Not to be dramatic, but choosing the wrong prop trading firm can sink your trading career and make you wish you never got into prop trading.
They are not all created equally, and not all of them have your best interests in mind.
So today, I’m going to rank each top firm from best to good. (The bad firms don’t belong here).
Here are the topics we are going to cover:
Let me just go straight to the point and announce the current winners first. You can check all the details later in this post including several other interesting alternatives.
There was a tie in two categories, so congrats to the winners for being so competitive:
Now let’s dig into all the 24 top firms that survived this study. You’ll understand what makes them good in making your life easier and what they could improve.
After analyzing dozens of firms, reading hundreds of reviews, and putting thousands of lines of information on spreadsheets, I carefully selected the prop firms I believe have the best potential to let you prove your trading skills and be your partner in your career as a trader.
It was designed to be smooth to read, by identifying the key points of each firm, but also the pros and cons of trading with them.
REVIEW SUMMARY
FTMO is a Forex prop firm, located in Prague, Czech Republic. It was founded in 2015. Read the full FTMO review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Stocks, Crypto.
Max balance: $2,000,000
Profit split: up to 90%
Cost: from €155
Platforms: MT4, MT5, cTrader, DXtrade.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
FundedNext is a Forex prop firm, located in Ajman, UAE. It was founded in 2022. Read the full FundedNext review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Crypto.
Max balance: $4,000,000
Profit split: up to 90%
Cost: from $32
Platforms: MT4, MT5, cTrader.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Take Profit Trader is a Futures prop firm, located in Orlando, Florida, USA. It was founded in 2022. Read the full Take Profit Trader review
FEATURES
Instruments: Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Interest Rates Futures, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $150,000
Profit split: up to 90%
Cost: from $150/month
Platforms: TradingView, NinjaTrader, Tradovate, Rithmic, Volfix, ATAS, Quantower, TradeNavigator, MultiCharts, MotiveWave, RInvestor, Bookmap X-Ray, Jigsaw Daytradr, Finamark.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
My Funded Futures is a Futures prop firm, located in Texas, USA. It was founded in 2022. Read the full My Funded Futures review
FEATURES
Instruments: Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Interest Rates Futures, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $150,000
Profit split: 90%
Cost: from $80/month
Platforms: TradingView, NinjaTrader, Tradovate, ATAS, Quantower.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Apex Trader Funding is a Futures prop firm, located in Austin, Texas, USA. It was founded in 2021. Read the full Apex Trader Funding review
FEATURES
Instruments: Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $300,000
Profit split: 90%
Cost: from $137/month
Platforms: TradingView, Web, NinjaTrader, Tradovate, Rithmic, Volfix, ATAS, Quantower, SierraChart, MotiveWave, Bookmap X-Ray, Jigsaw Daytradr, Edgeclear, Finamark.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Funded Trading Plus is a Forex prop firm, located in London, UK. It was founded in 2021. Read the full Funded Trading Plus review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Crypto.
Max balance: $2,500,000
Profit split: up to 100%
Cost: from $119
Platforms: MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView, MatchTrader, DXtrade.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
HyroTrader is a Crypto prop firm, located in Bratislava, Slovakia. It was founded in 2023. Read the full HyroTrader review
FEATURES
Instruments: Crypto Spot, Crypto Futures, Crypto Options.
Max balance: $1,000,000
Profit split: up to 90%
Cost: from $89
Platforms: Proprietary, Web.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
FTUK is a Forex prop firm, located in USA. It was founded in 2021. Read the full FTUK review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Commodities, Crypto.
Max balance: $6,400,000
Profit split: up to 80%
Cost: from $99
Platforms: MT5, MatchTrader, DXtrade.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
The Trading Pit is a Futures, and Forex prop firm, located in Liechtenstein. It was founded in 2021. Read the full The Trading Pit review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Stocks, Crypto, Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Interest Rates Futures, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $5,000,000
Profit split: up to 80%
Cost: from €99
Platforms: MT4, MT5, NinjaTrader, Rithmic, Volfix, ATAS, SierraChart, MotiveWave, Bookmap X-Ray, Jigsaw Daytradr.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Elite Trader Funding is a Futures prop firm, located in Florida, USA. It was founded in 2022. Read the full Elite Trader Funding review
FEATURES
Instruments: Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Interest Rates Futures, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $300,000
Profit split: 80%
Cost: from $80/month
Platforms: TradingView, NinjaTrader, Tradovate, Rithmic.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
E8 Markets is a Forex prop firm, located in Dallas, Texas, USA. It was founded in 2021. Read the full E8 Markets review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Stocks, Crypto.
