Topstep Combine Rules: One Loss Limit, One Target, a 55% Cap on Your Biggest Day

Topstep's Trading Combine has one rule and two objectives. The rule: never let your balance, open trades included, touch the Maximum Loss Limit, which sits $2,000, $3,000 or $4,500 under your highest end-of-day balance on a 50K, 100K or 150K and locks once it reaches your starting balance. The objectives: reach the profit target of $3,000, $6,000 or $9,000, and keep your largest single day at or under 55% of it ($1,650, $3,300 or $4,950), or the target rises to that day ÷ 0.55. There's no minimum day count (the 55% rule makes it two), no time limit while the subscription runs, a cap of 5, 10 or 15 contracts, and every position must be flat by 3:10 PM CT.

Topstep Combine rules at a glance

The standard Trading Combine comes in three sizes. Everything below scales with the size except the hours and the conduct rules, which are the same for all three.

Topstep states the lock as a rule; the lock points are that rule applied to each size. The Standard path adds a $149 activation fee when you pass.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Trading Combine® Parameters, Consistency at Topstep, What is the Maximum Loss Limit?, Daily Loss Limit in the Trading Combine and Express Funded Account, Topstep Pricing and Payment Questions.

Is the Topstep evaluation the Trading Combine?

Yes. "The Trading Combine® evaluates your skills, discipline, and habits before you're funded," in Topstep's program overview, and it's sold as a monthly subscription. Pass it and you earn a simulated Express Funded Account (XFA), where payouts happen. The Live Funded Account comes only when Topstep's Risk Team calls you up.

Topstep Labs sells other evaluations with different rules, from static-drawdown Combines with one-time fees to two-round Challenges. They're below. Everything else on this page is the standard 50K, 100K and 150K Combine.

Source, checked 2026-10-22: Topstep Program Overview.

What do you need to pass the Topstep Combine?

Topstep calls the Combine "a simulated account with one rule and two objectives". Here is every check it runs, roughly in the order they can stop you:

1. The Maximum Loss Limit, all session. "Do not let your account balance hit or go below the Maximum Loss Limit (MLL)". Open trades count. Touch it and the Combine can't pass until you Reset it.
2. The profit target. "Reach and maintain your Profit Target": $3,000, $6,000 or $9,000.
3. The Consistency Target. Keep your largest single day at or below 55% of the target, or the target becomes that day ÷ 0.55.
4. The Daily Loss Limit, if you added one. Hitting it ends your trading day, not the Combine.
5. Size. At most 5, 10 or 15 minis (50, 100 or 150 micros) open at once, fewer in news windows.
6. Hours. Flat by 3:10 PM CT every weekday.
7. Conduct. No cross-account hedging, account stacking, full size into major news, or gaming simulator fills.

Checks 2 and 3 work as one: your profit has to reach the larger of the target and your largest day ÷ 0.55.

The two objectives are one number: profit of at least your target, or your largest day ÷ 0.55 if that's more.

The pass isn't instant on your dashboard: "The status update can take up to 30 minutes." If it still shows Active after that, Topstep's advice is to check that your Consistency Target has been met.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Trading Combine® Parameters, Consistency at Topstep, What is the Maximum Loss Limit?, When and What Products Can I Trade?.

Topstep 50K Combine rules

A 50K Combine's numbers, in one place:

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Trading Combine® Parameters, Consistency at Topstep, What is the Maximum Loss Limit?, Risk Adjustments: High Risk/High Volatility, Topstep Pricing and Payment Questions.

How does the Maximum Loss Limit work in the Combine?

Topstep's own summary: "The MLL is a trailing limit. It rises as your end-of-day balance grows, but never moves down. Once it reaches your starting balance, it locks permanently." It starts at $48,000, $97,000 or $145,500.

