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I started my first Combine with Topstep Trader 2 days ago and would like to share my journey. Any insights are very much appreciated. I signed up for the 150K account. I am trading 10 contracts of the ES contract. So far, my results are:
Day 1- $150 profit
Day 2- $500 profit
I need to have at least $9000 in profits to pass the combine with 8 more trading days to complete. I must finish it by July 9. This is my first combine, and my goal is, of course, to pass it. I was good at taking very small losses when order flow no longer supported the trades, however, I also cut some of my profits short, leading to less profit. I will be working on that these next few days. I do have a good, solid plan that is consistently profitable.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Just finished my 3rd day of 10 days total of the combine. I was +$650. Total profit for the 3 days is $1300. I made 2 trades this morning. One was breakeven and the other was +$750, so after commisssions, it is up $650 for the day. I watched the chop in the afternoon, but did not want to enter the market because it was too sloppy. I will not be trading tomorrow (Wednesday) because it is "Fed Day" and will resume trading on Thursday.
A profit target of $9,000 means 18 points at 10 contracts in 10 days excluding commissions. The positive start to your days means at least you could only have 3 out of the next 7 days be a winning day and you're still at 60%.
Although the % gain is the same for all combines except the 30k version (ex. $9,000/$150,000 is 6% which is the same as 6k/100k), I still think you end up putting more pressure on yourself to trader larger lots.
That being said, I don't know your trading strategy....
Trade smaller. Focus on risk first. Let the profits come naturally as a result of reduced risk and positive R:R. It doesn't matter if it's 'demo money' or not. The combine is about learning good trading habits and trading in a way that will be sustainable should you pass it. Trading full size out the gate achieves none of this.
Really? What kind of advice is this? The reason people have trouble trading is they treat sim and live differently. They play around in sim and slap it to 15! The only way you will receive any benefit from sim trading is to trade the way you would live. Work on building good habits and focusing on risk, mind, and executing.
Dont get the following wrong, I don't intend to mentor & have only the best intentions. However:
This quote along other posts of yours somehow make me doubt, that your current attitude is suited for taking trading for what it is - a risk management job.
You don't even bother investigating properly into the Combine structure of TsT yet consider doing one yourself. (Apparently for all the wrong reasons, I would want to add..) Mike gave you hints and advice towards a possible shift in focus several times now but you seem to just go over those posts as if they aren't of any value. You rather dive in and "but" your way out.
Maybe you should really take a combine. I am 100% sure that you will fail the first one (so did I) and completely blow it.
But then again this might help you to view trading from the risk-side for the first time. Then you could possibly understand how NOBODY would give their money to someone who "slaps it to 15" or has losses as high as 11% - no matter the return%, cause eventually the account will be crashed.
If you really are serious about trading, then I challenge you to:
# take a combine
# make it a custom combine with more time for the profit target (eg 20 instead of 10 days)
# journal about it and
# don't hide the end result from futures.io (formerly BMT), no matter the outcome
# make it the smallest combine available, to prove me that this is NOT just for making money to you
Of course you don't need to prove me or anyone anything. If however you think what I wrote above regarding your 'qualification' for trading is bull*** then again I encourage you to show it to me in a TST combine and post your first day and the funding qualification after the last day somewhere here on futures.io (formerly BMT) so that I can feel bad about this post.
Anyhow, who am I to post this...
All the best to you, I really hope you make it.
ST
