.png)
Trading a Topstep 50K: What to Risk, Where to Stop, and What a Real Week Looks Like
On a Topstep 50K, risk about $120 per trade on micro S&P futures (MES), cap your day at three losers, and expect to pass in roughly 5 to 10 weeks. That's the goal, if done right. The rest of this post is how I got there, because I had to work it out myself.
I just moved my own trading from EURUSD to S&P futures. I'm starting with micros, and I'm testing whether The Dealer Cycle behaves cleaner on ES than it does on the euro. I picked Topstep as my prop firm and bought the 50K account.
Futures were new to me. I knew how to read the market, but I didn't know how far ES futures moves in a day, or how Topstep's drawdown actually works. And when I first ran the numbers, the stop math just wasn't landing. So if you're in that spot, or have failed a prop firm on stops- good. This is written for you.
The one rule that ends accounts: the Maximum Loss Limit
Topstep has one rule in the Trading Combine: don't let your balance touch the Maximum Loss Limit (MLL). On a 50K that's $2,000. On a 100K it's $3,000, and on a 150K it's $4,500.
This is the big shift if you're coming from forex prop firms like I am. The MLL trails. It moves up with your best end-of-day balance and never moves back down.
Here's how it plays out on a 50K:
Day | What happened | End-of-day balance | Your floor (MLL) | Room left |
Start | Nothing yet | $50,000 | $48,000 | $2,000 |
Day 1 | Made $500 | $50,500 | $48,500 | $2,000 |
Day 2 | Lost $500 | $50,000 | $48,500 | $1,500 |
See day 2? I'm back where I started, but my room shrank by $500. The floor followed my good day up and stayed there.
Three more things you need to know about it:
It's watched in real time, including open trades. The floor only updates at the end of the day, but if a trade is sitting deep red and touches it, you're liquidated. Even if price comes back on the exit. Even if your final balance ends up above the line.
It stops trailing at $52,000. Once your end-of-day balance hits $52,000, the floor locks at $50,000 forever. Until then, your room can never be more than $2,000.
Breaking it in the Combine liquidates you for the day and you can't get funded until you pay for a Reset. In the funded account (the XFA), breaking it closes the account for good.
So every sizing decision in this post comes back to protecting that $2,000.
What it takes to pass
To pass a 50K Combine you make $3,000 and you do it over at least two days, without one day doing most of the work.
50K Combine | The number |
Profit target | $3,000 |
Max loss (trailing) | $2,000 |
Best single day must stay under | $1,650 (55% of the target) |
Max size | 5 ES, or 50 MES (micros count 10 to 1) |
Fewest days to pass | 2 |
Trading day | 6:00 PM to 4:10 PM Eastern |
A few notes on these:
Consistency. If your best day goes over $1,650, Topstep raises your target. It doesn't fail you, you just have to keep trading. At the size I'm recommending you won't come anywhere near this.
The trading day starts the evening before. A trade placed at 7 PM Eastern on Tuesday counts toward Wednesday. Everything has to be closed by 4:10 PM Eastern.
Daily loss limit. This depends on your platform and setup. On TopstepX, newer accounts don't have one at all. Check your own dashboard. Either way, I set my own (more on that below).
Combine profits don't carry over. When you pass, your funded account starts at $0 and builds from there.
One profile only. All your Topstep accounts have to live under one login, or they can close them.
Futures in five minutes: ES vs MES
MES moves exactly like ES, it just pays one tenth as much. That's why we start there.
Contract | Per point | Per tick (¼ point) | 8-point move |
ES (E-mini S&P 500) | $50 | $12.50 | $400 |
MES (Micro E-mini) | $5 | $1.25 | $40 |
In forex we think in pips. In ES you think in points. A point is a full number on the chart, so 6,700 to 6,701 is one point. Each point has four ticks.
How far does ES move in a day? With ES sitting in the high 6,000s, a normal day covers roughly 40 to 80 points from high to low. A quiet day can be 25 to 35. News days and selloffs can run past 100. Most of the action happens once New York opens at 9:30 AM Eastern.
Don't take my range as gospel, though. Put a 14-day ATR on your daily chart and check it every week. That's your live number.
Where the stop goes (and where the target goes)
Your stop goes where your setup is proven wrong, and your target goes twice that distance away, (unless you are trading structure.) On ES that usually lands around an 8-point stop and a 16-point target.
Here's how I translated it from forex. My EURUSD stop is 15 pips. At around 1.16, that's about 0.13% of price. The same 0.13% on ES at roughly 6,700 is about 8 to 9 points. So the stop I already trust on the euro carries over to around 8 points on ES.
Don't pick the stop by the number, pick it by the chart:
Find the spot where your setup is wrong. Just beyond the stop hunt, or past the session high or low.
Count the points from your entry to that spot. That's your stop.
Set your target at twice that distance, or at the next real level if it's closer.
The stop changes from trade to trade. What stays the same is the dollars you risk. That's what the chart in the next section does for you.
