scalpingticks 

Any thoughts of future elimination of the 10 day period once a trader if funded? It really sets traders up to fail once they go live.

Hi Scalpingticks, thanks for your inquiry and feedback. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our evaluation and trader experience. Although we believe the 10-day rule is meaningful in encouraging traders to build their account equity judiciously while maintaining their profits, we do realize some traders find it prohibitive.

As we approach 2017 we are currently reviewing all of our Trading Combine, Funded Trader Preparation and Funded Account rules and requirements, so stay tuned for updates!

Thanks and Trade Well.

I came across this on the Topstep site :

"All traders in Funded Trader Preparation™ and Funded Account™ must be flat 1 minute before until 1 minute after a major economic release.

Those in the Trading Combine® do not need to be flat during any releases."

I find it curious that those in the Combine trading demo accounts are allowed to trade news / reports, but once in a FTP account this is prohibited.
Anyone who has tried bracketing various reports in Sim will know that you get very unrealistic fills and therefore very unrealistic profits. I'd say it would be quite easy to pass a Combine using this method alone, but it would be a pointless exercise.
So it makes no sense to me to allow it at all, unless it's to cause traders to repeatedly do the Combine

Stillgreen 

I came across this on the Topstep site : "All traders in Funded Trader Preparation™ and Funded Account™ must be flat 1 minute before until 1 minute after a major economic release. Those in the Trading Combine® do not need to be flat during any releases." I find it curious that those in the Combine trading demo accounts are allowed to trade news / reports, but once in a FTP account this is prohibited. Anyone who has tried bracketing various reports in Sim will know that you get very unrealistic fills and therefore very unrealistic profits. I'd say it would be quite easy to pass a Combine using this method alone, but it would be a pointless exercise. So it makes no sense to me to allow it at all, unless it's to cause traders to repeatedly do the Combine

@Stillgreen Thanks for your feedback. I understand how this is a disconnect. Our general stance and recommendation is that trading off of economic reports is inherently too risky. We are currently reviewing all of our rules and requirements for 2017 so will certainly take this into consideration in those discussions! Thanks again.

TopstepTrader 

Hi Scalpingticks, thanks for your inquiry and feedback. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our evaluation and trader experience. Although we believe the 10-day rule is meaningful in encouraging traders to build their account equity judiciously while maintaining their profits, we do realize some traders find it prohibitive. As we approach 2017 we are currently reviewing all of our Trading Combine, Funded Trader Preparation and Funded Account rules and requirements, so stay tuned for updates! Thanks and Trade Well.

You have the Trailing Max Drawdown in place. Considering it trails up to the $0 mark anyways I wonder why that alone isn't enough and the 10 day rule has to be in place? Makes it difficult for traders on slower markets like Treasuries where volatility can dry up for weeks at a time. Or those who take longer position day trades and after only 10 days may only be up by their daily max loss. Hardly enough room to continue taking positions when you hold until the close.

I understand completely though if that rule deliberately eliminates the type of trading styles/markets you wouldn't wish to have money being managed under

PS Love the new site, great work.

RielA 

You have the Trailing Max Drawdown in place. Considering it trails up to the $0 mark anyways I wonder why that alone isn't enough and the 10 day rule has to be in place? Makes it difficult for traders on slower markets like Treasuries where volatility can dry up for weeks at a time. Or those who take longer position day trades and after only 10 days may only be up by their daily max loss. Hardly enough room to continue taking positions when you hold until the close. I understand completely though if that rule deliberately eliminates the type of trading styles/markets you wouldn't wish to have money being managed under PS Love the new site, great work.

@RielA We really appreciate your feedback and are very happy you love the new website. The team worked hard on trying to improve the website for a better user experience. As we mentioned before the rules are being looked at in 2017. We appreciate your feedback, keep it coming.

