Which Prop CME Futures Firm?

Discussion in 'Prop Firms' started by DrCornwallis, Oct 5, 2020.

  1. I am looking for reviews and feedback on the various Prop firm from serious traders who have used these platforms, got funded, and got paid! (or if they didn't get paid, I would certainly like to hear about those examples as well).

    Thus far, I have checked out,

    Topstep
    OneUp
    Earn2Trade

    Finding it very difficult to find reviews on the likes of YouTube from neutral non-associated traders, with reviews on a prop firm generally being put out by the prop firm itself? Is there any reason for that? Are they all super active in getting negative reviews wiped? Trustpilot is certainly full of obviously fake paid for reviews, for all of these Prop Firms, so I can safely discount Trustpilot from my vetting process.

    Whilst all the Prop Firms market themselves at Novices (which I am not), the reality is that only a professional trader will be able to get funded, and stay funded in any meaningful capacity....and even then, a few resets might be required, due to the the huge relative risk that the trader has to take on each trade, and of course the various trading rules.

    Something I can't get my head around, is the idea of having a trailing stop that includes unrealised profits in the calculation. The only reason why this non-sensical anti-trader rule can be in place, is because the prop firms prefer people to fail, at least a good handful of times before actually getting funded. So that is a big turn-off......

    .......Topstep of course operate a static trailing drawdown, which only accounts for booked profits, so that is good, but then they seem to not really want their traders trading the micros, putting the same limit on the number of micro contracts as E-Minis which can be traded.....which is bonkers and of course likely ensures that traders expose themselves to way too much risk which in most cases, will only ever end one way. So with Topstep, it will often be a clean choice between risk $50 or $500, on a trade, with no in-between, whilst the others seem to count 10 micro's as being an equivalent to 1 E-mini, allowing for more appropriate management of risk.

    Then there are the platforms. For executions, Tradeovate with Topstep is reasonable. For charting and executions Earn2Trade's Finamark is by far the best free platform available, but the best the other prop firms offer is NinjaTarder8, which for some reason, seems a popular platform with some professionals, but in my view, a platform that doesn't allow for straightforward reliable simple bracket orders, goes right in the sin-bin......finally, anyone who suggests just using RithmicTrader Pro for executions, should be executed themselves.

    So as things stand....If want to go the prop firm route, then there is only Earn2Trade and Topstep that offer feasible platforms for executions (charting, I would do with web based TradingView which pisses all over everything else I ever seen, at least for my charting purposes).

    Earn2Trade overall, seem to offer the most manageable product, albeit with their nonsensical 'live' trailing draw-down rule, whereas TopStep has a reasonable draw down rule, but very unreasonable rules regarding the number of micros a trader can have open (I understand that the micros are a relatively new product, and not so long ago, only full sized contracts were available to trade, but how being forced to take ~$500 risk when max drawdown is $2K, can be considered viable in anyone's mind, is beyond me).

    .....think I am edging towards Earn2Trade......anyone got any good reasons why I shouldn't touch them, or why I might want to look at alternative options?

    Thanks.
     
  2. Big AAPL

    Big AAPL

  3. bone

    bone

    Yeah these three are not CME Rule 106.R. Electronic Corporate Members as far as I know.

    Any firm that takes funds for any reason from the trader - whether they call it education or seminars or training or whatever, is not a CME registered firm. If any prop firm asks for money for any reason and they trade futures - call CME Regulatory Compliance and avoid them like the plague.

    From the CME:

    "4. What firms qualify as Proprietary Trading Firms?
    A proprietary trading firm is a legal entity that trades its own capital. Trading funds must be exclusively firm funds and all trading must be done in the firm’s accounts. Traders must be owners, employees, or contractors of the firm.
    5. What guidelines are used to determine if trading is proprietary?
    A proprietary account is evidenced through:
    • All profits and losses of the account are included in the income of the firm.
    • All profits and losses of the account are taxed to the firm.
    • The trader (non-owner) does not make any capital contribution to the account.
    • Only the firm’s capital is at risk of loss; no traders may make any contributions or payments to the firm nor have any capital at risk.
    • All trading activity must be solely for the benefit of the ECM. No other individuals or entities can have any ownership interest in the ECM’s proprietary accounts.
    • All funds contributed to and traded under the ECM are subject to loss from any and all trading activity of the ECM."

    This is a real proprietary trading firm: https://drw.com/

     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2020
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  4. Yeah, I have kind of figured that these online 'prop' trader firms are there primarily to take trader's money off them in subscription and reset fees.......

    ..........but a tiny minority of traders, do get funded, and do extract meaningful sums of money out of the market through these firms, right?

    I mean, if they were just bucket shops that sabotage accounts that are too successful (had that happen with an actual cfd brokerage.....too high win rate, trades stopped getting executed at designated levels), and/or simply not pay out profits, there would be uproar, and it would be well known on trading forums etc, right?
     
  5. bone

    bone

    This is another real proprietary trading group: http://www.transmarketgroup.com/

    Again, there are no fees for seminars or education or training or whatever. There is no "trader combine" or other such nonsense bullshit.

    You will get paid on a W-2, you are an actual employee, and there are benefits like health, vision, dental, etc..
     
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  6. Problem with the 'Real Proprietary Firms', is that

    A) You need to work out of an office, which would involve for the vast majority of people relocating thousands of miles.
    B) You will be forced onto using their systems.
    C) All the other b.s. that goes with working in a corporate environment, which the avoidance off, has to be one of the big reasons why people may want to try and become a full time day trader.
     
  7. Overnight

    Overnight

    Isn't that like any other "job"?

    At least, if you get hired at the "job", you make money every week with a W-2? So there is a trade-off.
     
  8. I am not here looking for ways to relocate thousands of miles across an entire ocean.....
     
  9. The real problem with the 'Real Proprietary Firms', is that
    A) you would not be able to get a job there
     
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  10. bone

    bone

    Thanks for wasting my time. Good luck with everything.

     
    #10     Oct 5, 2020
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