Is Topstep Trader legit or a scam?

How long have you been a funded trader with Topsteptrader?

  • Less than 6 months

    Votes: 6 100.0%
  • 6 months - 1 year

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    6
Topstep is 100% legit, but can be a bit complicated if you’re just starting out. There are all sorts of challenges and monthly fees of different sorts. Go for an easy to use platform with smaller investments in the beginning.
Exness allows trading with only a dollar, with fxview it’s euro 5 and with Schwab there is no min requirement. All these are easy to navigate and functionality is simple.

Thank you for that commercial.
 
Topstep is 100% legit, but can be a bit complicated if you’re just starting out. There are all sorts of challenges and monthly fees of different sorts. Go for an easy to use platform with smaller investments in the beginning.
Exness allows trading with only a dollar, with fxview it’s euro 5 and with Schwab there is no min requirement. All these are easy to navigate and functionality is simple.
On the contrary I think funded accounts are better suited to beginners.
 
I would like to ask some clarification (that I cannot find on their site).

What does "Profit Target (Per Step) $2,000" means? Does it mean that every time you make a trade there must be 2K profit to qualify?
thanks
 
Topstep is legit and not a scam. However that being said is it a viable long term ongoing solution to a traders funding needs?
in my opinion NO,

in my opinion due to the way Topstep uses a trailing max drawdown (instead of a fixed drawdown) it is only a temporary solution to funding because after you are funded your “funding with Topsteps money at risk” appears to be removed once you have made more than your trailing drawdown amount in profits. At that point it seems that you are now trading with your own money at that point going forward because if you withdraw all profits your account is closed (hence no more funding from them)

Topstep’s risk and funding appears to be only for a brief initial period after getting your funded account. Once you have made profits equal to or greater than your initial trailing max drawdown it is essentially up to you to leave “your profits” in the account to have any “funding” to continue to trade with and you must pay them 20% of profits off of your money from that point forward

Basically a “mirage” in my opinion


Searching for reviews and find very few from actual funded traders.

Has anyone been funded for over 6mos and already withdrawn 100% of first 5k? If so, what value add is TST providing to you that justifies giving them 20% of trading profits?

Also, has there been any 3rd party verification that once funded, TST traders are actually live and not still trading in SIM?

If funded traders were in fact still trading in SIM, it would definitely lead to a lot churn in accts resulting in additional resets and monthly fees.
 
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Topstep is legit and not a scam. However that being said is it a viable long term ongoing solution to a traders funding needs?
in my opinion NO,

in my opinion due to the way Topstep uses a trailing max drawdown (instead of a fixed drawdown) it is only a temporary solution to funding because after you are funded your “funding with Topsteps money at risk” appears to be removed once you have made more than your trailing drawdown amount in profits. At that point it seems that you are now trading with your own money at that point going forward because if you withdraw all profits your account is closed (hence no more funding from them)

Topstep’s risk and funding appears to be only for a brief initial period after getting your funded account. Once you have made profits equal to or greater than your initial trailing max drawdown it is essentially up to you to leave “your profits” in the account to have any “funding” to continue to trade with and you must pay them 20% of profits off of your money from that point forward

Basically a “mirage” in my opinion

I agree with what you have written, but my thought on it was freeing up the money I have in my futures account to put into the equity markets. Currently I keep between $80,000, and $125,000 to cover margin for multiple contract trades. With one of these operations I can leave very little in and they cover the margins on up to 10 ES, NQ etc.. At the same time giving up 20% isn't that appealing as well as for Topstep it seems they issue a 1099 for taxes so I would lose the benefit of futures tax treatment of 60/40. I also wonder if after you demonstrate you can trade whether they are open to widening the trailing loss. As I go up contracts I have had days I would have been shut down by their rules for trailing stop, yet for me it was within the limits of my stop I just had more contracts on so it was part of the trade. It has been especially true with the volatility for awhile now. I have wider stops, but they are defined by my plans for each trade. I also don't like the idea of potentially losing 3 weeks of income while doing the trial.
 
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