So now you feel more confident in your trading skills and are looking to step your game up in terms of how much capital you will have access to. The obvious answer is proprietary trading firms, but there is a gluttony of these platforms with very little to choose between them.
This article brings to you precise information regarding the factors that will aid you in making a more informed decision and hence the best decision for your needs.
Traders Central Fund is a Canadian prop trading firm that started operations in 2020, while FTMO is a more established firm and has been operating since 2014.
While TCF requires you to KYC before you start trading any of the accounts, the Instant or the Challenge, FTMO only requires KYC once you pass their two-phase challenge and before getting access to a live account.
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Traders Central Fund vs FTMO: Trading Instruments
Traders Central Fund makes it possible for its traders to trade all forex pairs, cryptocurrencies, indices, stocks, and metals in their Instant account, but the Challenge account only allows Gold and Silver where metals are concerned. The rest of the instruments are still available with the Challenge account. You can take your pick and start trading.
FTMO has what most traders are looking for in terms of trading instruments. They will allow you to trade all major forex pairs, metals, commodities, indices, cryptocurrencies, and bonds.
Account Types & Maximum Account Size
Traders Central Fund has two types of accounts, the first being the Instant account which, as the name suggests, gives you a trading balance as soon as the appropriate fee is paid. The other type is the Challenge account which has two phases and can be completed in a minimum of 20 days.
The maximum ‘initial’ account size for both these types is $50,000, and with their scaling plan, you can manage a portfolio worth $2 million if you consistently make the right moves.
FTMO only has one way to get to a live account which is the two-phase evaluation challenge where you can select the Normal or Aggressive variant depending on your trading style. You have 30 days for Phase 1 and 60 days for Phase 2, and you must reach your profit targets in these times without breaking any of the rules.
Once you achieve the targets, you need to select whether you want the Normal funded account or the Swing funded account, where the latter allows you more leeway in terms of holding your trades over the weekend, overnight, or even during the release of major financial news.
FTMO’s maximum account size is initially limited to $200,000, but with their scaling plan, this can be increased to $400,000, after which there is no more increase as the platform has opted to put a hard cap on it.
100k Account Challenge / Evaluation Prices & Period
There is no way to start the Traders Central Fund Challenge account with a $100,000 trading balance, but you can get to this amount with Stage 2 of their scaling plan.
This will require you to make a 10% profit on your $50,000 account, after which the platform will top up your balance to make it $100,000.
The $50k Challenge account can be started by paying the original fee of $235, but if you are lucky, they might be running a discount that will only need you to pay $200.
You will need to trade a minimum of 10 days in both Stage 1 (30 days) and Stage 2 (60 days), so you can essentially get access to a funded account in 20 days if you work within the rules.
FTMO’s $100k Challenge account will cost you €540 for the Normal variant and €1,080 for the Aggressive one. In both these variants, you will have 30 days in Phase 1, and 60 days in Phase 2 with 10 minimum trading days.
If you have not violated any of the other trading rules, you will get access to the chosen $100k account at the end of Phase 2.
100k Account: Challenge Rules
The Challenge account on Traders Central Fund has a few rules that you should aim to not breach. The platform has no tolerance for copy or group trading as a prop trading firm’s risk management strategy is often based on diversification and this is the antithesis of that strategy.
If it is the first time you are caught group/copy trading, you are given a warning and allowed to proceed, but the second time you are judged to have done it, your account is closed.
Additionally, the platform prohibits strategies like High-Frequency Trading, Martingale strategy, or automated news-based trading. Using any of these will cause the closure of your account and the voiding of any profits/withdrawals if there are any.
To pass the challenge, you should be able to make an 8% profit in Stage 1, and 4% in Stage 2 at the time allotted to each of the phases. The fee paid for the Challenge is refunded along with the first profit withdrawal from the account.
FTMO’s Normal challenge requires you to earn 10% profit in Phase 1, and 5% in Phase 2. If you select the Aggressive variant, the profit targets are doubled to 20% in Phase 1, and 10% in Phase 2.
Your one-time fee paid to take the challenge is refunded along with your first profit withdrawal. FTMO does not limit your trading style and you are allowed to follow your strategy including EAs, hedging, or discretionary trades.
Traders Central Fund vs FTMO: Profit Sharing Ratio
With the Instant Funding accounts on Traders Central Fund, you have a profit share of 60% in your favor, while with the Challenge accounts, you can earn 85% of the profits you earn.
This profit share does not increase with their scaling plan and the only thing that increases is the trading balance that you control.
