TopstepFX Review – Funded Forex Accounts

About TopstepFX

TopstepFX is a forex trading platform that gives traders the opportunity to earn a funded account. The company is owned by the makers of TopstepTrader, which offers funded trading account for futures traders.

Traders are required to trade with a simulated account for several weeks, meeting profit targets and minimizing losses along the way. The catch for traders is that achieving a funded account is extremely difficult based on the rules of these simulated accounts. Between TopstepFX’s monthly subscription cost and reset fees for restarting your simulated account after a rule is broken, the platform can be very expensive.

How Much Does TopstepFX Cost?

TopstepFX offers three different account tiers that correspond to the amount of money that you get to start your simulated trading. Importantly, if you do achieve a funded account, the amount of funding that you’ll receive is equal to the starting balance of your simulated account.

 The $200,000 account costs $125 per month and starts you off with $2,000 (with 100:1 trading leverage). To achieve a funded account, you need to reach a profit target of $2,000 without losses for any single week exceeding $1,300 during the first stage of the simulation or $650 during the second stage of the simulation.

The $300,000 account costs $165 per month. This increases your starting account value to $3,000 and your weekly loss limit to $2,000, or $1,000 during the second phase of the trial period.

The $500,000 account costs $275 per month. Your weekly loss limit is $3,300 during the first phase of the simulation and $1,650 during the second phase.

Note that in addition to the monthly subscription fee, there is a charge for resetting your simulated account when you break one of the rules for achieving funding. A reset costs between $89 and $139 depending on your account size. If you don’t pay for a reset after breaking a simulation rule, you will no longer be eligible for a funded account.

Trading Combine

 The Trading Combine is TopstepFX’s two-phase trading simulation that traders have to succeed at in order to achieve a funded account. During this simulation, you are able to trade most major currency pairs as well as minor pairs involving the Pound, Euro, or Yen.

The goal of the Trading Combine is to reach a profit target, which is equal to the amount of money that you start with in your account. There is no time limit on achieving the profit target, but traders must not exceed a weekly loss limit based on their realized and unrealized trades. Nor can traders’ total losses over the course of the entire simulation exceed an account loss limit. Traders are also required to close all positions by the end of the US trading day each Friday afternoon.

Once the first profit target is achieved, traders have to accomplish the same target a second time – but with a significantly reduced weekly loss limit. According to TopstepFX, this is designed to show that traders can manage risk. However, it leaves traders extremely susceptible to market events late in the Trading Combine period.

If traders exceed the weekly or account loss limits at any point, all outstanding trades are closed. You must pay for an account reset and restart the simulation if you want to be eligible for a funded account. You do have the option to continue working in the simulator without a reset, but you won’t be eligible for account funding even if you ultimately achieve the profit targets.

TopStepFX Funded Accounts

If you succeed at the Trading Combine, TopstepFX will give you a funded account – meaning that you are trading for real using the company’s money rather than your own. Traders are able to keep 100% of their first $5,000 in profit from a funded account, then 80% of profits after that. Keep in mind, though, that you must still pay the monthly TopstepFX subscription fee and the real costs of trading commissions are deducted from your profits.

While a funded account can be profitable, it’s very important to keep in mind that the same weekly loss rules that applied during the Trading Combine apply to funded accounts. If you exceed your loss limit with a funded account, it is immediately closed and you are sent back to the beginning of the Trading Combine to start the entire process over. This makes it very difficult for traders to succeed long-term with a funded account.

Trading Interface

Both simulated and funded trading accounts are required to trade through TopstepFX’s proprietary Meta Trader 4 interface. This is a relatively powerful charting software built around forex trading. Large buy and sell buttons right on the charts make it easy to place intra-day trades on quick timescales. You can add technical studies to your charts, create notifications, and run custom scripts.

How Does TopstepFX Compare?

TopstepFX is one of a handful of platforms offering funded accounts for profitable, low-risk traders. Like many of these companies, TopstepFX makes it very difficult to achieve a funded account and to remain funded. The monthly subscription is pricey, and the reset fees can quickly add up if you need multiple attempts at the Trading Combine.

Still, there are a few features that help this platform stand out. There are no limits on how long it can take you to reach the profit target during the Trading Combine. There are 24 currency pairs available for trading, which increases your options for achieving success. If you do succeed and get a funded account, the profit split is very generously tilted towards the trader.

Should You Try TopstepFX?

TopstepFX is designed for forex day traders who want the opportunity to trade with a funded account rather than their own money. Given the high cost of resets in the Trading Combine, TopstepFX really only makes sense for traders who know going in based on their past trading experience that they can stay within the platform’s weekly loss rules. So, the platform is best for the narrow slice of forex traders who are already profitable on their own, but want to reduce their personal exposure to the market by trading with a funded account.