Topstep $50k Trading Combine Day 2 (Goal $3000/Currently @ $0)

 

Topstep Support got back to me promptly this morning. Once I got home from work, I made the minor change that was suggested and voila, not I can see my Topstep $50k Combine account in NinjaTrader. I guess I'm armed and dangerous so to speak.

As of 1923 CT, the script has not taken a trade. Remember, I am looking for an 18 period FASTMA (Fast Moving Average) to cross over a 146 SLOWMA (Slow Moving Average). If the FASTMA crosses over the SLOWMA from the top, then we go short. If the FASTMA crosses over the SLOWMA from the bottom, then we go long. 

I have done some more back testing and made some more changes. I am loading V3 of the strategy and this will run against my Combine Acct.

That's all for tonight. I will publish my full plan tomorrow.

Peace!~

Topstep $50k Trading Combine Day 1 (Goal $3000/Currently @ $0) -...switching gears!

 

Just to catch everyone up. I did not post on 3/7 and the system took no trades. The previously discussed mods to the strategy were implemented and back tested ad nauseum. My plan to test "live" in SIM account for 2 weeks before purchasing the Topstep $50k Account Combine. 

I recognized that I was again caught in a familiar trap of "Analysis Paralysis" and more testing and optimization was just wasting time. The strategy implemented as a NinjaScript trading systems works. Testing while trading 3 MNQ contracts makes enough to pass the combine in 1 to 3 weeks. If I run it trading NQ contracts it makes even more. I am confident in what I have created. I will also be using the Ultimate Scalper tools when I pass the combine I created the automated strategy to address the issue of my work hours and market availability. 

As of 1100 on Sunday, March 7th my NinjaTrader platform cannot see my Topstep Combine account. This might prevent me from trading tonight when the Futures market opens at 1700. I have sent a note to Topstep Tech Support but they are not available until tomorrow.

Read my initial updates to catch up. Comment or holler if you have question or if I can help you. Tell a friend about the blog if you think they'd like it or want to be a full time trader.

Let the games begin!!

Peace!~

EDIT @ 2056 - No news from Support, but I expected that. I have the script running against the Topstep SIM account. We will see what pops. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be live.

DAY 4 Update - Combine Goal $3000/Acct. Bal. $885.12

 

Took one small short trade early this morning. I am tweaking the code to make the trailing stop more flexible. It appears that the trailing stop as a little too tight and I missed some profit. I will make those changes tomorrow, For tonight, I've used all my free ChatGPT resources. I really think I will get a subscription model. What I can do with it really is amazing.

But the important thing is that the strategy performed again. Another $126.78 added to our total, "HANDS FREE" so to speak. Onward and upward and hoping for some more volatility and bigger swings!

Peace!~

DAY 3 Update - Combine Goal $3000/Acct. Bal. $758.34

 

So today we took two trades and lost a little money. As you can see below the price action was relatively sideways and choppy at best. 

I might mess with the ADX settings and back test some more. Then again, I might not. I just ran back test on MNQ (trading 3 contracts) from the first of the year and the strategy made more than $11k. I also ran it against NQ and the profit was over $100k. 

Hard to imagine that kind of money!! Food for thought eh?

Peace!~

DAY 2 Update - Combine Goal $3000/Acct. Bal. $954.78

 

As you may recall, I leave this strategy running while I am at work. Today, while at work, I changed my password on the NinjaTrader account and I guess it stopped my running strategy. Soooo...we didn't take any trades today. I have it running now, and it will trade 3 MNQ contracts if the proper criteria is met.

We should get some action tomorrow. That is all!

Peace!~

DAY 1 Update - Combine Goal $3000/Acct. Bal. $954.78

$10k profitable trade in one day...but

So the good news is that I (my strategy/script) picked up one trade for $10k in profit. While that may seem like great news, there are several negative points that have come to light. To refresh your memory, I work a day job and wanted a script I could run to pass a TOPSTEP combine. $10k in one day would be GREAT if trading in a personal account. However, this is no good when trying to pass a TOPSTEP combine (you can read the TOPSTEP Trading Combine Rules here).

Here are the issues I have run into on day one:

• The profit goal to pass the combine is $3k and your best day can be no more than 50% of total profits made. Suffice to say that $10k on day one blows the TOPSTEP Consistency Target out of the water. To see the actual rule you can read What is the consistency target. I was trading 3 Mini Nasdaq Futures contracts (symbol-NQ) with my strategy, thus the large profit. The strategy is very good about entering at an optimum time and exiting for maximum profit. However, to pass a combine I should probably only trade Micro Nasdaq Futures (symbol-MNQ) and maybe only 1 or 2 at a time.
  
