watching . Clients are happy, they will multiply. It's with any business. Look at Warren Buffet, Disney, and the infamous WalMart. They all have a formula for success. So while there are a lot of nay sayers that do not believe you can make a living off of trading consistently, I do believe that. TST has not taught me how to trade, but the cost of the combine and the pain of failing many combines have honed my thought process of every pre-trade. I trade one trade per day and one trade only. Why? I do not like to lose money and I will be upset about it (no tantrums), but that's the way the cookie crumble. So to the naysayers the question I pose to you is, are you honest with yourselves? Can you identify what you are feeling when you win or lose a trade? But before you answer those questions, how much money are you willing to risk on one trade without catching a fit? Who is this person (me) talking a lot of crap you might ask. I was introduced to the market in 2008 and paid for a course the cost over 3k at that time. Paying for the course and learning how the market works is one thing, learning about yourself is a whole different ball game. Moving forward, I just recently got funded again, will start in June. Yes again, reason being is that I did not adopt the final piece to my puzzle which " one trade per day" so I messed up on my funded account. In the words of Uzumaki Nauto, "You give, on me giving up". So my last two combines and one live trader prep I have past, you do the math. I am happy to be a trader,hopefully a profitable one (maybe I am being modest), but it is by no means fun! To be successful with TST you are going to have different realistic objectives of you own. For an inside of how I trade, I risk no more than 30 ticks on CL. So my final question I pose to you is, do you have a Formula For Success?
The scratch trader will do the rollover combines, since that is free to him, and unlikely to go and fund his own account right away, unless he thinks the parameters are too restrictive and has a feel for going on his own. Besides, the longer he's a scratch trader, the better odds that eventually he passes the combine and tries to make Sr Trader. The guy who is consistently profitable day after day, in your example, is most likely a Sr Trader, and has to determine whether or not giving up the 40% temporary haircut is worth it. I guess it's a subjective decision and depends on each trader when they get to that point. But whether it's a 40% haircut or 20%, or even 5%, it really doesn't matter UNLESS there are profits. Making $0 profits on a 95% payout is still zero. It's all hypothetical unless you know the number of Jr Traders who actually make it to Sr Trader and start taking checks vs. those who get "kicked back to the combine." And yes, I remember all the ruckus when Bright announced the change, it caused quite a stir. However, those traders were already getting 100% and their pay was being REDUCED, not increased, before Don found the workaround. In the TST model, the trader already knows going in that their payout is 60%, with the potential to have in INCREASED to 80%, so it's not really the same comparison.
The fills on a Ninja simulator seemed quite realistic, and I think are real time. This is different than TOS, where the simulator, although real time, will fill you regardless of your order in the queue, so even if there is one lot at your trigger, you will get filled. TST's simulator is exactly as you described.