How to Pass Topstep: Two Days, a 55% Target, Then Don't Donate the Payout

How to pass Topstep starts with a one-step Trading Combine, then Express Funded. The Combine looks simple: hit the profit target, stay inside the maximum loss limit, take at least two days, and keep the best day below 55% of that profit target. Most Combine deaths are not “bad reads.” They are one oversized day, or five 20-point NQ stops on size the cap allowed but the math did not.

The loss limit trails the end-of-day balance and never moves down, but Topstep watches it in real time, including an open trade. A dip through the line liquidates the account even if the day would have recovered.

Then you pass, and the funded rule changes the game. On a 50K Express Funded Account the balance starts at $0 and the limit starts at −$2,000. It locks at $0 once the balance reaches $2,000, and a payout sets it to $0 even if you have not reached that yet. Remaining capital is the most you can lose. That is the trap that turns a passed Combine into a round-trip.

Numbers below are from our Topstep catalog. Verify on topstep.com. Account pages: Topstep guides.

Combine numbers

Standard Combine and No-Activation-Fee Combine share the same rules. You are paying a different checkout, not a different test.

90% split. News is listed as allowed — news-event exploitation is prohibited. VPN / proxy / TOR are not permitted. Two resets per account per calendar day. Express Funded inactivity: one trade every 30 days. 2% price-limit rule. Copy trading only inside the same environment (Combine ↔ Express Funded; not onto Live Funded).

After you pass, pick a path.

• Standard Path: no funded consistency rule. First payout needs 5 winning days of $150+ and profit > $0 since the last payout. Request 50% of balance up to $2,000 / $3,000 / $5,000 (higher with the DLL option).
• Consistency Path: 40% funded consistency. First payout needs 3 days that meet that rule. Caps $3,000 / $4,000 / $6,000 (higher with DLL).

Minimum payout $125. Scaling plan applies in Express Funded — the Combine cap is not automatically the funded cap.

How to pass Topstep: the Combine math

The Consistency Target plus a 2-day minimum means you cannot pass Topstep in one trade, even if the trade is perfect. Topstep's parameters page, read September 30, 2026, says the best day should stay below 55% of the profit target. On a 50K that is $1,650. A $3,000 Monday is not a pass. It raises the Consistency Target, and the help page does not publish the new number, so you cannot count on "just make more until the day is half." You also have to get through another day without giving the gain back into a floor that has already climbed.

So the high-odds shape is the opposite of a hero fill:

• Many days under $1,650 on a 50K ($3,300 on a 100K, $4,950 on a 150K).
• Size that leaves double-digit stops inside the $2,000 (50K) or $3,000 (100K).

Path A — micros, tickets, two-week grind

50K example:

• 4 MNQ × 15-point stop = $120. 16 attempts inside $2,000.
• 10 MNQ × 15 points = $300. 6 attempts.
• 2 NQ minis × 15 points = $600. 3 attempts.
• 5 NQ minis × 15 points = $1,500. You are one loser from a conversation with the reset button.

Ticket the target: six $500 days. The biggest day stays under $1,650. The Consistency Target stays put. The two-day minimum is easily cleared.

Path B — one good mini entry

A 25-point NQ winner on 1 mini is $500 — a perfect Combine ticket, not a Combine finish. A 25-point winner on 5 minis is $2,500. That day is already above 55% of the $3,000 profit target, so the Consistency Target increases. Diluting it until the day is half your total is the old test. It is not the one on the parameters page.

Use 1 mini only after a micro buffer, with the same dollar stop you used on MNQ. If 4 MNQ risked $120, then 1 NQ mini gets a 6-point stop, not a 20-point “room.” Same dollars. If you cannot live with a 6-point NQ stop, you are not ready for the mini. Stay on micros.

Creative ways that are actually Topstep-shaped

1. Plan the second day on day one. If you are +$1,400 on Monday, Tuesday is not “hunt $1,600.” Tuesday is “print $200–$600 and go home.” The Combine is already mostly done. Trailing drawdown is now the enemy, not the target.

2. Pick the funded path before you pass. If you hate 5 × $150 days, Consistency Path’s 3-day / 40% rule may fit. If you print lumpy days, Standard Path’s 5 × $150 is easier than 40%. Do not mix the two after you are funded.

3. First payout is a withdrawal, not a trophy. After it clears, MLL = $0. A $2,000 first payout on a 50K that only has $2,100 left above the floor is how Express Funded accounts vanish on the next red morning. Take a small first payout, leave cushion, or stop trading for the day the payout posts until you re-read the floor.

4. $150 winning days are a Standard Path product. If that is your path, your Combine days can already look like $150–$400 tickets. You are practicing the funded rule while you pass.

5. No VPN, no sim-fill games. Topstep publishes a sim-fill article for a reason. Sub-second scalps that only exist in sim get profits rejected.

6. Price-limit sit-out. Same 2% rule as other CME shops. If the product is at the rail, you are flat.

7. Two resets a day is not a strategy. A reset is a fee. If you need two, the size is wrong.

Worked 50K Combine

• Size: 4–8 MNQ. Stop $100–$160.
• Day stop: two losses or +$600 (well under the $1,650 Consistency Target on a 50K).
• Pass shape: 5–8 days, never one $2,000 print.
• After pass (Standard): five days of $150+, then request less than half of what you could, so MLL = $0 does not equal “one more trade and it’s gone.”

Copy-paste playbook

FIRM: Topstep
ACCOUNT: Trading Combine 50K (100K/150K: scale tickets, not ego)
TARGET: $3,000
MAX LOSS: $2,000, trails the close, watched live including open trades
CONSISTENCY: best day below 55% of the profit target ($1,650 on a 50K)
MIN DAYS: 2
CAP: 5 minis OR 50 micros

SIZE
- Default: 4–8 MNQ. Dollar stop $100–$160.
- After +$500: one A+ can be 1 NQ mini with the SAME dollar stop (small NQ stop).
- Never 5 minis on the Combine.

DAY
- One window.
- Stop: two losses OR +$600.
- If already +$1,200 for the Combine: next day is a small green ticket, not a hunt.

FUNDED PATH (pick one before you pass)
- Standard: 5 days at $150+, no funded consistency. First payout small — MLL goes to $0 after payout.
- Consistency: 40% funded cap, 3 qualifying days.

ALWAYS
- No VPN. No news straddles. No price-limit trades.
- One Express Funded trade every 30 days.
- Combine cap ≠ scaling-plan cap. Re-read scaling after you pass.

Start the 3-day trial for $14.07 and run it on the Combine chart you already have open: https://mytradingbuddy.ai/pricing

Related reading

• Topstep account pages
• How to pass Lucid Trading
• How to pass a prop firm challenge: it's process, not edge
• Why traders fail evaluations on execution, not analysis

Nothing here is financial advice. Topstep's live help center wins if it disagrees with this page. Passing the Combine does not guarantee Express Funded payouts.