It’s all the craze right now, funded accounts, passing evaluations and getting the opportunity to make pretty big money, especially with the trade copier aspect that funded accounts offer.
The future world has erupted, we’ve seen influencers flexing their $100,000 months and even in some cases getting $1,000,000 payouts, but is it realistic? Is this possible or a marketing scheme?
I myself have gotten a few payouts, but a lot of my focus is on my personal account for a few reasons laid out throughout the article. Having said that, I will be looking to take focus of the funded “prop” accounts as well, and explain that!
These funded accounts that have been flooding the internet are becoming almost unavoidable, so what’s the deal here?
Do you really get access to $100,000 for the simple plow price of $50 a month? Simply put, no.
I’ll go from A to Z and everything in between when it comes to funded accounts in the futures world, what you need to know, and which ones have the potential to set you up for the possibility of success.
First, why funded accounts?
Why should anyone trade in a proprietary online funded account rather than their own money. I really like this topic because it allows you to see the good and the bad of it all. Ya that’s right, it’s not all sunshines and rainbows.
To preface, I have barely traded with funded accounts, have had some payouts, but do prefer to trade my personal account, I’ll explain why.
I am looking to add some funded accounts to the arsenal as an auxiliary source, and I’ll explain why and how I plan to trade them.
First, what we all have to understand is that props generally follow a business structure of having “evaluation stage” accounts which are all simulated accounts, you have a profit target goal to reach without hitting the max drawdown allowed for the account. With that you pay a monthly fee to participate. You don’t have a time limit to pass the evaluation but would be beneficial if you do so in a month’s time.
After passing, you are now onto the “funded stage” where you pay a one-time fee for the funded account, this too is a simulated account. However, you have the potential to actually get paid, regardless of you being in a simulated account. You have to meet the payout criteria and follow their rules to get paid out.
Eventually, you may be welcomed to trade a real funded account that is a part of a pod within the firm, but a very small number of traders make it to this stage.
Long story short you’ll be trading simulated accounts that are not the size that are advertised, you just have a max drawdown. So, in theory, you’re trading a $2,500 simulated account. (Depending on the account and drawdown).
First the good, the opportunity, and the potential about trading funded accounts:
Funded accounts are a really good opportunity for traders that are low on capital to actually get paid.
The risk is between $30-$150 per account per month, with the potential to 10-15x that investment.
Prop and funded accounts allow for copy trading, which means you can link multiple accounts together and the trades reflect on all of those accounts. Meaning you can 5-20x your profits on a daily basis.
They also have a lot of rules associated with them, which might seem like a bad thing, however this helps traders with discipline or diligence, otherwise they’re just going to lose the account and have to continuously reset, which is going to get expensive.
With a real trading plan, strategy and rules, this can be a huge benefit to a lot of traders that can milk these prop firms, as long as they follow the rules.
For newever traders, I think this is the perfect stepping stone between simulated trading and live trading your own capital. Let’s face it you’re not going to go from simulated trading to live and instantly profit and be a good trader, it’s a different world. So prop firms allow traders to hit that middle area, gain confidence, trade their system, trade by the rules (the props and their own) and finally be able to earn money from it all overall.
Now for the ugly truth about funded accounts that rub people the wrong way:
Naturally, props aren’t all sunshines and rainbows. Some of the biggest issues that traders have discussed recently have been the rules, stringency, and mainly paying traders out.
Right, the biggest issue is paying people out. Now if you play by their rules it should be enough to get paid out, however, there have been instances where they read through the lines of their own rules and deny payouts.
One of the biggest issues is the payment delays, some firms have been backed up by weeks and haven’t paid traders out. Then in some cases those traders continue to trade and blow out.
Or in other cases, which is APEX, they’ve been notoriously denying payouts without too much explanation, going as far as asking traders to send videos of themselves trading, face, hands, screen all recorded, along with explanations of their strategies.
So there is a lot that goes into actually succeeding with props.
I think one of the big factors is the sum of money a trader requests from the firm, if it’s consistent smaller amounts I don’t think there will be much of an issue. However, larger sums of money, firms are reluctant to pay out. (My opinion based on what I’ve seen)
My personal thoughts on funded accounts:
As mentioned above, I have traded a few funded accounts, have gotten paid, and put that money to other use. Nothing crazy like you see on social media of $1,000,000 payouts, but around the $30,000-$50,000 range total.
