Isn’t the best-funded trader program one that gives you a good profit split, educates you in the process, and gives you the space to use your trading tools to generate profits?
I know it takes a lot of effort and can be overwhelming to find the best-funded trader program out there.
But you should ease your mind because today I am giving you a definitive run-down of the frontrunners in this market together with their pros and cons so that you can make an informed decision.
Best Funded Forex Trader Programs
(Editor's Choice For 2022) | - 400,000$ Trading Capital - 80% profit sharing - Forex, Commodities, Indices, and Crypto | |
- 200,000$ Trading Capital - 85% profit sharing - Forex, Metals, Indices & Cryptos | ||
- 200,000$ Trading Capital - 90% profit sharing - Forex, Indices, Commodities, Stocks, Crypto |
#1. TheFundedTrader
TheFundedTrader has three challenges to choose from, namely the standard challenge (refundable $315 for a $50,000 trading balance), the rapid challenge (refundable $299 for a $50,000 trading balance), and a Royal challenge (refundable $289 for a $50,000 trading balance). The standard and rapid plans have within them options to choose either a Swing account or Regular account.
The trading platform includes instruments that enable forex trading, commodities, indices, and crypto. The profit split starts at 80% and can be scaled up to 90% with consistent wins.
When you select the swing trading account in the Standard or Rapid challenges, you are allowed to hold trades over the weekend, and there are no minimum trading days.
For the Royal challenge, a to-be funded trader can use 1:200 leverage and a minimum of 5 trading days to achieve their targets.
All three of these challenges are industry-standard two-phasers that help show the prop firm that you are ready for a funded trader account.
#2. My Forex Funds
It’s not possible to trade stocks on My Forex Funds but you can be a part of the forex market, and trade crypto, as well as metals on the prop trading firm. There are three main plans to choose from the proprietary trading company and they are called Rapid, Evaluation, and Accelerated plans.
The Rapid plan is a good funded trader program that makes funding available instantly and only costs $99 (refundable) for $10,000 in trading capital. The drawback of this plan is that you only get to keep 12% of the profits you generate from the financial markets.
The Evaluation plan (refundable $49 for $5,000 in trading capital) is essentially an evaluation process that requires you to achieve the profit target without flouting any of the drawdown rules. This plan allows you to keep 85% of your profits once you pass the challenge.
The Accelerated plan has options for either a Conventional or Emphatic plan with the differences being in the profit targets (10% for conventional and 20% for emphatic), and the overall drawdown according to the starting account balance (5% for conventional and 10% for emphatic).
The available leverage (1:50 for conventional and 1:100 for emphatic), and the fee to be paid ($99 for conventional and $198 for emphatic to get $2,000 in trading capital) to enroll in the plan are also different but this plan has no rules regarding consistency and no daily drawdown limits.
The Accelerated plan does allow its fully funded trading accounts to retain 50% of the profits they generate.
The trading platform does not allow any trading over the weekend by turning off its servers during this time. They also only allow the use of MetaTrader 4 and 5 which might not be everyone’s trading platforms of choice.
Their scaling plan involves an increase of 150%-200% once the funded trader generates 20% profit. The trading education leaves a lot to be desired and is encompassed in blog posts instead of structured course modules.
Their customer service can be reached via chat, email, or by creating a ticket.
#3. FTMO
You have options of either picking the normal challenge (€155) or the aggressive one (€250) for funded trader accounts worth $10,000. The fee that you pay is refundable along with your first profit withdrawal when you pass the two-step challenge. Their scaling plan allows funded trader accounts to increase their capital by 25% every four months.
The prop firm allows you to trade commodities, indices, crypto, stocks, bonds, and forex so looking for your financial asset of choice should not be too difficult. During step 1 of the evaluation phase in the normal challenge, you have to achieve 10% in profits with a maximum daily loss of 5% and a maximum loss of 10% in a matter of 30 days with 10 minimum trading days.
Step 2 of this evaluation then needs you to achieve a 5% profit in 60 days with a 5% maximum daily loss, 10% maximum loss, and 10 minimum trading days. Once you get a funded account, you can retain 80% of the profits and this can rise to 90% with consistent wins.
The aggressive plan increases these daily loss percentages to 10%, maximum loss to 20%, a minimum of 20% profits in phase 1, and 10% in phase 2. The good thing is that you still have the same number of days and minimum trading days to accomplish this.
For those who are still on the fence, a dem0 trading account is available to help you out. FTMO also has one of the best educational content, an account analysis dashboard, and personalized performance coaches to help you with your risk management so you become a master of the financial markets.
It also has helpful 24/7 customer support which can be reached via phone and live chat.
