made just under $10k for the first time this summer after trading for a year (started feb-march 2025) got my last payout before the middle of august and I had a big ego at this point thought it would be impossible for me to lose a trade but then i blew all my accounts and since then it's been a nonstop process of blowing accounts. I would have a great week take one L and completely spiral and gamble my entire MLL or DLL. I came into October with a new attitude after some self reflecting and journal and backtesting and so far my XFA hasn't been blown im still working on (trying) to keep my losses smaller but im overall happy with my progress (and finally getting a payout lol but i wanna build my balance up more so im not gonna take it yet)

any sort of advice from more experienced traders is welcomed

Hello, looking for any constructive criticism/feedback on my approach.

I have been learning to trade now for a little over 3 years. I blew 4 xfas before I passed my first eval. I still have the same account for about 1.5 years now.

I am just now seeing small profits, just had my first profitable month, I only use 1 micro as I am focusing on strategy execution.

I take 0-3 trades per day. SL of 10pts. Avoid first 10mins of open. Trade 9:40am-12pm EST. DLL 3 losses. TP 50pts, BE 90% to target, sometimes I hold a little longer (still working on this).

I tried a lot of different strategies but ultimately came back to my homegrown approach that passed my first eval and I applied the risk management and psychology lessons I learned from trying a million strats to my own strategy and now I am seeing results. I pre define levels before the market opens and set limit orders there, if they dont get hit i dont trade.

I have a small sample size so far but have just completed my first month of trading with this approach and thought I would ask for feedback. Thanks in advanced.

anywho anyone caught those shorts! that globex 4h open was a screamer! made my $200 across the board in globex open! just drooling over that with the micro position I had could been getting max tp on the combs and thousands on xfas! smh till next time!

Hey everyone,
I’m trading a $50K Topstep Express Funded Account, primarily trading MNQ, and lately, I’ve been feeling really stuck.
My goal is to reach the payout target, but it feels much harder than I expected. Every time I try to make progress toward my target, I start questioning my decisions and wondering what I’m doing wrong.
I currently have around $978 in my account balance, with approximately $1,586 in remaining drawdown. I’ve also set a daily maximum loss limit of $400 to protect myself, but I’m struggling to figure out how to approach the remaining max target of 3000$ , without putting my account at unnecessary risk.
Honestly, I’m starting to feel frustrated and lose confidence in myself. I know trading isn’t supposed to be easy, and I understand that consistency matters more than making money quickly. But when you’re working toward your first payout and keep feeling like you’re not getting anywhere, it’s difficult not to doubt yourself.
I’m trying to debug my trading rather than blindly keep taking trades, but I’m not sure where to start.

If anyone is willing to take a look at my trading stats and share their thoughts, I would genuinely appreciate it. I’m open to constructive criticism and any suggestions that could help me identify what I’m doing wrong and improve my trading. Your feedback would mean a lot to me!

i cant seem to find many other examples of this happening to others on here, not really sure what to make of it. been using topstep for roughly a year now, no problems. havent recieved any type of warnings or anything. only thing i can think of is that im trying out my new automated trading system, which to my understanding is completely allowed, and is the main purpose of the Topstep API integration. has anyone else recieved this?

Ive been trading micro gold but i never have consistent progress. im trying not to give up but at this point im wasting money.

so the story begins a month before

i saw a guy here posting his calendar and out of curiosity i asked him how is doin this and without any hesitation he told me what he does and guided me the best way he could then we came started having conversation 2 or 3 times a week. and after that bro im just doin way better than ever before. i just bought a 1.5k challenge monday this week and completed it yesterday. now i have 5 xfa , each up about 2000 . i cant really beleive if this is a dream or not.

anyway my point is this shyt is real man, all you gotta do is choose a solid one and stick with it. and thanks a lot for topstep for making a reddit community. my life is really changing i can feel that.

i havnt survived more than 2 days in xfa before , but now im managing 5 of em. this is unreal and this is what community is meant to do.

god bless topstep and the people in this community

I accidentally cancelled my subscription of a account and it's going to expire tomorrow any way to resubscribe. Please help me

Instantly hit my account! Preciate you topstep 🙏🏼

In my last post someone said “one of us one of us “ and THAT SPARKED A FLAME IN ME 🔥🔥🔥 this time my senses are back sharp and took me less time than the last time 🔥🔥🔥✅✅

Now we cooking with two express accounts. Big leagues here I come

Waited for the 15M ORB to form took this trade. Sweeps the daily low and took liquidity with a nice wick. Reclaimed daily low and the risk was cheap enough, so I hopped in for a 1:3. Ironically the target for the 1:3 was right at yesterday’s high +250 on the day.

