Topstep's Nick Dolby (Social Media and Community Coordinator) - Ask me Anything (AMA)

TopstepTrader 

Hi DarkPoolTrading, First and foremost, thank you for your feedback. Let me start by saying that one of the main fallacies between what you're referring to and what actually normally happens in successful Continuous Combines, is exactly what you highlight, time. The VAST majority of successful Continuous Combines are completed within 10-15 days. When we first introduced the Continuous Combine it was absolutely our intention to give traders as much time as they needed to meet the objective by not having to trade as large of size or overtrade due to an, as you call it, arbitrary timeline. However, we soon realized that what we actually did was create a little bit of a 2-headed monster, if you will. More and more traders were successful and getting funded, but not by showing us a large sample pool of say 25+ trading days, but rather just more successfully completing the Combine in 10 trading days. The reason being that they had no pressure. However, we all know that the live markets create a whole new sense of pressure. So after funding these traders and seeing that their performance was far worse in the funded accounts than what was previously the case when we had only 10 and 20 day Combines, we realized something had to change. Therefore, we implemented the Live Trader Preparation with a generous time limit of up to 2 months to complete. Again though, most who are successful in LTP complete it in 10 consecutive days. Below is a list of a few recent successful LTP's who are getting funded. laureno 1/28-2/11 exactly 2 weeks, traded 10 Devco1 1/28-2/10 exactly 2 weeks, traded 10 TraderVa 1/14-1/30 exactly 2 weeks, traded 10 days MrBrunotte 1/19-2/2 traded 11 days famumoe 1/20- 2/2 exactly 2 weeks, traded 10 days Mark8_Tr8der 1/19-1/30 exactly 2 weeks, traded 10 days bmoore 1/8-1/29 traded 12 days vladisslavpv 1/15-1/29 exactly 2 weeks, traded 10 days So when you state, "Regarding LTP, I am yet to see anyone have an LTP that is not 2 months in duration. Ask around..." that simply isn't true. Likely what you are basing that on is the time we make a Newest Funded Trader announcement versus the time someone successfully completes a Combine. Right now we are averaging account openings in 1.5 weeks from the time someone successfully completes a Combine or LTP. Most of our Newest Funded Traders are already trading on their live account by the time we announce or interview them. Also, there is a myriad of reasons why trades want to wait to start trading on their accounts, for instance the holidays and volume were a big one. And as you can see by the 46 traders we’ve already funded this year, the pipeline gets full pretty quickly when it comes to announcing and scheduling Newest Funded Trader interviews, so definitely don't base anything off that if that's is in fact what you were referring to. Last, in regards to the Funded Trader Scaling Plan and Trailing Max Drawdown after 10 days, the entire point of that is to ease traders into the live market, not to intimidate or stack the odds against anyone. Our equity partner funded a lot of traders letting them come out of the gate with their Loss Limit and Drawdown and most came out swinging with large size and we're done before they even started. We introduced this scaling plan and drawdown method to purposely deter traders from doing that. To stay the course, do what made them successful strategy wise, focus on the process and the rest will take of itself. Ultimately, it has paid off. Our traders are trading immensely better and taking more withdrawals since it's inception and as you can tell from the 46+ traders we've funded since the new year, our equity partner is pleased with it's success as well. All of this being said, I definitely realize there are areas for improvement, and the Continuous Combine and/or LTP/Funded is by no means perfect. So I do agree with you that if someone has gotten funded by trading consistently over the course of say 30+ days, they probably deserve and should be treated a little differently. We do our best to be as objective and transparent as possible (or else we'd get eaten alive on forums like this!), but I'm not so naive as to think that each situation should be treated the same. What I will promise you DarkPoolTrading is that I will meet with the Scout Team and try to wrap our heads around those that complete the Combine in an extended period of time and how we can fairly treat them while balancing everyone's best interests. We will always strive to make things the best they can possibly be. This helps, so thank you for that. Trade well, Mp

Thanks Mike for your reply, and thank you for taking the feedback in the way it was intended,...to be constructive.

It is great that so many newly funded traders that passed a continuous combine were able to pass both the combine and LTP in 10-15 days. However when it comes to someone who does a continuous combine and takes 30+ trading days to complete it,...they cannot be treated the same.

Regarding the scaling plan, I think it is excellent and agree that it benefits all parties.

However I must disagree that removing the trailing max drawdown after 10 days is somehow a good thing. The thing that eases traders into live trading is the scaling plan. Not removing the rug from under their feet after 10 days. But once again, this may not be a one size fits all scenario. For a trader who takes 30+ days to complete a combine, this rule does not make sense.

All im suggesting is that when someone proves during their combine that they take longer to build up an account,...don't then expect them to all of a sudden be able to change that when deadlines are placed on them during LTP and the funded level.

Thank you for the promise to discuss this with the scout team.

Do you have a timeline for adding EUREX products in combine?

@TopstepTrader Michael,

Please change your default combine report so the user credentials are hidden. Lots of users posting screenshots to futures.io (formerly BMT) that contain their credentials because they are displayed by default.

Mike

Big Mike 

@TopstepTrader Michael, Please change your default combine report so the user credentials are hidden. Lots of users posting screenshots to futures.io (formerly BMT) that contain their credentials because they are displayed by default. Mike

I sent an email to TsT support this morning on the same subject. Response:

Quoting 

Laura replied: Hi Bob, Thank you for sharing your suggestion with us. I think that is a great idea and I will certainly pass it along to the appropriate person. Have a great day, Laura

It has become an important issue.

Bob.

Big Mike 

@TopstepTrader Michael, Please change your default combine report so the user credentials are hidden. Lots of users posting screenshots to futures.io (formerly BMT) that contain their credentials because they are displayed by default. Mike

ALL-

We have made the necessary changes as requested and have pushed it live today. It should default to hidden now. Thank you for your feedback.

Best,

Michael

hi Michael
what happens to daily loss limit when it comes to scaling up ? TST website says by increasing cushion, a trader can increase it's trading lots .but what happens to important factor of daily loss limit? will DLL increase as well? for example consider if you are trading a live funded 30k combine with 500$ DLL.if you can generate 4500$ you can use 5 lots as scaling plan explains.but what will be the DLL for this 5 lots ?

algorithmic 

hi Michael what happens to daily loss limit when it comes to scaling up ? TST website says by increasing cushion, a trader can increase it's trading lots .but what happens to important factor of daily loss limit? will DLL increase as well? for example consider if you are trading a live funded 30k combine with 500$ DLL.if you can generate 4500$ you can use 5 lots as scaling plan explains.but what will be the DLL for this 5 lots ?

algorithmic- Thanks for your inquiry. This is an important thing to consider when choosing which account parameters you'd like to be evaluated under, because your Daily Loss Limit will remain the same when you initially start on a funded account.

That being said, our Scout Team and Equity Partner are open to negotiation as Funded Traders build their account. The more successful you are in building up the account, the more this becomes a partnership. If you've proven you can trade and have built equity and buying power, we are definitely willing to negotiate (increase) your Loss Limit if the trader makes a request.

As always, we try to state everything very objectively and explicitly on the website. But in reality, there is subjectivity to certain items, such as the Daily Loss Limit at the Funded Level for someone who is trading well.

Hope that helps,

Michael

Hi,

Do you have plans for a stock trading combine in the near future?

Thanks

bmmartin 

Hi, Do you have plans for a stock trading combine in the near future? Thanks

bmmartin- We are working this direction.

Michael

TopstepTrader 

bmmartin- We are working this direction. Michael

For at least 6 months you have "Coming Soon" on your website in your forex combine section.

How soon is soon?