Taking a Month Off: Should You Keep Your Prop Account?

Consider a hypothetical month away. You stop all account activity a week before departure and resume only after returning. No positions or pending orders remain. The interval to examine includes that quiet week before the trip, not just the dates on your travel booking.

CFD/FX: a one-time fee doesn't keep High Stakes open

Take The5ers High Stakes New, $100,000, while you are still in evaluation. Its listed fee is:

$405 one-time

Its evaluation requirements include:

At least 3 profitable days in each step, each with profit of at least 0.5% of the initial balance ($500). No time limit.

But the account's holding rule also sets an inactivity limit:

Overnight and weekend holding is allowed. Accounts expire after 30 days without activity.

The hypothetical gap exceeds that limit. Under the published rule, the account expires before you return. The absence of a deadline for passing does not override the inactivity condition, and the one-time purchase removes a recurring evaluation charge, not the need to keep the account eligible.

Futures: separate the subscription from the funded account

For Topstep Trading Combine Standard, $50,000, without Responsible Trading Advantage, the listed fee is:

$49 per month

Its time-limit row distinguishes the evaluation from the Express Funded Account:

No time limit for passing: the Trading Combine subscription stays active until you pass or cancel. You cannot pass in one day; you can pass in as few as two days. An Express Funded Account with no trading activity for more than 30 days may be closed.

For the Combine, a break leaves two choices: keep paying or cancel. PFW's billing guide notes that Topstep's subscription page says subscriptions cannot be paused. Stopping trading changes nothing on the bill. Check the next charge date before you leave.

On an Express Funded Account, the planned gap exceeds the quoted inactivity period and puts the account at risk of closure. Passing therefore changes what needs your attention, from evaluation renewal to funded-account availability.

Cancellation is an available action on the subscription, with its own refund conditions:

The subscription can be cancelled at any time from the Billing page, and fees are generally not refunded. Exceptions: up to one monthly renewal payment back within the first 14 days of a trader's first-ever Trading Combine if it has not been passed, and a forgotten rebill refunded if asked within 28 days of the charge and the account has not traded since.

Cancel through the Billing page and keep the confirmation: not trading is not cancelling. Of the two exceptions, the second is the one a break can trigger, a renewal you meant to cancel before leaving and didn't. Its deadline runs from the charge, not from your return, and the account must not have traded since. Ask as soon as you see the charge, and before you place any trade. It covers a renewal you forgot, not one you chose to keep paying.

Decide what is worth keeping through the break

For this break, each account has a different answer. High Stakes New cannot be kept by waiting: its inactivity limit counts from your last activity, so an untouched account expires during the trip. The Trading Combine can be kept, at the cost of the renewals that fall due while you are away. An Express Funded Account has no Trading Combine subscription left to renew, since passing ended it, but its rule gives no assurance that it will still be open when you return.

Only the Combine leaves a keep-or-cancel choice. Is the progress it holds, with your plan to resume, worth those renewals? The fee already paid plays no part in that answer. The less certain your return date, the stronger the case for cancelling, once you know what cancelling ends.

PFW's view is that a planned break should not quietly become a commitment to place trades just to keep an account open. Those trades still carry risk and may have no place in your method. If retaining the account depends on activity you do not intend to provide, address that mismatch before leaving.

The rules above do not say whether The5ers would approve an exception for this absence or what cancelling does to your Combine progress and starting again. If either answer would change your decision, ask support before you leave, giving the exact account, its stage and your dates, and keep the reply. A reply that does not address your account leaves the question open, as PFW's guide to conflicting rules explains.

Return to the account that actually exists

Before your next order, confirm the account is active, identify its stage and check the recorded balance, remaining loss buffer and unfinished requirements. If you passed just before leaving, use the account-transition check before carrying the old setup forward. A cancellation confirmation is not confirmation that you can trade again.

The useful outcome is a deliberate return plan: an account whose continued availability and cost you have established, or a clear decision to end it and revisit the terms when you are ready. A blank trading calendar alone does neither.