I personally don’t see much of a problem with funded accounts, but they are a little restricting with rules, most of them. I prefer to be able to trade based on my personal risk without the fear of being blocked out of the market for the day if I exceed it.
I also prefer to be able to deposit my money from my broker in my account directly the next day. However, I do think there is promise and I am going to open some accounts in prop as an auxiliary tool, which is secondary to my account.
The reason being, it’s extra money, as long as I trade by their rules and my own, decrease size, then there shouldn’t be an issue. (More on this in the sections below:My Plan for trading funded Futures Accounts (online prop firms)
What are the most popular Prop Firms? (Pros & Cons)
There are a lot of funded accounts out there and they’re all in marketing competition with each other, because let’s face it, they make money on people constantly buying accounts and blowing out, resetting and repeating that cycle. With fairly limited risk, about 10-15% of traders in funded firms actually get paid out fairly consistently, the rest of the traders fund those payouts.
Another thing to note, you cannot hold positions in the futures market between 5:00 PM EST and 6:00 PM EST with these. However you can trade RTH & ETH hours.
Here is a general table of the most popular prop firms (explanations below): ** Usually each of these props has a discount ongoing, so I’ve put in that price as well.
APEX was at the apex of prop firms earlier in 2024, and in 2023, however they’ve recently fallen from grace with a few scandals that have been surrounding the firm. Which stemmed from the April 2024 drop in the market, actually funded traders blowing out and traders abusing the system with algos.
APEX has had some more turbulent times recently, but they’re looking to keep up with the other props, and with that, they’ve just implemented as of November 2024, no more DCA rule as well as multiple monthly payout requests. Before, it was twice a month. Removing the DCA rule means that you can average into a trade, well not to martingale, but if you have let’s say 4 limits spread between 2 points on an asset then that won’t count as a breach of their rules.
One of the other aspects to get paid out, they will probably prompt a video of yourself trading for 3-days to prove it’s you and that you’re not breaching any of their rules, a little bizarre, but from what I understand you’ll have to just do it once and the future payouts should be good. If you’re a heavy hitter, you may even reach a max payout at APEX, meaning after a large sum of payouts, for example, $1,000,000 you might have to look for another firm. (This is what I’ve been told at least, please fact-check this)
Apex has a lot of influencers that peddle their platform which keeps the consistent inflow of cash coming in as people buy accounts, and blow out, then with low payouts, they retain a lot of it. It was rumored that they didn’t have the cash to pay a lot of people out so they started denying payouts. It’s a rumor, not my opinion and not to be fully true. Take that as you will, but if you follow their rules, I don’t see a reason why you cannot get paid out.
APEX has the best payout split, the first $25,000 is completely yours, and then it moves to a 90/10 split. Also after 3 months of consistent payouts, you can start paying out over the previous limits per account, eg. $50,000 is $2,000 max per payout, and after 3-months it exceeds that.
Apex Payout Rules:
A trader would need to hit their profit target goal on the chosen account, and exceed it by $100, that is the minimum allowed in the account to request a payout.
You can now request payouts multiple times a month, rather than the aforementioned twice-a-month rule.
Each account size has a maximum allowable withdrawal per withdrawal, for example the $50,000 can withdraw $2,000 at a time per account.
Once paid out, the amount is deducted from the net amount of the account and pretty much starts again. Meaning you can blow out, so it’s recommended you have a larger buffer.
Most likely you will have to send in a video of yourself trading.
TopStep
TopStep seems to be the front runner for prop firms, in terms of payouts, the speed of the payouts and their rules.
They do only offer 5 accounts however, which is much less than others, so your leverage is a little lower than for example if you could trade 20 accounts. They, like most others, have an evaluation stage, then you move into funding.
They have a Live stream on YouTube, often inviting traders that do well at the firm on, and have discussion, trade there. Along with a team of coaches at TopStep which aim to help traders, I don’t know too much about that but it’s available.
The profit split at TopStep is 100% of your payouts up to $10,000, then the split is 90/10.
