TopstepTrader Review – Scam or Legit?
This is an amazing sounding funded trading account program – you learn how to trade futures and if you pass a test, you can then trade someone else’s money and keep some of the profits!
This sounds too good to be true. Keeping profits but not taking the losses……is Topsteptrader legit?
Let’s find out!
Disclaimer: There are affiliate links on this page. If you click them and buy something we may receive a commission for the introduction at no cost to you.
Check out my friend Matt and I’s free oil futures trading eBook here.
This is by far the best tool I’ve found for trading Futures. It has an extraordinary track record.
About Topsteptrader Founder Michael Patak
Check out the FREE TRIAL for Topsteptrader here!
Michael Patak started TopstepTrader about 10 years ago. The massive growth that the company has seen over the last decade is testimony to the quality of the products in my opinion.
Michael Patak is on the right and Dan (one of the coaches) is on the left interviewing him.
Topsteptrader Review: Overview
If you want to trade futures then this might be a program worth considering. You pay a monthly fee to get training and the opportunity to pass a test to qualify for the funded capital program.
I use a program that is amazing for trading futures – it tells you when to buy/sell and has complete back-tested results for each commodity. If you want to trade oil etc. this is a must have tool in my opinion.
If you qualify you can start trading with an account, they fund for you. You get to keep the first $5,000 you make in profits then 80% of the profits after that.
So, my first thoughts are – how likely am I to qualify for a funded account and will the money I make trading the futures make up for the monthly fee etc.
Well, luckily, we can get some idea of the statistics from the website. Over 10,000 traders have been able to trade a funded account. Over $5MM in profits have been withdrawn from the funded accounts in the last 2 years alone.
Check out the FREE TRIAL for Topsteptrader here!
TopStepTrader Review: Free Trial
The cool thing is that they give you a no credit card required 14-day free trial with a $150k practice account.
Remember, this is a futures trading program. You can trade the CME Group like /ES , /NQ or /CL. This is not a regular equities or options trading program.
Don’t let this put you off though.
This is on the TsTrader platform
Check out the FREE TRIAL for Topsteptrader here!
Trading Combine Evaluation: How to Qualify for a Funded Account
I’m always suspicious of the small print when it comes to offers about giving you money to trade with. Very soon after signing up for Topsteptrader, I got this assurance via email.
“At Topstep, we have a promise: when you pass our trading evaluation, you earn our capital. Guaranteed.”
So, when you start the Trading Combine program you will have to pay the monthly fee. You can take as long as is required to get to the point where you are allowed to trade a funded account. You must pay the monthly fee regardless.
You can start with either a $50k, $100k or $150k account. The pricing for each account size is shown below.
So, you can see the monthly fee depends on how much capital you are using – remember that is simulated capital until you qualify for real money funding.
When you start with the $50k account for example you will ONLY get access to a real funded account of $50k when you qualify by completing the Trading Combine successfully.
I use a program that is amazing for trading futures – it tells you when to buy/sell and has complete back-tested results for each commodity. If you want to trade oil etc. this is a must have tool in my opinion.
The Two Steps to Get a Funded Account
To qualify there are two steps. Step 1 is to prove your profitability and follow some simple rules.
First, trade for a minimum of five days and hit your profit target. There is no time limit to hit the profit target. The profit target for the $50k account is $3,000.
You can’t break any of the following rules at any time.
Rule 1: Trade permitted products at permitted times.
Rule 2: Don’t exceed maximum position size if you do you fail.
Rule 3: Stay within the daily loss limit if you don’t then you fail.
Rule 4: Account balance must stay above the maximum draw down or you fail.
So, basically you must prove that you can maintain a consistent performance. Then you can move on to step 2.
Check out the FREE TRIAL for Topsteptrader here!
Step 2: Funded Trader Preparation
Once you have achieved a performance that allows you to move on to step 2 (the account is reviewed and approved to proceed) you will get an email saying that step 2 is started!
Step 2 is as you would imagine, more challenging than the first step. This is mainly due to fewer contracts and tougher rules you need to beat with the same profit target from step 1.
For example, in step 2 your best trading day can’t supply more than 40% of your profits for the target. They are trying to ensure consistency not random big wins.
They also introduce other rules like following a scaling plan, a weekly loss limit and no holding into a major economic release. You also must actively trade on 10 days minimum instead of 5.
