Challenge tips
Trading style
in the evaluations, a trailing drawdown usually applies, which is also trailed in realtime within the trading day.
In order not to fail here intraday at the rules of the provider, some trading approaches are to be questioned. If you have bought into a movement, then you must always tighten the stop so that you do not tear the trailing drawdown. Wide ranges with high vola can then lead to a downfall. This also applies to scaling of positions.
Very short-term traders and scalpers definitely have an advantage here.
All providers work with R Trader. In this you can follow the current trailingdrawdown. If you use NT8, ATAS, SierraChart or others, you should not rely on the amounts shown there. Decisive is the statistic in RTrader.
Position size
Depending on the account, several contracts can be traded. Basically starts with 1 to a maximum of 2 contracts, even if 6, 8 or 10 would be allowed. Depending on the provider, a multiple of the minis is also offered for micros. Even with micros you can pass a challenge, so keep your greed in check.
Consistency Rule
TopStep and OneUp have a so-called Consistency Rule. The trading result of a day should not tear a complete challenge, but as a trader you should provide evidence of a constant profitable trading over a longer period. I personally think this is perfectly fine, even if some providers do without it.
News and Time Rule
Trade in the Challenge as the rules would allow in the funded account. Trading in market-moving news such as NFP, ADP, Oil Inventories, Fed, Fed Minutes etc. is allowed in the evaluation for many, but not in the funded account. Also, some have a 10 Second Rule, i.e. prohibition of ultra-short term trading. This is also understandable and logical, since the trades are routed via the propsoftware of the providers and latencies and slippage are possible here. Pure self-protection of the companies. So avoids this also already in the evaluation.
Retail or Professional
CME data feed is a stumbling block. Make sure not to use more than 2 live accounts.
Excerpt:
The Non-Professional Subscriber's access to information
may only be:
h) via a maximum of two trading terminals per Distribution Point that are approved for real-time information and capable of routing orders to the CME Globex Platform (an "Order Routing Device")
Any Subscriber who does not meet the qualifications of a Non-Professional Subscriber shall be deemed a Professional Subscriber.Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Own experience
Balancing one-time and ongoing costs
If you're sure of what you're getting, you should ask providers about one-time and ongoing costs.
My favorite for the one time cost is LEELOO with the LEELOO Express option (100k). Here the professional goal is $6,000 for 10 consecutive trading days. The one-time fee of $77 does not renew. and is refundable if you pass the challenge. Fill or kill....
Can this be done? Yes, certainly. Here is a screenshot of an Express from summer 2021
Leeloo Express
From my point of view, OneUp is ahead in terms of running costs in the funded account. There are no data feed costs here, as these are paid by the funding partner. With Leeloo, Apex, TopStep, Earn2Trade you have to bear these yourself, whereby with TopStep and Earn2Trade this is an expensive matter. With both of them you pay as a professional for the feed, so $105 per exchange.
Multiaccounts
Almost all providers allow multiple accounts in parallel in the evaluation. In the Funded Account, however, only Leeloo, Apex and UProfit.
So if you want to trade multiple accounts in parallel in the funded account with the help of a copying software like Replikanto or Apex Trade Copier, then Leeloo, Apex and UProfit offer themselves. The tool costs $149 in the lifetime for one machine.
Apex Trade Copier
However, when using it, you must always keep an eye on all accounts to be able to fix any copying errors immediately. It can happen that orders in the follower account are not filled and you have open positions.
Is it reasonable and possible to run a Challenge with multiple providers at the same time?
The question is certainly, do you have the time and the concentration for it. True to the motto, not to put all eggs in one basket, I have completed three evaluations in parallel in June 2022 at Apex Trader Funding, Leeloo and TickTickTrader. Deliberately took the $50,000 "account" with the professional goals of $3,000 as the account size in the process. Since I wanted to complete all three in one month, this was the realistic size for me.
In the following screenshot you can see the cumulative performance of the three accounts from the beginning of June to the beginning of July 2022. All three accounts are now funded. Since I had to use different Rithmic ID's for each of the providers, the use of a copy tool for Ninjatrader was not possible. So the accounts were traded alternately individually.
There is a special feature with TickTickTrader. Here you are provided with a license for Jigsaw daytradr and jounalytix as an alternative to Ninjatrader 8. The following screenshot is also generated from this platform. The certificates of the providers can be nailed to the toilet, but at least you have a confirmation of the trading performance for your ego...
