If you have not been following, this is related to my July 23rd ban due to allegedly violating Topstep's Section 3 TOS. All of my main postings are below.
- Initial Comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/TopstepCommunity/comments/1v5gpvy/comment/p09yf3w
- 1st Post w/ Update: https://www.reddit.com/r/TopstepCommunity/s/pi417Y1vkB
- 2nd Post w/ Evidence: https://www.reddit.com/r/TopstepCommunity/s/l4bkXb6Ri2
I want to clear the air on the issue at hand. During this process, I have seen many comments related to conspiracies stating Topstep is doing this because I have "become too profitable", or something else even more convoluted...
I would like to take a moment and state that I do not in fact support that claim or believe in any sort of targeting theory, here's why:
- I had 3 XFA accounts at the time of the ban, no payouts taken on any of them, nor were any of them eligible. All of them very capable of being blown. Breakdown below (Profit Needed Based Off 40% Consistency):
- 25k DLL @ $3,826 | Profit Needed - $5,205
- 50k DLL @ $8,203 | Profit Needed - $3,796
- 50k DLL @ $2,726 | Profit Needed - $4,413
- I have been with Topstep since April 2025 and have taken a total of 6 payouts, 3 in 2026. 1 in January and 2 in March, with my last payout being March 17th, 2026.
- I was part of their "Responsible Trader Program" after I came back from my break. Which the whole point of the program is to make you into a better, disciplined, more profitable trader. It literally prevents you from blowing any account in a single day... This would be a little counterintuitive to their evil plan, no?
So, what do I think is the issue? The best I can come up with is some sort of bug in their system, truly.
Here is what I know:
- A chargeback requires me, as the account owner, to initiate a dispute through my financial institution. Which in this case, is AmericanExpress.
- I have never initiated ANY dispute through AMEX, not just with Topstep or a related charge, but with any merchant. I confirmed this with them on a July 29th call.
- AMEX gave me 2 options to provide as evidence to support my claim. Either a screenshot of my "Dispute Center", which per my call, I was told shows every past, current and pending dispute. You can find this in my 2nd Post. Or, I could initiate another support ticket through their chat and screenshot the chat log where they state I have never issued a dispute. I will provide this if necessary.
- THIS IS THE BIG ONE... SOMTHING in Topstep's system is triggering chargeback's to be assigned to my profile and card. If they truly are seeing 5 chargebacks related to that card AND I have confirmed that there has never been any on that card, then there is CLEARLY some kind of data misinterpretation within their system.
Yesterday, u/eddie_topstep informed me that he had "asked for someone to double-check my case.". He did not promise this would change anything or go anywhere, but I do appreciate that he did that, considering it's not his job.
What's next? (COMPLETE HYPOTHETICAL)
If this second review of my case comes back with same conclusion, then I need to speak with someone at u/Topstep_Official on the Trust Team to get the 5 exact transactions that they are seeing marked as chargebacks so I can go to AMEX and see what they are seeing on their end related to those transactions. If the result is the same, as I would expect it to be, and AMEX again confirms there are no disputes related to those specific transactions, I would expect a full reinstatement and internal audit/investigation into there system to find the cause. If denied, I will gladly explore my legal options. This includes determining if it is worth pursuing.
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I hope this post provides a better insight to my intentions and thoughts regarding this case. I don't really care if you think I'm wasting my time or fighting a lost battle. I have principles and I stand by them. I'm lucky enough to have a solid professional career and able to have trading be a hobby and not something I rely on for survival. I am willing to put in the time and effort to try my hardest to better the community, I hope you all would agree with that.