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Thanks, Cloudy, but don't be sorry. Rules were known in advance, I made it slip, but honestly I am not disappointed at all. I was very happy to finish the Combine from the first take, pass LTP and get to funded status. It was like a winning a contest. I am a competitive person. But for me trading live with TST was bit like trading in a straightjacket. You can see moves before but can't join before 7 AM, you can see an opportunity but as it wasn't initially in your trading plan you take take it. And finally if you haven't strategize upfront, you can't allow any changes whatsoever, or it will bite you through one of the numerous rules. Thus said, if one comes with a full understanding of these limitation, it is possible to get a comfortable start and avoid most of the complications. I would, if I would do that again. That is undecided for now. TST is a real deal, but they put you in a position to start making money right from the start with very tight risk. It is very difficult, but if you do it you are golden. Through the rules, the maximum drawdown and risk you can take in reality much smaller than one you would assume from related combine. At least this is true for 150k combine. I was given just one lot to trade. In now way I could get even close to max drawdown (or half of it) without breaking other rules and getting stopped. If you are so good you can work with it, hey, frankly you are better off with your own money then. But, if you haven't got even few grand to simulate this environment (doesn't take more than that really, whole risk and margin profile of 150k can be simulated with 20k in reality, and for initial stage of live trading I could do same with 2k live account), or can't stand a pain of losing anything - yes, this is a very good option.
Just to clarify on a topic name change. I would like to continue my journal and blog here even if not related to Combine and TST hence the name change to reflect that.
- You mentioned you were given one contract to trade when initially funded. Was that your choice or their rule? This seems ridiculous if the traders strategy relies on scaling out. Not sure if yours does or not. Perhaps it would be different if it was shown during the combine that the trader used a scaling out approach.
- Just to clarify on the 'Largest losing day is not allowed to be bigger than the largest winning day'. Is this even if you are net positive and therefore making money? Or does it only apply if you are net negative for that period? I can't see how it makes sense for traders who have made money, but just because of one day they get booted.
Hey, I did scale out some of my trades during the combine. But I have agreed to the low start with 1 contract, to test out my approach and could add more contract as I booked some profit. So it is fine. But yes, I could not move anywhere from this risk profile, if I wanted to start to scale out. As I said - you have to have a very firm plan right from the start. Probably I would do well if it wasn't for summer dolldrums, my strategy would work better (it is now) and I wouldn't drift from this only style until I built some cushion.
This rule is applicable only if you are net down, if you are not, they will disable you for 24 hours to punish you, but you can trade again afterwards.
I really don't see being sent back to a combine as such a big deal. If you are good and stood any chance live you can do it at combine. Live risk parameters are far tighter.
Ok, today I pulled myself together and made some more orderly DAX demo trading, still made few totally groundless trades, and finally missed a huge run (but it was not easy to see it realtime but a note about having a really large runner to run and only trail it by high/low)
I started late today, but it makes sense to start as early as market opens at 8AM and trade for some 1 to 1.5 hours only.
This is the biggest secret on dat planet, me swears!
The truth is you can use almost any averages, none will work all the time, most will work sometime, you need to get into rhythm of the market and get a feeling when they will do. But currently I am working with 75 and 200 and use 500 as a reference line.
Yea, but looks like the winners all had sloping MA lines, and you hit a few of those, so good trades! I can better pick the winners when getting away from chop ranges by entering on 2nd entry price action method, count entries off the closes. Helps keep me from getting chopped. Here is a link that explains the 2nd entries.
Absolutely, this is why saving screen shots and filling in the journal is important. Basically I am also looking for second entries, just not on candle level but on pushes to ema on range chart, taking a first pullback is usually a low probability trade. So tomorrow I will stay away from ranges by only entering when emas are separated, and taking only a second pullback and a momentum direction change, or after a bigger run between pullbacks.
I use excel and a spreadsheet I put together when was developing my combine strategy. Nothing complicated.