The Funded Trader Review
The Funded Trader Program is a prop trading firm. It funds traders as part of a revenue-sharing scheme. Funded Trader provides the funds traders need to trade profitably.
Many can’t afford to put tens of thousands of dollars into a trading venture. Others don’t want to do it, afraid that they’ll lose their funds. For many traders, not having sufficient funds in their trading accounts is a factor that severely limits their earning potential.
The Funded Trader Program allows such traders to circumvent this problem. And it does it well, as its users seem to appreciate its services.
Founded on May 21, 2021, as prop trading operations go, The Funded Trader Program is already something of an industry veteran. It has been around for long enough to accrue relevant feedback from its users.
The people who founded the operation are Angelo Ciaramello, Carlos Rico Jr., and Blake Olson. The name of the corporate entity behind the operation is Funded Trader LLC. We know it is a private company with 11-50 employees based in Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA.
The company offers trading and financial services and asset management.
The Funded Trader Program is not a broker. Though it may facilitate trading, it does not engage in brokerage services and does not need a broker’s license.
What are some of the selling points of the operation?
- The Funded Trader is home to a vibrant community of traders. Its Discord channel hosts around 50,000 active members. The community can help newcomers understand the rules, develop trading ideas, and learn new techniques.
- The platform fully refunds its challenge fees. Traders who make it through the two stages of the evaluation process get all their monies back.
- The Funded Trader offers a good profit split. Traders start at an 80% profit share, but many promotions allow them to start at 90% instead. Even those who start at 80% get to scale up to 90%.
- Funded Trader’s drawdowns are very trader-friendly.
- The platform does not forbid any trading strategies except those that abuse demo mode.
- The program requires a reasonable minimum number of trading days. There’s an option that doesn’t feature any minimum trading day requirements.
- One of these options is the Knight Challenge, which is a single-step evaluation without trading day requirements.
- The prices the platform features are very attractive compared to its competitors.
The Funded Trader Program Products
From the perspective of prop trading, CFDs are superior products to futures due to their availability, larger asset selection, favorable position sizing, and simple fee structures. CFDs include all costs in the spread. Futures, on the other hand, charge commissions.
The Funded Trader talks about commissions in its FAQ section. Its commissions are $3 per standard lot roundtrip on FOREX, metals, commodities, and oil. On indices and crypto, there are no commissions. These may be CFD-based products that work based on spreads instead of commissions.
According to the platform, traders can trade the assets available through their trading platforms.
- FX comprises the largest category of tradable assets. According to the available instruments sheet of the platform, traders can choose from 46 currency pairs covering major and minor pairs.
- The Funded Trader Program covers 15 indices, from the AUS200 to NIFTY50 and VIX.
- Traders can choose from WTI and Brent oil.
- The supported metals are gold and silver.
- MT5-based traders can choose from 5 cryptocurrency pairs, including BTC/USD and ETH/USD.
- Traders using the MT4 platform gain access to additional cryptocurrency pairs, for a total of 19 assets.
- MT4-based traders can also trade commodities like natural gas, platinum, copper, coffee, and cotton.
Rules
The evaluation process features three steps. Of these two, the challenge and the verification are lead-up steps to becoming a funded trader.
The First Step
The first step is a 35-day verification period during which traders must fulfill a selection of trading conditions and requirements. This step allows the platform to assess whether traders have what it takes to trade profitably and consistently. The second step is a longer verification period of 60 days.
The requirements of the challenge depend on the challenge type traders choose and the account size they’d like to secure. There’s plenty of variety at The Funded Trader in this regard.
The Standard Challenge supportsaccounts of $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, and $400,000. The regular option is the 10,000 one. The swing option is the $400,000 account. The challenge requirements for these accounts are similar across the board. They include three minimum trading days, a leverage of 1:60, and a profit target of $1,000 for the 10k account and $40,000 for the 400k account. Other challenge requirements are:
- A maximum loss of 12%, which translates to $1,200 for the $10k account and $48,000 for the $400k account.
