TopStep Combine Rules Explained
TopStep evaluates traders through the Combine — a real-time simulation account where you trade futures (ES, NQ, CL, GC, 6E, and others) against your own performance targets. Pass the Combine and you trade a funded account with an 80/20 profit split (you keep 80%).
There is no time limit on the Combine. You pass when you hit the profit target without breaching any rules. The rules:
Trailing Max Drawdown
Varies by account size. Trails up with your equity high but never moves down. The most account-ending rule in the Combine.
Daily Loss Limit
2% of original account size. Resets at 5:00 PM ET. If you breach this, you must stop for the day — not the Combine.
Profit Target
Varies by account size (see table below). Hit this while respecting both drawdown rules and you pass the Combine.
Trading Days
No minimum trading day requirement in the standard Combine. However, TopStep reviews for consistency — sporadic large wins attract scrutiny.
The Trailing Drawdown — How It Actually Works
The trailing drawdown is the rule that catches most TopStep traders off guard. Here is exactly how it moves:
The key insight: every profitable trade makes your floor higher and harder to sustain. A winning streak that takes you to $54,000 means your floor is now $52,000. If the market then turns and you lose $2,500 in a drawdown, your account at $51,500 — which is still above your starting balance — fails the Combine because it is below the trailed floor.
This is why many experienced traders reduce position size as their Combine profit grows, not increase it. Protecting the floor becomes more important than maximizing the gain.
What to Track in Your Journal Every Day
Current equity vs trailing floor
The most important number in your journal on any day. Your current balance minus the trailing floor = your current buffer. If this is below $500 on a $50k account, you should seriously consider not trading or trading minimum size only.
Daily P&L vs daily loss limit
TopStep's daily loss limit resets at 5:00 PM ET. Track your running intraday P&L so you always know how much room you have. Log the value at the start of each session and after each trade.
Profit target progress
How far are you from the Combine profit target? As you get closer, your position sizing decisions should be increasingly conservative — blowing a 90%-done Combine with an oversized trade is one of the most demoralizing experiences in prop trading.
Position size and contracts per trade
Log the exact number of contracts, the instrument, and the entry/exit prices. This is your primary tool for reconstructing what happened on any given session and for identifying if you are sizing up during drawdowns (revenge behavior).
Setup tag and was it in your plan?
TopStep accounts fail most often from unplanned trades taken out of boredom or to recover losses. Every trade should be tagged with a setup name and a yes/no "was this in my playbook?" field. The pattern of your No trades will explain most of your drawdowns.
Emotional state before and during session
Rate 1–5. Sessions where you enter feeling frustrated, tired, or pressured produce measurably worse results in virtually every trader's data. Logging this creates awareness that eventually prevents you from trading in those states.
Combine Account Sizes and Rules
| Account | Trailing Drawdown | Daily Loss Limit | Profit Target | Funded Split |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $2,000 | $1,000 | $3,000 | 80/20 |
| $100,000 | $3,000 | $2,000 | $6,000 | 80/20 |
| $150,000 | $4,500 | $3,000 | $9,000 | 80/20 |
Note: Rules are subject to change. Always verify current rules on the official TopStep website before starting a Combine.
The ratio of profit target to trailing drawdown is 1.5:1 — you need to make $1.50 for every $1.00 of risk you can absorb. At 1:2 R:R with a 50% win rate, that is achievable in expectation. But the trailing nature of the drawdown means any sustained losing streak after a peak dramatically shrinks your room.
The 4 Mistakes That Fail TopStep Accounts
1. Not knowing the current floor
Traders take a normal-sized trade without realizing their trailing floor has moved up during recent wins. A trade they would have survived on day one now blows the account because the floor is $2,000 higher than it started.
2. Revenge trading after a loss
One losing trade leads to an unplanned larger trade to recover. That trade often also loses, now hitting the daily limit. This accounts for a disproportionate number of failed Combines — the initial loss was survivable but the response was not.
3. Oversizing when 90% done
"I just need $300 more to pass" leads to a 5-contract trade instead of a 1-contract trade. The trade loses $1,500, taking the account from near-pass to reset. This happens most often in the final 10% of the profit target.
4. Ignoring the daily limit on bad sessions
The daily loss limit is a hard stop, not a suggestion. Traders who breach it continue trading — sometimes reversing into profit, sometimes making it worse. TopStep can see this in your account data, and consistent rule violations signal disqualification risk.
TopStep uses a trailing maximum drawdown — the drawdown limit follows your equity peak upward but never moves down. If you start a $50k Combine, the initial drawdown limit is $2,000 (account can fall to $48,000). If your account grows to $52,000, the drawdown limit trails up to $50,000.
The limit moves up with every new equity high but never retraces. This means profitable trades increase your floor but do not decrease it. Once you reach certain profit thresholds (typically when your floor would exceed your starting balance), the trailing can lock — check TopStep's current documentation for the precise threshold on your account size.