Topstep Trader is a proprietary trading firm that you can trade futures with firm capital. Topstep Trader has some demanding rules to trade their capital though.
- You can only trade allowed products, which is a subset of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Futures Contracts.
- You have to be flat at 4:10 pm Eastern and can't re-enter the market until 6:00 pm Eastern.
- You have to stay under the Daily Loss Limit, which is a -2% loss.
- The Trailing Maximum Drawdown of -4% loss. This never goes above your starting amount
- You have to stay within your Maximum Position Size. For a $150,000 account, this is 15 contracts that may be open at any one time across all symbols.
- You have to be flat for various economic releases, depending on what symbol you are trading.
- You have to be aware of holiday trading hours.
As you can see, the list of rules is extensive. It is very easy to break a rule and have to restart your Step 1 evaluation.
Aeromir has helpers to keep you out of the market during certain economic events and what trading hours to avoid, including holidays which can be tricky.
Economic Events
On the member home page, we have notes for Topstep economic events with a link to the relevant information about what contracts have to be flat during what economic event.
Clicking on the icon, loads the Topstep Trader Economic Events calendar with more details.
Trading Hours
On a normal trading week, the following trading hours apply:
- Sunday: After 6pm Eastern
- Monday through Thursday: Before 4:10 pm and after 6:00 pm Eastern
- Friday: Before 4:10 pm Eastern
On shortened trading days, most products have to be flat by 1:00 pm Eastern
To help keep track of these trading hours, the Aeromir member's site has options available for Topstep Traders. On the profile page, indicate that you want to see the Topstep Trader trading hours:
Once you select Yes and update your profile, you'll see a new line of information at the top of the member's web site indicating the Topstep trading hours for today.
If the market is available for trading, the text is green. If the market is closed, the text is pink. Clicking on the “Topstep:” link takes you to the Topstep page with the holiday trading hours.
Normally on Fridays
Normally on Monday through thursday
normally on sunday or holidays
normally on Saturdays and holidays
On the right side of the header, you'll see the current U.S. Eastern time like this:
These should help you avoid trading during restricted times.
Summary
Topstep Trader is a great way to trade firm capital as you have no personal risk; however, it is very demanding. The tools on the Aeromir member's website can help you stay within the Topstep Trader rules.