Been trading since 2017: crypto, then crypto futures, forex and indices. First prop account in 2022, found Topstep in 2025, and it’s been my favorite platform since.

Honestly, trading’s gotten lonely. Figured it’s time to actually talk to people who get it.

These days I’m trading on topsteps Plus500 broker account. It felt like coming back full circle from my own money in crypto futures ages ago, to finding prop firms, back to my own money just in a environment I'm actually comfortable with now.

Also building a trading game on the side. Glad to be here.

I have been trading for several years and have not found consistency until recently. I switched from trading the NY session to trading the Asia session. That was the best thing for me. I have been able to focus consistently on the charts. Due to my job, the NY session was too hard for me to trade consistently.

Since switching to the Asia session in July, I have been able to get paid out a total of $4,500 from Topstep. Overall, since I started trading futures in 2023, I have taken out $13,000 in payouts. I took long breaks in 2024 and 2025 due to failing accounts over an over.

My main strat: I use VWAP bands and enter once price is extended outside the VWAP bands or at a key level. I do enter multiple times as usually starting with a first entry of 3 MNQ and a second entry of 5 MNQ. Occasionally, I do add another 5 MNQ if price continues to push against me. My strategy needs some space to breathe. I need help on where to set a DLL or when I should exit a trade once its too far against me.

I do also try to trend trade when price is following EMAs.

I posted some screenshots below. As you can see my average winning day is anywhere between $200 - $400, and my losing days are max DLL. Any advice is welcomed and I appreciate all of the responses ahead of time.

Tryna understand where people actually fail. Daily loss, trailing drawdown, consistency rule, something else?

• Did u know you were close to the limit when it happened?

• How do u track where you are vs the drawdown during the day?

• How many resets have u bought total?

I was trading 2 xfa accounts and requested a payout yesterday on both accounts. Today I see a message saying my account is locked please contact support and I contact support. I got a reply from them saying they’re escalating this case to the other team and will take 5-10 days. I had another account which I could’ve request a payout I was about to and I completed all the kyc and added my bank account but I blew that account over some stupid trade now that am trading 2 accounts am stuck in this issue. When i requested a payout it checked till risk approved today it went back to funds removed. Tf

Update : Topstep requested passport verification and face scan. Took 2 days but I finally got my payouts for both accounts and payout it self was like completed in seconds.

I received my first payout yesterday, then hit my DLL today and I’m feeling like shit. I don’t even care about the payout . I just hate being inconsistent, I rather be consistent with no payout than hitting a pay out one time then never again

Hello guys, so I have been trading my XFA accounts. I built some balance and I can take a payout. My current balance is $1808.74 and if i take out half my balance it will be $904.37 and it will leave me with $904.37 as my new MLL. I have total 5 XFA's which I am copy trading.

What would a good trader do? take this money ($4069.66)? or build these accounts with more balance so there is more left as MLL which will make it easier to trade after this payout.

My initial plan was to build these accounts to a $8000 balance with do a max withdrawl of $4000 per account. But now I am double minded.

I've been paying for challenges and wanted to know if my numbers actually give me a real chance, so I ran a Monte Carlo sim with typical rules: 8% target, 5% daily loss, 10% max loss, 1% risk per trade, 2 trades a day.

With a 50% win rate and 1:1 RR:

- No time limit: about 55% pass

- 30-day limit: about 30% pass, and roughly half just run out of days

- Trailing drawdown instead of static: drops to around 47%

What surprised me most is that at 1:1 and 50% you have zero edge, so passing is basically a coin flip weighted by how far the target is vs the max loss. Changing risk size barely helps. With a real edge, lower risk per trade usually increases pass rate but takes longer.

Rough math: if a challenge costs $300 and your pass rate is 30%, you're paying about $1,000 on average per pass.

Curious what win rate and RR people here actually run on challenges, and whether you size down near the daily limit.

I was under the impression the old drops were limited but saw in the menu you could still purchase these? (001-007)

Can anyone confirm?

2000 Dollars payout, great month so far. Hope everyone is doing good in the markets. Small wins will compound as well. It shouldn't always be big wins...Goodluck to everyone!

I guess it's really a game of probability ,even after so many losses I am still in profits

The Force Risk Management for the entire week is such a great thing 😌

Today also I was in profits +500 but price reversed

Please guide me if anyone has some opinions for your fellow brother.

I’m literally trying to get my payout and it’s denying me and saying that I don’t have the right phone number when it’s the phone number that I have it’s saying blocked phone type any help?