Related – Best Prop Trading Firms for Begineers
#4. Fidelcrest
For trading stocks, forex, indices, and commodities, Fidelcrest is a great option and if you don’t believe me, the funded trader program was felicitated as the Best Micro Forex Trading Firm in Europe at the Forex Expo 2021.
To get a trading account with them, you need to pass a two-step challenge and you will only be paid on completing the second step. Micro trader accounts have Normal and Aggressive variants and start from €99 ($10,000 balance for the Normal plan) and go up to €549 ($50,000 balance for the Aggressive plan).
The Pro trader accounts start from €649 ($150,000 balance for Normal plan) to €2,899 (for either $1,000,000 in the Normal plan or $500,000 for the Aggressive plan). You have a maximum leverage of 1:100 to speed up your journey towards profit.
A trader can now choose between ‘Double your capital’ which applies to a funded trader looking to get a second account with the same balance and get a ‘Second chance for free’ which applies to traders that did not get through the first phase of the challenge at the first time of trying.
The rules are different for profits (5% for normal and 15% for aggressive), maximum drawdowns (10% for normal and 20% for aggressive), and profit splits (80% for normal and 90% for aggressive) when it comes to normal and aggressive accounts irrespective of whether it is a Micro or Pro account.
The support team is available for the customers, both current and prospective, 24 hours every business day.
#5. BluFx
BluFX believes that making traders pay a monthly fee allows the trading program to be more lenient in terms of time to achieve profits or minimum trading days. The four funded trader programs are swap-free (no fees charged for swaps) Lite (£139 for $25,000) and Pro (£329 for $50,000).
The plans that charge swap fees separately are Lite (£99 for $25,000) and Pro (£249 for $50,000). The monthly fee is to be paid until you become a Fund Manager by generating 10% profits three times consecutively. The funded trading programs on BluFX allow you to trade 19 pairs in the forex market and gold.
After you become a Fund Manager on the Pro package, there are no more subscription fees, no trading time restrictions, and no minimum withdrawal targets. It is a good idea to steer clear of the Lite package as it does not have a growth plan, all open trades need to be closed by Friday (9 pm UTC) and trading is also restricted between 6 am and 9 pm.
The profit split is 50/50 as the funded account is provided instantly. The lack of an evaluation process makes it easy to become a funded trader as soon as the fee is paid.
#6. City Traders Imperium
City Traders Imperium allows its funded traders to trade forex, gold, and indices on the platform (the $10,000 plan allows only gold and forex. Indices included from the $20,000 plan onwards) along with enabling its trading accounts to hold positions over the weekend and overnight, make use of Expert Advice (EA) trading, and trade during news releases.
According to how confident you are in your trading strategies, at City Traders Imperium, you have options to pick the standard evaluation (refundable fee of £119 for $10,000 and £209 for $20,000), classic evaluation (refundable fee of £109 for $10,000 and £199 for $20,000), instant funding accounts (refundable fee of £999 for a $20,000 balance), or day trader challenge (refundable fee of £109 for $10,000).
The profit split starts low at 50% but goes up to 100% if you keep generating consistent profits with your funded trader account. At City traders imperium, you are classified as a Portfolio Manager partner as soon as you either pay the fees for direct funding or pass the evaluation. The trading rules then get relaxed for you (maximum drawdown < 5% and maximum leverage of 1:10).
As you pass the evaluation your trading account increases by 400% and the scaling plan kick in every time the profit target of 10% is reached. This doubles your funded account capped at $4 million.
City Traders Imperium firmly believes in educating its traders regarding risk management and best practices when they start trading and has the education material available on its website.
#7. Topstep
A monthly recurring, non-refundable fee of $165 can get you a $50,000 initial balance to get through the two-step evaluation, but no time limit on when you need to reach the profit target (6%). The platform is very insistent on encouraging traders to have risk management rules as the loss limits are low.
By selecting the Pro account you can keep $10,000 of the profits and after that, you get 80% of the money you make. If you do want to become a funded trader on the platform, keep in mind that you are only allowed to conduct futures trading for assets listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
The scaling plan works differently compared to the other funded trader programs in a way that your balance at the end of the day determines what amount of lots you can trade the next day. For example, if the balance is less than $51,500, you are allowed to trade 2 lots at a time. With a balance between $51,500.1 and $52,000, you can trade 3 lots, and 5 lots when your balance is above $52,000.1.
Their customer service is widely considered to be the best amongst the funded trader programs that are available. Their educational resources help the funded traders hone their trading strategy and help them learn the ins and outs of the trading software.
#8. Earn2Trade
Earn2Trade allows its users to trade all the CME Futures Assets including Micro futures contracts but there is no trading forex on the Gauntlet Products. They have also halted the trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum futures due to margin requirements and extreme volatility.
