Topstep Trailing Drawdown: How the Maximum Loss Limit Trails and Locks

Topstep's trailing drawdown is the Maximum Loss Limit: $2,000, $3,000 or $4,500 under your highest end-of-day balance on a 50K, 100K or 150K account. It trails your end-of-day closes, never moves down, and locks for good once it reaches your starting balance: $50,000 on a 50K Trading Combine, $0 on an Express Funded Account. Open losses count against it in real time. The Daily Loss Limit is a separate line, optional and soft.

How does Topstep's trailing drawdown work?

Topstep calls it the Maximum Loss Limit (MLL), "the lowest point your account balance is allowed to reach." Its own summary is short: "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."

Topstep prints the limits for all three sizes and walks through the 50K accounts; the other rows follow from its rule. In its Combine example, a $500 day takes a 50K account to $50,500 and the limit to $48,500, and a $500 loss the next day brings the balance back to $50,000, "but MLL stays at $48,500." On an Express Funded Account (XFA) the size "refers to your buying power, not your starting balance," so the account starts at $0 and the limit below it.

Topstep won't move it for anyone: "The MLL cannot be adjusted or changed. Topstep makes no exceptions."

Sources, checked 2026-10-18: What is the Maximum Loss Limit?, Express Funded Account™ Parameters

Check where your Maximum Loss Limit is

CombineXFA

50K100K150K

Daily Loss Limit on ($1,000)limit $2,000 · starts at $50,000

Every closed trading day since the start (or your last Reset)

Day 1Day 2Day 3Day 4Day 5Day 6

Add a dayRemove the last day

Net P&L per day, after commissions; a minus sign for a losing day. Balance now: $50,800.

Locked at $50,000

Day 4's $52,200 close reached $52,000, so the limit locked at your $50,000 starting balance, where it stays. Room now: $800, the most the balance can fall, open P&L included, before it touches the limit.

Day by day

Day	P&L	Close	Limit after	Room
Day 1	+$700	$50,700	$48,700	$2,000
Day 2	+$800	$51,500	$49,500	$2,000
Day 3	−$600	$50,900	$49,500	$1,400
Day 4	+$1,300	$52,200	$50,000 (this close locks it)	$2,200
Day 5	−$900	$51,300	$50,000	$1,300
Day 6	−$500	$50,800	$50,000	$800

In green: the close that locked the limit.

Starts on our invented week on a 50K Trading Combine. The rules are Topstep's, read on 2026-10-18. The check sees closes only: a dip that touches the limit during the day, open P&L included, fails the account even if the day closes above it, and a fill can slip past the line. It doesn't cover the Live Funded Account, Topstep Labs drops or payouts (after an XFA's first payout the limit is $0 for good). Your Topstep dashboard is the source of truth.

It opens on an invented week and a day on a 50K Combine: +$700, +$800, −$600, +$1,300, −$900 and −$500. The limit trails to $48,700, then $49,500, and holds there through Day 3's loss. Day 4 closes at $52,200, past $52,000, and the limit locks at $50,000. Two red days later the balance is $50,800 with $800 of room.

Now tick the Daily Loss Limit box. The next session's soft line would sit at $49,800, under the locked limit, so a drop of $800 fails the Combine before the $1,000 Daily Loss Limit could stop you. Switch to XFA and the same invented days lock the limit at $0 on Day 4's $2,200 close.

Is Topstep's drawdown end of day or intraday?

End of day for where the line sits; real time for whether you've hit 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."

Topstep's clearest example is in its Labs article, which compares the standard limit with a static one. A trader on a 50K account with a $2,000 limit "earns $2,000 in profit (balance hits $52,000), then loses $1,000 (balance ends at $51,000)." On a standard Combine the limit "trails the end-of-day closing balance, not intraday peaks," so it moves to $49,000 and the next day starts with $2,000 of room. Topstep doesn't say so, but we read that $49,000 as meaning the $52,000 was a peak during the day: a close there would have taken the limit to $50,000 and locked it. An older rules page on topstep.com, last updated June 26, 2025, put it the same way for the XFA: the limit "is based on your highest end-of-day balance and does not go down if you lose money the next day."

The second half is strict. In Topstep's own case the limit is $48,000, an open trade drops the balance to $47,750, liquidation fires, and the exit fills at $48,050. "Final balance above the limit doesn't matter. The breach happened first." Slippage works against you too: it "can push your account past your Maximum Loss Limit faster than you expect."

The day itself runs from 5:00 PM CT to 3:10 PM CT, and positions must be flat by the close:

The conversions are ours. London runs an hour earlier than the table in the few weeks a year when only one country has changed its clocks: this fall from October 25 to November 1, 2026. Topstep doesn't say at which minute it reads the end-of-day balance that moves the limit.

Sources, checked 2026-10-18: What is the Maximum Loss Limit?, Topstep Labs, Order Types, Fills, and Slippage, When and What Products Can I Trade?, Trading Combine® Parameters

When does Topstep's drawdown stop trailing?

