How the floor moves on Topstep
Topstep's drawdown trails at the end of each day, not intraday. The floor recalculates from your equity at the session close, so an intraday peak you give back before the close does not lower your buffer: banking profit before the close is what protects the next session.
Once the floor trails all the way up to your starting balance, it freezes there and stops climbing. After the freeze, your original balance is your hard floor.
A worked example on the Topstep 50K Trading Combine
Start at $50,000 with a $2,000 trailing limit. Close day one at $50,900: overnight the floor steps up from $48,000 to $48,900. Keep closing higher and the floor climbs until it reaches your $50,000 start: after $2,000 of end-of-day profit it locks there for good, and every dollar beyond that point is genuinely yours to risk.
What it means for your risk
Because the line trails, the floor is the single most important number on the account. Treat it as your risk line, protect new highs, and bank near targets rather than holding for the high tick: the high tick becomes your new floor.
Use the free Topstep drawdown calculator to see your exact distance to breach from your current balance, peak and limit.
- →Treat the $1,000 daily loss limit as a hard stop: size so two losers in a row never reach it.
- →Because the trailing MLL moves at end of day, bank profit and walk; giving back an intraday spike still counts against you the next session.
- →Once the trail freezes at your starting balance, your real floor is the $50,000 start. Protect it like a daily-loss line.
Figures reflect a common Topstep account at the time of writing. Firms revise rules often, so verify against the Topstep site before relying on them.
Merlin's gauges derive from closed trades. Your firm watches live equity including open positions.
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