What happens if you fail in step 1 or step 2?
Every time you fail in either step you can pay a penalty fee of $99 and just try again.
This is starting to feel like a game or something! I can see now why they are able to offer funded trading accounts – most people will struggle to perform this well in a short period of time. The likely outcome in my opinion is that people will try for months, spend $1,000 or something on fee’s and then give up.
I hope I’m wrong!
This is by far the best tool I’ve found for trading Futures. It has an extraordinary track record.
TopstepTrader Review: The Funded Account
When you finally pass the tests (this would take a minimum of 2-4 weeks if you are brilliant!) then you get to trade real money – their capital!
This is awesome because if you lose money, you don’t lose any of your own money! They lose money.
If you make money, you keep all the profits up to $5,000. After that they keep 20% of you profits.
When you get the full funded account, you aren’t just limited to futures on the CME. You can trade on COMEX, NYMEX, CBOT etc.
You are trading a prop-account and therefore officially a professional trader! Pretty cool!
Trading Commissions
There are fees for the trades. About $3.5 per round trip per trade. You must pay for these.
Real Money Funded Account Rules
With the simulated account the rules are checked at the close of every day. However, when the real money account is activated though the checks are in real-time.
This will immediately get cut off and put back into the combine mode. You can’t pay to reset the funded account the way you can in the combined ‘simulated’ account.
Any rule breach at any time sets you back to combine ‘fake money’ mode.
How do You Get Paid Your Profits?
You can withdraw your funds at any time. There aren’t even any fees if you request $500 or more. The wire transfer fee for lesser amounts is a whopping $50 though.
Which Trading Platforms Are Supported?
You get to use the in-house trading platform called TsTrader. There are 13 other platforms that you can use – including TradingView and NinjaTrader.
What Education and Coaching Do They Give?
They have a chat room that you can use to discuss your ideas with other members. You get access to daily live trading classes, watch professionals live trade, get coaching and some lessons on trading psychology.
Check out the FREE TRIAL for Topsteptrader here!
Performance Coaching
They offer performance coaching for $395 a month. Yup, more costs! This becomes free when you have a funded account though.
What do you get?
Once a month you get to sit down with your performance coach to go through your trades and figure out what you could improve on. Coaching is a good idea in any endeavor.
You get a free reset every month on Trading Combine if you do the coaching. You can meet with your coach daily and get into a private trader group chat.
Eddie Horn provides Squawk Radio as part of the coaching performance and offers his thoughts on the markets etc.
TopstepTrader Review: What You Pay
Here is what you will pay for the various accounts.
- $165 per month for a $50K account
- $325 per month for a $100K account
- $375 per month for a $150K account
This is what the ‘base’ rates are. But there are the other fees like the ‘reset’ $99 if you fail a step and want to start over.
My calculations suggest that you could easily pay $500 – $1000 before you achieve funded account status. It could be significantly more if you take many attempts.
Even if you get to be a funded trader, there is no guarantee you will continue to trade successfully enough to become profitable overall when you factor in the fees etc.
TopStepTrader Review: Who Will Benefit The Most
The barrier to entry for trading futures can be daunting. It requires significant capital and risk.
If you don’t have $50k or $150k for that matter that you are prepared to risk learning to trade futures – this might be a good way to get started and test the waters.
TopsStepTrader Review: Conclusions
While I love the concept of a funded account and I know that TopStepTrader is the industry leader with a lot of credibility – I still am nervous that there is a ‘catch’.
Having a free trial for 14-days is great and then using a funded trading account with no risk of personal capital loss is intriguing.
I use a program that is amazing for trading futures – it tells you when to buy/sell and has complete back-tested results for each commodity. If you want to trade oil etc. this is a must have tool in my opinion.
Check out the FREE TRIAL for Topsteptrader here!
However, I would be more excited if they also trained you included in the monthly cost – not for an additional $395 a month.
The pricing could be a bit clearer as I imagine many people don’t realize how quickly the costs could add up.
They have a great Trustpilot score of 4.5/5 which also boosts my confidence. The surveys they conduct also suggest that people are getting value as well.
For example, 97% of funded traders reported that they had improved their trading by joining TopstepTrader and more than 60% said they had made significant profits from the funded account.
Perhaps most importantly of all though is that 40% said without TopstepTrader they would never have been able to trade futures.
Russell
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