Topstep
The longest record in futures by a decade and the only firm here that publishes its own failure rate — 16.8% of Trading Combines completed in 2025. Its rules page names Topstep Brokerage LLC, an affiliate of Topstep LLC registered with the CFTC as an introducing broker and a member of the NFA, ID 0567079. An introducing broker does not hold customer funds or clear trades, and the firm that does is not named on that page.
Choose the Standard payout path, which has no consistency rule, over the Consistency path, which pays more per request but imposes a 40% best-day cap. Payout caps run $2,000–$5,000 and everything — drawdown, day count, consistency — resets after each payout.
Not enough published data to simulate this firm’s floor.
This firm publishes its floor by account size — see the cited table below.
Clears every disqualifier, scores high on the axes that cost you money, and we read every plan it sells. We would open the named account with our own money.
Scorecard
18Trails on daily closes only, then freezes at your starting balance
Clears through a named, registered FCM
Workable, but a cap or a waiting period bites
Overstates size or speed, but costs you nothing
Years of operation, proven payouts, a published pass rate
Each axis is scored 0–5 against a published scale. The line under each bar is the rung this firm landed on — not our summary of it, the scale entry itself.
Plan by plan
1 of this firm’s challenges were read plan by plan, with a citation behind every answer.
The loss limit moves only on the end-of-day balance and locks permanently at the starting balance, identical to the evaluation; the 40% rule delays a payout without failing the account.
Same mechanism as the funded account, and its consistency rule raises the profit target instead of ending the attempt.
Trades a mandatory 40% rule for higher caps and three qualifying days instead of five winning ones.
Real capital and a static floor, undone by forfeiture of any balance above the account size at call-up and up to $399 a month in exchange data fees absent from every pricing page.
Trustpilot
Trustpilot attaches this to the whole high-risk investment category. It says nothing about this firm in particular — several of the best-rated firms here carry it — and we do not score it.
What this firm published
Everything below is quoted from a page we opened, on the date shown. The quotes are in the firm’s own language, exactly as published — never edited, never shortened, never swapped for a translation. On the Spanish edition our own rendering appears underneath each one, unquoted and marked as ours: the quotation marks on this site mean the words are the firm’s, and nothing we wrote ever wears them. Where we have not read enough to put a number on an axis, we say so instead of guessing.
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Can you even pass?
Almost nobody who pays for an evaluation ever reaches a funded account, so this is the part of the product most customers actually buy. Every firm advertises its profit target; none of them advertises that target next to how much you are allowed to lose while chasing it.
3/5
Can you keep the money?
The drawdown takes the account away; the payout rules take the money. Answered by whichever of the two we can measure and is worse — they are two ways of losing the same thing, so a good half cannot pay for a bad one.
1/5
Is anyone behind it?
A named company, a market, and rules you could read before paying. These three do not substitute for one another — a company you can sue does not stop existing because the account is a simulation — so this is the average of the ones we could measure, not the worst.
How hard the test is
we did not read enough to sayNot the profit target on the sales page — that target measured against the room you are given to reach it.
Below 60% read we publish no number at all, because a grade computed from two facts out of six is not a lenient grade — it is a different measurement wearing the same label.
How much you must win to survive · Profit target · Days you have to finish · Trading days you must put in · A second attempt costs
Maximum loss
The loss limit that closes your account. Does it sit still, or does it climb behind you as you win?
What makes the loss limit risewe did not read this stageit rises with the day's closing balance1.65/3
“The MLL is a trailing limit. It rises as your end-of-day balance grows, but never moves down.”A limit that climbs takes back the cushion you already earned.
Where the limit stops risingat your starting balance3/3
“Once it reaches your starting balance, it locks permanently.”The difference between a danger with an end date and one that never ends.
What the limit is measured againstwe did not read this stagelive equity, open trades included1/2
“monitored in real time throughout the session. Both realized and unrealized P&L count toward it.”Decides whether a trade that dips and recovers can close an account that ended the day green.
What taking a payout does to the limitit tightens, down to whatever the payout left you0/2
“After your first Payout: Your MLL is set to $0 regardless of where it was before. The remaining balance becomes your effective loss floor.”Taking your money out should not leave you closer to losing the account.
Total loss allowedwe did not read this stage4%0.25/1
“Max Loss Limit based on your Trading Combine® size: $2,000 for $50K accounts, $3,000 for $100K, and $4,500 for $150K.”How much room you have. Worth little, because almost every firm offers the same.
What makes the loss limit rise (phase 1) · What the limit is measured against (phase 1) · Total loss allowed (phase 1) · Daily limit (phase 1) · Daily limit (funded)
Withdrawing
How much can leave the account, how soon, how often — and whether they can say no.
Withdrawals before the account endsThey publish no ceiling.3/3
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
The cap per withdrawal times how many they allow is the real size of the account. One plan here is sold on a $200,000 banner and closes after five withdrawals of $2,100.
What else a payout changesthe day count starts over · the consistency calculation starts over · the largest position you may open drops1.50/3
“After each Payout: Your Maximum Loss Limit (MLL) resets to $0 permanently, and your 5-day count restarts.”“After each Payout: Your Maximum Loss Limit resets to $0 permanently, your consistency calculation resets, and your 3-day count restarts.”“If a Payout reduces your balance to a lower tier, your maximum contract size decreases accordingly.”The floor is not the only thing a withdrawal moves, and the rest of it is never on the same page. Position size, the consistency rule and the share you are paid all reset or shift at some firms, and a trader who checked only the drawdown finds out afterwards.
