Taking a deep breath and diving into the TopStepTrader 20-day combine to vie for a $30,000 funded account.
The combine settings:
Account Size: $30,000
Daily loss limit: $500
Profit Objective: $2,000
Duration: 20 days
Platform: T4 from CTS (I liked its rock-solid stability, simplicity)
Planned Method:
Scalping.
Based on and dedicated humbly to (I am a humble steersman of a ship in the rough waters of the stormy market guided by these stalwarts, Captain Al and all others guiding lighthouses):
- Money management implemented as highlighted in Bob Volman's excellent book Forex Price Action Scalping
-Entries, Exits and Stops as Rehearsed, practiced and hopefully engraved as per the teachings of Al Brooks, the grand Pope of Price Action and Peter L. Brandt, the king of classical chart pattern reading
- Reinforced by James16 pinbars, Dante_Trader's teachings, DBPhoenix's framing of the markets in the right context
- Psychological Capital borrowed from the illustrious teachings of Big Mike, FuturesTrader71 and cemented by hours of mindfulness meditation (thanks to Chade Meng Tan I learnt "Search Inside Yourself"), unending hard work, sweat, sacrifice, renunciation of material pleasures and dedicated humble study of the markets.
Note: The above sentences seem heady and methodologies may sound mixed up, but the cocktail works for ME.
What Markets will I trade:
CL alone
Risk Management
Per trade risk at 1%
Quit if 60% of daily stop loss limit MAE is breached.
Quit if 3 consecutive losers appear and if I have lost my calm at that point
What Timeframes will I trade:
5-min (with-trend) and 1-min (fade countertrend)
Where will I place my stops:
10 tick stop
Target and Trail-Stop Rules:
10 tick target
Move Stop to BE+2 after 8 Ticks in Profit
Preparatory steps:
Pre-market study of monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, 30-min, 15-min, 5-min and 1-min charts.
Review of trades posted previous day in journal.
Check: Calm? Composed? Rested?
Revision and contemplation:
Post journal entry on Big Mike in great detail.
Why did I take a particular trade?
Did I wait for a A+ setup to present itself?
Did I hesitate and falter during taking a valid trade?
Did I get psychologically washed out if I missed a opportunity?
Did I move my stop or allow greed to control me instead of the plan?
Did I add to losers saying 'it will be coming back any moment now'?
Did I take any trades out of boredom or complacency?
Did a big win cause me to increase size?
Am I handling current size with a comfortable (not too tense not to lax) stride?
Finally, is the plan statistically working? Am I on my way to becoming or have become a good trader?
SUMMARY OF THE STANDARD COMBINE PROCESS (entire text below can be skipped if familiar with Combines):
Following is the gist of requirements to achieve a funded account, permissible products (most popular listed, there are more on their website), and the criteria for being eligible for a deposit refund compiled from their website topsteptrader.com:
Recruits who enter the Combine will be evaluated using the criteria below:
Trade only products permitted to trade, during the permitted times
Do not hold a position into the electronic close of the product trading
Trade all required days of the Combine (20 days to be completed within 60 calendar days)
Always use stops with an open position (auto OCO recommended)
Overall Winning Day % of 50 or greater
Do not hit or exceed the daily loss limit (NET P&L)
Additionally, each product traded during the Combine must meet at least TWO of the performance requirements listed at the end AND have a trading average greater than zero ($0).
Deposit will be refunded once all Combine trading days (20 days) have been completed, if the following requirements have been met:
1. Daily loss limit has not been hit or exceeded
2. Overall Winning Day % of 50 or greater
3. Each product traded has a Trading Average greater than zero ($0)
4. Each product …