ProjectX and TopstepX
Explained for
Futures Traders

ProjectX is a futures trading platform and API layer. It gives prop firms a trading platform for their funded traders and an API that lets third party tools connect to those accounts. In practice, that API is what allows software like a trade copier to read your fills and place orders on your behalf.

To use the ProjectX API, a trader subscribes to API access. That subscription is what enables linking a trading platform and generating an API key. For a copy trading workflow, the API is the part that matters most. Without API access, an outside tool cannot see your fills or route orders, so there is nothing to copy.

The important idea is that ProjectX is a platform and an access layer, not a prop firm itself. A prop firm chooses to run its accounts on ProjectX, then brands the experience under its own name. That is exactly what Topstep did with TopstepX.

TopstepX is Topstep’s professional futures trading platform, and it is built on ProjectX. Same underlying technology, with Topstep’s brand, accounts, and rules on top. When you trade a Topstep account on TopstepX, ProjectX is the engine underneath it.

The clean way to hold it in your head is two lines.

• ProjectX is the underlying futures trading platform and API.
• TopstepX is Topstep’s trading platform built on ProjectX, and it is the platform you actually place trades on.

Today, the prop firm running on ProjectX is Topstep, through TopstepX. So in practice, ProjectX and TopstepX point at the same place. If you are with Topstep, your platform is TopstepX, and Tradecopia connects to it through a ProjectX connection.

Here is the part that trips people up. In Tradecopia, a Topstep account connects as a ProjectX connection, because TopstepX runs on ProjectX. You are connecting a TopstepX account, and the connection type is ProjectX. Same account, one connection, two names.

The connection uses a ProjectX API key generated from your TopstepX account. At a high level it works like this.

1. Enable API access on your ProjectX or TopstepX account so an outside tool is allowed to connect.
2. Generate an API key from your account and copy it.
3. Add the connection in Tradecopia, choose Topstep as the firm, enter your TopstepX username, and paste the API key.
4. Confirm the account shows Connected, and it is ready to copy.

Once connected, Tradecopia treats it like any other supported account. It reads your fills on the account you trade and mirrors them to your other accounts. Want the platform specific walkthrough? See the TopstepX trade copier page, or view Tradecopia pricing to get started.

TopstepX has a few account settings that have to be right before copying works, and getting them wrong is the most common setup issue on these accounts.

• Turn off Auto OCO Bracket and Auto Position Bracket. TopstepX can auto-attach a take-profit and stop-loss to every entry, and those brackets conflict with the orders Tradecopia sends, which leads to duplicated or rejected fills. Switch both off inside TopstepX before you copy.
• Turn off TopstepX built-in replication. If TopstepX is running its own replication, its API blocks incoming orders, so Tradecopia cannot send trades to the account.
• Live accounts are not supported. Tradecopia works with TopstepX evaluation and funded accounts, not live accounts.

For the full setup and the current rule details, see the TopstepX trade copier page and the guide to copy trading on Topstep.

Tradecopia supports the platform. You connect a Topstep account through the ProjectX and TopstepX connection, and from there you can copy trades across your Topstep accounts. Tradecopia’s compatibility is decided by platform, not by firm. The supported platforms are Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Rithmic, and ProjectX, which for prop traders means TopstepX.

A few facts worth knowing before you rely on it.

• Tradecopia is for futures only. It does not handle forex, equities, crypto, or options.
• The desktop app must be running for replication to work, because execution happens locally on your machine.
• Tradecopia never places the leader account’s entry order. It mirrors the leader’s fills to your follower accounts. You place the leader’s trades manually on a live account.
• Copy trading compliance is your responsibility. Confirm that Topstep permits copy trading and third party platforms on your account type before you connect.

Once your TopstepX accounts are connected, copying across them takes a single setup. You execute once on your leader account, and Tradecopia mirrors every fill to the followers in real time.

1. Build a copy trading group in the Copy Trade tab.
2. Set your leader account, the one you trade on by hand.
3. Add your other TopstepX accounts as followers.
4. Set a quantity multiplier per follower, either 0.5, 1, or 2, so each account takes half, the same, or double the leader’s size.
5. Enable the group and trade the leader. The followers copy automatically.

You can run several groups at once, including groups that span different prop firms, as long as each group has its own leader. For the full picture, see how futures copy trading works, the guide to managing multiple prop firm accounts, and the prop firm trade copier page.