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Sorry for any confusion. Just to clarify, funded traders have no profit targets to meet. The live trader preparation has a reduced profit target and no time limit.
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From TST website:
As a funded trader, am I responsible for my trading losses?
← Funded Trader Traders are not responsible for losses below the starting account balance. source: As a funded trader, am I responsible for my trading losses? ? Help & Feedback Center
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So The FAQ rephrased without the word "not": Funded Trader Traders are responsible for losses below the starting account balance.
As I understand this (the TST FAQ), if you were be "funded" with a 30K account, traded the account and had a loss bringing the account balance to $29K you owe then the $1,000 loss.
So you are not really funded at all it seems. They establish an account with a nominal value of $30K but with a 3 contract limit and a $500 maximum daily drawdown. As Josh mentioned, this is the same as a $2,000 loan for an account such Mirus with $500 ES intraday margin ($3*500 + $500 daily drawdown.).
So it's not really "their money their rules"
-it's "your money their rules".
If you lose $1,000 they contribute $0 and you pay $1,000
If you make $1,000 and they keep $400 and you get back $600
A $2,000 line of credit loan from a bank at 6.75% is $11.25 per month.
If you lose $1,000 you owe the bank as you would with TST
If you make $!,000 you keep $988.75
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Perhaps I mis-understood the important point of their FAQ?
"Traders are not responsible for losses below the starting account balance."
You misunderstood something. As a funded trader, you can only lose what you have made in profits. Once you were withdrawing money from the account and getting checks, you can't lose that money, only profits in the account.
TST has a risk when you start out and that is the max. DD. That much they can lose on you, but not you personally...
Spot on Pedro. Thanks for help. Traders are NEVER asked to contribute trading capital to the trading account or reimburse the equity partner for their trading losses.
To take the above a step further, if you do go live and then do hit the max drawdown, you will be sent back to the Combine. You will receive two complimentary Combines. When you make it back to the funded account (typically those that get sent down to the Combine get back live within 2 Combines) you do NOT have to make up the losses from your prior live trading performance. You start with a clean slate and a new shot at building your account.
Hope that helps. Good questions and good help Pedro.
TopstepTrader has been added to the Elite Partner Offers page. TST is giving a 20% discount on combine's for nexusfi.com (formerly BMT) Elite Members (new recruits only, limit 1).
Note: Big Mike Trading does NOT receive compensation for these referrals, we simply worked out these special deals to help our Elite Members who have chosen to support the site. Even though we believe these are great products and services, you should always do your own research before doing business with a company.
There will be a Live AMA session on Thursday, July 25th @ 12:00 PM ET.
- Quick and casual, 30 minute cap
- No prepared presentation
- Live screen sharing
- Floor will be opened immediately to questions
- Recording uploaded to AMA thread afterwards
- Attend live to get your questions answered
Just a few comments regarding the new rule changes:
Make sure you do the maths behind every rule change. Don't just take emails like this at face value thinking it 'sounds good' or makes things easier.
Case in point, one of the new rule changes is to implement the minimum balance clause detailed here
In summary, your maximum drawdown trails your maximum end of day account balance until such time as you've reached your maximum drawdown in profits. Only then do you start building more of a cushion. eg:
In a 50k combine your maximum drawdown is $2000. Under the current rules if you were to end day 1 of trading up $1000 your balance would be $51 000. You then have a 'cushion' of $3000 until you reach your max drawdown. ie: $51 000 - $3000 = $48 000
Under the proposed rules, in the same combine after being up $1000 at the end of a day your balance would still be $51000. BUT,..your minimum now trails your max balance and remains at the original $2000. Meaning that your new maximum drawdown is now $51000 - $2000 = $49000. This continues until such time as you've made more than your max drawdown in profits.
What this results in, is essentially instead of being able to build a 'cushion' straight away by moving away from your max drawdown. You actually remain extremely close to your max drawdown until you've made that amount in profits. Only then do you start building a cushion.
Another recent example of where most traders seemed to take rule changes at face value instead of doing the maths behind it was the change from a 'minimum number of days' format to a discreet format, eg:
Using a 50k 20day combine as an example, under the previous rules you had to trade a minimum of 20 trading days in a 60 calendar day period. In 60 trading days there are typically +-42 trading days. The profit target was $5000. So you had 42 trading days to make $5000. An average of 5000 / 42 = $119 per day.
Under the current rules since the change to a discreet format, you only get 20 trading days in a 60 calendar day period (ie: not a minimum of 20 trading days, but a discreet amount). Using the same 50k 20 day combine example, the profit is now $3500. Most traders seemed to think this was great because they took it at face value. Do the maths. An average of $3500 / 20 days = $175 per day is now required.
Both the prior rule change and this one are making the combine incrementally more difficult (and in my opinion more removed from simulating a live trading environment. The rules should better simulate live trading which was the case a few months ago - but that's another discussion). Do the maths on all rule changes.