When it reaches your starting balance; from then on it's a fixed floor. On a 50K Combine that takes a close of $52,000, and the limit then sits at $50,000 whatever happens next. On a 50K XFA, "Once your balance reaches $2,000, the MLL locks at $0 permanently. From that point on, your balance can never fall below $0." Topstep's example: +$500 on day 1 leaves the limit at −$1,500, and +$1,500 on day 2 takes the balance to $2,000 and locks it.

Three events move it without a close:

• A payout, on an XFA. "After your first Payout: Your MLL is set to $0 regardless of where it was before. The remaining balance becomes your effective loss floor." Topstep's example is a $10,000 balance and a $5,000 payout, which leaves $5,000 above a $0 limit. It recommends "reaching a balance where your MLL is at $0 first." Our Topstep payout rules page shows what a first payout costs in room.
• A Reset, on a Combine. It returns the account to day one, limit included; Topstep allows at most 2 Resets per account each day. A Combine that touched its limit stays "ineligible for funding" until you Reset it.
• Back2Funded, on an XFA. A reactivated XFA "restarts completely": the balance is $0 again and the limit is back at −$2,000, −$3,000 or −$4,500. It's open to an XFA lost before its first payout, up to 2 times, within 30 calendar days, for a fee, but not to traders on the Focused Trader Plan.

Sources, checked 2026-10-18: What is the Maximum Loss Limit?, Topstep Payout Policy, What is a Reset?, Back2Funded

The Maximum Loss Limit on the Combine, the XFA and Live

Static exceptions. A few Topstep Labs drops don't trail. The $50K Static Drawdown Trading Combine, launched in October 2026, has a $2,000 limit Topstep labels "static, non-trailing," a $4,000 target and a mandatory $1,000 Daily Loss Limit, for $149 one time. In Topstep's comparison the same $51,000 close leaves the static limit at $48,000 and $3,000 of room, against $49,000 and $2,000 on the trailing one. The $25K version has a $1,000 static limit; the $250K Freedom Funded Combine lists a "$10,000 Trailing End of Day" one. "Every drop is limited; when it's gone, it's gone." How the two kinds compare at any firm is in our trailing vs static drawdown explainer.

Sources, checked 2026-10-18: What is the Maximum Loss Limit?, What is a Pro Account?, Topstep Program Overview, Live Funded Account Parameters, Topstep Labs

Topstep's Daily Loss Limit next to the Maximum Loss Limit

The Daily Loss Limit (DLL) is the soft line. It's optional on the Combine and the XFA and "automatic in the Live Funded Account." When the day's net P&L, open and closed, reaches it between 5 PM CT and 3:10 PM CT, positions are flattened, orders are canceled, and you can't trade until 5 PM CT. "Triggering it is not a rule violation."

• Added at checkout, it stays. "Daily Loss Limit at checkout is fixed (no changes later)," and it "stays with the account for its full lifetime," from the Combine into the XFA.
• Live tightens it. A tradable balance at or below $10,000 drops it to $2,000, and at or below $5,000 to $1,000. When that happens is worded two ways (see below).
• Your own limits. A Personal Daily Loss Limit set in Risk Settings can be adjusted or removed, with two exceptions: one set to Liquidate and Block "can't be removed," and Lock Out Settings for the Day "freezes all settings for the rest of the session." Its trailing version can follow open profit if you pick Unrealized Gains, which "adjusts in real time with open trades." The Maximum Loss Limit trails closes, not open profit.

The DLL sits a fixed amount under each session's start; the MLL sits wherever the last close left it. While the room above the MLL is bigger than the DLL, a bad day ends at the soft line. In the check's invented week, Day 6 leaves $800 of room on a 50K account whose DLL is $1,000.

Once your room is smaller than your Daily Loss Limit, the soft limit can't protect the account: the Maximum Loss Limit comes first.

Sources, checked 2026-10-18: Daily Loss Limit in the Trading Combine and Express Funded Account, Live Funded Account Parameters, Back2Funded, Dynamic Live Risk Expansion

Where do Topstep's own pages disagree?

1. Live's floor: $1,000 or $0? topstep.com's Live Funded Account Rules, last updated July 1, 2026: "Currently, your Maximum Loss Limit is $1,000. For the remainder of your Live Funded Account, you will need to make sure your account balance stays above $1,000 (positive)." The help center's Program Overview gives Live a $0 floor instead ("reach or go below $0"), its Live page says an account under $1,000 "may be immediately liquidated," and the Maximum Loss Limit article's Live section only says "refer here," linking to a search.
2. When flattening starts. The hours page: "Avoid opening new positions after 3:08 PM CT," when "Risk Managers begin flattening." The Live rules page: Topstep flattens "about ten seconds before the trading session ends (3:10 PM CT)." Topstep doesn't say whether the two differ by account.
3. When a lower Live limit applies. The Live page and the Dynamic Live Risk Expansion page both say the lower Daily Loss Limits "update on Fridays." The same Dynamic Live Risk Expansion page's example drops a 100K account whose end-of-day balance goes below $10,000 from $3,000 to $2,000 "before the start of the next trading session," and back to $3,000 "after the market closes on Friday."

