What are the costs in the Live Funded Account?

As a funded trader with Topstep®, you will be responsible for the cost 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. Please note that Topstep® does not profit from these fees. We are simply passing along the cost from the exchange.

Below is the cost per exchange per month, depending on the trading platform: 

Exchange

Permitted Product Tradovate, TradingView All Other Platforms
CME $122 per month $116 per month
NYMEX CL, QM, NG, QG $122 per month $116 per month

COMEX

GC, SI, HG $122 per month $116 per month
CBOT ZC, ZW, ZS, ZM, ZL, YM, MYM, ZT, ZF, ZN, ZB, UB, TN $122 per month $116 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 $464 or $488 per month. 

How can I reduce the cost of Data Fees? 

  1. 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 $116 or $122.  You can always add more data subscriptions as you build up your account. 

  2. 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 Subscriptions cost 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

These 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

Tip: See the article linked below to see a breakdown of round turn commissions and fees by platform and product to calculate the commissions and fees for your personal setup: 

What round-turn commissions and fees do I have to pay in the Live Funded Account?

 

Platform License or Subscription

In the Trading Combine®, we are able to cover the Platform feed for many of our supported platforms through our partnerships.   NinjaTrader is an example of a platform that can be used for free in the Trading Combine® but the trader is responsible for covering the platform license cost in the Funded Account®.

How can I reduce the cost of Platform fees?

  1. Choose one of the Free Platforms: 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

  2. Leverage our license discount with NinjaTrader: If you do not already have a NinjaTrader license, you can leverage our partnership to get discounts.  Check here for more information. 

 

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