The monthly fee for the Trader Career Path evaluation ($150) is non-refundable and gives you $25,000 in a demo account. On making a profit as required by the rules, trading for a minimum of 15 days within the approved times, there is no more subscription fee, and 80% can be retained by the trader.
After you become a funded trader, the rule regarding the minimum number of trading days no longer applies to you. The scaling plan allows you to work your way up to a $200,000 trading account and a fixed drawdown. Your account size increases as you reach your targets and the Progression Ladder dictates what quantities you can trade simultaneously.
The trading company has a consistency rule due to which your largest day’s net profit can not account for more than 30% of your total profit. If this does happen, there is no reason to panic and reach out to customer support. You must keep trading until this is not the case.
Less experienced traders would want to try out the Gauntlet Mini (starting with $150 for $25,000) which caters to intraday traders or the Gauntlet which works by giving the trader a $25,000 demo account to trade with, needing them to trade for 30 calendar days, and once per week in 60 days. You also need to submit your trading plan in the Dashboard and get no more than a 10% maximum drawdown.
Their webinar courses and mentorship program are hugely beneficial to the trader community and help a trader understand themselves and ensure that their trading career is not short-lived. Once you can get good results on the simulator and use the weekly mentoring sessions to fine-tune your trading psychology, you can get funding from the firm.
Their customer service is raved about online and you will be able to reach them via email, phone, or live chat 24/7. It is always good to know that the trading platforms have your back in case you have some doubts or something goes wrong.
#9. The5%ers
The low-risk and aggressive plans both start with a non-refundable €235 fee ($6,000 in funding) and you can pay up to €745 ($20,000 in funding) to trade gold and forex. These balances are 4x-ed when you achieve your profit targets (6% for low-risk and 12% for aggressive) and then you can trade with $24,000-$80,000 depending on what plan you are on.
The payout split is at 50% which is fair seeing as you get to trade with real money as soon as you pay the fee. The profit targets for scaling are set at 10% for the low-risk program and 25% for the aggressive plan. In case you can achieve these targets consistently, you can bank on The5%ers to keep increasing your funding capped at $4 million.
There is also the option to choose a boot camp model (non-refundable €85 to take the challenge and a further €215 to get funded) for receiving funding where you have to pass the three-stage challenge in a maximum of twelve months. The target to achieve in terms of profit is 6%, a maximum loss of 5% with a maximum leverage of 1:10.
The account size in these funded trading programs begins with $100,000 and can similarly scale up to $4 million. In all the funded trader programs on the platform, you can choose to use any algorithms proprietary or otherwise, trade news events, and hold trades over the weekend or overnight.
The low-risk model offers 1:10 leverage, needs mandatory stop losses, and gives you 180 days to achieve your targeted profit whereas the aggressive plan allows for 1:30 leverage, does not need mandatory stop losses, and gives you 60 days to achieve the target.
Check Out: MFF vs FTM – Which Prop Trading Firm should you choose?
#10. The Prop Trading
The Prop Trading allows traders from around the world to trade indices, forex, commodities, and crypto with 1:100 leverage. To start trading as a funded trader on The Prop Trading, you need to decide which account size out of the 5 options fits you the best. The first option is a fee of $209 (refundable with your first withdrawal) for a balance of $25,000.
A two-step evaluation phase needs traders to make 8% in profit in phase 1 (30 days long) and 5% in phase 2 (60 days long). If and when you are successful in completing the challenge, you get an 80% payout from the funded trader program. If you are not convinced yet, you have the option to use the platform’s demo account before you put down any of your own money.
On average, it takes 6 days to pass phase 1 and 9 days for phase 2 of the challenge which means that you can be ready to start trading in close to 15 days. A funded trading account earns 80% of the profits made during the trading journey and is sent to your registered account in the form of biweekly payouts.
The customer services leave some room for improvement according to the complaints regarding cycle time. The scaling plan’s details are vague, to say the least, and all we know at this point is that your funding is increased by 25% every three months which is a lot slower than the other funded trader programs it is competing with.
The platform does allow news trading, holding positions overnight or over the weekend. There is still a lack of systematic educational material on the website and you only have blog posts to try and learn from.
#11. SurgeTrader
SurgeTrader allows its fund traders to trade forex, commodities, indices, and crypto and does not have any minimum number of trading days, no number of unique trades placed, and no 30-day assessment period. All you have to do is reach the target of 10% all the while keeping the daily drawdown less than 4% and the trailing drawdown below 5%.
With $250 for $25,000 (Starter Plan) rising up to $6,500 for $1,000,000 (Master Plan) you can begin to ‘audition’ to become a funded trader with the platform. Once you do complete the single-step process, you get 75% of your profits.
