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I ran across a TopStepTrader blog post entitled " [BREAKING] Two Rules Eliminated". The article refers to Funded Trader Prep (FTP), they additional requirement you'll have to meet before being funded.
This sounds like a good thing, right? Well, what they slipped in at the end of the article is that the profit target is now double what it had been prior to these changes. "Funded Trader Preparation will now have the same profit targets as the Trading Combine". Keep in mind that in FTP you can only trade a fraction of the contracts you can trade in the combine until you reach a preset account balance. In FTP you also have to deal with a weekly loss limit which is equal to the daily lost limit. Neither of these constraints exist in the combine.
So basically in order to get funded you'll need to walk a tightrope (additional weekly loss limit) with one hand tied behind your back (reduced contracts) yet still achieve the same profit target. Does this sound reasonable to anybody?
No wonder the failure rate for FTP is so high. Don't believe me? Just listen to some of the funded trader interviews. Most have failed many, many combines and once passed, they failed the FTP (which I'm pretty sure drops them back to paying for combines). The hoops you have to jump through to get funded after passing the combine just leaves a bad taste in my month. It feels like bait and switch to me.
In my opinion if you are going to "attempt" to get funded with TST, you should first try trading within the combine rules for free using Ninjatrader sim. If you are not able to reach the required profit targets while trading for free, why waste money paying for combines? You are not going to magically get better just because there's money on the line. Most likely you will get worse. It just doesn't make since to pay for combines when you can practice for free. I can see paying to "take the test", but why pay to practice.
When I decided to get my pilots license, I practiced on my home computer with Microsoft Flight Simulator. When I started paying a flight instructor, it was just to prove I already knew how to fly. I was ready to solo after only 8 hours. According to my instructor, most students take 40-60 hours to solo. But I had spent hundreds of hours on the simulator at home. It would have cost a fortune in a real airplane. Why throw money away?
I think TST could be a good thing for those who need funding, but by making it so much harder to get funded after passing a combine leads me to believe that's where they would prefer you to stay, paying for combines. I'm just saying...
Oh, and if you do decide to practice before attempting to pass a combine, I recommended you practice within the FTP rules. They are the only rules that matter.
I think anyone looking at them objectively can see the combines are where they make the bulk of their money. Does that make them 'bad'? No. They still provide the opportunity. They were smart enough to come up with a model where they could actually make money giving traders a chance to get their own account. It just is what it is.
Just a small correction the weekly stop is in the funded account once your trailing stop reaches break even the weekly stop is no longer part of the funded account. This is true practice before, but I can say this since, 2008 about when TST
Stated they have been upfront and honest, in a industry plagued with People, trying to steal your money, that put there money where your trading takes you. The combine and ftp are a tuff road and takes you and the market to get you there. It can be done I have done it. Keeping it real the ftp is not easy, get out of the gate on a positive makes it a lot easier.
I know you are trying to make a point but gross exaggeration will not get you there! No way it takes 'most students' 40 to 60 hours to solo dude, sorry, but that's simply not true.
Then my instructor was exaggerating, not me. But my instructor had about 30 years of experience and owned the flight school. I'll take his word for it.
If we're actually talking about flying, and I have no idea the context of that quote, it should come within the first 20 hours easily, depending on how consistent one is flying. Some do it in under 10, but 10-20 is more realistic.
I'm not, but I'm a pilot. This is what I posted above:
If we're actually talking about flying, and I have no idea the context of that quote, it should come within the first 20 hours easily, depending on how consistent one is flying. Some do it in under 10, but 10-20 is more realistic.