How to Trade a Topstep (TopstepX) Account from Sierra Chart

Want the setup walkthrough? The video, the seven setup steps, and the real monthly cost are in Sierra Chart to TopstepX: The Free Trade Copier, Set Up Step by Step. This post covers the rules: which Topstep accounts allow it.

How to trade a Topstep (TopstepX) account from Sierra Chart's chart and DOM — with a free open-source mirror — and exactly which Topstep accounts let you automate, in Topstep's own words.

If you want to trade a Topstep account but you want to do it from Sierra Chart, you've hit the wall everyone hits: TopstepX is the only platform Topstep onboards new accounts on, and Sierra Chart has no native connector to it.

Here's the short version, since it's what you came for. TopstepX's order surface is the ProjectX Gateway API. A small program on your machine can hold that API in one hand and Sierra Chart in the other. You click the trade on the Sierra Chart DOM, exactly as you would on any other account, and the mirror copies that order into your TopstepX account. You keep the chart, the footprint and the ladder you actually read the market on. Topstep gets the order.

That's it. That's the whole trick, and the script that does it is free.

But there's a second half to this post that matters more than the wiring, and almost nobody covers it honestly: which Topstep accounts are actually allowed to do this. The answer is not "all of them," it changes at the exact moment you start succeeding, and getting it wrong can cost you an account.

The distinction the whole thing turns on

There are two completely different things people mean by "automating a prop account," and every rulebook in this industry treats them differently.

• A copier mirrors a human decision. You place the order. Software carries it somewhere else. You are the one deciding what trades, when, and how big.
• An automated trading system generates the decision. A strategy decides, and software executes without you.

The script in this post is the first kind. It has no strategy in it. It cannot open a position on its own — there is nothing in it that decides anything. It watches for an order you placed and copies it. If you walk away from the desk, nothing happens.

I'm being pedantic about this for a reason. When you read a prop firm's automation rules, that line is what those rules are about, and it's the line most posts blur.

Which Topstep accounts allow automation

Topstep's rules are stage-gated, and they tighten at exactly the point most people assume they'd relax. Straight from Topstep's help center:

The Live Funded Account page carries these two sentences side by side:

"Automated strategies are permitted, but Topstep cannot help set them up or troubleshoot them."

"Automated trading via the ProjectX API is prohibited in the LFA."

Read together: automation isn't categorically banned on a Live Funded Account, but the ProjectX API route is — and for a TopstepX account, that's the only route there is. Topstep is TopstepX-only for new accounts, so there's no Rithmic side door.

The pattern underneath it: a firm restricts automation to protect a simulator, not a market. The Combine and the XFA are simulated environments the firm carries risk on, so they police behaviour there. Once you're on a live brokerage account, their exposure changes shape. Topstep resolves that by closing the API at the live stage.

The part nobody tells you: the call-up is not declinable

This is the fact that changes how you'd plan around any of this.

The Express Funded Account is simulated but pays real money. It's also not somewhere you get to stay. From Topstep's own FAQ:

"No, it is not possible to stay in an Express Funded Account and decline to move to a Live Funded Account. Once our Risk Managers determine you're ready to move to a Live Funded Account, your options are to make the switch from Express to Live or close your Express Funded Account."

When the call-up lands, all of your Express accounts close.

So follow the chain: you automate an XFA, which is permitted. It works. Topstep's risk team notices and calls you up. Your XFAs close, you're on an LFA, and ProjectX API automation is now prohibited. The permission ends precisely when the strategy starts working well enough to be noticed — and you can't decline the promotion without closing the account.

That's not a ban. It's a fuse. Know it's there before you build an income plan on top of it.

Where a manual mirror sits, honestly

Here's the part I'm not going to pretend to have settled for you.

A manual mirror is a human clicking and software relaying. It is genuinely unclear whether that counts as "automated trading via the ProjectX API" under the LFA rule, and Topstep has not published an answer to that specific question. Any blog telling you confidently which way it goes — including this one — is guessing.

What I can tell you without guessing:

• On the Combine and the Express Funded Account, automated strategies are explicitly allowed, so a mirror that doesn't even generate orders is comfortably inside the rules.
• On the Live Funded Account, the ProjectX API is named specifically. If you're on an LFA, email Topstep and get an answer in writing before you run anything through the API. One email, and the ambiguity is gone.
• The risk of guessing wrong is your account, not mine. Confirm it.

One more rule that catches people: your own machine only

Topstep's API access policy is explicit:

"All trading activity must originate from your personal device. The use of VPS, VPNs, and remote servers is prohibited by Topstep's Terms of Use."

Remote infrastructure can do historical data storage, research and backtesting, and read-only dashboards. It cannot place, modify, cancel, trigger or relay an order.

So: run the mirror locally, on the machine you're trading from. That's how it's built and that's the only compliant way to run it. If a paid bridge product is running your orders through their cloud, that's not a convenience feature — it's a rule violation with your account on the line.

All quotes above retrieved 2026-08-30. Prop rules move; check the linked pages before you act on them.

What the mirror actually does

Strip it down and it has three jobs:

There's no AI in it, no black box, no "proprietary engine." It speaks Sierra Chart on one side and ProjectX on the other, and it runs on your desk. The reason I keep belabouring how simple it is: simple is the point. The moment someone sells you this as a mysterious product with a monthly subscription, they're charging you rent on a piece of plumbing you could own outright.

