Topstep Trading Combine

Pine Script Strategies for the Topstep Combine — Rules, Drawdown, and How to Pass

Topstep's daily loss limit ends most Combines before traders get close. The trailing max drawdown ends a lot of the rest. The only strategies that survive consistently are ones that take measured, fixed-risk shots every session — no revenge trades, no averaging in. Here's exactly how ours are built for that.

Topstep Trading Combine rules at a glance

The trailing max drawdown is the one that catches traders off guard. It locks once you clear the profit target — but until then, it follows the highest closed equity you've produced. A trader who builds up to $1,800 in profit on a 50k, then gives back $1,400, is sitting on $400 of cushion with a $2,000 trail. One normal losing trade takes them out. The only way to avoid that scenario is to never let a large open gain evaporate — which is exactly what a Pine Script with fixed exits does automatically.

Recent rule changes: Topstep moved to a 90/10 profit split from the first dollar in January 2026 and split Express Funded payouts into Standard and Consistency paths — dated details in the Topstep rule changes tracker.

Does Topstep have a consistency rule?

This comes up constantly. The short answer: Topstep does not have a percentage-based consistency rule — unlike Apex's rule that no single day can account for more than 30% of your total target profit. There is no cap on how big any one day can be relative to your total.

What Topstep does have is the 5 winning days requirement: before you can complete the evaluation, at least 5 of your trading sessions must show a net profit of $200 or more. This is a participation requirement, not a percentage cap. You cannot spike to $3,000 in one session and call it done — you have to show up, execute, and win across at least 5 separate days.

For algo traders running a Pine Script, this is actually the easiest rule to satisfy. A strategy that fires 2–3 signals per session and exits at a fixed target will rack up $200+ days steadily without needing any home-run trades. The 5 winning days rule hurts discretionary traders who over-trade; it barely affects a systematic strategy running consistent setups.

Topstep's EOD trailing drawdown — how it actually works

Topstep's trailing drawdown is end-of-day (EOD), which means the floor only moves based on your closed equity at the end of each trading session — not from intraday peaks. This is the single biggest reason Topstep is considered the most algo-friendly major futures prop firm.

Practical example on a 50k Combine (trail = $2,000):

On Apex, that trade just permanently raised your floor by $800 even though you only netted $300. On Topstep, the floor only rises by $300. Over a 10-day Combine, this difference compounds. Strategies with high per-trade variance — like breakout entries that sometimes spike and reverse — fare meaningfully better under Topstep's EOD system because intraday noise doesn't count against you.

Contract sizing for the Topstep Combine

Sizing is where most traders — even ones with solid strategies — blow up on Topstep. Here's a practical sizing framework by account tier:

The goal isn't to maximize contracts — it's to make the daily loss limit essentially unreachable under normal strategy behavior. Start conservative and scale up only after 3–4 consecutive winning sessions.

Optimal session timing for Topstep MES and MNQ strategies

Topstep doesn't restrict trading hours, but not all hours are equal for MES and MNQ signals. Strategies tuned for the Combine perform best in these windows:

• 9:30–11:30 AM ET (primary): Highest volume, cleanest trend moves for MES. Most 1R setups complete within this window.
• 1:30–3:00 PM ET (secondary): Afternoon trend continuation, especially on trending days. MNQ tends to have stronger follow-through here than MES.
• Avoid 11:30 AM–1:00 PM ET: Midday chop generates false signals, stop-outs that don't count against the trail but waste trading days on scratch results.
• Avoid the 3:30–4:00 PM ET MOC window: Market-on-close imbalances create erratic price action that doesn't suit systematic strategies.

How Pine Script automation handles every Topstep rule

Manual traders fail the Combine for human reasons — fear, revenge, over-sizing after a loss. A Pine Script removes all of those variables. Here's what's built into every script in our store:

• Fixed dollar stop. Risk per trade is hard-coded. The daily loss math becomes completely predictable — you know exactly how many losing trades it takes to approach the daily limit, and it's usually more than the strategy fires in a session.
• Bar-close entry confirmation. No repaint, no chasing entries on a wick. What backtests is what executes live.
• One entry per signal. No martingale, no averaging in, no second entries on the same setup. One signal, one trade, wait for the next bar.
• Daily kill switch. Configurable threshold (default: 80% of daily limit) that stops new entries for the session if the loss approaches the limit. Existing open positions are allowed to reach their stops naturally.
• Optional RTH session filter. Restricts trading to Regular Trading Hours only. Keeps the strategy out of overnight sessions where spreads widen and signals are noisier.
• TradersPost webhook alerts. Fires directly to TradersPost for hands-off order execution into TopstepX or your TSTrader Tradovate account.

Which plan fits a Topstep trader?

The 50k Combine pairs cleanly with the Starter plan ($50) — MES or MNQ, risk sized for the $2,000 trail. The 100k and 150k Combines pair with the Pro plan ($80) on ES or NQ. The Pro plan's per-trade risk is sized so a normal stop-out on a 100k account doesn't push you within breach range of the trail. If you have your own specific rules you want coded, the Custom plan ($120) builds it to your exact specifications.

Frequently asked questions — Topstep