Max balance: $400,000
Profit split: up to 100%
Cost: from $33
Platforms: MT5, cTrader, MatchTrader.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
TradeDay is a Futures prop firm, located in Chicago, USA. It was founded in 2020. Read the full TradeDay review
FEATURES
Instruments: Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $250,000
Profit split: 90%
Cost: from $99/month
Platforms: TradingView, NinjaTrader, Tradovate, Jigsaw Daytradr.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Crypto Fund Trader is a Crypto prop firm, located in Switzerland. It was founded in 2024. Read the full Crypto Fund Trader review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Stocks, Crypto Spot, Crypto Futures.
Max balance: $1,280,000
Profit split: 80%
Cost: from $55
Platforms: MT5, Proprietary, Web.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
UProfit is a Futures prop firm, located in Texas, USA. It was founded in 2019. Read the full UProfit review
FEATURES
Instruments: Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Interest Rates Futures, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $200,000
Profit split: up to 80%
Cost: from $89/month
Platforms: NinjaTrader, TigerTrade, OptimusFlow, InsideEdge Trader, Volfix, Overcharts, Medved Trader, Quantower, QST, ScalpTool, TSLAB, TradeNavigator, SierraChart, MultiCharts, Photon, MotiveWave, Bookmap X-Ray, Agena Trader, Collective2.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
TopTier Trader is a Forex prop firm, located in Miami, Florida, USA. It was founded in 2021. Read the full TopTier Trader review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Crypto.
Max balance: $2,000,000
Profit split: up to 90%
Cost: from $65
Platforms: MT4, MT5.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Bulenox is a Futures prop firm, located in Delaware, USA. It was founded in 2022. Read the full Bulenox review
FEATURES
Instruments: Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Interest Rates Futures, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $250,000
Profit split: 90%
Cost: from $115/month
Platforms: NinjaTrader, Rithmic, TigerTrade, OptimusFlow, InsideEdge Trader, Volfix, ATAS, Overcharts, Medved Trader, Quantower, QST, ScalpTool, TSLAB, TradeNavigator, SierraChart, MultiCharts, Photon, MotiveWave, RInvestor, Bookmap X-Ray, QScalp.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
City Traders Imperium is a Forex prop firm, located in UK. It was founded in 2018. Read the full City Traders Imperium review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Crypto.
Max balance: $2,000,000
Profit split: up to 100%
Cost: from $39
Platforms: MT5.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Audacity Capital is a Forex prop firm, located in London, UK. It was founded in 2012. Read the full Audacity Capital review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities.
Max balance: $2,000,000
Profit split: up to 85%
Cost: from $129
Platforms: MT4, MT5.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Trade The Pool is a Stocks prop firm, located in Israel. It was founded in 2016. Read the full Trade The Pool review
FEATURES
Instruments: .
Max balance: $160,000
Profit split: up to 70%
Cost: from $97
Platforms: Proprietary, Web, EdgeProX.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
TickTickTrader is a Futures prop firm, located in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in 2022. Read the full TickTickTrader review
FEATURES
Instruments: Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Interest Rates Futures, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $100,000
Profit split: 90%
Cost: from $145/month
Platforms: NinjaTrader, TigerTrade, OptimusFlow, InsideEdge Trader, Volfix, ATAS, Overcharts, Medved Trader, Quantower, ScalpTool, TSLAB, TradeNavigator, SierraChart, MultiCharts, Photon, MotiveWave, RInvestor, Bookmap X-Ray, Jigsaw Daytradr, Agena Trader, QScalp, Track N Trade, Collective2.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Traders With Edge is a Forex prop firm, located in Hong Kong. It was founded in 2022. Read the full Traders With Edge review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Stocks, Crypto.
Max balance: $3,000,000
Profit split: up to 80%
Cost: from $55
Platforms: MT4, MT5, MatchTrader, DXtrade.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Earn2Trade is a Futures prop firm, located in Sheridan, Wyoming, USA. It was founded in 2017. Read the full Earn2Trade review
FEATURES
Instruments: Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Interest Rates Futures, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $400,000
Profit split: 80%
Cost: from $150/month
Platforms: NinjaTrader, Rithmic, InsideEdge Trader, Volfix, ATAS, Quantower, QST, ScalpTool, TradeNavigator, SierraChart, MultiCharts, Photon, MotiveWave, RInvestor, Bookmap X-Ray, Jigsaw Daytradr, Finamark, QScalp.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Lux Trading Firm is a Forex prop firm, located in London, UK. It was founded in 2020. Read the full Lux Trading Firm review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Stocks, Crypto.
Max balance: $10,000,000
Profit split: 75%
Cost: from £299
Platforms: MT5, TradingView.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
Leeloo Trading is a Futures prop firm, located in Montana, USA. It was founded in 2019. Read the full Leeloo Trading review
FEATURES
Instruments: Equity Futures, Foreign Exchange Futures, Agricultural Futures, Energy, Interest Rates Futures, Metals Futures.