Why I'm giving it away

Because it's plumbing, not edge.

What makes money in this business is your edge — the validated logic that decides when to buy and sell, and the discipline that proves it isn't an overfit curve. That's the hard part, and it's the part I keep private and build carefully. Moving an order from Sierra Chart to Topstep is not that. It's a solved engineering problem, and charging a recurring fee for it is exactly the kind of thing this desk exists to call out.

The rule across everything at OPTD: the methodology is free, and so is the plumbing. What's paid is the validated research tooling. A mirror script contains zero alpha. Handing it to you costs me nothing and saves you a subscription.

That's also the difference between an operator and a vendor. A vendor sells you the pipe and hopes you never look inside. An operator hands you the pipe, because the pipe was never the valuable part.

Setting it up

1. Check which stage you're on first

Combine or Express Funded: you're inside the rules. Live Funded: stop and get Topstep's answer in writing before you connect anything. This step is first for a reason.

2. Get your TopstepX (ProjectX) API key

Enable API access in your TopstepX dashboard and generate a key. That key authenticates every request the mirror makes on your behalf. Treat it like a password — it can place orders on your account, and Topstep does not reverse errant orders caused by your code or a third-party bridge.

The API subscription is $29/month, or $14.50/month with the code topstep — a permanent 50% discount, so don't pay full price by accident.

3. Run the mirror on your own machine

The code is in its own repo on GitHub. Clone it into your Sierra Chart folder, put your API key in the env file, and run python manual_bridge.py --doctor: it checks your credentials, config and contract ids, and prints the exact outbox path to paste into the study. Build the Manual_Mirror study in Sierra Chart, add it to the one chart you trade from, then start the bridge with start-bridge.bat. The README walks every step.

It runs on the machine you trade from. Not a VPS, not a cloud box, not a remote server — see the personal-device rule above.

4. Trade on a Practice Account first

There is no ProjectX sandbox. Topstep's own recommendation is to point a Practice Account at the same endpoints, so that's your dry run. Place a few orders in Sierra Chart, watch them appear on the TopstepX side, confirm size and direction match, confirm a cancel cancels. Do that before a single evaluation dollar is involved.

5. Know what happens when something dies

This is the step the bridge sellers leave out of the demo, because it isn't sexy and it's where the risk lives.

A mirror has one failure mode that matters: the two sides disagreeing. Your Sierra Chart side thinks you're flat and TopstepX thinks you're long two. That happens on a disconnect, a rejected order, or a fill that arrives while the link is down.

• Know how to flatten TopstepX by hand, from the TopstepX interface, without the mirror. Practice it before you need it.
• Reconcile before you trust it. Positions match, or you stop and find out why. Never assume the two sides agree because they did five minutes ago.
• Fail flat and safe. If the link drops mid-trade, the answer is never "probably fine."

If you take one thing from this post: the mirror is a convenience, not a safety system. You are still the risk manager.

What this does not do

Let's be honest about the boundaries, because the ads won't be.

It does not give you an edge. It has no idea whether your trades are any good — it copies them faithfully either way. It doesn't validate anything: whether your setup survives out-of-sample, whether your fills are realistic, whether the "edge" is real or a data artifact. That's the work that happens before you ever place the trade, and it's what this desk is actually about.

And it doesn't decide anything. That's not a limitation, it's the design. You wanted Sierra Chart's chart and ladder in front of you because you're the one reading the market. The mirror just stops the platform from being the reason you can't.

FAQ

Does Topstep allow automated trading? On the Trading Combine and Express Funded Account, yes — automated strategies via the TopstepX / ProjectX API are explicitly permitted. On the Live Funded Account, automated trading via the ProjectX API is prohibited. It's stage-gated, and it tightens at the live stage. See the table above with links to each of Topstep's own pages.

Can I use the mirror on a Live Funded Account? Unclear, and I won't guess for you. The LFA rule names ProjectX API automation; a manual mirror is a human clicking and software relaying, and Topstep hasn't published a ruling on that specific case. Email them and get it in writing before you connect an LFA.

Can Sierra Chart connect to Topstep directly? For charting and data, yes. For placing orders on a TopstepX account, no — that requires something that speaks the ProjectX Gateway API, which is what this script does.

Can I run it on a VPS? No. Topstep requires all trading activity to originate from your personal device; VPS, VPNs and remote servers are prohibited by their Terms of Use. Run it on the machine you trade on.

How do I get a Topstep API key? Enable API access in your TopstepX dashboard and generate a key. A dedicated step-by-step is coming in the connection guides.

What does the ProjectX API cost? $29/month, or $14.50/month with the code topstep — a permanent 50% discount.

Is the script really free? Yes, and it stays free. It's execution plumbing, not an edge. Paid bridges charge a monthly fee for the same wire. What's paid on this desk is the validated research and backtest tooling, never the plumbing.

Do I need to know C++? No. You need to be able to install a study and run a program with an API key. Nothing in this asks you to write code.

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Get the mirror. Free, open source, MIT: github.com/drewautomates/optd-sierrachart-topstepx-mirror. Test it on a practice account before you trust it. For how the rest of the one-person desk gets built, the newsletter is below. Free method, free plumbing, no signals, no hype.