The Topstep 50K risk chart: how many contracts to trade
Find your stop distance in the left column and trade the number of micros next to it. Every row keeps you at about $120 at risk.
Stop distance | MES contracts | You risk | Target (2x stop) | You make if it hits |
4 points | 6 | $120 | 8 points | $240 |
5 points | 4 | $100 | 10 points | $200 |
6 points | 4 | $120 | 12 points | $240 |
8 points | 3 | $120 | 16 points | $240 |
10 points | 2 | $100 | 20 points | $200 |
12 points | 2 | $120 | 24 points | $240 |
15+ points | Skip it | Too wide |
The shortcut: 24 ÷ your stop in points, rounded down. That's your contract count.
Why $120? It's 6% of your $2,000 room. That means you could take a string of 16 losses before the account was in danger. You won't, because you'll stop each day long before then. But that's the point. One bad week can't end you.
Why not one full ES contract? With an 8-point stop, a single ES risks $400. That's 20% of your room on one trade. Stay on micros through the Combine.
Commissions take a few dollars per micro on each round trip. On a 4-contract trade, factor that in before you call a small win a win.
When to trade smaller
When your room shrinks, your size shrinks with it. Your room (I call it your cushion) is your balance minus your floor. Topstep shows both on the dashboard.
Your cushion | Risk per trade | Your daily max loss |
$1,500 to $2,000 | $120 (use the full chart) | $360 |
$1,000 to $1,500 | $60 (half the contracts) | $180 |
Under $1,000 | 1 MES only, or take a break | $120 |
I actually got this wrong at first. I figured once my cushion grew past $2,500, I'd size up. Then I discovered (the hard way) that the floor trails. During the Combine your cushion can't go over $2,000 until your balance reaches $52,000. So $120 is the max for the whole Combine, and the only direction this chart moves is down.
It's what keeps a rough patch from turning into a Reset fee.
What a real week looks like
A normal week at this size ends up around +$240, and that's winning only half your trades. Here's one worked through, using 3 MES with an 8-point stop and a 16-point target. Each loss is −$120 and each win is +$240.
Day | Trades | Day P&L | Balance | Floor | Cushion |
Mon | Loss, then win | +$120 | $50,120 | $48,120 | $2,000 |
Tue | No clean setup | $0 | $50,120 | $48,120 | $2,000 |
Wed | Win, done for the day | +$240 | $50,360 | $48,360 | $2,000 |
Thu | Loss, loss, loss | −$360 | $50,000 | $48,360 | $1,640 |
Fri | Win | +$240 | $50,240 | $48,360 | $1,880 |
Look at Thursday. I'm back to $50,000, but my floor stayed at $48,360. That's the trail working against me. It's exactly why the per-trade risk is small and the daily stop is hard.
And Tuesday matters too. No setup, no trade. That's a good day.
A strong week, five or six wins with few losers, lands around +$700 to $900. Mix those weeks together and you hit $3,000 somewhere around 5 to 10 weeks in.
My daily rules, and what "fast" really means
These are the rules I'm trading the Combine with:
Take three trades a day, max.
Stop after three losses, or if I've hit my profit goal.
Set every trade with the risk chart. No guessing at size.
Stay out during big news: CPI, Fed days, jobs Friday.
Never move a stop farther away.
Don't press after a green day. Your floor just moved up.
Now, about fast. I wanted to pass fast too. But safe and fast pull against each other here. One oversized day can cost you a Reset and weeks of progress. On this size account, Steady $120 trades is the fastest path that doesn't send you back to the start.
Passing gets you the funded account. That's where steady small wins turn into payouts. Get there in one piece first.
The assumptions behind these numbers
Everything above rests on a few assumptions. If yours are different, adjust.
Account: Topstep 50K Trading Combine. On a 100K or 150K, scale the risk with the bigger loss limit.
Topstep rules as of October 2026. Prop firms change rules often. Check the help center before you trust any number here.
ES price: around 6,700. The 8-point stop and daily ranges are approximate and move with the market.
Daily range: 40 to 80 points on a normal day. This is an estimate. Your 14-day ATR is the real number.
Forex comparison: a 15-pip EURUSD stop with the euro near 1.16.
Win rate in the sample week: 50%, with 2-to-1 reward to risk.
Commissions: not included in the P&L tables.
Times: Eastern. Topstep posts them in Central, one hour earlier.
This is how I'm managing my own account, not financial advice. Futures can lose you money fast, so size small and learn the rules first.
Faq
How much should I risk per trade on a Topstep 50K?
About $120, or 6% of the $2,000 maximum loss limit.
How many MES contracts should I trade on a Topstep 50K?
Divide 24 by your stop in points and round down. An 8-point stop means 3 MES.
Does Topstep’s drawdown trail?
Yes. It rises with your best end-of-day balance until it locks at $50,000.
How far does ES move in a day?
Roughly 40 to 80 points on a normal day. Check a 14-day ATR for the current number.
Comments