ND

Seeing a lot of strange takes that Topstep has “liquidity issues” and that this is a major warning sign the prop industry is on the verge of collapse. You can say a lot about them, but unprofitability is not it. ❌ Only 16.8% of all combines pass. Of those, roughly a third ever receive a payout (absolutely terrible numbers by the way, half of that compared to if everyone were flipping coins for their trades). That means out of 100 combines purchased, around 5 get paid and 95 fail. These are odds very comparable to casinos in the long term... so cash flow is most likely not the issue. The price hikes aren’t happening because they’re losing money. They’re happening because they can. The margins weren’t high enough relative to demand, and management wants to optimize them... like any rational business would. One thing is clear, most people in the prop space don’t understand basic business. Price hikes don’t usually happen when a company is struggling. They happen when demand is strong. Look at newer firms like Lucid. Their current strategy is low prices / heavy discounts. Why? To acquire customers and gain market share. Those discounts won’t last. Once they’re established, they will reduce their current discounts offered and thus indirectly increasing price. Topstep is already established, they don’t need to compete on price anymore. The prop firm model is far more stable than people think.