Thanks and Trade Well.

bobwest 

Yes. I have done many Combines, and not (yet) passed. I have only occasionally done a "Reset". You are allowed to cancel at any time, just send an email a few days before your renewal date. You can then start a new one. There is no problem with this.... To make sure it would be legit, I emailed them to make sure, and the reply was that it is fine under the rules. Sometimes it is more convenient to just hit the Reset button, when you have a lot of time left in your monthly subscription. and you think you could pass it with a Reset before the next subscription payment. Otherwise, you can just Cancel and resubscribe. Bob.

Hi Bob

You can cancel through the dashboard.

Got to my profile -> billing
Hover with your mouse over the active account, at the right there are three dots,
you can select cancel and give the reason.

regards
Ron

I read where someone said in another post on another thread that if you pass the combine only trading say CL, then that's all you can trade if you pass? Is that correct, or can you trade any market you offer even if you pass the combine trading only one market?

emini2000 

I read where someone said in another post on another thread that if you pass the combine only trading say CL, then that's all you can trade if you pass?

I don't think this can be right, because there are references on TST's website to the fact that you can trade things not even tradable during the Combine.

But would also like to see a response to this question, please.

emini2000 

I read where someone said in another post on another thread that if you pass the combine only trading say CL, then that's all you can trade if you pass? Is that correct, or can you trade any market you offer even if you pass the combine trading only one market?

Tymbeline 

I don't think this can be right, because there are references on TST's website to the fact that you can trade things not even tradable during the Combine.

The answer used to be clearly spelled out on the website in the Help pages, but I can't find any mention of it now. (The entire site was recently redesigned.)

It used to be that you had to do the FTP in only the instruments you were profitable in during the Combine, and you could only initially trade live in the instruments you had been profitable in during FTP. However, you could later expand out to other instruments in live trading -- I did not remember if it was after a certain profit level or a certain period of time, so I went to the source (the website) to double-check, and now I can't find any mention of the issue at all. As far as the website goes, it appears that there is no restriction at all regarding what you can trade in either FTP or live, other than it must be on the allowed instrument list. If this is true, it's a huge change. If it's not true, the Help needs some work. If I just couldn't find it, I hope TST will help us out. (Also, it used to be easy to find things....)

So, a note to @TopstepTrader:

1. We do need an answer to the original question.

2. As an FYI, it appears that a lot of information that used to be easily available in the Help pages is now either gone, or is not readily findable. Or, perhaps the policies have just been changed without announcement.

Please respond. Thanks.

Bob.

bobwest 

The answer used to be clearly spelled out on the website in the Help pages, but I can't find any mention of it now. (The entire site was recently redesigned.) It used to be that you had to do the FTP in only the instruments you were profitable in during the Combine, and you could only initially trade live in the instruments you had been profitable in during FTP. However, you could later expand out to other instruments in live trading -- I did not remember if it was after a certain profit level or a certain period of time, so I went to the source (the website) to double-check, and now I can't find any mention of the issue at all. As far as the website goes, it appears that there is no restriction at all regarding what you can trade in either FTP or live, other than it must be on the allowed instrument list. If this is true, it's a huge change. If it's not true, the Help needs some work. If I just couldn't find it, I hope TST will help us out. (Also, it used to be easy to find things....) So, a note to @TopstepTrader: 1. We do need an answer to the original question. 2. As an FYI, it appears that a lot of information that used to be easily available in the Help pages is now either gone, or is not readily findable. Or, perhaps the policies have just been changed without announcement. Please respond. Thanks. Bob.

@bobwest @Tymbeline @emini2000 Thanks for your inquires and discussion, the answers to your questions are as follows:

1.) Previously in Funded Trader Preparation you were required to only trade the Trading Combine products you were profitable in. We have removed this rule and you may now trade any permitted products.

2.) Thank you for the feedback. We have removed some items for the benefit of our traders, such as the above, without explicitly notifying our community yet. We have been reviewing all of our rules and requirements ans we will be making a formal announcement of all changes in early 2017 - Stay tuned!

Hope that helps. Trade well!