- A maximum daily loss of 6% (meaning $600 for the 10k account and $24,000 for the $400k account.)
- There is no profit split during this stage of the evaluation.
- Weekend holding and free repeats are both allowed.
- The $10k challenge costs $129 refundable. The $400k challenge costs $1,958 refundable.
- The scaling plan allows traders to increase their balances by 25%, provided they can make at least 6% over three months.
The Second Step
The second step of the evaluation process, the verification stage, features similar requirements for the Standard Challenge, with the difference that its profit requirement is halved and, for those who make it past the first stage, it costs nothing to enter this stage.
The Third Step
After they complete the second stage, traders become funded and no longer have profit requirements to fulfill. They have their fees refunded and start receiving a share of the profit. The requirements concerning losses remain. Traders become eligible to withdraw money 30 days after their first trades.
The Rapid Challenge is a slightly different beast. Its goal is to accelerate the evaluation process. To that end, it takes a few shortcuts. It supports $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, and $200,000 accounts. Here are the requirements for the 10k account. For the other accounts, the requirements are similar percentage-wise.
- There is no requirement concerning minimum trading days.
- The challenge leverage is 1:30.
- The profit target is just $800 or 8% of the fund.
- The maximum loss limit is also 8%.
- The maximum acceptable daily loss is only 5%.
- Traders who successfully navigate the challenge can claim their first payouts in 14 days.
The $10k account costs $129, and the cost is refundable.
The Royal Challenge features accounts starting at $50,000. The other available accounts are $100,000, $200,000, $300,000, and $400,000. The $50k account costs $289 refundable.
Here’s how the Royal Challenge differs from the other challenge options:
- It requires a minimum of 5 trading days.
- The profit target is 8%, which, in this case, translates to $4,000.
- The maximum loss is 10%, or $5,000.
- The Royal Challenge allows expert advisors (MetaTrader auto traders).
- The maximum daily loss is 5%.
- The drawdown type is equity and balance.
- The Royal Challenge also allows news trading.
The Knight Challenge allows traders to skip the second step of the evaluation process, the lengthy verification. In exchange, it requires participants to prove their mettle during the first step by raising the bar requirements-wise. Those who opt for the Knight Challenge can choose from $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, and $200,000 accounts. The rules of the challenge are:
- There is no minimum trading day requirement.
- The leverage is 1:30.
- The profit target is a hefty 10%, translating to $2,500 on the 25k account.
- The maximum loss is 6% ($1,500).
- The maximum daily loss is only 3% ($750).
- Traders can use expert advisors, and the drawdown type is relative.
- A 25k account costs $189 refundable.
- Those who fulfill the requirements can grab their first payouts in seven days.
A day counts toward the minimum trading day requirement if traders open at least a position during that day, with at least an executed trade. Multi-day trades count toward trade execution as well.
The platform counts the profit target as the sum of closed positions at the end of the target period.
A 12% maximum loss requirement means the trader’s account equity can never fall below 88% of the initial balance.
Traders can repeat challenges free of charge if they fulfill all requirements except those concerning the profit targets.
Pricing Options
The cheapest funded account, the $10k Standard Challenge one, costs $129. The most expensive account is the Standard Challenge $400,000, which costs $1,958.
Between these two limits, traders can choose from a plethora of pricing options. All account expenses are refundable once the challenge is complete.
Credibility
At Trustpilot, over 7,700 people have left feedback on The Funded Trader Program. 86% of them thought the service was worthy of a 5-star rating. A further 7% gave it a 4-star rating.
Overall, the reputation and credibility of the prop trading platform are great. One of the few complaints is that the operation outgrew its support capabilities quickly, and it’s not easy for traders to get help from support sometimes.
Summary
The Funded Trader Program is one of the better prop trading programs available. It offers its traders a multitude of account and challenge options, showing impressive flexibility in its rules.
Those trading with the Funded Trader Program can secure accounts of $400,000, but the platform allows them to scale up to $600k. To scale up an account, traders must ensure that its balance is equal to its starting balance by withdrawing the profits above this limit.
