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The 50% rule is as follows: One a live MES account, you will need to make at least 50% of the number of trades per week as your average number of trades per week in your OneUp evaluation.
For example. If you made 4 trades per day on your evaluation, that would be 20 trades per week. After you pass the evaluation, then you would need to make at least 10 trades per week to stay in compliance. It would not have to be 2 trades per day, but could be just 10 on one day.
And I got clarification from MES, that it is the NUMBER of trades, not the volume of contracts traded that they are watching.
The reference is how many trades you did in the evaluation phase.
In their eval. logic one trade counts as one trade as long as you have at least 1 contract open.
Even if you add and close 100 contracts in the meantime, it is still one trade.
As soon as you are funded the logic changes. MES counts trades in the same way like Ninja trader.
I do not have Ninja trader but think Multicharts works the same way.
E.g. you open the position with one contract. Then scale in with a second contract - the systems counts that as two trades. Even if I am wrong regading same counting of trades in Ninja/MC, it is still true, that you have to do much less trades as a funded trader than in the Eval.
What a timely poll. Only on FIO can futures traders openly discuss the disparity between the REALITY of their trading (mis)adventures compared the the EXPECTATIONS without having to be anonymous! I love this site.
I have been trying for over a decade …
Here is a repost of my response to the FIO survey about trading timeline expectations vs reality:
What a timely poll. Only on FIO can futures traders openly discuss the disparity between the REALITY of their trading (mis)adventures compared the the EXPECTATIONS without having to be anonymous! I love this site.
I have been trying for over a decade to trade one (just 1) contract of YM or NQ on a $1,500 or $2,000 account. And the market seems to know exactly when I enter every trade, as if to say "Steve is back! Let's show him AGAIN what an idiot he is!" And "When will he learn that 4 losses in a row of $150 wipes out half his account?" And "Major Loser!!"
For the past 3 years I have been dealing with this "Undercapitalized!!!" issue by trying out TST, OneUp, and LeeLoo. And I succeeded. I have been funded by MES capital after passing the OneUp trial 4 times now, and I am FINALLY being profitable. I have an account now that will allow me to trade multiple Emini contracts with a large enough draw down to make it through some bad trades. It has made ALL THE DIFFERENCE in my stress level and ability to be profitable.
Because of my success, I have been recommending the "Funded Trader" route to my friends, with the caveat that they better be able to win on a sim account 5 days in a row FIRST. These evaluations are NOT a practice field, but a money sink if you are not prepared to follow all the rules and do it right the first time. (You can review my FIO OneUp/MES journal here.)
Now something amazing happened last month. I have been hoping for micro indicies for a long time, and they finally arrived! I have since been toying around with the MES, MNQ and MYM. They are 1/10 the size of the Emini's. This doesn't mean that I don't make bad trades, it just means I don't die as fast. Because the commission is twice as costly as the Emini's per unit of gain ($.80 micro vs $4.00 Emini) I readily admit these are only to get someone started. But it is still exciting.
And now I tell people to avoid the combines all together and just open a $2,000 account and trade one (just 1) micro position at a time to start. That is like a $20k Emini account! According to a 2015 survey the average trader spent $1,145 on TopStep Trader. I now say FORGET TST, OneUP, LeeLoo, Earn2Trade, and all the rest. So put the combine money into your own account! And away we go.
Now trade the Micros. And watch in amazement as you patiently grow your war chest. Try to make just $20 per day to start on your $2000 account. That is 1% per day. Add one micro contract with each $300 you make. At 1% per day, you will have $24,000 at the end of 250 trading days. Once your account reaches $5,000, then switch over to the Emini's. Keep going at 1% per day using one Emini contract. This is just a $50 gain. Then add another contract with each $5,000 to $10,000 in your account. At the end of one year you will be trading with 1 to 4 contracts and conservatively making $238 per day. You will have $24,000.
You can keep scaling to your comfort level during the second year. At 1% per day, at the end of 500 trading days, you would be making over $2,500 per day and have over $250,000 in your account.
I think the Eminis are awesome and should help a lot of people bring their Realities closer to their Expectations.
I have been doing the "Funded Trader" route with TST, OneUp/MES, and LeeLoo, for the past few years. I have a journal on my journey with MES (.
In that journal I got some comments that helped open my eyes to the benefits of the new CME Micro …
Check out my second journal. This one begins my 1% per day journey using the Micro E-minis.
For beginning traders, I propose trading with "the micros" is a better way to go versus OneUp/MES, TopStep Trader, LeeLoo, Earn2Trade, and all the other "Funded Trader" sites that suck in uprepared traders in with elusive promises of untold wealth.
As posted in this thread previously, the evaluation expectations are unrealistic at 9% growth per day for 20 trading days in the first month (4.5%/day for 40 trading days or 2 months).
And one of the biggest stressors is trying to achieve the profit target before you have to pay another monthly fee.
However, for experienced traders, I am truly in favor of OneUp/MES or LeeLoo. They can get access to a lot of extra firepower quickly.
I really wish I had had the micros 10 years ago. I would have saved $1,000's of dollars both in live futures account losses and then later in the "combine mill" monthly fees and resets.
I will continue to update this journal as well with my progress on both OneUp/MES and LeeLoo.
