Here's one outrageous claim this Darrel clown is making on his webpage, i.e., that he earned $300K from his own trading with another funding company and then set out to make a better one himself. If anyone is making $300K worth of profits from trading he would certainly not set up a scamming operation, but instead continue to make $$$ trading the markets. Is this kind of marketing legal in the US? Maybe they have offices somewhere else in the world and are not subject to any kind of regulations. In Norway I'm pretty sure this would be illegal.
You definitely raise some valid points. The thing about trading on a "sim" even as a funded trader is an ugly concept but the money is real --- I've taken profit withdrawals from both TopStep and OneUp while funded on a sim. I do agree about E2T --- they seem like they're the most legit funder firm right now.
The prop firms you have talked and used, such as topsteptrader, Oneup,E2T, and Apex trader funding,are worst in the industry, significantly below the average industry standard. I have demonstrated how to evaluate prop firm here: https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/prop-trading-firm-tickticktrader.366869/
Both TopStep and E2T lets you trade a real money account, but TopStep have more restrictions and rules, so there's no reason to even consider them as an alternative to E2T. Back to Apex: Let's say you just by random luck manage to rack up $100K of profits. Hell, let's say 3 individual traders do it and Apex owe a $300K payout within the next 6 months (as it will take you at least that to pay out your money according to their "payout schedule"). Would you feel confident that you'll get your $100K or will they declare bankruptcy or come up with some bullshit rule/excuse, i.e., "We require you to trade the same was as in the Combine and you failed to do so." I know that I sure as hell wouldn't. Hell no. In fact, there was a case mentioned here on ET where a guy actually had $200K of profits with a simulator-forex company and the guy wasn't paid!
I personally view these funder firms as a great way to generate "EXTRA" income...not be my main source of trading profits. That's why a lot/majority/99.5% of evaluation stage traders fail to take profit even if they are good enough to "get funded" -- if they just got rid of their greed then I'm sure they would be able to withdraw decent profit. And the funder firm who recognizes a non-risk trader to the firm's "master-slave account equity balance" at the FCM broker will gladly "trade-copy" their trades after a certain period of demonstrating consistency. This kind of trader will never be in a situation where they are not getting paid. IMHO All that consider, I think E2T is the best option right now in the industry....
I mean this with all due respect but what "false info" are you referring to? I want to clarify any misunderstandings about my view of these funder firms. Yes, I am currently doing an eval. Do I think that they have the traders' best of interest at heart? Of course not. Do I think that they are intentionally maliciously doing things to sabotage their trades? No, I truly don't think so although some firms make rules that are very illogical and "not fair." Will these firms pay out profit if you have a nice smooth consistent "trading behavior pattern" + no crazy yolo 10 NQ contract positions + healthy trade profits? Absolutely.
You are promoting a group of worst prop firms and claimed one of them is the best option. That was what you were misleading.
I will not disagree that statistically speaking, these firms can be viewed that way. But never once did I refer to them as "prop firms" --- as a matter of fact, in all of my previous ET posts, I am almost sure that 95% of my mentions refer to them as "funder firms." This alone tells you how I regard them. I do not think that they are true WALL STREET/CHICAGO Prop Firms. They have a purpose for traders who have decent skill and experience but lack capital. LoL. One thing you have to give them credit for is their profit margin.
Laissez also left out several other points he's ignorant too because he's biased to hate every evaluations company, or just too lazy to go do research. I'm not doing it for you, but there's more info that does make Apex a very valid company. But the little clan of haters on here would have you think otherwise. Plenty of funded AND paid traders with apex. Let me guess, you want proof? Go find it on plenty of forums and groups of people posting payout proof.