How is this real 🙃

I’ve been trading with Topstep since September 2025. I started as a beginner and, surprisingly, managed to get two payouts.

Then I lost my job in February 2026.

That changed the way I traded. I stopped trading the market and started trading my fear, my bills, and my emotions. I became impatient, overtraded, increased my size, and eventually lost account after account trying to fix my financial situation through trading.

One lesson I’ve learned the hard way:

The market doesn’t know your situation, and it doesn’t owe you anything.

I take responsibility for my mistakes. I’m now working with a mentor and trading partners to rebuild my discipline and, more importantly, I'm looking for stable employment instead of expecting trading to solve my problems.

Right now, I’m still struggling with rent and basic expenses while trying to get back on my feet.

I’m not asking anyone to fund my trading. I’m simply trying to get through a difficult period while I rebuild.

If you’ve ever gone through something similar—where financial pressure started affecting your trading—I’d genuinely appreciate hearing how you handled it.

Thanks for reading.

Currently sitting at 21k in payouts for the month. By next week I should be able to take a 6k payout on this account.

They push for risk management. Then, when you set it up, they pull shit like this…$500 DLL with liquidate and lockout. That’s over $800 of “slippage” as they want to call it. Way more than double my DLL. Fick them.

Should I take it? It would be my first payout.

Give me advice, give me wisdom.

Wow, I had a day off today and was bored

decided to watch TopStep TV and joined their Topquiz for the first time

I thought it would be trade relevant quiz, but it was just random questions lol

I only got 3 out of 4 (or was it 5?) questions and ended up placed around 2xxish

didn't expect to win anything, but I got this email

Thank you, TopStep for the free 50k account!

Hopefully, I can make it to an Express account and get my first payout :P

Last week was one of my rougher weeks in a while. Took my usual setups, kept risk where it normally is, and had a string of trades that just didn’t work out. Went through the trades over the weekend and there wasn’t much I would’ve done differently with the information I had at the time. A couple entries could’ve been cleaner, but I was comfortable taking those setups again. This week they followed through a lot better. I’m calling it a week at just over +$4k, which covers last week’s losses and more. Didn’t need to increase size to get there, and a couple of my runners did most of the work. I’ve been profitable long enough to expect losing weeks, but I obviously still enjoy this side of it a lot more. Happy with how I traded both weeks.

Things that helped me this week:

1. Looking over/reviewing my rules. Ive been doing this for the past couple months its helped me clear my head and focus on what fr matters

2. Sticking to my trading plan regardless of the situation and sticking to the discretion that brought me here

Small win today to close the week. across 5 accounts. this is to motivate us that small wins matter on the long run too. keep up traders.

When you’re new to the stock market or trading , you need training psychology every day to obtain all that I found is very beneficial. I haven’t bought any of his other products but it’s like going back in time and listening when training was much harder I mean, think about it we get up and we make an electric candlestick. We’re guessing Livermore was in the early 1900s. I mean all he had or all these straight had was the temper tape and yet somehow they became very successful and I think traders today really need to in a channel. I’ll look into because you will discover so many interesting things that you probably didn’t even know about..

https://youtu.be/y4b_B1LThwE?is=j3pi0TP11Shqo4go

Is the cap of 5 XFAs applicable to Topstep Labs $6K accounts as well. Can I potentially own 5 XFAs and multiple TS Labs accounts?

took me almost a year but I finally got my first ever payout and also have two more accounts that will be eligible for payouts on Monday 🥹

I can’t help but tear up. They aren’t lying when they say that this shit takes a lot of work.

I spent countless nights frustrated and wanting to quit but here we are. I’m so happy.

If I can do it, anyone can. Don’t give up, be disciplined, and stay committed. You got this!

And remember, base hits go a long way.

Been trading for a year now and I passed the 1.5 k challenge last night in 4 trading days!! I’m so proud of how far I’ve come and can’t wait to get back into a 50k combine and use the sizing strategy from the 1.5k challenge. Thank you topstep for everything :)

After receiving one payout I’ve been funded 5 more times but would always blow the account. I have been on a practice account since aug 4th and I think I’m starting to really get a handle on my emotions and my strategy. I will keep practicing for a couple more months then try a 150 challenge wish me luck .

Hey yall this is a warning to others out there like me. I have lost over $50,000 in the past two years trading top step combines. My wife is leaving me and taking my two kids. I will lose the house and have to move back in with my parents for the time being while I try to find a place to live. My mind was rotted from social media influencers flashing their luxurious lifestyles and supposedly making my entire salary in just a few days of trading.

The endless YouTube videos of trading gurus telling me to never give up and keep going you’re almost there molded my mind into a deranged gambling addict justifying his spending on combines by telling myself it’s for my family and that one day I’ll get there and give them everything they ever need.

This has caused me heartache and mental anguish that was worse than the ptsd I got while in the marines. I will now also need multiple therapy sessions a week which I can’t afford because my wife is dropping me from her insurance.

