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Things did not work out but it was all my doing. The trading parameters were tighter than I would have liked but they were stated up front. I fell below the max drawdown and the account was locked. However, I was given a second chance with even tighter parameters and shorter timeframe but again these were clearly stated. I emailed support to clarify what hours I would be trading because the second chance parameters required me to trade at a time I am normally done trading. I got a prompt response stating that was okay. Nevertheless, I proceeded to once again exceed the max drawdown and I was given no more chances. However, as others have noted, I was informed that I could reapply in 12 months. I will also confirm what others have said that the company made no attempts to sell me anything and there was no cost to participate in the trial. Overall, it was a good experience forcing myself to adhere to someone else's parameters while being watched during the process. This is something I am not used to but something to be expected if I am trading someone else's money.
Need to admit that picking up 1500 usd as profit target is not enough to be financed in mes. Last month a friend of mine met their selection criterias but it was not enough. He had three really bad days with loss aprr. 500 but the gain of all other days was 200-400 in average. And he has been refused in financing after mes team reviewed his trading. So good coefficients in trading statistics are mot enough. And they dont offer him second chance.
I'm not funded with them, but it was my understand they payed all fees. I assumed they covered it since they were taking 50% of the profits. But don't quote me on that.
I contacted their support about this (pro/non-pro status) and I was referred to their 'legal department'. I gave up. They pay the data fees however once you trade someone else's money, you are a professional trader and should update your self-certification accordingly. I am sure few do this. It may be in the future that traders have a problem with MES if they decide to close being BVI based so recovering any balance, well you can imagine.
Sattam attended Forbes' lowest ranked Business school in the US. Forbes Welcome
Founded MES in 2014 in the BVI via a Jersey intermediary. Not a limited liability in the UK or Dubai however and with no offices in England or Dubai as best I could see both addresses were not even virtual offices.
Elite Trader shows 'Sattam' in 2015 claiming to be a trader who has lost $250k https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/looking-for-futures-trading-mentor.292836/ I decided not to go with them myself because of Sattam's ET posts as clearly he has no problem lying, it's very sickening reading the Sattam posts knowing MES already existed. But they seem to pay people.
I contacted MES a couple years back and spoke with the owner. The owner claimed to be a wealthy Londoner from a rich middle eastern family. He claimed the original employee who made the posts was not with the firm. But, even if it was the same guy and he lost 250k and decided to start a firm to find successful traders/mentors, I am not really sure it changes all that much.
I believe he mentioned some very large number about how much he had lost funding traders to that point. I think it was around 400k. But, my impression was that while it was a painful loss, it was not very much money to him, and I think he treated this as more of an experiment with a 1 million cap. At the time, the problem was traders were doing well in the sim but blowing up as soon as they went live. This seemed peculiar to me, and I recommended and even offered to build more powerful analytics to help understand what was going on. Honestly, if you trade for a prop and they aren't reverse engineering your trades then they probably aren't the most serious -- more on that later. It is likely that any serious prop records as much analytics as possible for their own benefit. But, his setup didn't give him the proper insight into the trading activities, and based on our discussions I suspect a lot of those blow up traders could have been avoided with a more realistic tracking service. At any rate, his broker confirmed that he had appropriate funds and had funded traders.
I was offered a demo account to trade and was never asked for any money. As for the demo, there was no way for me to test the platform which I wasn't familiar with. My goal was just to place as many trades as possible to get a feel for the markets while keeping within the risk tolerance. Unfortunately, the platform was not reporting my P&L net of fees and commission and thus my tracking point was off. It was a simple mistake on my part. As such, I exceeded the risk limit. I was never asked for any money or anything of that nature.
One of the problems with the operation was the first time I contacted them, one of the guys who responded was convinced I had taken the trial before. I had never taken the trial and told him. But, it took about 4-5 emails before they realized I wasn't some guy they thought I was. At the time there was some misinformation on their website, it sounded like you could re-try as many times as possible. But, the problem seems to be related to demoing the datafeed/exchange. I offered to pay my own datafeed but that was not an option. It really would not mean much to me to pay even several hundred dollars for a legitimate funding opportunity. This data issue was something they are working on.
From talking to the owner, I believe he is honest about wanting to fund traders and has the capital to do so. However, it is really a stretch at least this point to call it a firm. It feels more like a rich guy's experiment. I contacted him again more recently about 6 months ago and he had a few traders who were making money. I would be willing and like the opportunity to take the challenge at some point again. They do seem to be a bit disorganized though -- from the original contact where they were sure I was someone who had taken the trial previously to more recently where I still felt they might be disorganized.
In summary, based on my experiences I would cautiously recommend them. But at least for now, it is a stretch to call it a firm. And, you really need to be on your A game because at least from my experience it is one-shot type deal. If they can figure out the datafeed problems preventing longer term trials and improve operations this could be a premier opportunity. I am certainly wishing them success and hope they will resolve the datafeed/exchange issues and allow for more extensive trials. The only real question on my mind is how serious they are about becoming more professional and becoming a real firm.
For the record, I have no relationship with MES besides my experience in talking with the owner and trying the demo. Always do your own due diligence.
If You will visit MES website You will notice that they abandoned evaluation of new traders till February, 2017 and promote completely new scheme and new company called OneUpTrader. I guess that they are going to follow TopStepTrader prop model and decided not to earn money by funded traders but by thouthands of those who are dreaming to get funded ))))
As the person above you said, the exchanges don't allow unlimited free demos these days so somebody has to pay. MES I understand took 50% of a successful funded traders profits so any successful traders would be carrying and subsidising all the free trials and other costs. TST only take 20% of a successful funded traders profits because aspiring traders support the business costs by paying a Combine fee (their choice, and mine). Perhaps MES found that any traders that were successful left almost immediately so they didn't have to give away half their profit and he was just left paying the costs for the unsuccessful traders. The TST business model is doing well, the MES business model clearly failed.
A business model that seeks to make money from profits by funded traders will never be profitable, because there aren't enough good traders, and never will be. This is the reason MES is abandoning it's model, because they found out it isn't doable. And this is the reason TST has the model they do. The bulk of the profit comes off the combines, and they can even take a loss of the funded traders and still make a lot of money. If you are an exceptional trader, the opportunity is there to be funded. But if you're an exceptional trader, why do you need funding? Other than to make enough money to go out on your own. No company will ever make money off profits from funded traders. That is why there is the combine model. Again, as I've stated in a previous thread, not criticizing it. It just is what it is.