Funded trader programs are a great tool to eliminate some risks from trading. You can only lose the program fees which are negligible considering to risks taken on in fully funded trading accounts.
The best way to leverage these opportunities is by entering trader evaluations when they are on sale.
This deals page will keep an eye on the current sales in a fast-moving funded trader program environment. Some sales are better than others, we will help you sort through them.
Funded program deals and coupon codes usually provide the best value around the holidays. Markets picked up in volatility before Christmas and during FOMC announcement time. Market volatility likely caused many traders to fail their evaluations. More failed trader evaluations made funded trader program specials even more generous.
These are the best deals we have seen in a while. Great at full price, but now a must-buy even for experienced and well-funded traders. Great way to get leverage small fee into multiple thousand drawdown account and prop firm trading opportunities.
Funded Trader Program Deals
Best deals in futures and forex funding, deals as good as 50% off on regular basis, and 80%+ specials during holiday exclusives. Let’s check out the best of the deals
UPROFIT 40% off all account sale Discount code: SAVE40, available by going through the exclusive link in the title 10 days to funding End of Day Drawdown Futures Trading New site format and large program sizes Fast withdrawals without minim days trader! Rated #1 Futures program by funded program value | |
Bulenox Trader Funding 35% Discount code SAVE35 to save 35% on all account 10 days to get funded – choose EOD or trailing account type Keep 100% of first $10k in profits Check Bulenox May Sale for 70% codes | |
Fidelcrest Prop Firm Currently running a very special deal Follow the exclusive link above and get a free account with any purchase of trader evaluation Start earning commissions while still in evaluation – up to $25,000 evaluation commissions 175+ Products, Forex, Crypto, Commodities, Metals. Crypto and Crypto Crosses Normal and Aggressive risk accounts BOGO deal is incredible, wont last long | |
E8 Trader Funding Code REB8 to save 8-10% on refundable fee Currently ranked Best Funded Trader Program Refundable fee, 2 days to funding. Stocks, Forex, Commodities, VIX, and Crypto 7 days a week Read full review of the program: E8 Trader Funding In-Depth Review | |
Trader Career Path 40% Off Trader career path program, start for $90 and follow trading career ladder up to $200k account with $6k static drawdown. Learn more about Gauntlet by Earn2Trade program | |
APEX TRADER FUNDING 50% off all program sale Code XMAS50 can be applied to all programs Multiple programs allowed (up to 20) Apex leader in live drawdown programs, full program overview: Apex Funding | |
FTMO TRADER FUNDING Static Drawdown! Drawdown never trails up. Forex, Exotic Forex, World Indexes. Commodities, Stocks CryptoCurrencies 7 days a week. Rare Sale 10% off thru the exclusive link above. Live account scaling up for good performance. Full program overview | |
OneUp Trader Futures Funded Trader evaluation 15-day evaluation Same Day live account payouts No Data fees in evaluation or funded program OneUp Discount Code: KEX3X2A for 15% off See Our One Up Trader Review for full program details | |
LeeLoo Trading is constantly running promotions up to 98% off. Follow exclusive link to see live deals on their page or subscribe to Funded Trader Info for latest deals from around the industry LeeLoo program details | |
TopStep Trading Combine | TopStep is running 20% off all funded trader programs for future and forex traders. |
Trading Program Deal Review
E8 Trader Funding leader in funding space right now. Static drawdown puts it head and shoulders above the rest right now.
FTMO – Very diverse product selection. One-time refundable fee. Rare coupon code to get 10% off all evaluations. Static drawdown in the evaluation and funding accounts. Account parameters scaled up by 25% quarterly for good trading performance.