Max balance: $300,000
Profit split: up to 90%
Cost: from $26/month
Platforms: Web, NinjaTrader, Rithmic, OptimusFlow, Volfix, ATAS, TradeNavigator, SierraChart, MultiCharts, MotiveWave, RInvestor, Bookmap X-Ray, Jigsaw Daytradr, EdgeProX.
PROS & CONS
What I like:
What could be improved:
REVIEW SUMMARY
SuperFunded is a Forex prop firm, located in Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 2021. Read the full SuperFunded review
FEATURES
Instruments: Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities, Stocks, Crypto.
Max balance: $200,000
Profit split: up to 90%
Cost: from $129
Platforms: MT4.
A Prop Firm, a short form of Proprietary Firm, is a company that engages in the activity of prop trading.
So, what the hell does that mean?
Traditionally, when you want to invest or trade, you do it with your own money. You go to a brokerage firm and ask for advice, and you can even have a broker deciding what to trade and taking the trades for you. These typical brokerage firms charge a commission for their work or keep a percentage of the gains to them.
The solution is good if you don’t know how to trade, and especially, if you have a good amount of capital which can eventually translate into good returns over time.
Now, let’s say that you do know how to trade but you lack capital to fund a decent trading account.
How can you solve that problem?
That’s the hole that prop firms are filling.
See, these firms have a lot of capital, and they are willing to share it with traders like you. They give you a piece of their capital, and you trade it using your own trading style.
How does that sound to you?
In my opinion, it’s a great solution. You have the skills, they have the capital. You both are useful to each other. It’s a win-win situation.
Now you’re thinking: How much do I get from my trading results?
Well, that depends on what they are willing to give you. Typically, the profit share starts at around 50% but most of them are at about 80%-90%.
You, the trader, keep the majority of the gains
But things don’t end here.
Prop firms want you to succeed. When you’re trading funded accounts with their real money, your success is also their success. And most of them invest in making you succeed.
How?
Well, they give you access to a lot of tools and education.
From sophisticated trading software, that helps you to trade fast and precisely, to a lot of top-notch analysis tools, they provide you with everything.
And the best part is that usually, everything is free.
The only exception comes to some futures trading platforms. Although futures prop firms frequently give you licenses to some of the most popular platforms like NinjaTrader or Tradovate, if you wish to use other platforms you must have a license for them.
In the case of the Forex/CFDs prop firms, the platforms are always free. The most popular are MetaTrader (4 and 5), cTrader, DxTrade, and MatchTrader.
The firm wins when you win, so they have their interests aligned with you. For this reason, they also frequently give you mentorship, support, and access to education provided by experienced traders.
If you need to learn about a particular trading strategy, they teach you.
If you want to use a different trading platform, they have tutorials.
If your risk management is not the best, guess what, they force you to be!
Force? Isn’t that drastic?
Well, no because risk management is crucial when trading. If you don’t have it you won’t survive much time playing this game.
That’s the reason why they have a set of specific rules you need to comply with. The most important are the daily losses or daily drawdown, and overall losses or overall drawdown.
You need to trade without violating those rules, and all starts with the Challenge or Evaluation phase.
Have you ever been in a job interview?
I’ll assume that most likely yes.
Business owners always like to know who they are hiring first, to understand the capabilities of the candidate and how good he is for the job.
When it comes to prop firms, it’s no exception to the rule.
But there’s a difference. You don’t get interviewed directly.
Instead…
You’re put in a simulation.
That’s right. The best way they have to evaluate your capabilities is to test you and see how you perform.
And that test, on a simulated trading scenario, is called the challenge or evaluation. Although a few prop firms fund traders without challenges, the majority will require you to pass one.
Curious to know how these challenges work?
Then keep reading…
A prop firm challenge may have one or two phases. That’s the most common at least. Three-phase challenges also exist but they are very rare.
Think of them as a computer game.
First, you need to beat the bad guys with your ammo. The ammo is your simulated trading account, and the bad guys are the other market participants.
When you start making money consistently, it means that you’re beating them and your account is increasing in value.
So the first rule of a challenge is always to achieve a minimum amount of profit.
Next, you need to preserve your health, or in this case, your wealth.
If you get too much damage from your opponents you get weak, and you die. The damage represents the losses on your trading account.
I’ll tell you a secret:
No one makes money without losing money at the same time, so you need to be able to deal with it.
The losses are counted in two different ways: daily losses and overall losses.
This is the second main rule of your challenge, avoid exceeding a maximum daily loss and a maximum overall loss. Depending on the firm, these losses can be measured from a static point of view or as a drawdown.
