It is very surprising to me how they put you in a paper trading account after "passing" their initial paid-for paper test, but one where you can withdraw money from. Where the hell does that payout come from other than the pot of "testing fees", it is so clear yet so many people are playing? Yet they say they "fund" traders?
So, looking at Topstep website, my understanding is below, can you confirm: - Joes will pay a fee to play a paper trading test, in which most Joes fail - The Joes that pass that test will now pay another fee to "activate" another paper trading account, but this time they can withdraw real money from after meeting certain criteria - At this point, statistically, the house has collected more fees from the failed Joes than the payout$ for the profitable Joes, from which the fund comes from - The game setup, fee, buying power, profit target, drawdown etc, is such that the bar to get a payout is very high, but masked by marketing gimmicks and promoted on SNS to continously draw in suckers - For the very rarely successful Joes (<1%), the house will then de-risk by putting you on "live market" and acting as a real prop firm instead of a house, until you lose the pot (which you win from the house during the paper trading step) - The only "loss" for the house is then the trader's payout during the post-test withdrawable paper trading stage - The business model is one of marketing and promotions, a pyramid scheme, where funding means the 90% suckers fund the payoffs for the 10% winners
where funding means the 90% suckers fund the payoffs for the 10% winners.... YES but then asking such pointed questions means you are either against free market or progress