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For testing your discipline of following someone else rules in trading then yes the funded programs may be a fun but expensive exercise because even when funded you will lose your funding status very quickly.
This will in my opinion keep you from flourishing in your trading style.
I can give you a 10 million dollar account but if I am still limiting you to a 1000 dollar draw down or your funding is cancelled then I am really giving you only a 1000 dollar account!!
Further more these funded companies are not allowing you to hone your skills ina live mkt environment where algos will trade and change behavior off of even a 1 lot sometimes. It is imperative you learn in a LIVE market or you will never learn!!
lastly, the new traders who typically will lose because it is a tuition cost will have less money to lose in the live markets and if they keep losing in demo over and over again the this is actually less real money liquidity in the markets which means people like me who actually trade live money become the Algo targets instead of sat new traders who make less than optimal decisions which this is actually money out of my pocket and yours.
I actually think these demo paid accounts should be illegal and the cme should demand that trades are live if someone is paying and getting FREE market data!!
I made a few more trades today.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Latest update on my trades today in this demo account. I'm not watching the mkt. I'm picking some levels and if I glance on my phone and see it high or low based on my glance then I sell or buy.
This just comes off as someone with an obvious axe to grind from the start "...pass these SCAM companies" and anything I've seen is you trade from your phone and continue to complain. Not exactly putting on a clinic on pro trading. It's okay, not everyone's cut out for these. I've passed several, been funded with some over a year, and withdraw monthly. For people who have what it takes, great opportunity. For someone like yourself, endless supply of things to complain about. So i guess in some ways you get what you really want out of it.
Bahahha... Nothing wrong with trading from my phone.
A screen is a screen. All I need is a 5 minute chart and a mkt order click to enter and click to exit.
I had zero axe to grind.
The SCAM is that these are not true prop firms because NO legit prop firm caps anyone at 1000 dollar draw down. The absurdity of that small number is mind boggling when trading multiple markets in futures. It is a well heeled mans game. Even with the micros and today's intraday ranges a 1000 dollar loss limit is small.
No one cares that you must constantly work in and out of your trades to maintain funding!! If you are so good why don't you fund yourself?
5 lot minis if any good can make you 5k plus a day if you are any good.
Why do you care so much about these funding companies?
I trade how I want and when I want ! That's freedom to me and so is slapping someone in the face with a stack of bands to get them back into reality!!
Even tonight the stupid top step acctax loss of 1k kicked in ruined my trade.
It kicked me out when down 1k and I had a 3 lot on and I was about to sell 2 more !
I would be up 2k like I am in my live acct but nope not with top step.
I ran the acct to 58k using their parameters... But they keep costing me great money because they won't let me hold paper losses. They force me to sell inventory that I want to keep!!!
I'd be up 1800 now look what the mkt did.. as usual top step forced me out.
The upshot of all this seems to be that if you break their rules, then they enforce them. And, of course, that you don't want to trade by their rules.
Your way to trade may be better for you than what they are enforcing, and apparently it is. In that case, you have no reason to be doing this Combine at all. I can understand that you wanted to show that they were wrong, and that you believe that your frequent collisions with their rules proves that they are. But perhaps all it does is show that your trading style and Topstep are not a good fit, which was fairly obvious from the beginning.
Anyone who finds any funding company's rules restrictive should not try to fit themselves into them, as nothing good will ever come of it in the end. But if someone finds the rules are a good fit, they may do well. I think it's an individual matter.
For the most part, probably most aspiring new traders will be better off trading small amounts in their own accounts using micros, since they will be risking (and, in the beginning, generally losing) real money, but money that they can afford to risk -- and the real trading experience is something they will have to have if they are to make progress. But if someone finds the rules of a funding company compatible and can do well under them, it is after all their choice. The rules are stated, and if someone doesn't want to trade by them, they can do something else.
I know that many/most people who try out for funding do not succeed. I do not think this is usually because they are great traders (although somehow many think so) and that their performance is the fault of the rules. It's generally that they simply aren't profitable traders yet, and wouldn't be in their cash accounts. We know that most new traders are not profitable, and that learning a way that works for them is not easy. Most never will, actually.
Are the rules inherently good or bad? Well, they tell people to limit losses and kill a losing trade early. This will work for some people and not for others. It does tend toward a short-term focus, and is not not necessarily going to fit everyone. Again, people make their choices, and if another choice works for someone, then that's the better choice for them.
Since you have found your own way over time and it suits you, then clearly that is what you should do. Proving that it won't succeed under the rules that someone else requires of traders doesn't prove much. It just means that you should not trade under those rules.
Bob.
When one door closes, another opens.
-- Cervantes, Don Quixote
So top step locked me out.. forced liquidation of my 3 short nasdaq positions where I entered aroun 13650.. top step 1000 dollar auto liquidation kicked in around 13670!
This after running the account up 7,000 dollars!
I had no intention of liquidating I was going to add more shorts as I always do and get short my full allowed 5 lots. However I could not and as I have been short biased all week look they cost me a 200 point nasdaq sell off!!
The red dots where I shorted last night and also where I was force liquidated.
Nothing on my end changed as far as my bias or method but I'm still locked out.. all day in this top step demo acct.
Following on from what Bob said, clearly the funded smallest 50K account wasn't a good choice. All the companies have a range of account sizes but the larger drawdown accounts do cost more, and as you said you weren't interested in being funded anyway, why pay the extra money.
I don't really see how putting a three lot position on which is $600/10 pts move, then getting stopped out almost straight away as price moves against you is Topstep's fault. The DLL is $1000 so wanting to hold a trade as is goes 20pts against you and then add up to five lots just can't be done, that's it.
One either trades: a less volatile product, less size, micros instead of minis, or picks a larger notional account size with a higher DLL. Whichever is appropriate for the trader's risk profile based on their own sim or live experience and trading style. A scalper all in all out might be happy with a small account and smaller profit target, Somebody building a position looking for bigger moves might choose a larger account based on how much they know their account value fluctuates during the day.
You ran the account up to $7k. The profit target is $3k for Step1, $3k for Step2, but you hit the DLL on Monday and again today. Carrying on doing the same thing and hitting the DLL every other day just seems like a small waste of money $100, but a lot of wasted effort and aggro.
You do not win as a trader, you just get to play again the next day. If that game doesn’t appeal to you then you should not trade. Gary Norden