Can it refuse without giving a reasonThey do not say.0/3
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
“We may decline for any reason” is not a rule, it is the absence of one — it makes every other number on this axis conditional on goodwill.
Most one withdrawal can pay you3.0% of the account, at worst1/2
“Max Payout per request: 50% of your account balance up to the cap below. Account Size XFA Standard XFA Consistency $50K $2,000 $3,000 $100K $3,000 $4,000 $150K $5,000 $6,000”$2,000 is generous on a $25K account and a joke on a $200K one, so it is measured as a share and at the worst size sold.
Does that cap rise with the accountyes — a bigger account pays a bigger cheque2/2
“Account Path Current Cap With DLL (new) $50K Standard $2,000 $4,000 $50K Consistency $3,000 $6,000 $100K Standard $3,000 $6,000 $100K Consistency $4,000 $8,000 $150K Standard $5,000 $10,000 $150K Consistency $6,000 $12,000”Days before you can ask for money · What breaking the consistency rule costs (phase 1) · What breaking the consistency rule costs (funded) · Profit required before the first request · Fee charged to pay you
How you may trade
Can you trade the way you actually trade — around the news, over the weekend, at the size and speed you use?
Mandatory stop-lossThey do not say.—
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
Minimum time a trade must be heldThey do not say.—
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
Forced close before the weekendnothing may stay open over the weekend—
“Permitted trading hours and products Normal electronic trading hours unless otherwise noted. All positions must be closed by 3:10 PM CT or by the product’s market close, whichever comes first.”LeverageNo such thing in this plan.—
“Your contract limit is based on your account balance and follows the Scaling Plan. You’ll start at the lowest level of that plan with the ability to increase your position size based on your profits.”No score here, on purpose. The six axes above ask whether the firm can take your money or refuse to pay it. These rules ask something else — whether you can trade your way — and the right weight depends on who is reading: a minimum holding time decides the account for a scalper and is invisible to anyone else, while the weekend rule is the reverse. A single number would be wrong for half of you, and would look decided. The firm’s own sentences are here; the judgement is yours.
How it grows
What makes the account get bigger, how big it can get, and whether the path ends at a real market or at a larger simulation.
What makes the account growprofit—
“Your contract limit is based on your account balance and follows the Scaling Plan. You’ll start at the lowest level of that plan with the ability to increase your position size based on your profits.”How large it can getNo such thing in this plan.—
“The Scaling Plan is an Express Funded Account® (XFA) objective. It sets your Maximum Position Size — the max contracts you can hold at one time — based on your current account balance.”Where the path endsat a real market—
“The XFA is the proving ground. Put in the reps, prove your strategy is consistent, and earn your call-up to the big leagues. Trade with discipline, hit your Payouts, and build the track record that gets you to Live .”One of these questions is scored and it is not here. “Does the cap rise with the account” sits on the cash axis, next to the cap itself, because it has a right answer: a bigger account that pays the same cheque has handed you a larger number and the same money. The three below are different. A two-million ceiling is the whole point of the product for one reader and irrelevant to someone who wants one clean payout, so the firm’s sentences are here and the weight is yours.
The rules in writing
Could you read the rule before paying, and can they change it afterwards?
Where the rule that binds you is publishedin a help-centre article the contract never mentions1.20/4
“The MLL is a trailing limit. It rises as your end-of-day balance grows, but never moves down.”If the rule that binds you lives in a help article your contract never mentions, you did not sign it.
Can it change the rules without noticeyes, and it says so0.60/3
“User acknowledges and agrees that User is solely responsible for staying current on Trading Rules, which remain subject to change at any time and from time to time, with or without notice.”The clause that makes every dated verdict perishable, including ours. Near-universal, so not fatal.
We compared their own pages against each other and found nothing that contradicts.
Is the binding document dated
The company behind it
If it goes wrong, which company do you claim against, and under whose laws?
The company you contract withThey do not say.0/4
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
With no named company there is nobody to sue.
Its registration numberThey do not say.0/2
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
What turns a name into something checkable in a public register.
That company owns the brandno — the brand sits elsewhere0.40/2
“are all trademarks of TopstepTechnologies LLC”Signing with a company other than the brand’s owner separates who sold to you from who answers to you.
Almost no firm here has a financial regulator, because selling simulated evaluations is not a regulated activity anywhere. Of the 114 firms we scored by hand, 96 sat in the bottom two rungs of backing for this reason. So we do not count it against anyone — it only adds when a firm genuinely has one.
Where it is registered · The people behind it are named
The market
we did not read enough to sayDo your orders reach a market, or is all of it a simulation?
Below 60% read we publish no number at all, because a grade computed from two facts out of six is not a lenient grade — it is a different measurement wearing the same label.
Almost none names a broker or a clearing house either, and that follows from the account being a simulation rather than being a second, separate failing. Charging for both would count one fact twice.
What the funded account is · Conditions to reach a real market
We read the rules of every plan it sells and issued a verdict on each one.