Topstep is one of the oldest and most popular futures prop firms, and its rules look simple until you reach the part that fails most accounts: the trailing drawdown. Here is how the Combine, the Maximum Loss Limit, the consistency rule and the Express Funded payouts actually work. The figures below are for the standard accounts in 2026, so confirm the current numbers on Topstep's own site before you buy, because parameters and promotions change.
Account sizes and targets
The Trading Combine comes in three sizes. The profit target and Maximum Loss Limit scale with each:
- 50K: $3,000 profit target, $2,000 Maximum Loss Limit, up to 5 minis.
- 100K: $6,000 target, $3,000 loss limit, up to 10 minis.
- 150K: $9,000 target, $4,500 loss limit, up to 15 minis.
There is no time limit on the Combine. You can pass in as few as two trading days once you hit and hold the target without touching the loss limit.
How the Maximum Loss Limit really works
This is the rule most guides get wrong, because Topstep splits it into two separate mechanics:
- How it rises: the Maximum Loss Limit trails your end-of-day balance only. Unrealized intraday profit does not push it up. It moves up when your closing balance makes a new high, and it never moves down.
- How you breach it: the limit is enforced in real time, including open profit and loss. If your live equity touches the limit at any point during the session, the account is liquidated immediately.
Once the limit trails up to your starting balance, it locks permanently. On a 50K Combine that starts at $48,000, the limit reaches $50,000 once your end-of-day balance hits $52,000, and from then on you can never close below break-even. After your first payout on a funded account, the limit resets to $0 for good.
Daily Loss Limit
The Daily Loss Limit is optional in the Combine and the Express Funded Account, and automatic on a Live Funded Account: $1,000 on 50K, $2,000 on 100K, $3,000 on 150K. Hitting it flattens your positions and stops you for the session, but it is not a rule violation. It is a forced break, not a fail.
The consistency rule (there are two)
Do not confuse the two consistency checks:
- Combine: 50%. Your best single day should stay under 50% of the profit target. Go over and Topstep raises your target rather than failing you.
- Express Funded (consistency payout path): 40%. Your largest winning day must be 40% or less of total net profit to be payout-eligible.
Getting paid
Your Express Funded Account starts at $0 and grows from profit. You pick a payout path at activation. The standard path needs 5 winning days of $150 or more in net profit. The consistency path needs 3 traded days while staying under 40%. The profit split is 90/10 in your favour, the minimum payout is $125, and the Maximum Loss Limit resets to $0 after each payout. Traders who joined the new Topstep dashboard before January 2026 keep 100% of their first $10,000 in lifetime profit before the split applies.
Where Topstep accounts really fail
Very few traders fail Topstep on the profit target. They fail by touching the Maximum Loss Limit on unrealized profit after a strong day, or by letting one oversized day trip the consistency rule and quietly raise their target. Both are drawdown-management problems, and both are invisible if you are staring at a chart instead of your risk line.
That is the gap a real-time futures prop firm dashboard closes. DeckLive reads your Topstep account live, calculates the trailing limit tick by tick the way Topstep enforces it, and alerts you before you reach it, so the rule that fails most traders becomes a number you can see and trade around.