Gauntlet by Earn2Trade is currently the leader at the End of Day drawdown category of funded trader programs. Any time they offer a deal as good as 50% off, it is pretty much guaranteed to be best in the category, see a comparison of recent program sales Gauntlet Earn2Trade vs TopStep Trading Combine
Apex is a leader in live drawdown space:
Apex deal of 50% is pretty amazing AND you get a chance to enter into a drawing for 10 $100k funded accounts for doing absolutely nothing extra. It is most likely to be the best deal in the live drawdown funded trader program category unless LeeLoo offers deals of more than 50% during the Days of Christmas Sales.
TopStep currently has a 20% off deal for new accounts, but with Gauntlet going for 50% off, unless brand loyalty, there is no need to consider TST which has worse rules than Earn2Trade.
While trading futures and Forex in the funded trader programs significantly reduced risk for traders, it is still important to be familiar with the risks involved, please familiarize yourself with Disclosure and all the risk agreements of funded trader programs.
Making the Most of Funded Trader Deals
The trading style will dictate which funded program is right for you. During these big funded trader sales, it might be worth considering adjusting the trading style to utilize the opportunity to turn small fees into a trading career.
Profitable live traders can generally negotiate conditions in their favor with most of these funding partners.
Multiple accounts can be purchased with trading program coupon codes for Gauntlet, Apex, LeeLoo, and a few others. We have previously covered Maximum Leverage option where aggressive traders can try to get access to millions in margin for few thousand.
A more common use for funded program sales is to use multiple account options to your advantage. In this example, we will look at Gauntlet Mini by Earn2Trade trader evaluation program – the leader in EOD drawdown space.
Click here to visit the exclusive deal page for Gauntlet Mini trader funding and follow along
Funded Trader Program | Virtual Size | Price | Profit Target | Max Drawdown | DD/$ | Profit/DD |
GAUNTLET | 25000 | 150 | 1750 | 1500 | 10.0 | 1.17 |
GAUNTLET | 50000 | 170 | 3000 | 2000 | 11.8 | 1.50 |
GAUNTLET | 75000 | 246 | 4300 | 2750 | 11.2 | 1.56 |
GAUNTLET | 100000 | 316 | 6000 | 3500 | 11.1 | 1.71 |
GAUNTLET | 150000 | 350 | 9000 | 4500 | 12.9 | 2.00 |
If a single program is on sale it will have an advantage over others. Stacking multiple accounts on sale vs purchasing a larger account will provide the best value.
What if all funded accounts are on sale? Let’s take a look at the above charts with trader program parameters and two added columns, which we consider key metrics in describing value:
- Drawdown Per Dollar (DD/$) – Amount of drawdown per dollar in program fee paid. Key takeaways is that the larger the account the more drawdown per dollar trader gets. However that does not make it the best value or maximized path to funding because of pesky
- Profit to Drawdown Ratio (Profit/DD) – The bigger the account the more profit is required to make per dollar in drawdown. Thanks to multiple accounts it is possible to significantly improve conditions for trader.
Improving the value of a funded trader account deal example
Gauntlet Trader evaluation 150k virtual account that gets you $4500 in drawdown if $9000 profit target is achieved:
- Pure value method. 3x 50,000 virtual accounts. Total Profit target is still $9k. But you get $6,000 or $1500 more in drawdown to do it.
- Less Profit but more Drawdown method. 2x $75,00 virtual accounts. Profit target $8,600 or $400 less than 150k account. Total Drawdown $5,500 or $1000 more. So now you have opportunity to get more funding for achieving lower profit target.
Apex Trader Funding deals
Currently running generous sale offering 50% off all accounts with code XMAS50. For sake of this example we will take a look at full prices at Apex:
Virtual Size | Price | Profit Target | Max Drawdown | Profit/DD | DD/$ |
25000 | 147 | 1500 | 1500 | 1.0 | 10.2 |
50000 | 167 | 3000 | 2500 | 1.2 | 15.0 |
75000 | 187 | 4250 | 2750 | 1.5 | 14.7 |
100000 | 207 | 6000 | 3000 | 2.0 | 14.5 |
150000 | 297 | 9000 | 5000 | 1.8 | 16.8 |
250000 | 517 | 15000 | 6500 | 2.3 | 12.6 |
300000 | 657 | 20000 | 7500 | 2.7 | 11.4 |
Apex allows the discount to be applied to up to 20 accounts. Surely we can find a way to maximize opportunity here.