FTMO pays you 80% of the earned profits once you complete the two-phase challenge. Along with your first withdrawal, you will also receive a refund of the fee paid for the challenge. If you keep doing well with the live funded account, this profit share is increased to 90% in your favour.
Traders Central Fund vs FTMO: Scaling Plan
The Scaling Plan at Traders Central Fund works similarly for both the Instant Funding and the Challenge accounts. For every 10% profit target that is achieved, the trader’s account balance is increased to the next Stage.
For the Instant funded accounts, your account can reach a maximum trading balance of $1 million, whereas you can get to a maximum of $2 million when the account belongs to a Fund Manager.
FTMO’s Scaling Plan only increases your balance every four months by 25% with a hard cap of $400,000. This only happens if you keep achieving your profit target of 10%. One of the major rules of the scaling plan is that the user should have processed at least two payouts in the four months that are up for review.
Allowed Leverage & Max Daily Drawdown & Total Drawdown
The Instant account of Traders Central Fund only allows maximum leverage of 1:50, no maximum daily drawdown, and a total drawdown of 5% relative to equity. With the Challenge account, the maximum leverage is 1:200, with no maximum daily drawdown, and a total maximum drawdown of 10% again relative to equity.
FTMO’s Normal challenge has a maximum allowed leverage of 1:100, the maximum daily drawdown is 5% of the trading balance, and the total drawdown is fixed at 10%.
The Aggressive challenge allows a leverage of up to 100x, and the maximum daily drawdown and total drawdowns are doubled when compared to the Normal challenge and are fixed at 10%, and 20%, respectively.
Traders Central Fund vs FTMO: Trading Hours
With both the Instant Funding and Challenge accounts on the Traders Central Fund, you are allowed to open trades at any time of the day and hold these positions over the weekend, or overnight. This is one of the prop firms that does not have any restrictions on when trades can be created on any of the accounts available on the platform.
When it comes to FTMO, the trading hours are dependent on the kind of account that you, as a trader, subscribe to. In the Verification or Challenge phase of the FTMO Challenge, you are allowed to hold your trades over the weekend, overnight, or during the release of macroeconomic news.
With the completion of the FTMO Challenge, you will need to choose whether you want access to the Normal Account or the Swing Account.
The Normal one is the one where there are restrictions on your trading hours where you need to have no positions going into the weekend or if the rollover time for the instrument you are trading is greater than a couple of hours.
If you select the Swing Account, you will have the option to keep your positions open going into the weekend, hold them overnight, or during the time when financial news is being released.
Traders Central Fund vs FTMO: Payout/Payment methods
The only rule you need to take care of before you request a payout on Traders Central Fund is that your account is in net profit once commissions and swap fees are removed.
Once this is true, you can request a payout on the 14th and 28th of every month and get paid out in either a Bank Transfer or in Crypto (BTC, ETH, USDC, or USDT).
For FTMO, you will need to choose a Profit Split Day on the platform, which can be changed up to three times and will ensure that you get paid on the same day every time. With a new account, you need to wait 14 days before you can request a payout.
Traders Central Fund vs FTMO: Allowed EAs & Rules
On the Traders Central Fund platform, EAs are allowed in both the Instant and Challenge accounts as long as they do not use the martingale strategy. EAs are also allowed to use virtual/hidden stop losses on the platform, which you do not see with a lot of prop trading firms.
FTMO also allows the use of EAs and discretionary bots for you to make money on the platform. They aim to not place any restrictions on what strategies their traders can use when they are aiming to be profitable, including hedging, and algorithmic trading.
The only thing they ask from their traders, you included, is that the trading is ethical and replicable on live corporate accounts.
Traders Central Fund vs FTMO: Trading Platforms
On both the Traders Central Fund programs, the Challenge, and the Instant Funding options, you will trade with the industry standard Meta Trader 5, but the firm makes it a point to mention that Meta Trader 4 can be made available if requested by the user.
FTMO has more options in comparison to the trading platforms available on TCF. You can choose to use any trading platform between Meta Trader 4, Meta Trader 5, or cTrader, according to whichever one holds your fancy and makes you feel the most comfortable.
Conclusion
If you are supremely confident in your trading skills and are looking for the most amount of capital to manage along with no trading restrictions on any of the accounts, Traders Central Fund is your go-to firm as the maximum size of the account can go up to $2 million with their scaling plan.
Although the profit split at FTMO starts low at 80:20, with the right decisions, it can be increased to 90:10, which is one of the highest in the industry and more than the 85% promised after passing the two-phase Challenge at TCF.
Also, the Swing Account choice after passing the challenge is a major perk for any swing trader looking to work their magic.
Based on this information, you are now free to choose between both these amazing platforms and make yourself some money.
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