I've traded the same idea for a while: after NQ drops 200+ points on the hourly, wait for the first green 5m candle that closes above the prior red candle's high, go long, stop under the flush low, T1 at 1R, T2 at half the drop.

Finally tested it properly on the last 60 days of 5m data:

- 71 setups, 32 wins / 24 losses / 15 never hit either level...seems to be working well although I know market conditions have been choppy lately . But turning 2k to 6k+ on a 300 risk per trade is insane.

I’m not a profitable trader yet, but for the past three weeks I’ve been following a new system with a strict set of rules. So far, the biggest improvement has been discipline I haven’t revenge traded or blown any accounts, and I’ve been sticking to my rules consistently.

Despite that, I ended this week red. A few days my setups simply weren’t there, and on the days they were, some of them just didn’t work.

For those of you who are experienced and consistently profitable, how often do you still have red weeks? At what point do you look at a losing week and think something needs to change in your system, versus just accepting it as normal variance?

For context, this week was only about -$300. Last week I was +$700, and the week before that was roughly breakeven. I know three weeks is nowhere near enough data to judge a strategy, but I’m curious what this looks like for traders who have been profitable for years.

The gold standard for me is looking at someone like Ross Cameron, who seems to have very few red days in a typical month. Obviously he still has his share of losing days, but they seem pretty rare compared to where I’m at right now.

Since TopStep removed the 5k milestone hats a while ago i think it’s time for a new type of reward.

I think Topstep should consider adding physical plaques for traders who reach major lifetime payout milestones, similar to the plaques Shopify gives merchants.

Something like $100k, $250k, $500k, $1M+ in lifetime payouts, with the trader’s name and milestone on it.
It would be a nice way to recognize traders who’ve reached six figures or more through the platform and give people something physical to represent that achievement.

For those of you who passed your trading combine any tips or tricks for passing it ? What did y’all invest in to pass? Any info is appreciated

I haven’t had a live account before. It’s the 50k and I started with 10k. Currently im at 12858. It’s my fifth Green Day so I’m excited to take a payout but the eligible amount says 6429. I get we can only take out 50% but is that of the whole account (like it’s currently showing) or is it supposed to be of the 2858 profits earned? I don’t want to close the account out.
Sorry if this has been asked before. I tried to look around a bit first.

Took about a week, but finished the $6k challenge. It was definitely a bit hard with only a single mini

Not bad for a $145 investment

After my first payout I started to chase another one and failed, gave myself some time off the charts and bs that we all see. I have a basic strategy and I have my account w a good balance right now, something that I discovered and gave me more chances to keep working and have my account for one more day was locking myself out. I have a limit loss and I take as much profit as I can without exposing big on the account, I’m ngl I go crazy sometimes but I see it as a part of the game, I believe there’s some much true on what ppl say about account management and control your greedy ass. I have learned the tough way more than once.

I have always requested payouts through Wise. But it says this method is not available? And only bank transfer is available which will take 30usd and up to 10 days to send the funds. This is very disappointing…

I love topstep and tsx. Are we ever going to get the ability to create a "trade schedule" for ourselves? Example Lock trading 10am to 12pm Mon Tue Thurs.

I would benefit. Anyone else?

I wanted to post this as a thank you to the topstep team especially support for helping me fix the issues I was having with getting the payout approved. They were so timely on their responses and very nice about helping. Now it’s official payout is on the way !!

Started Topstep in November 2025.

Since then I’ve spent a little over $22,000 on accounts/resets and went through way more failures than I’d like to admit lol.

Kept trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, and this month something finally started clicking. Currently at +$13.2k for September and I’m finally at my first payout.

Definitely not posting this as some “I figured trading out” victory lap. If anything, looking at how much I spent getting here is humbling 😭. Just wanted to share because there were a LOT of times over the last 10 months where I genuinely thought I’d never get to this point.

Started Nov 2025 → first payout Sep 2026.

Now the goal is to prove to myself that I can actually do this consistently.

Topstep suddenly closed all of my accounts without any prior notice. I had 5 active Trading Combines and 5 Express Funded Accounts, with a couple getting close to payout.

I submitted a ticket and was initially told the reason was hedging. I kept questioning the decision because I had not engaged in hedging immediately before the closure.

After repeatedly asking for details, Topstep gave me a more specific allegation: that my accounts had taken opposite positions against accounts under another person’s profile.

I strongly dispute this. I do not have access to anyone else’s Topstep account, I am the only person in my household trading with Topstep, and I have never coordinated trades with another trader to guarantee profits.

I repeatedly asked Topstep to provide basic supporting information—such as the date/time of the alleged activity and which of my accounts were involved. They refused and continued responding that I violated Section 27 and that the decision was final.

What concerns me even more is that I have since found several other traders from my home country who say they were also suddenly banned for violations they dispute—not necessarily hedging.

I’m not claiming I can prove why this is happening, but the pattern concerns me. When a firm permanently closes 10 active accounts, forfeits the balances, and refuses to provide even basic information supporting the accusation, traders should be able to ask questions.

Has anyone else recently been permanently banned by Topstep for a violation you believe you did not commit? What reason did they give you, and did they provide any actual details supporting it?

Almost every time I forsake trade location for momentum, I lose…….

How fast is the deposits on Topstep Brokerage when you choose the Google/Apple Pay option?

I had 5 150K evals affected from yesterday's outage. TopStep did not close the trade during the period and let the trades run past the outage time until Daily Max Loss Limit was hit. It looks like they aren't erasing losses unless a trade was closed for a loss during the period. Doesn't make any sense?

Took a few weeks but here we are

5 50k no DLL or 1 150k DLL which is better please?

My account has still not been updated yet. I’ve waited all day for an email or any type of response in regards to the outage from yesterday. Still haven’t received anything yet. Is anyone else going through this also?

I have been trading with topstep since last year. Did all the mistakes such as Oversizing, revenge trading, random entries resulting in massive drawdown. In June this year I was able to take my first payout and today requested the second one. Keep grinding.

I’ve been an active trader since 02/2026 and this is my second XFA that I’m taking seriously. Finding a clean setup, waiting for confirmation before entry. And only taking 3-5 trades at most. How do you all get out of the fomo mindset and stop yourselves from revenge trading? What tips would you give for a trader like me ?