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In a dark time, the eye begins to see,
I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;
Winding path? The edge is what I have.
At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire!
I live between the bull and the bear,
Beasts of the market and serpents of doom.
A man goes far to find out what he is—
Death of the self in a long, tearless night,
I know the purity of pure despair,
Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire.
A fallen man, I climb out of my fear.
The mind enters itself, and God the mind,
And one is One, free in the tearing wind.
"I've adapted the poem to suit our path as Traders."
Trading an Earn2Trade 50K mini-gauntlet and a TopStepTrader 50K combine simultaneously.
So which one do I recommend?
E2T is NOT recommended, as it looks like a TopStepTrader Combine from 6 years ago... rules rules rules that are not designed to advance you as a trader but are designed into exploiting any of your possible silly mistakes.
Wjat are these rules?
1. Progression Ladder
2. Maintain consistency - No day shall account for more than 30% of your profits.
The latter rule is even harsher because probability firmly goes to the favour of the 'casino'.
TopStepTrader is now okay with respect to rules, because the above restrictive rules no longer apply. My progress in TopStepTrader was faster because I could have outsized days without being penalized:
Nice post, great day. I also have been with TST and E2T. I kind of prefer E2T for the 30% rule, the reason being it keeps me from over trading. 15 days, $3K profit goal, make roughly $200 a day and I'm good. With TST I was way over trading and it caught up to me a few times, but that's a me problem, not a TST problem. Both have the progression ladder on # of contracts, TST is only in Step 2 though. I agree that the 30% rule on E2T kind of cramps some peoples style, like you who made a huge amount, now that almost works against you since you'd have to make well above $3K to have that 1 day be less than 30%.
Not really a fan of Finamark that E2T offers for free, but the Rithmic Pro isn't bad. I also use Jigsaw Daytradr (paid) which works for both TST and E2T so their software isn't really a factor. I do like the Tradovate platform though that TST uses, some day when I venture out on my own I'd probably open an account with them.
Regardless, best of luck on both I'll be following along.
So in essence I think the wise decision is probably to save and trade the micros instead of using these sim accounts.
A small account can be grown manifold... these sim accounts probably act as deterrants for developing a true trading mindset - that mindset is that there cannot be a safety net against the 'I'.
If these sim trials are designed to protect me from me, I think the best option is to work on that issue from Day 1.
I think typing out that post above made me realize that I am wasting my time with both TopStepTrader and Earn2Trade.
I think its better to work with real money and be a real trader than be a sim one.
Good I realized this early enough, instead of going through 'earning' an account and then 'retaining' that account and 'losing funding' because of some nitpicky 'rule' that make no sense in the real trader's universe.
I will stop posting this sim 'glorification of self' - time to get real now. If not now, when? :-)
The general consensus I've seen in various forums is to go through the program, either one, use it as a testing ground to see if you have what it takes and/or even like trading, without risking much capital. Then, if you do breeze through it, make a few grand, then liquidate your account and open your own account. That's my general plan as well. (except the breezing through part, I screwed up my TST a few times).
I agree though it's easy to not trade the same as you might with real, real money. I know I haven't. A few times with TST when I was down a bit, I'd just hail mary it and try and make it all back, blow up the account, and reset, because its easy. Unfortunately there's no resets in the real world with your money.
I wouldn't say it's a waste though, and you already paid your memberships for them. Just do your thing, pass, grow some capital in the funded account, and pull it out to go out on your own. Nothing wrong with using their program and get some money out of it. You are probably in for roughly $180 USD (or less if you used one of the various promos) on each, spend the 15 days total to pass, another X days to build some capital in a funded account and by end of July you are all set up. Just my opinion and/or my overall plan.
- Are these 'gaming' sites? (Yes!)
- Is it possible to get into bad habits by trading sim which permits going on tilt? (Yes!)
- Is it enough to achieve some form of learning on sim - can it really be applied to the real world - this I believe is the only non-rhetoric question here.
So the conclusion is I am wasting my time (playing the market instead of trading the market) unless I am taking it as a learning period before RETURNING (and this is important) to the real market.
Last two days I traded with abandon, letting go of my fear, getting into the flow if the market and achieved fabulous returns.
However it is just vanity if I publish this as an accomplishment.
Future posts will be of real money. I am cancelling these subscriptions soon, two days are two days too many.
Let's see if I manage the letting go of my fear and achieve fabulous returns IN ACTUAL.
This line from Earn2Trade probably frames the psychological makeup of attemptees succintly:
* virtual funds, and trading conditions of such funds are for entertainment/testing purposes only - actual trading conditions may vary, and trading these instruments may be risky and not suitable for all.
Surviving The Real MCCoy is real surviving. Sim is Sim even if you have paid a token.
In my opinion, you're misinformed and are viewing it with the wrong perspective. Here is why...
Both E2T and TST have progression ladder/scaling plan. You barely started Step 1 of TST and yes, Step 1 doesn't have the scaling plan but Step 2 does have it. So yes, TST does have the same "restrictive" rules. Also TST has two stages to pass where you have to achieve the same profit goal twice whereas E2T only has one step, one profit goal.
With TST, the trailing drawdown is calculated from your account balance at the end of the day. However, in the funded account it's calculated intraday based on your highest account balance including open positions. Why change the rules against the trader in the funded account? Doing this in the combine doesn't properly prepares the trader for the funded account. It's up to the trader to actually be aware of this and to trade accordingly.
With regards to the consistency rule, it's not something that you would fail if you don't meet this rule. The basis of the consistency rule is to make sure you don't get one or two lucky days and then make one quick scalp just to qualify your trades for the remaining days. A profitable trader should not have a problem with this. If you have one day that exceeds 30% of your total profit, then you just have continue trading to increase your total profit so that particular biggest day falls under the 30% of your total net profit. It doesn't mean you've fail, it just means you were probably lucky and it doesn't really show your true trading performance so you just have to continue trading until it falls below 30%. So it's not stopping you from having big profitable days. Just keep having big profitable days and you won't have a problem. Of course the funded account doesn't have this.
If your goal is to simply pass E2T's gauntlet with the minimum requirement then you just need to to make a net profit of $200/day for 15 trading days on the 50k account. If you're worried about making too much profits in one day then I'm sure you should have no problem making $200/day. From that perspective, the consistency rule should not make it harder for you to pass.