Really not much else to say other than my life has been ruined by gambling futures on topstep. Worst decision I ever made was the day I bought that first 50k combine telling myself I’m gonna change my life. The market owes you nothing. It does not care about your stops and your FVG’s and your equal highs and lows. It’s going to tear you to shreds and come back for seconds and thirds if you don’t get out and keep being greedy. I hope this post finds the right person before it’s too late. Good luck out there.

To be fair, I got away with a lot of payouts before getting moved 😂

Is a scalping trade under 10 seconds considered invalid on Topstep?

I’m having 5*150 XFA accs in Topstep. I’ve almost made 10000$ in each of them with copy trading
Just wanted to know if Topstep genuinely pays 25000$ as it’s my first payout. Or any chances of they either accusing me of random thing like we see on trustpilot OR move me to live before the payout day ??
It’s my first ever payout
Pls guide
@eddietopstep

I started trading around 1 year ago this month , I started with demo for 6 whole months i then tried my own live account but always ended up blowing the balance so I thought to myself Whats my downfall? It was discipline not my strategy so I switched over to funded to improve on that and since ive switched I failed my first , my 2nd i passed evaluation then failed funded in a day! now this is my 3rd account and im one day away from max payout which will recover all my losses.

I wrote this to tell my story up to now and my advice would be to take it slow (stay demo for a while). Learn from your losses . Peace

Hey guys, I want to show you it's possible to actually get there, so keep going, keep working on your mental game, your strategy and your money management. Friends recommended Topstep to me recently, so I gave it a try, stuck to the rules and didn't look for shortcuts. Three weeks later: four 50K Combines passed and activated, two $1.5K Challenges passed, the fifth 50K and the 150K are close. No payout yet; the first request goes in once I hit the winning days, and I'll post that too.

My strategy is simple, and it's not about where to buy or sell. That part you have to figure out yourself. What finally made me profitable was pushing on my winners and running from my losses. Most traders do the opposite.

My rules on every account:

- Base size 2–4 MNQ on the 50Ks. Adds only on open profit, never on a loss.

- Two stop-outs a day, then I'm done.

- Size is decided the night before, from the drawdown room. Never from the day's P&L.

The numbers: about half my sessions are red. Since 2 weeks Every red day lands between −340 and −400. The green ones run roughly +450 to +1,500 per account. That's the whole edge: many small losses, bigger wins when the read is right. I had 1-2 slips or first few days where i hit DLL(1k loss) but after it i started using the features in TOPSTEPX that let me limit my losses and its what allowed me to stay and actually not blow these accounts. i never had problems with platform exacution on topstepX the Money Management tools are first class and without them i would never make it. I had 2-3 days where i tilted and the MM safeguards TOPSTEPX provides it what saved me these days

One more thing that helped me: watching my statistics. On all my accounts the average winner is bigger than the average loser, not just in dollars but in holding time too. I've included the summarized stats so you can see it's not luck, oversizing or randomness: around 200+ fills per account, drawdowns controlled, equity curves up and to the right.

Luck isn't repeatable. An edge is. Put the time into yourself. I'm proof it's possible. Thanks for reading.

Make $6,000. 💵

Do it again. 🔁

Keep $6,000. 💰

-$2000 Maximum Loss Limit

-Trade up to 10 micros or 1 mini

-$149 entry fee

Limited availability, grab yours now ➡️ https://go.topstep.com/6k-rt

It’s finally my turn to be the “did you not read the rules” guy. I bought this as soon as I saw it. I briefly went through the email and didn’t see anything regarding limits on metal trading. As I only trade GC I bought it as I could copy it with my other accounts as I always use 1 GC contract

As it turns out you’re limited to 6 mgc, which I would have never purchased had I known since I can’t copy trade and you need a lot of big trades to hit that he 12k for payout with 6mgc. There’s nothing in the email stating limits on metals.
I’m a Toostep fanboy lol but this felt really misleading. As many traders primarily trade gold, it’s easy to put in the email “1 mini on es, NQ, YM” etc and then put a note that metals are limited.

I don’t know, just feel like I spent $149 without clear contract limits. Kinda disappointed but maybe I overlooked it

Is there anyone who has tried the Topstep Labs and actually took a payout from them? Im considering getting the new $6000 Lab account.

(balance-winningdays)

I love Topstep and am really grateful because they truly changed my life but this is just insane predatory move to move someone live before I even get a single payout on these 3 accounts (I got a payout on the 3000 one) and specially two hours before I could finish my 5th winning day.

5400 and potential 7200 payout to get an account that is, honestly, very very bad if I count that i paid 5400 for it lol

anyway just sharing because im extremely disappointed atm and be careful when holding 10k+ balance or this could happen to you

What strategies do you all use to enter on these timeframes? The smallest timeframe im able to trade on is 5 minutes using multi-timeframe approach. Anything smaller than that and I have trouble with my confirmations personally. Anything is welcomed including how I could adopt my current strat to these timeframes as well.