topstep combine stage 1 week 1
I have finished my 1 st week in the 100K topstep trader combine and I am
pleased with the results so far. I like how the combine sets me up for
success because I can see my statistics in pretty fair detail after a
day of trading.
I am only up a few hundred dollars, but that's fine as I am at the initial stage of just getting a feel for this very short-term scalping style of trading, and getting familiar with set-ups that I'm comfortable with and the pairs I trade at particular times through the day cycle of sessions traded. I tend to restrict my trading to the AUD and JPY during asia, then I switch to focus more on EUR as this tends to lead the AUD anyway and the AUD is positively correlated. One surprising finding this week was that the Swiss franc trades well correlated to the EUR ( in futures you trade the swiss not USDCHF) and it has much lower volatility as there is much lower volume and smaller pip moves per USD, so the risk can be contained more easily with tighter stops.
There is $12.5 per pip/tick too which is richer than EUR at $6.25 per half pip ( tick) so you can scalp out 3-6 ticks fairly easily and make more per trade.
My stats so far are below :
I have started with making on average $50 per day.
current at end of week 1:
balance : $100,195; average win day 113, loser -15
best day : 146 , worst -27
days 4 ; winning days 50%
av. win 34.48 loss-30.58
win % 64.72 max conseq w/L =2:1
av w/L duration 11.20/ 14/34 minutes
account bal draw-down limit 97227
room for improvement?
seems slow progress so far. But I'm tradinig 1 contract per trade and taking things slow until I have a larger profit buffer.
I think if I get 50% more than current winning day 113 = 169 then I should finish for that day, as that's a good improvement.
If I hit > 169 then I should stop trading for the day this week and be happy. If I lose initially below and between -150 and 300 I will attempt attempt to recover but no more than bewteen -75 and -150 for the day I should consider cutting out for the day to limit the chance of a bigger daily loss.
This is because if I keep trading there is a higher chance of a greater equity draw-down and I am trying to avoid big loss days. My absolute limit is -300 I have decided and this will be my default daily loss limit with only one contract below 102K. That way I can trade every day and still be below the -2000 loss limit for the week ( stage 2 rule only but getting used to it in stage 1).
I will focus more on volume profile this week, using more localized profiles
such as intra-day on 5-15 minute charts. See if that helps pick the levels of support & resistance.
technical : whenever I found myself in a losing trade, say I am down 6 ticks with a 11 tick stoploss, then I abandoned 'winning' and moved my limit down to a -3 loss so that I can limit the damage quickly. I found this technique worked about 75% of the time which is a good result. The actual stop is merely a 'hardstop' or 'worst case' scenario.
focus : I will look at trading the swiss franc because its my best performance so far;
problems : trading on the JPY is my weakest pair to trade. SO far on 4 trades I have a negative expectancy. So, I will limit my trading in this pair until my account is > 500 in profit.
My emotions got too involved in the US session on THURS when ECB big news item and pairs plummeted. I should have stood aside and not traded but my greed influenced my rational mind.
solution: mindfulness using 'tradermind' techniques. restrict trading to good setups. let the market come to your entry. Be patient, cool, and confident.
goal for week: get account profit up 50%, so I want to make $300 profit minimum. recall I cannot increase contracts to 2 until > 1000.
Also, try to trade more, as I only really had time to trade 3 sessions properly.
I need more opportunities to trade.
I am only up a few hundred dollars, but that's fine as I am at the initial stage of just getting a feel for this very short-term scalping style of trading, and getting familiar with set-ups that I'm comfortable with and the pairs I trade at particular times through the day cycle of sessions traded. I tend to restrict my trading to the AUD and JPY during asia, then I switch to focus more on EUR as this tends to lead the AUD anyway and the AUD is positively correlated. One surprising finding this week was that the Swiss franc trades well correlated to the EUR ( in futures you trade the swiss not USDCHF) and it has much lower volatility as there is much lower volume and smaller pip moves per USD, so the risk can be contained more easily with tighter stops.
There is $12.5 per pip/tick too which is richer than EUR at $6.25 per half pip ( tick) so you can scalp out 3-6 ticks fairly easily and make more per trade.
My stats so far are below :
I have started with making on average $50 per day.
current at end of week 1:
balance : $100,195; average win day 113, loser -15
best day : 146 , worst -27
days 4 ; winning days 50%
av. win 34.48 loss-30.58
win % 64.72 max conseq w/L =2:1
av w/L duration 11.20/ 14/34 minutes
account bal draw-down limit 97227
room for improvement?
seems slow progress so far. But I'm tradinig 1 contract per trade and taking things slow until I have a larger profit buffer.
I think if I get 50% more than current winning day 113 = 169 then I should finish for that day, as that's a good improvement.
If I hit > 169 then I should stop trading for the day this week and be happy. If I lose initially below and between -150 and 300 I will attempt attempt to recover but no more than bewteen -75 and -150 for the day I should consider cutting out for the day to limit the chance of a bigger daily loss.
This is because if I keep trading there is a higher chance of a greater equity draw-down and I am trying to avoid big loss days. My absolute limit is -300 I have decided and this will be my default daily loss limit with only one contract below 102K. That way I can trade every day and still be below the -2000 loss limit for the week ( stage 2 rule only but getting used to it in stage 1).
I will focus more on volume profile this week, using more localized profiles
such as intra-day on 5-15 minute charts. See if that helps pick the levels of support & resistance.
technical : whenever I found myself in a losing trade, say I am down 6 ticks with a 11 tick stoploss, then I abandoned 'winning' and moved my limit down to a -3 loss so that I can limit the damage quickly. I found this technique worked about 75% of the time which is a good result. The actual stop is merely a 'hardstop' or 'worst case' scenario.
focus : I will look at trading the swiss franc because its my best performance so far;
problems : trading on the JPY is my weakest pair to trade. SO far on 4 trades I have a negative expectancy. So, I will limit my trading in this pair until my account is > 500 in profit.
My emotions got too involved in the US session on THURS when ECB big news item and pairs plummeted. I should have stood aside and not traded but my greed influenced my rational mind.
solution: mindfulness using 'tradermind' techniques. restrict trading to good setups. let the market come to your entry. Be patient, cool, and confident.
goal for week: get account profit up 50%, so I want to make $300 profit minimum. recall I cannot increase contracts to 2 until > 1000.
Also, try to trade more, as I only really had time to trade 3 sessions properly.
I need more opportunities to trade.
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