And likewise, to be honest. TST is "a way of getting started", for people with trading skills and without enough capital to trade futures on their own, without backing. That's all it is. It doesn't pretend to be more than that. I'm saying two things, and they're both really simple, and they're both factual ... 1. It wouldn't make much/any sense for anyone who had been successful with a one-year funded TST account to continue for a second or subsequent years, because after one successful year they wouldn't need TST any more and wouldn't want to give up 20% of their profit unnecessarily, and ... 2. The last time I looked, TST was offering funded account-holders only a one-year deal anyway. Honestly, Pekelo, I'm really struggling to see how either of these statements can be contentious(?!), or even how anyone even pretending to be reasonable or objective could actually disagree with either statement(?!). And those two things are all I'm saying, for heaven's sake! But I do agree with you that the discussion has become boring. I just wish you'd stop telling me that I'm saying things I'm not saying. That's not unreasonable, surely? (I really don't know what it is, with you, on this subject of TST. I generally like what you post elsewhere, and I like (and often share) your sense of humour, too. But about TST you have some kind of underlying belief-set that I just don't understand, and it results in your posting absolutely "loopy" things. Sorry - nothing personal at all. I'm not going to start asking you whether you did a Combine or had a funded account and ended up feeling you'd been unfairly treated, or whatever, because that's your business, but I really do wonder what has informed your belief-set about this one, specific subject, because to me - and to several others here - it seems borderline-delusional. )
It seems to me that two of you are talking to each other to accumulate new pages. Birzos in his posts on page 5 had some legit issues brought up,but you two seem to high five each other and carry on. Disclaimer:I never had anything to do with Topsteptrader or contacted them for any reason.
If that's another way of saying that the discussion's pretty boring, I can't really argue with it. I was hoping it had ended, after my previous post.
I was hoping for your answer to Birzos posts on page 5,he states his opinion with numbers.It clicked to me that you went on two pages of long posts and no answer. Of course you don't have to answer,but please two of you unlike my earlier post on this thread. I did not come here to high five anybody.
Sorry, Van der Vort, I hadn't realised you wanted me to comment on Birzos' numbers. I don't disagree with his "90% failure rate" number, in general - actually I think trading probably has a higher overall failure-rate than that. But the last time the Combine pass-rates were independently audited, the pass-rate was 19%, and they've increased since then. Regarding longer-term success rates of funded traders, I have no idea at all and neither does Birzos. It seems to me that some people in this thread, and in other threads about TST, sound very "sure" about matters on which there's no public-domain information at all. However, TST started off this thread in order to be able to answer questions, so I'd suggest asking them whatever you want to know? It's right there, in the first post on page 1: "Post all your questions and comments about TopstepTrader here and get answered by a TopstepTrader Team Member." Birzos also mentions that Eastern Europe average income is €500/mth in some countries, and I'd think he's probably right about that, but clearly the conclusion he implicitly draws from it (i.e. that people from Eastern Europe are not taking Combines) is totally mistaken: one only has to look at the names/locations on the lists of successfully funded traders to see that he's got that completely wrong, as Pekelo has also mentioned. Why Birzos refers to it as "pyramids", I have absolutely no idea at all. (My best guess would be that he doesn't really even begin to understand what "pyramid schemes" are, and is just totally misusing the word, at the same time as having very, very little understanding of TST's business model, pretty transparent though it is, but I'm only guessing that. Very clearly, though, he's posting with "the voice of prejudice", however you look at what he says. He even - apparently - believes that I'm "TST": it doesn't come much weirder than that!). I don't think I can help you any more than that. As I mentioned above, I have absolutely no connection with TST myself, no experience of doing a Combine, and I'm not even in their target demographic. My own interest in this subject comes simply from having personally known a couple of people, myself, who managed successfully to get started through TST at a time when they didn't have enough capital to trade futures safely on their own account. So my own perspective is that - albeit vicariously - I've seen TST's service working successfully for people. We all have our own perspectives (some based on facts and some on misinformation and misunderstandings, perhaps), but that's my perspective, anyway. That's ok ... if you didn't, you didn't. I'll just give you a friendly wave, instead, then ...
The fundamental question to all these so called "Prop firms" are (which I doubt will be answered in exact point t point ..) - What % of profits of the firm revenue comes from Trader's profits and what % from "Paid tests revenue" call them whatever you like - What % of people joining you are funded? and would you disclose that information upfront - Charging of "Test fees" "Training fees" means at least in initial stages people joining are trading their own capital with std Day trading leverage! are they not - IF a prop firm take even a cent from traders they need to be regulated the do they not "Test fees" is just another way to circumnavigate this. I have nothing to do with TST or any other firm. Just consumer questions...
@TopstepTrader Why are you not willing to lower your commission rate and offer TT's platforms to attract traders whose style is scalping and for whom these are the factors that decide whether or not they are net profitable?
Lukas, thanks for the question. The commissions are directly passed through from our broker partners. We work very hard with them to get them as low as possible in order to make users successful. We even recently introduced the TSTrader platform, which is commission free when traders get to a Funded Account. During the Trading Combine and Funded Trader Preparation, commission rates are standardized across platforms to evaluate each trader on an equal footing. Appreciate the suggestion about adding Trading Technologies' platform. We have had some discussions with TT in the past and will continue to evaluate interest across our user base.