• Closes move it; open losses touch it. "The MLL updates at the end of each trading day but is monitored in real time throughout the session. Both realized and unrealized P&L count toward it." A trade that dips through it and fills back above has still breached: "Final balance above the limit doesn't matter. The breach happened first."
• Touching it. "Your account is liquidated for the rest of the trading day and becomes ineligible for funding until you Reset." The subscription keeps rebilling, and you can still trade the account for practice.
• No exceptions. "The MLL cannot be adjusted or changed. Topstep makes no exceptions."

How it trails and locks, with a check for your own closes, is in Topstep trailing drawdown.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: What is the Maximum Loss Limit?, Trading Combine Subscriptions.

How does the 55% consistency rule work in the Combine?

Your largest single day of profit must stay at or below 55% of your profit target. Over it, "your Profit Target increases": the profit you need becomes that day ÷ 0.55.

• No rounding. "55% is a hard line. It is not rounded, and there is no buffer." Topstep adds that "The old buffer was quiet padding on top of a 50% target", so guides quoting 50% are out of date.
• A day locks at 3:10 PM CT. "At 3:10 PM CT, that day's value locks into your trading history and cannot be changed." The trading day runs from 5:00 PM CT to 3:10 PM CT.
• Losses make it worse. A losing day lowers your profit and leaves your largest day where it was.
• The same day can't fix it. More profit in that session adds to the day and raises the target again; the rest has to come on a later trading day.
• Going over doesn't fail you. "Yes, but exceeding it increases your Profit Target and makes the Trading Combine harder to pass."

A Personal Daily Profit Target in TopstepX's Risk Settings can stop a day before it crosses your line. Topstep's own examples and the XFA's 40% rule are in Topstep consistency rule.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Consistency at Topstep, Trading Combine® Parameters.

Is there a minimum number of trading days?

No, but you need at least two. Asked about a one-day pass, Topstep answers no: "Big spike days don't build funded traders, consistency does. You can pass in as few as two days". One day would be 100% of your profit. Two days have to be fairly even: $1,500 and $1,500 on a 50K, or $1,650 and $1,350 right on the line.

There's no deadline either: "No time limit for passing." But "It Rebills every 30 days from your original sign-up date," and to skip the next charge "Your Dashboard must show you've passed before your Rebill date." With a rebill on the 5th, pass before trading ends on the 4th. "Subscriptions can't be paused or put on hold."

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Trading Combine® Parameters, Trading Combine Subscriptions.

Worked example: an invented 50K Combine, day by day

Five made-up days on a 50K Trading Combine, run through Topstep's published rules. For each close: where the Maximum Loss Limit sits, what share of the profit the largest day carries, and how much profit the Combine still needs.

The limit. Day 1's close trails it up to $48,650. Day 2's loss doesn't move it, and leaves $1,280 of room. Day 3's new high takes it to $49,910. Day 4 closes at $53,060, past $52,000, so the limit stops at the $50,000 start and stays there; by the end of day 5 the balance could fall $3,650 before touching it.

The target. Day 3 is the turn: $1,980 is $330 over the $1,650 line, so the target becomes $1,980 ÷ 0.55 = $3,600. Day 4 takes profit to $3,060, past $3,000, and the Combine still isn't passed, because $1,980 is 64.71% of it. Day 5's $590 brings profit to $3,650 and the share to 54.25%. Both objectives hold, and the Combine passes.

A $540 day 5 would have landed on exactly $3,600 and exactly 55.00%, the line Topstep's pages word two ways (below). The $590 clears it. With the optional $1,000 Daily Loss Limit added, nothing changes: no day lost that much.

On this 50K Combine the $3,000 target was reached on day 4, but the Combine passed on day 5: one $1,980 day had moved the finish line to $3,600.

Run it on your own numbers: Topstep consistency calculator, 50K Combine. It takes your daily P&L and shows the share, the raised target and the profit still needed. It doesn't follow the Maximum Loss Limit; the check in Topstep trailing drawdown does.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Consistency at Topstep, What is the Maximum Loss Limit?, Trading Combine® Parameters.

