Topstep

Correction: Topstep states no minimum trading days; we published a 0 the firm never said

We published "0 minimum days" for Topstep's Trading Combine. The current Combine parameters, read first-hand today, state no minimum-trading-days figure at all. That 0 was our inference, not the firm's statement, and the difference matters: "we checked and there is no rule" and "we could not establish it" are not the same claim. The field becomes not stated. What Topstep does say, in its own words, is different and more useful: "You can pass in as few as two days, but keep your best day below 55% of your Profit Target." The firm itself describes two days as the practical floor for passing, and ties it to the 55% consistency rule we corrected yesterday. Anyone planning around a 0 would be counting on a single-day route that Topstep's page does not describe. We are also adding a first-payout route we did not carry. On activating the Express Funded Account you choose a path: "When you activate your XFA, you choose Standard or Consistency as your Payout path." The Consistency path requires "A minimum of 3 trading days with at least 1 trade per day" and that "Your Consistency % must be 40% or below to be Payout eligible". It is an alternative to the Standard path's five winning days of $150+, and on a small account it can arrive considerably sooner. The consistency article carries an "Updated yesterday" stamp and the Combine parameters "Updated this week", consistent with the 50%-to-55% change we logged yesterday. The per-size profit targets were not re-served on that page today and are kept un-re-verified.

Correction: Topstep's Express Funded payouts are capped after all; we published that they were not

Our Topstep payout record carried the cap field as uncapped. Topstep's own payout policy, read first-hand today, says otherwise: "Max Payout per request: 50% of your account balance up to the cap below." The caps run by account size and by payout path. On the Express Funded Account, Standard path: $50K "$2,000", $100K "$3,000", $150K "$5,000". Consistency path: $50K "$3,000", $100K "$4,000", $150K "$6,000". The uncapped sentence does exist, but it belongs to a different account: "Live Funded Account Payouts are not capped." We published it without that qualifier, which asserted it of the Express Funded Account — the stage every Topstep trader passes through first, and precisely where the cap binds. What it costs in practice: on a $50,000 XFA on the Standard path, a balance of $54,000 does not release $2,000 because of the 50% rule, it releases $2,000 because of the cap; and a balance of $60,000 still releases $2,000. The moment the account grows, the binding constraint is the cap, not the balance. The detail was not new to our research: the cap figures were already written into this same section's prose, where the front end does not read them. The field the site does read said there was no cap. This is our error, in the same shape we have now corrected four times this week: a value published without the product it belongs to. The $125 payout minimum re-verified unchanged.

Topstep raised the Combine consistency limit from 50% to 55% of the profit target: your best day can now weigh more

We published the Combine rule as "your single best day of profit must stay at or below 50% of your Profit Target", verified 21 July 2026. Today Topstep's own page reads: "Your single best day of profit must stay at or below 55% of your Profit Target." The article is stamped "Updated today". A second Topstep page, the Trading Combine parameters article, says the same in its own words: "your best single day should stay below 55% of your Profit Target" and "You can pass in as few as two days, but keep your best day below 55% of your Profit Target." The change loosens the rule rather than tightening it. The practical consequence is in the formula: the best day is now divided by 0.55 instead of 0.50, so the total profit required to pass falls. On an account with a $3,000 target, a $1,600 day used to push your required total to $3,200; it now requires $2,909, below the target itself. It is still not a rule that fails you: exceeding it raises the target, it does not break the account. The XFA is untouched. The 40% limit on the Consistency payout path is unchanged, and the standard path still carries no consistency percentage at all — it uses 5 winning days of $150 or more.

Topstep offers a Responsible Trading Discount of up to $30 a month — but it is opt-in and adds a daily loss limit to the account in exchange

On Topstep's No Activation Fee page the discount is shown as "Save up to $30/month", with "-$10" on the $50K account. It is not a plain price cut: it requires enabling the Responsible Trading Advantage, which adds a "Daily Loss Limit: $1,000" to a 50K account that otherwise has none, and in exchange also gives "DOUBLE Payout Caps". Whether that trade is worth $10 a month depends entirely on how you trade — a daily loss limit is a hard constraint, not a feature, and it is the reason we have not moved our tracked figure onto the discounted price. The tracked 50K No Activation Fee Combine stays at $95 a month with a $0 activation fee; the standard path remains $49 a month plus a $149 activation fee charged once per Express Funded Account earned.

Topstep launches the Octagon: a $250,000 monthly leaderboard for Live Funded traders, starting August 2026

Topstep's help centre describes "The Topstep Octagon" as "a monthly leaderboard competition for Live Funded Account (LFA) Traders" with a fixed $250,000 monthly pool: $200,000 across the top 100 by PnL (1st place $75,000) and $50,000 across the top 5 longest winning streaks (1st place $25,000). Enrollment is automatic and bonuses are paid to the account balance the following month.

Topstep Labs adds a third experiment: the $3K Challenge at $49 one-time — two rounds, a fixed $3,000 payout, no split and no daily loss limit

Topstep's own help-centre Labs article now lists a third limited product alongside the 25K Static ($75) and the 250K Freedom ($499) recorded on 2026-08-15: a $3K Challenge at a $49 one-time fee, launching August 2026, with a two-round structure, a fixed $3,000 payout, no 90/10 split ('you keep all earnings') and no daily loss limit. Labs products are limited drops ('when it's gone, it's gone') and may or may not graduate into the standard program.

Topstep's own help centre documents 'Topstep Labs': two limited one-time products — the 25K Static at $75 and the 250K Freedom at $499

Topstep's own help centre documents 'Topstep Labs' — 'Real experiments. Limited drops. Built with the community.' The '$25K Static Drawdown Trading Combine' is '$75 one-time — no subscription. 90 Day expiration', with a $1,000 static (non-trailing) maximum loss and a $500 daily loss limit, launched June 2026. The '$250K Freedom Funded Trading Combine' is '$499 one-time — no subscription', with a $15,000 profit target, a $10,000 trailing maximum loss and a $5,000 daily loss limit, launched July 2026. Limited quantities, no resets; once sold out, a drop is gone permanently, though successful experiments may graduate into regular programs. Our tracked row (50K Combine) is unchanged.