A couple of weekends ago, I read the entire AMA thread sponsored by TopstepTrader's Michael Patak (President) I am going to try a practice Combine.
Here are my rules for a $30,000- ten day combine:
Trade 10 days in a 30 day period (I am assuming I have 30 market days, not calendar days to complete my trades).
Always implement stops with an open order. I usually have an ATM set up when I place an order. Occasionally the ATM strategy is missing. I assume this rule means the Stop has to be established when to order is place.
Only trade permitted products, during permitted times
Achieve at least 45% Profitable Days
Achieve an Average Net PnL greater than $0 for each product traded
Ensure my Largest Losing Day will not hit or exceed My Day Loss Limit of $500
Ensure my Account Balance will not hit or exceed my Trailing Max Drawdown (initially $1500)
My Profit target is $1500.
Like the combine, my trades will simulated. If I am incorrect as I post along, I would appreciate your comments. However, if I break a rule I am unaware of, I will likely continue the ten trading days before restarting.
Advantages:
A consistent set of money management rules and an established goal
Testing my Discretionary Trading in Real Time
Disadvantages:
The stops need to be tighter than I am used to but perhaps my typical trades dont have enough reward to risk, hence I need larger stops to allow the trades to work. I hope this does not cause me to try scalping. I shall look for good setups.
The fills may not be as true as TSTs simulation so that is a possible disadvantage of doing my own.
I do not have to pay a fee (except my data and platform fees) so I dont have skin in the game. I have sim traded before and have a particular account for SIM and another for just testing. I am pretty diligent using my SIM accounts.
I have the commissions setup as 1.84 per unit. I think this is per round turn but I am not sure.
I plan to use the NT report to keep track of the required Objectives.