The Daily Loss Limit in the Combine

"The Daily Loss Limit (DLL) is optional in the Trading Combine® and Express Funded Account® (XFA)." You add it at checkout: $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 on a 50K, 100K or 150K. "Daily Loss Limit at checkout is fixed (no changes later)," and it carries into the XFA you earn.

When the day's net P&L, open trades included, reaches it, your positions are flattened and you can't trade until 5 PM CT. "Triggering it is not a rule violation," and the account "stays eligible for funding".

• When it's automatic. In Topstep's Responsible Trading Program, "All new Trading Combines® and XFAs automatically get a Daily Loss Limit".
• What adding it gets you. $10, $20 or $30 off each month of a No Activation Fee Combine and, for a limited time, doubled payout caps in the XFA you earn. Only a limit added when you buy the Combine counts: "Adding it at the XFA stage doesn't unlock the higher cap."
• When it stops helping. Once your room above the Maximum Loss Limit is no bigger than the daily limit, the Maximum Loss Limit comes first.

More, from the Personal Daily Loss Limit to the payout caps, is in Topstep daily loss limit.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Daily Loss Limit in the Trading Combine and Express Funded Account, What is the Responsible Trading Program?, Topstep Payout Policy, Topstep Pricing and Payment Questions.

How many contracts can you trade, and when?

The Maximum Position Size is what you hold open at one time, per account: 5, 10 or 15 minis, or 50, 100 or 150 micros. "Micros and minis count at a 10:1 ratio."

Tier 1 news windows. For 5 minutes either side of CPI, NFP, PPI, the FOMC rate decision and the FOMC press conference, a Combine can't open new minis in ES, NQ, RTY, YM, NKD, GC, SI, HG or PL. Micros of MES, MNQ, M2K, MYM and MGC are capped at 3, 6 or 9 by size, SIL and MHG at 2, 5 or 7. "Other products (energies, rates, FX, etc.) are unaffected." The windows on every clock are in Topstep news trading.

High-volatility caps. Topstep also caps some products all session, and calls the caps temporary. On 2026-10-22, for a 50K, 100K or 150K Combine:

Hours. "All positions must be closed by 3:10 PM CT every weekday." Avoid opening new positions after 3:08 PM CT, when Topstep's Risk Managers begin flattening; trading reopens at 5:00 PM CT, and on Sunday after a Friday close. Grains close at 1:20 PM CT and livestock at 1:05 PM CT, and you must be out before them. "No swing trading. No Forex."

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Trading Combine® Parameters, Risk Adjustments: High Risk/High Volatility, When and What Products Can I Trade?.

What can get a Combine reset or closed?

Beyond the Maximum Loss Limit, Topstep's conduct rules apply "at every level of the Topstep program", the Combine included:

• Full size into the news. "Purposefully trading your full Maximum Position Size directly into a scheduled major news event."
• Cross-account hedging, "simultaneously going long and short the same or correlated instrument across multiple accounts". Topstep's own example is long ES in an XFA and short ES in a Combine.
• Account stacking: "repeatedly hitting the Maximum Loss Limit in one account and switching to another to repeat high-risk attempts".
• Too many purchases. "Excessive purchases of Trading Combines or Resets".
• Gaming the simulator, such as hundreds of rapid trades for queue position.
• Identity. One Topstep profile for all your accounts, no VPNs, and no trading for others.

Topstep's responses run from a warning or a deleted trading day to an account Reset, a delayed or denied payout, and permanent closure. Patterns such as "Multiple accounts hit the Maximum Loss Limit in one day" can also put you in the Responsible Trading Program, where a Combine bought or Reset after you're placed in it leads only to the XFA's Consistency path.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Prohibited Trading Strategies at Topstep, Prohibited Conduct, Understanding Hedging, What is the Responsible Trading Program?, Trading Combine® Parameters.

What does the Topstep Combine cost?

You pick a path at purchase, and "Paths cannot be changed after purchase."