  
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• TOPSTEP has specified trading hours for opening and closing trades. My $10k winner was opened during the proper window but held after "allowed hours". Had I been in a combine TOPSTEP would have flattened my position at approximately 1510 CST. My profit would have been even more then, but I am unsure of how a trade is actually handled if the TOPSTEP team has to close the position. I am not sure if I violate a rule of some sort or what repercussions there may be.
  
  
• I was running my strategy in 2 charts on 2 different assets (MNQ and NQ). A little quick scan of the NinjaTrader site says that could be a bad thing.

I will fix these issues and commence testing again. Barring further issues this weeks data will provide a solid snapshot of performance before I enter the REAL combine next week. Here are the changes I am making:

• Change the logic to only open a trade from Sunday at 5:00 PM CT to Friday at 3:00 PM CT. Also all trades will be exited/flattened daily at 3:00 PM CT.
• Trade 1-3 (needs some quick testing) MNQ contracts for the purposes of passing the combine.

Okay...I'm back. I have added the logic to only open trades between Sunday @ 5pm CT  and Friday @ 3pm CT and to also close trades daily @ 3pm CT.

Also, I reloaded the chart data and re-ran the strategy with the changes detailed above.

The strategy took 1 trade for a $954.78 in profit. If we were in a combine, we'd almost be 1/3rd of the way to passing after Day 1.

I'll provide another update tomorrow.

Peace!~

The Plan

Some house keeping before we get started. Throughout this blog I will post some links or mention other companies or groups or systems. These are all the property of their respective owners and I take no credit for any of these except where I explicitly declare ownership.

Currently I work a full time job from 0630 to 1500 with periodic overtime from 0230 to 0630. Last year I made $55k at this job and they are a good company. I am aiming to earn A LOT more this year. I am waiting for a 2nd shift position within my company to open up but, for now, I can not trade during normal market hours. In this journey I will detail every dollar I spend and every dollar I make/lose, real and "simulated dollars". I will detail every tool and system that I am using. This does not mean that what I am doing is the best way. It does not mean that there are not better options out there. I am not an expert by any definition but I am not new and have enough experience to know what is real and what works for me. Take EVERYTHING I say and do with a whole shaker full of salt. LOL!

The short explanation of my general direction is as follows. After much exploration and consideration I have decided to go with a prop (Proprietary Trading Firm) firm to fund my trading. I will use a combination of an automated, always running strategy and a scalping system that I will explain in detail below. In the past I have been a part-time day trader/swing trader of traditional Stock Options. When I have some more capital and full time access to normal market trading hours, I may return to that space for diversification purposes. For now with time and capital restraints being what they are this is my chosen plan. Now, let's get into it.

• Getting Started - General Reading & Study Recommendations: There are hundreds of great texts and websites out there to cover many aspects of trading across multiple disciplines. There are several that have had a huge impact on me and really set me on, what I think is, a solid path to making trading a full time job.
  
  
• How to Day Trade for a Living by Andrew Aziz - I consider this my bible, even though it is focused solely on buying and selling stocks. If you know nothing about the stock market or are a total new comer to trading and the market, read this twice. This text takes you from new to trading with everything you need to know to get started. Even if you don't plan to trade stocks, which can require a relatively large amount of capital.
• Follow the Smart Money by Jon & Pete Najarian - This is the book that will show you what an option is and the best way to get started. You CAN trade Options with far less capital and I love these guys. The ONLY reason I am moving to Futures is the availability of prop firms. I traded Options with some solid success. I would recommend Monetari Trading as a great head start for Options. When I get some additional capital put away, I will return to trading options as well.
• The Best Trading Psychology Course by James Tilstead - This is a YouTube channel that is worth your time. All of his videos are superb but the Psychology course is eye opening. If you follow this blog for a longer period, you will see me implementing some of his strategies for Forex. I am currently not a student of his but plan on it as I progress. Just a really bright guy with a down to earth approach to success.
  
  
• Trading Platform: I have decided to go with NinjaTrader 8 for my trading platform. My platform of choice for Options was thinkorswim by Schwab. This is probably the best platform for Options/Stock traders. I chose NinjaTrader 8 because of their reputation in the Futures space as well as their advertised automation capabilities.
  
  
• Brokerage: In the past, I traded Options using thinkorswim on a Schwab brokerage account. For Futures I have been SIM trading in NinjaTrader 8. For my choice of prop firms, I have chosen TOPSTEP. There are many reputable prop firms out there as well as some "not so reputable" ones. I like TOPSTEP for their pricing as well as their reputation in the industry. If you are looking for a "get rich quick" type of approach I am NOT your guy and TOPSTEP is probably not your best choice of platforms. If you are looking for consistency and you desire to trade with an intent to make it a long-term & HIGHLY PROFITABLE business, then we might get along nicely. I believe that TOPSTEP is the best choice with these goals in mind.
  
