Topstep review

The oldest futures prop firm still operating, with an NFA-registered introducing broker affiliate, a regulated FCM partner in Plus500US, and a published all-time payout figure of $1.4 billion. It is also the firm that lists buying too many of its own evaluations as prohibited conduct, and the one that produces a reality show about trading.

Last verified 6 August 2026 · how we check

Topstep has been funding futures traders for fifteen years, which in this sector is close to geological time. Most of its competitors did not exist in 2021, let alone 2011. Its homepage claims $1.4 billion paid out all time, 7,000 traders paid weekly and traders in 140 countries.

Two structural facts back that up, and both are checkable. Topstep Brokerage LLC, an affiliate, is registered with the CFTC as an introducing broker and is a member of the National Futures Association, NFA ID 0567079. Orders route through a Futures Commission Merchant, Plus500US Financial Services LLC, NFA ID 0001398, which is a regulated FCM rather than an offshore entity.

That is a real chain of accountability. Almost nothing else in prop trading has one.

The rule that argues against its own revenue

Topstep publishes a list of prohibited conduct. Among the entries is this:

Excessive purchases of Trading Combines® or Resets

Read that again with the business model in mind. A prop firm makes money selling evaluations. The trader who buys twenty in a month, fails them, and buys twenty more is the most profitable customer the industry has. Topstep classifies that behaviour as prohibited conduct.

It goes further. If you are “exhibiting behaviors that aren’t sustainable in the Live markets,” the firm says it may place you in its Responsible Trading Program, which is not something you opt into. And it pays you to self-limit: adding a voluntary Daily Loss Limit unlocks doubled payout caps across account sizes and a standing discount on Combines.

A daily loss limit that the trader chooses, rewarded with better payout terms, is a gambling-industry control applied to a trading product, and Topstep is the only firm in this sector we have found that runs one. Whether it works is a separate question. That it exists at all is the single most unusual thing on the site.

What you are buying

The Trading Combine is the evaluation. Pass it and you move to a funded account, either Express Funded or Live Funded, each with its own published rule set. The split runs up to 90% to the trader.

Instruments are limited to futures on CME, COMEX, NYMEX and CBOT. Stocks, options, forex, spot crypto and CFDs are not available in the program at all. That narrowness is deliberate and it is worth knowing before you sign up expecting to trade anything else.

Platforms centre on TopstepX, the firm’s own. Payouts are advertised as instant.

The other half of the company is a television studio

Topstep runs TopstepTV on YouTube with 220,000 subscribers, a Discord of 174,000, a subreddit, and a reality format called Trader House: “Four traders. One house. Zero filter.” The site describes its own output as “Certified Tradertainment.” There is also Topstep Octagon, a competitive format.

None of this is hidden and none of it is unusual for a modern consumer brand. It sits oddly beside the Responsible Trading Program, and both come from the same company. A firm that treats overtrading as prohibited conduct is also producing entertainment designed to make trading look like a lifestyle.

Neither cancels the other. It is worth seeing both before you decide which one you are buying into.

The numbers, and what stands behind them

The pattern here is the reverse of most firms we have reviewed. The claims that matter most for safety are the ones you can check independently, and the unverifiable ones are marketing totals rather than promises about your money.

What to know before paying

Topstep Brokerage discloses that it receives compensation from Plus500US in connection with brokerage accounts. That is a normal introducing-broker arrangement and it is disclosed properly. It also means the firm has a financial interest in moving you from the prop program to a live brokerage account, which is the same funnel other firms run, with the difference that this one ends at a CFTC-regulated FCM rather than an offshore licence.

Card funding at the brokerage carries a 1% processing fee on both deposits and withdrawals.

What we did not establish

The registrations above are quoted from Topstep’s own disclosures. Confirm them at NFA BASIC using IDs 0567079 and 0001398, which will also show status and any disciplinary history.

The payout total, the weekly paid-trader count and the country figure are company figures with no external attestation. Topstep does not publish a pass rate for the Trading Combine.

Verdict: caution

The caution label here is the weakest we have applied. Topstep is the most institutionally serious operator we have reviewed: registered affiliate, regulated clearing partner, published rule sets, a fifteen-year record, and a set of policies that actively discourage the churn its own revenue depends on.

What keeps it from a clean rating is the same thing that applies across the sector. The prop program itself is not regulated, the headline numbers are self-reported, and no pass rate is published, so the odds of the product you are buying are undisclosed. The two firms that do publish one are in our writeup on prop firm pass rates. Topstep also markets aggressively to an audience for whom trading is entertainment, then runs a programme to correct the behaviour that marketing produces.

If you are going to buy an evaluation from anyone, the checkable parts of this one are the strongest we have found. Verify the two NFA IDs yourself, read the Express and Live funded rules before you pay, and take the daily loss limit even though it is optional.

Sources

• Topstep — homepage and program pages
• Topstep — Responsible Trading Program
• Topstep Brokerage — disclosures and FCM partner
• Topstep — prohibited conduct
• NFA BASIC — background affiliation status search