The scaling plan for the funded traders includes achieving the 10% target for profit after which the company increases your funding balance. All trades do need to be squared off before Friday 3:55 pm EST and the leverage offered is low (forex traders get 10:1, as do commodities, 5:1 for stocks, and 2:1 for crypto)
As someone who wants to amp up their trading skills, SurgeTrader’s regular blogs, webinars, and message boards will come in handy to learn from more advanced traders.
Customer support has historically not been a problem for them and none of the review websites have complaints about it. You are in safe hands!
#12. FTUK
To get $3,500 in instant trading capital, you only need to put down £150 (one-time, non-refundable) and make a decision on whether your trading strategies are ‘Low-risk’ or ‘Aggressive’ and make the appropriate choice of plan. If $3,500 is not enough for you, paying £410, £550, and £950 will get you $10,000, $15,000 and $22,500 respectively.
With FTUK’s funded trader programs you can get into trading forex, indices, and commodities so you are not short of choices. If you don’t want an instant prop trading account and are more interested in passing an evaluation phase, you can put down a £119 non-refundable fee and be on your way to a 10% (low-risk) and 25% (Aggressive) target.
The profit split between you and FTUK starts low at 50/50 but the scaling plan in effect can bring it up to 80/20 in the trader’s favor if you can stay consistent with the achievements.
If you are aiming to be a successful trader, you will need the assistance of your trading platform and this is where FTUK’s team of trading mentors comes in handy. Also, the support team is available throughout the day when any issues crop up. They can be reached via live chat or email.
The low-risk plans have a maximum drawdown of 5%, leverage up to 1:50, no minimum trading days, and 180 days to get to your goals. The aggressive plans, on the other hand, have the same maximum drawdown, and no minimum trading days but higher leverage of 1:100 and 90 days to get to your goals.
Both funded trader programs allow the traders to trade into the news releases and hold positions over the weekend or overnight. You are also mandated to have a stop loss on all your trades where the loss is capped at 1.5% of the trade value.
FAQs:
– What is a funded trader program?
A funded trader program is one where you put in your own money as a fee to get access to a large trading balance so that it can be leveraged along with your skills to achieve a profit target. Once this is done, the money is split between you and the prop firm according to the predetermined profit share percentage.
In this case, you are making trades on behalf of the company and this cuts out the hassle of going through any paperwork to independently register yourself as a trader and get the appropriate licenses and certifications just to start your trading journey.
– What is the best forex-funded account?
Amongst the forex-funded accounts out there, My Forex Funds is a clear winner as its programs cater to all the strata of traders out there and help build a trader career path for them.
With a high-profit share of 85% and evaluation that costs 25% less than FTMO and a low-profit target of 8% for phase 1 and 5% to get a funded account, My Forex Funds is running a well-funded trader program.
The Accelerated plan is for seasoned traders looking for capital to start trading with and has relaxed trading rules. Even within this plan, the Emphatic variant gives you a rather large maximum leverage of 1:100 so you can use it to multiply your profits quickly. With consistent wins, the scaling plan helps you grow your account by 150%-200% every time you achieve the 20% profit target.
– How can I get funded for trading?
You can either pay an upfront fee to get access to a funded trading account instantly or go through an evaluation that has a set profit target that you should achieve in a set amount of time. Once you pass the evaluation you are given access to a live brokerage account that you can trade and make profits.
Depending on the skill set, forex traders can look toward My Forex Funds or BluFX for funding.
– How much can you make as a funded trader?
If you are great at what you do and have a good record of past performance with futures trading, you can aim for and reach the sky as long as you stay within the rules set by the funded trader program.
I wish I could give you a cold hard number that would make you salivate and register with one of the best prop trading firms from the list above. But that is not the case and the amount of money you can make depends on your trade management skills and the profit share the prop firms are ready to give you.
Something to whet your appetite is that the average earning of a trader employed at prop firms is $90,000 per year.
Conclusion
As a prospective trader looking for a trading program that will help you earn and learn at the same time, you should keep in mind that you go through the rules for your funded account or the ones that define the evaluation challenge that you need to pass to get funded.
A lot of new traders fail at this step and end up forfeiting their fees to the trading platforms.
If you are well versed with this world and the financial markets in general, a funded trading account with TopStep is a good start to proprietary futures trading.
Compared to Earn2Trade, you can pay an extra $15 (total of $165) on TopStep to get $50,000 in balance compared to $150 for $25,000.
If you are looking to trade mostly with forex funding, My Forex Funds should be the only one on your list owing to its low-profit target, and high splits of generated profit.
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