Not published

• The minute Topstep reads the end-of-day balance. The limit "updates at the end of each trading day"; the trading day ends at 3:10 PM CT, while for payouts "A day locks in at 4:00 PM CT."
• Whether Live's limit stays at $1,000; Topstep says "currently."
• A Pro Account's limit in dollars. It "mirrors" the XFA's, but a Pro Account starts with what its XFAs transfer, up to $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000, not at $0.
• Whether the $250K Freedom Funded XFA's $10,000 limit trails; its Combine row says "Trailing End of Day," its XFA row only "$10,000".
• The Combine's lock points for 100K and 150K. They follow from the rule (our table), but Topstep's examples use the 50K.

Other firms trail and lock in their own ways: see Lucid Trading's drawdown, and every firm we cover on the prop firm rules hub.

Sources and their last edits

Each page was read on 2026-10-18. Dates are the pages' own last-edit stamps (UTC for the help center).

• What is the Maximum Loss Limit?, 2026-09-18; Topstep Labs, 2026-10-15; Order Types, Fills, and Slippage, 2026-09-16.
• Daily Loss Limit in the Trading Combine and Express Funded Account, 2026-06-30; Back2Funded, 2026-09-29; What is a Reset?, 2026-09-25.
• Trading Combine® Parameters, 2026-09-24; Express Funded Account™ Parameters, 2026-08-05; Live Funded Account Parameters, 2026-10-01; Dynamic Live Risk Expansion, 2026-09-24; What is a Pro Account?, 2026-09-11.
• Topstep Program Overview, 2026-09-10; Topstep Payout Policy, 2026-10-13; When and What Products Can I Trade?, 2026-07-13.
• On topstep.com: Express Funded Account trading rules, 2025-06-26 ("Last updated" on the page); Live Funded Account Rules, 2026-07-01 ("Last updated" on the page).

Disclosure

The check and the worked example use invented days and Topstep's published rules. Neither is a forecast, and neither says whether a Topstep account is worth buying. Your Topstep dashboard shows your real limit, not this page. If a number here no longer matches Topstep's pages, email support@pulltrade.app and we'll correct it in public.

Frequently asked questions

Is Topstep's drawdown trailing or static?

Trailing, end of day, on the standard Trading Combine and Express Funded Account: the Maximum Loss Limit rises with your highest end-of-day balance, never moves down, and locks at your starting balance. It's $2,000, $3,000 or $4,500 on a 50K, 100K or 150K account. Some limited Topstep Labs drops, such as the $50K Static Drawdown Trading Combine, use a static limit instead.

When does Topstep's trailing drawdown stop trailing?

When it reaches your starting balance. That takes an end-of-day balance of the start plus the limit: $52,000 on a 50K Trading Combine, which locks it at $50,000, or $2,000 on a 50K Express Funded Account, which locks it at $0. On an Express Funded Account the first payout also sets it to $0, wherever it was.

Is Topstep's Maximum Loss Limit end of day or intraday?

Both, in different ways. Closes set where it sits: Topstep says it trails the end-of-day closing balance, not intraday peaks. But it's monitored in real time, realized and unrealized P&L included, so an open loss that touches it liquidates the account even if the exit fills back above it.

What is the Topstep daily loss limit?

An optional, soft limit on the Trading Combine and the Express Funded Account: $1,000, $2,000 or $3,000 on 50K, 100K or 150K, on the day's net P&L from 5 PM CT. Hitting it flattens your positions until 5 PM CT, and Topstep says it isn't a rule violation. Live Funded Accounts always have one: $2,000, $3,000 or $4,500.

What happens if you hit the Maximum Loss Limit on Topstep?

On a Trading Combine the account is liquidated for the rest of the day and is ineligible for funding until you Reset it. On an Express Funded Account it's closed for good; Back2Funded can reactivate one lost before its first payout, up to 2 times and within 30 calendar days, for a fee, with the limit back at its starting value. Traders on the Focused Trader Plan can't use Back2Funded.

Does the Topstep Live Funded Account have a trailing drawdown?

Not a trailing one. topstep.com's Live rules say 'Currently, your Maximum Loss Limit is $1,000' and the balance must stay above $1,000. The help center's overview gives a $0 floor, and its Live page says an account under $1,000 may be liquidated and closed, with the rest paid out. Live accounts have a Daily Loss Limit, which drops at lower balances.

What time does Topstep's trading day end?

At 3:10 PM CT, which is 4:10 PM ET: 20:10 UTC while the US is on daylight time, 21:10 UTC in winter, and 9:10 PM in London for most of the year. Positions must be flat by then; Topstep's risk managers begin flattening at 3:08 PM CT, and the next trading day opens at 5:00 PM CT.