What jumps out right away is that the biggest account is by far the worst value. Example of replacing 300k funded trader value account:
150k account appears to offer the best value in drawdown per dollar, so let’s see how 2x 150k accounts compare to one 300k account:
- Cost – It is actually cheaper to get multiple accounts.
- Profit Target – two 150k accounts would need $2000 less in profit to achieve funding
- Drawdown – 2x 150k will have $2500 more in drawdown
Pretty straightforward. $2500 more in drawdown and $2000 less in profit target for a lower price. See for yourself at Apex Trader Funding
Funded Trader Deal Combos
Pros:
- Better Value in one or multiple evaluation parameters
- More drawdown
- Lower profit target
- Larger Contract size
- Spread out risk – if one account fails the other one could still go on to receive funding. An insurance against inadvertent rule violation.
Cons:
- Have to switch between logins and potentially trading software to execute in different accounts that are part of your bigger trader funding operation via value search.
- Cost is usually a bit higher. Spending few dollars more on thousand more in drawdown could be the difference in surviving in funded environment and not.
- Live trader fees. If program requires you to pay fees in live environment, you could possibly have to pay for multiple accounts.
We are building out a funded trader program deal tracker that will automate the process and make it very easy to find deals to take advantage of all the specials.
Still unsure if funded trader programs are right for you? Let’s take a look at all the the uses, pros, and cons.
Who are Funded Trader programs for?
Who are funded trader programs for? What is the best way to maximize these programs? Are funded trader programs a scam? Many questions surround the world of trader funding.
Let’s start from the beginning and look at the biggest questions of the trader funding world. You can decide for yourself if participating in evaluation programs is right for you. Hamster wheels or career kick-starters? The Funded Trader
Who can be a funded trader?
New Trader
Most obvious participant in the funded trader programs. Can start with free trials first, get a feel for the trading software, and scout educational materials available with many of the programs. Chance to introduce some risk management structure early on.
Data and software in the future space can be pretty pricey, many times it is cheaper to participate in funding programs that offer platforms and data feed for free.
Novice Trader
Started getting a grip on the markets and developing strategy but was not yet ready to jump all the way in by funding a brokerage account. Trading in funded trader programs with near-unlimited profit potential for a relatively small fee is perfect.
Underfunded Trader
A trader who has a solid plan and track record. But currently unable or unwilling to put money behind trading as liquidity is necessary somewhere else. In as few as 2 days (Best Funded Trader Program) can have the live funded account up and running after completing evaluations at fraction of the cost.
New Strategy or System Trader
Allocating money to a new strategy is always exciting and scary. Do you trust your bot on the AWS server executing at night while you are away from the keyboard? Is the strategy that you back-tested in a strong bull market going to perform when conditions change? What if your system has errors. It is better to find out in a funded trader environment. Just make sure you pick the one that does not have rules affecting your system.
Opportunist Trader
Some of the Trader Funding Deals are too good to pass up. Especially around big holiday sales. Treating these funded trader accounts as OTM options of sorts, pay a relatively small fee, quickly pass and have access to more money. With the growth of these trader funding companies, there is some serious leverage available even for well-funded traders.
Trader seeking a career
Trader funding has prop firm trading partners who take over after trader evaluation is complete. Performing well in that environment will not only make you money but open up future career paths.
Trader Funding vs Alternatives
Funded vs SIM
Sim in Forex is usually very free. However, in futures platforms and data can be costly. Paying for evaluation programs allows a chance at funding while developing trading skills. In most of the funded programs, it is also possible to trade on SIM account and not the main account.