• Trading costs. "Commissions and fees are deducted automatically from your balance with each filled trade and show up in your Net P&L." On TopstepX a round turn costs $3.78 on ES or NQ and $1.22 on MES or MNQ.
• Data and tax. Level 1 data is included; Level 2 (depth of market) is $38 a month. Taxes are added at checkout.
• Size is final. "Account sizes can't be changed after purchase." Within 28 days and before any trade, Trader Support can review a refund.

Which path costs less depends on how many months or Resets you pay for before you pass. On a 50K each costs $49 on the Standard path, which adds $149 when you pass, and $95 on the No Activation Fee path:

By our arithmetic, before tax, the No Activation Fee 50K costs less through three and the Standard path from four. On a 100K the switch comes at three, on a 150K at five, and the Daily Loss Limit discount keeps a 50K No Activation Fee Combine cheaper through four billed months. Topstep's 14-day refund of one monthly payment on your first Combine is in Topstep activation fee. It's arithmetic, not a view on how many tries you'll need.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Topstep Pricing and Payment Questions, TopstepX™ Commissions and Fees, Trading Combine® Parameters, Express Funded Account™ Activation.

What happens if you hit the limit? Resets

A Reset starts the Combine over: "A Reset returns your Trading Combine® to its original starting balance," with the Maximum Loss Limit, the Consistency Target and the trading days back at day one.

• Price and limit. The same as a month on your path, at most "2 Resets per account per calendar day". A Reset moves your rebill date to 30 days after the purchase.
• Credits. "Every monthly Rebill adds 1 Reset Credit to your Reset Bank." A credit fits only the same size and type, and credits issued on or after December 11, 2025 expire after a year.
• Not for XFAs. "A Reset can only be used on active Trading Combine® subscriptions." A lost XFA has Back2Funded instead.
• Practice. An active Combine subscription can add a "free 150K simulated account", with free Resets, up to 10 a day.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: What is a Reset?, Reset Purchase Limits, Topstep Pricing and Payment Questions, Back2Funded, Practice Account.

What happens after you pass?

"The account closes and the subscription is canceled." Other Combines you hold keep rebilling until you cancel them.

1. Activate the XFA from your dashboard, choosing the Standard or Consistency payout path for good. It costs $149 on the Standard path and nothing on the No Activation Fee path.
2. No rush. A passed Combine stays in Passed status until you activate it.
3. Start from $0. "Profits don't transfer": the XFA's balance starts at $0, and on a 50K its Maximum Loss Limit at −$2,000.
4. Five at a time. "If you pass a Trading Combine® while at the limit, the new XFA goes on hold until one closes." A Live Funded Account blocks activation too.
5. Fridays. Pass on a Friday and the XFA opens at 5 PM CT on Sunday.

A Daily Loss Limit added to the Combine "stays with the account for its full lifetime". The XFA's rules are in Topstep XFA rules, its payouts in Topstep payout rules.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Trading Combine® Parameters, Trading Combine Subscriptions, Express Funded Account™ Activation, Express Funded Account™ Parameters, Back2Funded.

Topstep Labs Combines: static drawdowns, one-time fees

Topstep Labs sells three Combines with their own rules. Each has the same 55% Consistency Target: "Same as other Trading Combines."

A static limit never moves. In Topstep's 50K comparison, a $51,000 close after an intraday $52,000 peak leaves a standard Combine's limit at $49,000 with $2,000 of room, and the static one at $48,000 with $3,000. The Labs Combines are "now available for purchase any time", and "You can purchase up to 5 of each account per month!" Labs Challenges ($1.5K, $3K, $6K and variants) aren't Combines: no Consistency Target, and a fixed payout once.

Sources, checked 2026-10-22: Topstep Labs, Risk Adjustments: High Risk/High Volatility.