In the case of the first one, daily losses, you must guarantee that your account doesn’t exceed a maximum pre-determined loss in a single day. You always need to survive to live another day, so don’t let your account get hit too hard.
Then we have the maximum overall loss (or drawdown). Think of it as an accumulation of losses from different days.
If you get hit too many times and you don’t heal, your character from the computer game will die.
When trading, it’s the exact same thing. Even if you only lose small bits of your account per day, you need to be able to recover those bits at some point. Otherwise, your account will just trend to zero. For this reason, your trading skills must keep your account away from this maximum drawdown limit.
That’s how you are forced to have good risk management.
Depending on the firm, the challenges may have a maximum time to complete, as well as a minimum.
The maximum time is a rule that has been disappearing over time. It didn’t make much sense actually. Results from trading have a random distribution, and cannot be forced. When you’re put in a situation where you’re forced to achieve a certain profit target in a limited amount of time, things don’t tend to work very well.
The minimum time to trade makes sense in my opinion. No one can evaluate if someone is a good trader after just a couple of trading days. It’s easy to get luck, even if you don’t know much about trading, and perform well during a short period. Despite that, a lot of prop firms have a really small number of days to qualify, which is an advantage to you.
What about the costs?
Nothing good comes without some cost, even if it’s minimal.
And prop firms are no exception. All these challenges, support, infrastructure, …, have a cost to them. So you must pay your part when you’re taking the challenge.
The most common way is an initial fee.
The fee depends on the size of your trading account and varies a lot from from to firm. If you want to have an idea, the fees are about 0.5%-1.0% of the account size where you’re doing the evaluation.
For example, a $500 fee can easily give you access to a $50,000-$100,000 account. That’s a small price to pay since you have the potential to recover that on a single trade after you get funded.
Oh, and I almost forgot, frequently the fee is reimbursed to you later when you start getting payouts.
And that’s the next phase.
Once you pass the challenge phase, you’ll finally get your deserved funded trading account.
All profits that you make with this trading account will be shared between you and the proprietary firm. Typically the trader gets the bigger chunk of the profits, which can go up to 90%.
During this phase, the rules are pretty much the same as you had in your evaluation. Although you may not have a target to achieve, you still have to maintain good risk management to keep your balance above the maximum daily and overall losses.
And finally the best part.
Yes, there’s an even better part.
Can you guess what can be better than receiving a funded account to trade?
Your account scaling in size!
Your initial account size is just the beginning.
The computer game continues, level by level.
When you keep performing well, the prop firm may increase your trading capital in steps. Every couple of months or so, they evaluate your performance, and your funded capital may easily double.
This means that you need to take much smaller risks to make the same amount of money. Or that you can keep risking the same (in terms of money), while your returns can potentially double.
How cool is that?
Above in this article, there’s a list of the best prop firms, with links to detailed info about how to pass each prop firm challenge.
Are you ready to take your challenge?
Proprietary firms make money when you make money.
When you trade using an account funded by them, your profits will be shared with the prop firm, although typically the trader gets the bigger piece.
Prop firms also won’t let you deviate from good trading and good risk management.
Why?
Because if you lose, you are also losing their own money, and of course, the company doesn’t want that.
There is a set of rules that you need to follow, especially when it comes to risk management. If you take a big risk or if you go into a big drawdown, your account may be closed and you’ll need to pass the prop firm challenges again. So, don’t ever forget to set your stop loss, and calculate and respect your maximum lot size to avoid trouble.
Most prop firms that you see out there are legit, but as with everything where you put your money, it’s always better to check first.
All the firms that I have on my lists in this website were checked by me, so you can have an extra degree of confidence that you’re trading with a legit prop firm. They are the absolutely best prop firms out there and are updated regularly as new players come into the market.
They are registered companies, usually based in the US, UK, or UAE, although there are many others based in other places, like the EU or some parts of Asia.
There’s nothing wrong with trading for multiple prop firms. Unless, of course, any of the firms that you are trading with require you to trade just for them.
But that’s not the case, at least I never saw any firm that had that requirement, and if they exist, that would be very rare.
This will depend on your personal situation.
You should ask yourself first:
“How much money do I have to trade VS how much money can I get from a prop firm to trade?”
See, the top prop firm’s accounts can go from as low as $5k up to millions of dollars.
In theory, the bigger the size of your account, the more money you can potentially make from trading.
So, if you only have a small amount of money to trade, you’d be potentially better off using it to get a funded account from a prop firm.
See, when traders try to grow a small account very aggressively, it doesn’t tend to work well. It’s much better to risk much less, with an account from a good prop firm, and get those bigger payments without sweating.
Now I want to hear from you.
Did I miss any prop firm on the list? Which one?
Let me know below in the comments.
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View Comments
I have experience but need fund.
Just choose the firm from the list above that fits your needs and apply.