Topstep Acquires The Futures Desk: Doubling Down on The Ultimate Trading Experience

Key Highlights

• The Futures Desk Acquisition: Topstep has officially acquired The Futures Desk (TFD), bringing together two trader-obsessed teams to build the Ultimate Trading Experience.
• Tech Integration: We’re integrating TFD’s advanced tech directly into TopstepX, giving traders more developmental tools designed to help them learn and build better habits while they trade.
• Next Level Trading Expertise: TFD Co-founders Josh Schwartzberg and Brian Ford are joining Topstep, bringing their “hard hat” mentality and deep experience in moving traders from sim to live accounts.
• Accelerating the Mission: This move is about more than growth; it’s about providing the best support, tech, and coaching in the industry to help our community get funded and stay funded.

CHICAGO, April 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — At Topstep, our mission is simple: to turn market access into a real opportunity for traders to learn, trade, and earn profits more safely, so they are better prepared to trade our money or their own. Today, we are taking a massive step forward in that mission. Topstep has officially acquired The Futures Desk (TFD).

Built for the Community
We didn’t just acquire a prop firm; we brought on a team that shares in our mission. Michael Patak, our Founder and CEO, says it best: “When you look around the prop industry, you can’t help but notice what The Futures Desk created. A place focused on developing the trader by leveraging technology, cutting edge tools and hands-on coaching. The team at The Futures Desk doesn’t care about the flash; they care about the grind. This partnership is about raising the bar for the entire trading community. Whether you’re trading our money or your own, Topstep is here to make sure you’re developing into a consistent, profitable and disciplined trader every day that you trade. With this acquisition, we will be able to accelerate our roadmap creating The Ultimate Trading Experience for any aspiring trader, of any skill level, anywhere in the world.”

What This Means for the Topstep Community

• Industry Leading Tech: Topstep will be integrating TFD’s advanced technology into the Topstep ecosystem. This means more developmental tools that help traders learn, integrated into TopstepX, the fastest growing futures trading platform.
• Expertise in Your Corner: TFD co-founders Josh Schwartzberg and Brian Ford are joining the Topstep team. They understand the grit and grind it takes to move aspiring traders from a simulator to a Live account.
• Bring to Life The Ultimate Trading Experience: This move simply adds more fuel to our fire, helping our fast growing community of traders build better trading habits, get funded and stay funded with the best tech, support and trading experience from sim to live in the industry.

“We started The Futures Desk to help traders actually learn the craft, not just chase a quick payout,” said The Futures Desk co-founder Josh Schwartzberg. “Topstep is the only place that truly shares that obsession. Together, we’re going to give The Futures Desk community and the Topstep community the deep attention and growth tools they deserve.”

The Bottom Line
To the Topstep community: Keep jabbing. We see the discipline you bring to the markets every trading day. This move is about making sure that when you step up to the plate, that besides being backed by our capital, that you are backed with the best technology in the prop trading world.

About The Futures Desk
The Futures Desk is a proprietary futures trading firm that develops disciplined traders through structured programs supported by advanced technology and thoughtful risk management. The firm provides simulated trading environments designed to reinforce consistency, sound decision-making, and responsible trading behavior, while giving traders access to modern tools that help them understand and improve their performance.

The company’s goal is to help traders build skills that last and to use those skills to responsibly manage the company’s capital in live markets.

About Topstep
Topstep LLC (“Topstep”) is a Chicago-based, but global-reaching enterprise fintech pioneer, offering trader education and performance evaluation, retail trader-focused technology solutions, proprietary funding (collectively, “Prop”), and technology-driven brokerage innovation to traders, through its broader family of businesses, in more than 170 countries. Through its integrated ecosystem, Topstep empowers traders to learn, practice, and trade the futures markets responsibly.

Topstep’s broader enterprise includes its flagship namesake Topstep (Prop), operating a simulated evaluation and funding program for aspiring retail traders and retail-focused proprietary trading firm; TopstepX, a retail-focused trading platform designed to help individual traders develop disciplined and healthy trading and risk management habits; TopstepTV, a digital media network offering real-time trading insights, education, and entertainment for the global trading community; and its newest offering, Topstep Brokerage, an introducing broker registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and a member of the National Futures Association (NFA ID#0567079).

Founded in 2010, Topstep has been globally recognized for its Trading Combine, a simulated evaluation program designed to help aspiring traders build discipline and consistency before trading live capital. With the addition of Topstep Brokerage, retail traders will now be empowered to open their own personal brokerage accounts and trade with confidence.

Topstep’s mission is simple: turn market access into opportunity to learn, trade, and earn profits more safely whether you trade our money or your own. Websites: topstep.com, topstepbrokerage.com, and topstep.tv.

A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cdbfc330-fb97-4498-8de4-e9c30c98bce2

CONTACT: Media Contact:
press@topstep.com