Where Topstep's pages disagree

1. At 55%, or under it? The consistency page says "at or below 55% of your Profit Target", and its own table says "Less than $1,650". The Combine parameters say "stay below 55% of your Profit Target", and the program overview "below 55% of total profits". By Topstep's formula a $1,650 day leaves the 50K target at $3,000. Stay a dollar under.
2. What goes up. The Combine parameters say a big day ends up "increasing your Consistency Target"; the consistency page says "your Profit Target increases". The arithmetic is the same.
3. When you can buy a Reset. What is a Reset? says "Reset your active Trading Combine subscription any time." The same page's how-to, and the pricing page for TopstepX, put it "once your Trading Combine breaches the Maximum Loss Limit".
4. How many Combines is too many? Reset Purchase Limits: "No limit on Trading Combine purchases". Prohibited Conduct lists "Excessive purchases of Trading Combines or Resets", with no number.
5. Labs: a limited drop or any time? The Labs page still opens with "Every drop is limited; when it's gone, it's gone," and now also says its Combines are "now available for purchase any time". Its $50K Static table gives a purchase limit of "5 per Trader"; the new line says 5 of each a month.

Not published

• The moment a Combine passes. Topstep asks you to "Reach and maintain your Profit Target" and says the status update can take up to 30 minutes, but not whether a target reached mid-session and lost by the close counts.
• Whether the profit target and the 55% share are counted after commissions. Commissions come off your balance and show in your Net P&L; neither Combine page says net or gross.
• An inactivity rule for a standard Combine. The $50K Static Combine closes after 30 days without a trade and an XFA may; Topstep says nothing for a subscription Combine, which keeps rebilling.
• How many purchases count as "Excessive purchases of Trading Combines or Resets".
• When the limited-time offer ends that doubles XFA payout caps for a Daily Loss Limit added at Combine checkout.

Where we sit

We don't run a prop firm, we're not affiliated with Topstep, and we earn nothing if you buy from Topstep. We sell the Prop Firm Challenge Toolkit, a TradingView indicator that turns rule numbers you type into dollar buffers on your chart: the room to the Maximum Loss Limit, to an optional daily limit and to the profit target. Its Topstep Combine preset dates from May 2026 and doesn't match today's rules: it has no daily limit, no profit target, a 4% loss limit on every size, a 50% consistency setting where Topstep uses 55%, and a reset at 17:00 New York time, an hour before Topstep's 5 PM CT. Use Custom. For a 50K Combine:

Where it differs from Topstep, plainly. It doesn't read Topstep's dashboard: you type the balance in, and the high it trails is the balance you type, so below an earlier high its floor sits under Topstep's and shows more room than you have. Read the real limit off your dashboard. It takes the daily limit as a percentage of the day's starting balance, so on a $51,000 morning 2% is $1,020, not Topstep's fixed $1,000. It can't see losses you've already closed today: keep Current balance at the session's starting balance and put the day's running P&L, closed and open, in Open floating P/L. On 100K and 150K the loss limit is 3%. It has no working consistency check (the largest day it records is always $0, so the row reads 0% when you turn it on), so it can't tell you whether a big day raised your target; run your days through the Topstep consistency calculator. Its Days traded count stays at 0, so any Min trading days above 0 blocks its PASSED status. Its news list stops at June 2026, and it knows nothing of Topstep's news contract limits, contract caps, fees or Resets.

Sources and their last edits

Each page was read on 2026-10-22. Dates are the help center's own last-edit stamps (UTC).