  
• Automation (automated trading strategy): The automated NinjaScript I run is named "BIGMACrossoverwADXATR". I got the original base NinjaScript from a YouTube channel, Make a Trading Bot in 10 Minutes - NinjaTrader w/Trade for Opportunity. I am definitely indebted to this guy for starting me on the automation journey. This was a simple moving average crossover (MACrossover) strategy that initiated a trade when a fast moving average (FASTMA) crossed a slow moving average (SLOWMA) indicating a potential trend is emerging. You can find countless example of moving average crossover strategies on YouTube and elsewhere. When the FASTMA crosses the SLOWMA from the bottom, the strategy takes a LONG trade. When the FASTMA crosses the SLOWMA from the top, the strategy takes a SHORT trade.
  I performed extensive back testing and optimization within the NinjaTrader platform (a GREAT feature) to establish what the best value for a FASTMA, a SLOWMA and a number of contracts to trade should be. I was not only looking at the wins (profitability) but also the losses (contributes to drawdown) with an eye to using this strategy (along with scalping in after hours trading) to pass the TOPSTEP Trading Combine as step one of my journey to being a fully funded trader. I then used ChatGPT to add logic that set a trailing stop (to capture incremental profit as the trade moves in my direction) using Average True Range (ATR). Lastly I used ChatGPT again to add logic to exit the trade as the trend weakened using Average Directional Index (ADX) so I could exit, hopefully, before I gave back my profits or took a loss. This is the script I will be using and you're welcome to it. LOL. Reach out if you have questions.
  
  
• Scalping:  Scalping is a strategy of placing trades, closely monitoring them in real time and exiting the trade relatively quickly (hopefully for a profit).  You may be in that trade for mere minutes or even seconds sometimes. When you take the trade, or your entry, is key to your success. There are innumerable ways and multiple strategies for this type of trading. For scalping I will be using tools from Ultimate Scalper by Reece Cadaval. You can, and SHOULD, evaluate his tools for yourself, but to me this guy is a wizard. I very much look forward to using his tools and teachings.
  
  
• Projected Costs: There will be some incremental costs to "fund" my journey. They are, however, far less than the personal capital needed to generate the same level of income as using a prop firm.
  
  
• The NinjaTrader 8 platform is free. I do pay a $41/month fee for Level 2 NASDAQ data. I have paid 2 months ($82) so far.
• I will be using the Ultimate Scalper - Ultimate AI tool. This is $99/month with an initial payment for 3 months ($297) required to get started.
  
• To start the TOPSTEP combine I will be purchasing the $50k account for $49/month. I am confident I can pass the combine in 1 month. If not, it's not the end of the world. This is a marathon and not a sprint. 
• Assuming I pass the combine there is then a $149 fee for a TOPSTEP XFA account with $50k in trading power. An XFA account is basically a simulated account where I am paid the profits per TOPSTEP rules. While in the XFA stage the first $10k in profit is all mine. After that, the margin split is 90/10 with me receiving the 90%. I am planning to only withdraw enough funds to pay for a 2nd combine leading to a 2nd active XFA. For the second iteration I would pay the $49 and $149 again for a second active XFA. I plan to repeat this process with a goal of 5 active XFA's (each XFA essentially costs $198). With the 2nd XFA I will begin copy trading (trading in one account with the trades being mirrored to 1 or more additional accounts). I have not decided which copy trading software to use, but I expect to pay $200-$300 for the software license.
• As I understand the new TOPSTEP rules, I can have 5 XFA's with a maximum payout of $5k per account for a total of $25,000. Assuming all goes well, I will collect $23,500 ($10k + ($15,000 * .9)) before being moved to a fully funded cash account. I guess we will see.
• When, and if, I am called up as a fully funded cash trader I will still pay $41/month for data fees plus $135/month for CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) fees. At this point I would be a 1099 employee and be paid on the 90/10 split per TOPSTEP rules.

As I write this, it is Sunday evening on March the 2nd. I have some charts open in NinjaTrader and my script is active on my SIM account. I have a 15 minute chart open with Mini Nasdaq (NQ) futures selected (top left panel); a 15 minute chart open with Micro Nasdaq (MNQ) futures selected (bottom left panel); and a 1 minute chart open with Mini Nasdaq (NQ) futures selected (top left panel); I have my strategy running on both charts on the left. I use the 1 minute NQ chart (sometimes I trade MNQ) on the right for scalping. Below is a snapshot of my work space:

Here is a shot of the 15 minute NQ chart. You can see that the strategy has entered a LONG trade as the FASTMA (represented by the green line) crossed the SLOWMA (represented by the yellow line) from the bottom.

Finally, here is the picture of my SIM account with a starting balance of $50,000 in SIM dollars.

That's it for now and let the games begin. I hope you enjoy the journey. Feel free to comment or ask questions and also feel free to share my blog with others who might want to undertake this journey to freedom.

Peace!~