As a funded trader with Topstep, you are responsible for the costs associated with running a Professional Trading Business as outlined below:
CME Professional Data Subscription:
To trade live with Topstep, you need to subscribe to Professional Data from the Exchanges. Topstep collects these data fees monthly via credit card as the Exchanges debit us directly. Topstep does not profit from these fees. We are simply passing along the cost directly from the Exchange.
Below is the cost per exchange per month, depending on the trading platform:
Exchange | Permitted Product | All Platforms |
CME | ES, MES, NQ, MNQ, RTY, M2K, NKD, 6A, 6B, 6C, 6E, 6J, 6S, E7, HE, LE, GE | $135 per month |
NYMEX | CL, QM, NG, QG | $135 per month |
COMEX | GC, SI, HG | $135 per month |
CBOT | ZC, ZW, ZS, ZM, ZL, YM, MYM, ZT, ZF, ZN, ZB, UB, TN | $135 per month |
*Due to CQG data fees, the cost per exchange per month is larger on the Tradovate platform compared to other available platforms.
In the Trading Combine, you can trade all of our Permitted Products. In the Live Funded Account, you would need to subscribe to CME, CBOT, NYMEX, & COMEX to trade all of the Permitted Products, which would cost $540 per month.
How can I reduce the cost of Data Fees?
The tips below will help to reduce the cost of Data Fees.
Subscribe to one exchange to start: A lot of our traders decide to focus on specific products and start their Live Funded Account subscribing to one exchange to reduce the monthly cost to $135. You can always add more data subscriptions as you build up your account.
Start your Live Funded Account on the 1st of the Month: The exchange does not pro-rate data fees. In other words, you cannot pay for a partial month. With that in mind, a lot of traders choose to start their accounts on the 1st of the month. If reducing cost isn't an issue for you, that is ok, and feel free to start mid-month. If you would like to start on the 1st of the month to reduce these fees, please still make your initial data subscription payment. Your data subscription will not start immediately after your payment. During your Live Funded Account onboarding, you will be asked when you would prefer to start your account.
Why are the Data Subscription costs so high with Topstep?
Whenever you are trading live capital with us, you are considered a Professional Trader in the eyes of the Exchange, and their fee structure is different for Professionals and Non-Professionals. You can likely subscribe to cheaper data through your personal brokerage account because that account is classified as a Non-Professional. You will be classified as a Professional Trader whenever trading with us in the Live Funded Account.
Round Turn Commissions and Fees
Below are the round-turn costs you will incur in the Live Funded Account, which are deducted from your brokerage account balance. This works similarly to the $3.70 round turn fee per lot calculated in the Trading Combine to emulate this professional trading cost.
Commissions & Fees: These go to the brokerages and range from $ 0.72 to $ 2.04
Exchange Fees: Set by the exchange and differ by instrument ranging from $2.46 to $4.30 for our permitted products.
Examples:
E-mini S&P 500 (ES) - $2.66
E-mini NASDAQ 100 (NQ) - $ 2.66
Crude Oil (CL) - $3.00
Gold (GC) - $3.10
Take a look at the article linked below to get a breakdown of round turn commissions and fees by platform and product to calculate the commissions and fees for your personal setup:
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Platform License or Subscription
In the Trading Combine, Topstep covers the Platform fees for many of our supported platforms, but the trader is responsible for covering the platform license cost in the Funded Account.
How can I reduce the cost of Platform fees?
To reduce the cost of platform fees, choose a free trading platform when you sign up for your Trading Combine. The list below includes our supported platforms that are free in both the Trading Combine and Live Funded Account:
Tradovate
TradingView (Basic version)
Quantower
T4
R|Trader
Use our license discount with NinjaTrader: If you do not already have a NinjaTrader license, you can take advantage of our partnership to get discounts. Click here for more information.