Most importantly – SIM will be very unlikely to trigger emotions as a live position would. Trading in SIM can lead to some bad habits and disrespecting the risk associated with high leverage trading. While online prop programs are not quite like live trading, there is more on the line than SIM.
Funded trading vs micros
Micro futures contracts have been an amazing way to reduce risk. Even a 1NQ contract can regularly have a $6000+ range. Breaking up positions into MNQ contracts allows for more flexibility. Is it a better way than participating in online prop evaluation?
That depends on the person. If you like to trade small on the side for some extra money or learn to trade with less leverage, micros are great.
Traders aspiring to make trading a career will eventually have to use minis and probably several per position.
The optimal path is dialing in risk management with micros and jumping into funded accounts and applying the same trade management to full-size contracts. It will provide lower upside and downside versus just trading micros.
Funded trading vs saving
Saving money to fully fund an account is fine, assuming the trader has strategy and risk management dialed in.
Screen time is important to stay in tune with the markets and to adjust to the current environment. Being completely away from the markets to save might disconnect traders from the markets a bit.
Both are probably the answer. Evaluations can be done for $77. Keep one active to be in touch with the markets. And if it works out. Enjoy the funded account.
Additional Uses for Funding Exams
The original purpose of the evaluations is great, but there are different ways a trader can approach these programs
- Get Right. Trading can often be brutal. One bad decision can lead to account being blown up and worse – a margin call. It is very unusual for traders to regroup and just go back to trading perfect style after taking huge losses. Big losses beget risk taking to “get back” money taken by market. Sometime it works, most of the time it ends up ending up in account wipe out. Taking some of the remaining money and taking the opportunity to regroup in the funding environment can be great pause a trader need. Can also result in funding. It can be done for even big size traders. Not that having access to that many contracts to vulnerable trader is good, but access to almost a thousand futures contracts can be had across all evaluation programs. So even big traders could benefit form regroup and get right pause.
- Hedge. Use funded account to hedge against positions in your live account or your main funding account with other programs, you will be surprised how often hedges outperform main accounts. Main accounts getting beat up sucks, but not as much if funding is coming from online prop shops.
Cons of Funded Trader Programs
- For-profit funding business try to maximize profits. Rules that might seem useful on the surface, more often that not punish the trader to generate more fees for the firm.
- News trading – important to be aware of important releases and potential volatility. Wiping out weeks or months of progress because 1 micro ES was on during the resale is a bit too much.
- Some programs calling themselves “$500,000” but imposing weekly loss limit of 0.3%. Traders who want to develop skills will likely want to trade whatever day of the week they can, not pay fees to sit out.
- Developing bad habits by trading to cater to prop firm rules instead of own strategy
- $1 in balance from the day before could mean 100% change in available leverage. Trader could be punished for violating scaling plan. Having too much size can indeed be dangerous. Losing months of progress because of one scaling plan violation is extreme. If your strategy requires 4 contracts to trade, pick evaluation that allows to trade necessary size the whole time.
- Many pros believe it is important to turn off profit and loss, and just focus on the charts. If your subscribe to that theory, and would like to approach the markets that way, please do not subscribe to trader exam that has 8 different kinds of draw-downs as well as profit limitations .
- If you would like to let trading positions “work” and use stops for market to take you out. Do not subscribe to combine that has a trailing drawdown – making money and being punished in available drawdown department is no way to trade. Of course everything has a price, live trailing program has unbeatable deal, it might be worthwhile to slightly adjust to leverage few hundred bucks into five figure drawdown.
Most of the cons are related to improper evaluation account sizing and too many rules. Select an account that allows you the freedom to trade and learn how YOU would like.
Years and even decades of trading do not guarantee profitability. Participating in trader exams significantly lowers the downside and risk. If you are a superstar trader, the fact that the first 3k profits came in a virtual environment will not hurt your trading career.
To make these programs even better be sure to shop around, finding the best deals on programs that fit your trading needs is a fantastic way to kick start a trading career.
Good Luck
Trade Well