Wait. Why don't wide stops makes sense? Let's use real numbers and facts here. On a 50k combine you have a 1k daily stop. If one is trading the ES, that's a 20 handle stop. Now I would say 18 handles to be safe. The ATR in the ES right now is only around 12 handles. I don't understand how that is rigid. And of course they are going to make you use hard stops. Why on earth wouldn't they? Would you ever back a trader and not make him use hard stops? Maybe I've been in this business too long but I HAVE been a risk manager and I HAVE watched guys cannonball into a trade where they just keep adding and adding and adding as the trade goes against them until they are well into our equity. It's quite prevalent.
1.In your example,by using this logic, you cannot trade more but 1 contract,no matter how many allowed.(12 handles is good for 1 contract and no good for 2.$1200 is two much to handle,as per the TST rules).This way,your risk is not to meet the deadline,but they made a wise move to extend the trading period.So it becomes less rigid.It would be even more wise if they reduced the contract size in a half,at least! 2.I never said they should not!Of course it`s their money.All i`m saying,that one should keep it in mind,though can be done, it wouldn`t be an easy task to fit oneself into,and the money may not rolling in unless the cushion is built,and restrictions released.Till then,you have a limp.
Why? I don't have the opportunity to trade with my own money at the moment, so I'm considering signing up again this fall if my schedule permits. I despise their marketing and need to stop subscribing to their news letters, but their model seems legitimate to me? Regards, LF.
I still don't understand... Does funded mean one gets cash allocated and max loss per day and schedule: you have to make so much pl by day dd/mm/yy to stay in the game ? What is benefit to trader ? Gets % of winnings and no share of losses ? If so, this is not for me as my strength is swing trading and have enough cash to afford meaningful bets, or am I missing something?
There are no p&l requirements once you go live. Trade as little or as much as you want. Here is what I think the draw is for most guys. Obviously it does not take much to fund a futures account. Hell I think Amp let's you open an account for $500 or $1000. I think for many guys they are struggling with the psychological barrier of money. The idea of getting funded by TST let's them trade and make money while getting comfortable risking capital that is not theirs. The amount is irrelevant to most people. Let me give you an example. I use to run a prop office in Chicago. We had guys come in with 100k to 250k (we had 100k minimum). So money is not an issue for these guys right? Now we were an option trading firm for the most part although we offered stock and futures as well. Guys would have no problem for some reason selling 500 put spreads risking say 100k on index trade. But if they bought one S&P future contract their hands started sweating and they got very nervous. Logically of course it doesn't make sense. But I saw this every day. There was something about trading even one lots in futures that just affected them differently. And these are people with 100k to 250k accounts! Imagine if they only had 5k or 10k. I think a lot of guys do the combine in the hopes of going live and trading for a while and getting over this fear and then opening their own funded account. I would bet 90% of the traders are trying to do that. Even if they never make a dime from the live account, they just want to get over that fear. Since our prop firm was in the CBOE building, we use to get tons of former market makers from the floor to come upstairs and trade for us. Again, these are guys who made and lost 100's of thousands in their lives and took risks every day. But watching them sit down at a desk with TT open and try to trade a one lot of anything was a sight to see. Most quit after a month or so from stress of maybe losing 1k. LOL. It's just a different mindset. All you guys assume that all these traders are futures traders from the start but I would venture a guess that 80% or more of the combine traders are NOT former futures traders. They probably came from the stock or options world which is VERY different. And the guys who are former futures traders probably already have blown 25k to 50k of their own money and are sick of losing. I've said from the beginning that TST is filling a niche in the market and is not for everyone. But if anyone came up to me and said hey Mav, I've been thinking about quitting my job and becoming a futures trader, what do you think. I would steer them right to this combine. If for $150 they could see why they should not quit their job and why futures trading is something they should definitely NOT do, then that will be the best $150 they ever spent in their life.