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North Carolina
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader, Tradestation
Trading: es
Posts: 644 since Nov 2011
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The combine is a better deal then in the past because it is open ended. However, the funding levels are still rather low meaning that whether or not you get funded, your probability of being able to parlay that into anything significant is going to be let's just say a challenge-- in my opinion and barring evidence to the contrary. If you have the capital to trade, trading in the combine is just as likely to set you back as to advance you and there are very few advantages as opposed to trading your own account. The reason it is just as likely to set you back as to advance you is that that there are many restrictions. The more restrictions you add then the lower your probability of being able to do something special.
If you want to take the combine, it makes more sense to start after you have traded in the simulator successfully under similar conditions and rules for some period of time. I think 2-3 weeks of continuous suggestive performance would be sufficient given that the risk is low. Passing the combine is a specific sort of challenge and objective and even if you were a more than competent trader, it would still make sense to test and adapt your specific trading to be able to meet the objectives first.
I think the combine would be most useful to the trader who is already rather competent but lacks the capital to trade. It might also be suitable for boom/bust type of trader. But, I do not think it makes sense for a trader who hasn't managed to become consistently profitable in the sim or live account over some reasonable period of time.
While passing the combine would be a positive statement, I do not think that failing the combine has much weight as to one's lack of trading ability. Stated another way, failing does not offer much insight into whether or not you can be a great trader and if you pass the amount you get funded is so insignificant that it will be difficult to parlay that into a significant amount. However, who knows, you might!
On the other hand, your time might be better spent trying to acquire a more realistic starting capital of around 25k for self-funding as opposed to working on your trading especially if you are already an above average trader. Of course, for many (most?), that is easier said than done. Even 7k-8k could be enough to get started depending on your strategy/style but that's really pushing it. But, if you want to push it beyond the reasonable, many brokers will open accounts at less than their published minimums (which is usually 5k). But, it becomes again a question of whether you'd be better off trying to acquire a decent stake versus spending time trading a smaller account-- for most acquiring a bigger stake will be more helpful.
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