How to pass the Topstep Trading Combine

Hit the profit target ($3,000 on a 50K) without your balance touching the Maximum Loss Limit, which trails your end-of-day balance, and keep your best day at or under 55% of total profit. That means at least two days. Close everything by 3:10 PM CT, and plan your days so none of them goes past $1,650 on a 50K.

By FundedSim Desk · updated October 26, 2026

The rules you're playing by

Three of these decide almost every Combine:

• Maximum Loss Limit. It rises with your end-of-day balance, never comes down and stops at your starting balance. It's checked in real time, open positions included.
• 55% best day. Your best day divided by total profit must be at or under 55%. It isn't rounded and there's no buffer. The day's value locks at 3:10 PM CT.
• 3:10 PM CT. Every position has to be closed by then, every weekday. No overnight holds.

The daily loss limit is optional. If you add it at checkout ($1,000 on the 50K) it can't be changed, and it follows you into the Express Funded Account. Hitting it flattens you until the next session; it isn't a rule break.

The plan for a 50K

The target is $3,000 and the biggest day that keeps it there is $3,000 × 55% = $1,650. Build the plan backwards from that:

1. Pick a daily goal well under the cap. $600 a day passes in five good days and leaves room for one day that runs further.
2. Stop the day at the cap. If you're up $1,500 by noon, you're done. Another $400 doesn't get you closer: it moves the target.
3. Pick a daily stop you'll respect. With $2,000 of room, a $500 stop gives you four bad days before the account is in danger. Optional limit or not, decide the number before the open.
4. Know where the floor is every evening. After a $1,000 day your floor moves from $48,000 to $49,000. You still have $2,000 of room, but it's measured from a higher balance.

Why people fail it

• The big first day. +$2,200 on day one feels like 73% of the way there. With the 55% rule your target is now $4,000, and you need $1,800 more on smaller days.
• Giving it back after a good close. The floor moved up at the close. A normal pullback the next morning can now finish the account.
• The afternoon trade. A position still open near 3:10 PM CT gets closed for you, often at the worst price of the day.
• Revenge after the daily limit. The limit protects the account for today. Taking it as a challenge tomorrow, with double size, is how the floor gets hit.

Check any sequence of days with the consistency calculator and the drawdown calculator.

When you pass

The Combine closes, the subscription is cancelled and the profit doesn't carry over. You activate an Express Funded Account: $149 on the standard path, nothing if you bought the no activation fee path. The XFA has its own drawdown and payout rules, laid out on the Topstep XFA rules page. Comparing firms first? See Apex vs Topstep.

Practice the exact account

FundedSim runs the Topstep 50K, 100K and 150K Combines with the published rules. Trade a week there with your real plan and see which day breaks it.

Questions people actually ask

How many days does it take to pass the Topstep Combine?

Two at the least. The 55% best-day rule means no single day can make the whole target, so the fastest pass is two days of about $1,500 each on a 50K.

What happens if I hit the Maximum Loss Limit in the Combine?

Your positions are liquidated for the rest of the day and the Combine can't earn funding until you reset it. The reset costs the same as a month of that Combine on the standard path.

Does a losing day reset my best day?

No. Topstep says losses don't reset your best day. Only more total profit brings the percentage back under 55%.

Blow it here, not on a paid eval

Run the same rules on your own trades in the simulator. Free, no card, and a blown account costs you nothing but pride.

Start practicing

Keep going

• Topstep Trading Combine: rules, costs and the drawdown that ends most accounts
• Consistency rule calculator
• Topstep Express Funded Account rules
• Apex vs Topstep: which 50K eval fits how you trade