• Trading Combine® Parameters: last edited 2026-09-24.
• Consistency at Topstep: last edited 2026-09-17.
• What is the Maximum Loss Limit?: last edited 2026-09-18.
• Daily Loss Limit in the Trading Combine and Express Funded Account: last edited 2026-06-30.
• Topstep Program Overview: last edited 2026-09-10.
• Trading Combine Subscriptions: last edited 2026-10-12.
• What is a Reset?: last edited 2026-09-25.
• Reset Purchase Limits: last edited 2026-06-18.
• Practice Account: last edited 2026-07-28.
• When and What Products Can I Trade?: last edited 2026-07-13.
• Risk Adjustments: High Risk/High Volatility: last edited 2026-10-21.
• Prohibited Trading Strategies at Topstep: last edited 2026-06-10.
• Prohibited Conduct: last edited 2026-09-30.
• Understanding Hedging: last edited 2026-07-27.
• What is the Responsible Trading Program?: last edited 2026-10-15.
• Topstep Pricing and Payment Questions: last edited 2026-10-15.
• TopstepX™ Commissions and Fees: last edited 2026-09-30.
• Topstep Payout Policy: last edited 2026-10-13.
• Express Funded Account™ Activation: last edited 2026-09-24.
• Express Funded Account™ Parameters: last edited 2026-08-05.
• Back2Funded: last edited 2026-09-29.
• Topstep Labs: last edited 2026-10-20.

Disclosure

The five days above are invented and use Topstep's published rules, and the path costs are our arithmetic on Topstep's prices. None of it is advice or a forecast, and none of it says whether a Topstep account is worth buying. Your Topstep dashboard decides whether you pass, not this page. If a rule here no longer matches Topstep's pages, email support@pulltrade.app and we'll correct it in public.

Frequently asked questions

What are the Topstep evaluation rules?

Topstep's evaluation is the Trading Combine, sold in 50K, 100K and 150K sizes. Its one rule: never let your balance, open trades included, touch the Maximum Loss Limit of $2,000, $3,000 or $4,500, which trails your end-of-day balance and locks at your starting balance. Its two objectives: reach the $3,000, $6,000 or $9,000 profit target, and keep your largest day at or under 55% of it.

What are the rules for a Topstep 50K Combine?

Make $3,000 without the balance touching the Maximum Loss Limit, which starts at $48,000, trails $2,000 under your highest end-of-day balance and locks at $50,000 once a close reaches $52,000. Keep your largest day at or under $1,650, or the target rises to that day ÷ 0.55. Hold at most 5 minis or 50 micros, and be flat by 3:10 PM CT every weekday.

What is the Topstep profit target for 50K, 100K and 150K?

$3,000 on a 50K Trading Combine, $6,000 on a 100K and $9,000 on a 150K. A day of more than 55% of it ($1,650, $3,300 or $4,950) raises the target to that day ÷ 0.55, so a $1,980 day on a 50K makes it $3,600. Topstep Labs Combines have their own targets: $2,000 on the $25K Static, $4,000 on the $50K Static and $15,000 on the $250K Freedom.

How many days does it take to pass the Topstep Combine?

Topstep sets no minimum number of trading days and no time limit while your subscription runs. The 55% rule makes a one-day pass impossible, since a single day is 100% of your profit, and Topstep says you can pass in as few as two days. Those two days would have to be close to even, such as $1,500 and $1,500 on a 50K.

Is there a consistency rule in the Topstep Combine?

Yes, the Consistency Target: your largest single day must stay at or below 55% of the profit target, with no rounding and no buffer. Going over doesn't fail the Combine; it raises the target to that day ÷ 0.55, and the extra profit has to come on later trading days. A losing day lowers your total but never resets your largest day.

How much does the Topstep Combine cost?

On the Standard path, $49, $99 or $199 a month for 50K, 100K or 150K, plus a $149 activation fee for each Express Funded Account you earn. On the No Activation Fee path, $95, $149 or $229 a month and nothing when you pass, less $10, $20 or $30 a month if you add a Daily Loss Limit at purchase. A Reset costs the same as a month on your path, and taxes are added at checkout.

What happens after you pass the Topstep Combine?

The Combine closes and its subscription is canceled; the status can take up to 30 minutes to show. You activate an Express Funded Account from your dashboard, choose the Standard or Consistency payout path for good, and pay $149 on the Standard path or nothing on the No Activation Fee path. Combine profit doesn't carry over: the XFA starts at $0.