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Even though I have withdrawn money, my orders are not yet reflected in the DOM. Hopefully soon. I am not as profitable (yet) as some traders.
On the $50k account, you have to be at at least $3,500 to withdraw funds, and you can only withdraw $1000 in this case. Once you cross $52,500, then your minimum account balance before liquidation is $50,000. If you have $55,000 in the account (like I did at my first withdrawal), then you could withdraw a max of $2,500. (I withdrew $1,000 at that time).
The scaling rules are in effect at all times on the balance. For the $50k account it looks like this
So if I am at $5k then withdraw back down to $2,500, then I will be limited to 4 contracts instead of 6.
Thank you to those who are following my MES Journal. I have THREE big announcements:
1) New $150k live account. I have had so much success with my $50k account that I decided I wanted to qualify for an upgrade to a $150k MES account which would let me trade with 15 contracts and have a larger daily draw down to give me more breathing room. So I jumped in with a 40% discount code from OneUp for having a live MES account. I am happy to report that after 3 weeks of trading (the minimum), I just met the $9,000 goal on Friday on the 15th trading day with $9,005. I should be live with a new $150k account by Wed or Thu next week and will start reporting on this new live account.
p.s. If you try the evaluation, please give yourself 30, 60, or 90 trading days to reach the goal instead of just 15 days (which is the minimum). 30 days would be $300 or 6% per day (based on the $5,000 max draw down allowed), 60 days would be $150 or 3% per day, and 90 days would be $100 or 1.5% per day. The best hedge funds in the world can't sustain 1% per day. So be kind to yourself, and take your time.
2) Referral. If you have found my journal to be helpful, please let things flow back this way a bit. OneUp has started a referral program. I can't post the link here, but if you PM me privately, I will give you a link to sign up, and OneUp will give me a referral fee. There is no extra cost to you.
3) Free trader chat room. There are about 10 great traders in a FREE Slack.com chat room that I started for funded (or previously funded) traders. We meet daily, especially during the first two hours of the NY session. I have talked with my co-host, and we have decided to open it up to ALL traders who have ever been funded by OneUp/MES, TopStep, OR any other trader who feels they have reached some level of competence and thinks they have something to add. We are not going to turn anyone away, but we do discuss some advanced concepts and don't want anyone to be lost; so if you have been trading for less than one year, please keep learning and PM me when you feel you are ready. In the room people do call out trades at times, but the room is much more than a "free trade" room. (BTW, following someone else's trades can be a very risky thing! Everything is at your own risk!). We are brothers and sisters in the battle to remain profitable. We rejoice in each others successes and console after the bad trades (we all have them). We toss in some humor. We try to keep the language clean. We have fun for sure. PLEASE JOIN US. PM me for the link.
For the $50k account, they keep the $2,500 in reserve according to this schedule (from my contract):
SUMMARY: The amount you can withdraw from the reserve is scaled, but after 90 days, you get to keep a maximum of 80% of the reserve amount (consistent with the overall 80% profit plan).
If someone elects from day one for the 50% profit plan, then you are correct. The max they could get out of the reserve account after 90 days would be 50%. 80% plan would be 80%.
It took about 4 days for MES to get me started with the upgrade live $150k account, but the deed is done as of this Friday afternoon.
I took one scratch trade this afternoon to test things out and it worked, so I am ready for a new day, week, and month. May was a rotten one for the markets for sure, but not for day traders who are not married to their positions.
I really feel for the bulls right now, but they have had their fun in the last couple years. Now it is time for bears and "directionally-opportunistic traders" to have their turn.
I am eager to continue the success I had on my live $50k account. While my averages were amazing the first month, they trailed off once I decided I was going to swap up to $150k. But if I continue those averages, then I will aim for the following:
$275 per day
12 trades per day
$25 avg gross profit per position
Generally upsloping graph with low draw downs
I have to be above $0 on day 15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90.
I have to not hit the $4000 intraday limit at any time and can't let the account drop below a max of -$5000.
I was about to say "Off to the races!" but this one is not a race. It's all about steady growth with no time limit.
I thought if you hit the $4000 intraday limit, you're simply stopped out and can't trade until the next day?
This was the biggest differentiator b/w OUT and others like TST since with TST, if you hit the daily loss limit, you immediately flunk out whereas with OUT, they simply stop you out and let you resume trading the next day.
Yes, you are correct. If you hit $4,000 on the $150k account you are not automatically flunked, but have another $1000 toward the max drawdown to deal with the next day.
But here is what is interesting. After my own initial experience on my old funded accounts and after talking with other traders, you should know that you MAY NOT automatically be flattened by the system at -$4000.
For sure you will NOT be able to add additional contracts if below -$4000, but if the market is tanking (for example), it may allow you to go all the way to -$5000 before stopping you out.
The only prudent thing to do is keep the losses small from day to day. I am going to be using -$2000 as my absolute max loss on a daily basis until I grow the account to above $160k.
-Steve
p.s. remember to that the max drawdown is computed INTRADAY. So if you were up $1000 in the morning before you reach -$4000 in the afternoon then you just got killed.
I have lurked on and off in this forum for a while. I mostly trade stock options, but have wanted to give a go at futures more than ever since I got Bookmap. I think I will try Oneup. When I'm ready I will ask you for the referral details.
Congratulations on your success and thanks for sharing your journey.