TopStep Payout Rules:
Like other firms, you need to pass the evaluation stage, and then you don’t need to meet a buffer of another target goal, rather have 5 days of over $200 in profit, then you can start looking for payouts.
The caveat here is the consistency rule as well as the trailing drawdown, because your trailing drawdown will limit the amount you can withdraw.
Let’s say you’re trading a $50,000, you pass it now your drawdown funded is $47,500. If you make $200 a day for 5 days, you’re up to $1,000, meaning your trailing drawdown is now $48,500. I wouldn’t fully withdraw that amount, rather get a build up so you have a strong buffer.
The other thing is the 50% consistency rule. Meaning 1 day cannot be more than 50% of the gains that you have. If you have a gain of $1,000 one day, then $200 the rest of the 4, you’re up $1,800. However, that $1,000 day is 55% of your gains, meaning you have to trade until it’s under 50% of your overall gains. Another day of even $200 should do the trick here.
Take Profit Trader
TPT seems to have easier rules to follow, and again only 5 accounts rather than the 20 that you have with some others as a max. It’s a little more expensive and when you get to the PRO stage, you have max of 50 trades per day, when you get in is 1 trade, and when you get out is 1 trade. So if you get in with 5 lots at the same level, it’s one trade, but if you get out as 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 it’s 5 different trades. You do need at least 5 trading days to pass.The 50% consistency rule is the same as TopSteps above.
You do have an 80/20 split with them, in the PRO account, meaning you keep 80% of the gains, when you go PRO+ (this is actually funded with real money) you increase your profit split to 90/10. You will have to pay a higher fee here.
You can reset your PRO account up to 3 times without going back to the evaluation stage. TPT has the quickest move to actually funded accounts, with real money, they’ll send you an email after a few weeks or months of consistency prompting you to PRO+.
TPT Payout Rules:
The good thing about this firm is that even though they have a buffer before you can withdraw, all of the gains are effectively yours. Meaning that if you use a $50,000 account, you need to hit the $3,000 buffer, and above to withdraw because of the trailing drawdown. Effectively if you decide to leave, you can withdraw the full $3,000 and close the account.
You can also withdraw after the first day of trading, as long as the criteria are met. Meaning if I get up to $3,000 in profit with the $50,000 account, and the following day I’m up $200, I can take that $200 out that day, and repeat.
Fast Track Trading
Fast Track Trading was one of the first firms that offered straight to funded accounts for a one time fee, however this came with a lot of red flags, starting with the CEO. Recently as of early November, the firm shut down and closed down it’s Discord along with other social media. No payouts were made to traders for months and a lot of shady activity was going on behind the scenes, there are a lot of traders left without answers and this is one of the risks in the prop account business. We don’t stand behind activity like this and we want you to do your due diligence before entering a space like this.
My Plan for trading funded Futures Accounts (online prop firms)
Finally, getting to how my setup for funded accounts, I am looking to trading a few of the first, mainly a split between TPT, TopStep and FTT.
However my approach might be a little different from what you’ve seen a lot. I am trading this in conjunction with my own personal account, meaning I put more weight on my personal account and the funded accounts are going to be auxiliary. I’ll trade the funded accounts after and only if I’m satisfied with my personal account on the day.
The plan is to trade the $50,000 and $150,000 accounts, because they have the best risk to rewards amongst the accounts, in terms of the drawdown and the profit targets.
With that I’m going to severely undersize the maximum amount of lots traded. It’s a slow and steady process, trading only my ideal setups. Without gambling, and tilting trying to get funded as fast as possible or getting a payout as fast as possible.
Rather undersizing and taking 1-2 trades a day based on if the setup is present. Win or loss, leave it at that and move on.
If I’m trading a $50,000 account, the general max positioning is 5 lots, meaning, I will most likely trade 1 mini here. General max lot size is 15 minis for the $150,000 account, meaning I’ll be trading 2-3 lots and look for larger moves.
The trades I look for are based on auction theory that have a probability of a larger extension. Looking for potential trades that are 10-15 point movers on ES or 50+ point movers on NQ futures.
Just as we do at TRADEPRO Academy. Looking for 1-2 high probability trades a day, in our live room and in discord, explained. This trade was 110 pt winner on the NQ.
You can join the team and find these opportunities to learn how to navigate the markets for $149/mo for the first 2 months!
