FTMO Futures Complete Guide: Automated Trading and VPS Both Officially Allowed as FX Giant Launches Futures in September 2026

※ This article is based on directly reading FTMO's official pages in a real browser on September 22, 2026. All times are given in JST, based on the period when the US observes daylight saving time. Always re-check the official site before purchasing.

📢 Advertising / affiliate disclosure: This site does not hold an affiliate link for FTMO Futures. Every link in this article is a regular link to the official site.

TL;DR: One of the few futures prop firms that explicitly permits both automated trading and VPS use

• A brand-new product launched September 1, 2026. It's a separate system from FX/CFD FTMO in both site structure and rules, with its own futures-specific FAQ and forbidden-practices page
• The forbidden-practices page states in a single sentence, "Automated trading is permitted." Evaluation and Funded accounts are treated the same
• VPS and VPN are also explicitly permitted. Among futures prop firms, only this one and FundedNext Futures state this outright. If you're running an EA 24 hours a day, this is actually the biggest advantage
• The consistency rule disappears once you reach the Funded stage. It only applies during evaluation: 40% for Growth, 50% for Pro
• Day-trading only. All positions must be closed by 5:10 AM JST the next morning, or they get force-closed
• Monthly subscription. For $50K, Growth is $119/month and Pro is $139/month. However many months it takes you to pass becomes your cost directly
• Pro is the better deal per unit of drawdown room. Per $1,000 of loss room, Growth costs $59.5/month vs. Pro's $46.3/month
• Off-the-shelf EAs are best avoided. Officially, because a "unique strategy" is required, using a third-party EA risks having your Funded account denied
• Japan is on neither the general exclusion list nor the live-account exclusion list

What is FTMO Futures

FTMO is a Czech prop firm founded in 2015 and one of the largest names in FX/CFD. That same FTMO launched a futures product on September 1, 2026.

The important thing is that the CFD side and the futures side are entirely separate systems. The site navigation is split into two tracks, "CFD" and "Futures," each with its own FAQ, forbidden-practices page, and terms. Only the futures-side FAQ URLs carry the ftr- prefix. Clicking through from search sometimes lands you on the CFD version, so check whether the URL contains futures.

The structure has 3 stages.

1. Evaluation — hit the target while staying within the rules
2. Sim-Funded — payouts start while you're still in a simulated environment
3. Live Funded — a real account funded with FTMO's own money. This is by invitation only — you don't apply for it, it's granted at the discretion of the company's trading department

Automated trading rules

"Automated trading is permitted."

The futures-specific forbidden-practices page states this under item 5, "Use prohibited automated strategies":

Automated trading is permitted. You must not, however, use any software, artificial intelligence, or automated systems that manipulate, abuse, or provide an unfair advantage when participating in the Evaluation Account or Sim-Funded Account, including high-frequency strategies and latency arbitrage. You are fully responsible for all activity generated by your automated systems, including errors and malfunctions.

What's banned is anything aimed at manipulation, abuse, or unfair advantage, high-frequency strategies, and latency arbitrage. Automated trading itself is permitted. The same page states that "these rules must be followed at every account stage," so evaluation and Funded are treated the same.

The futures-specific FAQ repeats the same policy.

Your trading style is up to you. … we have no reasons for limiting or restricting your trading strategy, whether it's discretionary trading, algorithmic trading or EAs.

VPS and VPN are also explicitly permitted

This is the biggest practical advantage.

Trading with FTMO while travelling to a different country is allowed. Using a VPN/VPS is also allowed, as long as you do not reside in a country we do not offer our services and you retain sole control over your registration.

There are only two conditions: not residing in a country where the service isn't offered, and retaining sole control over your own registration.

When this site surveyed the automated-trading rules of 28 futures prop firms, we found that many firms allow bots but ban VPS. Topstep, TradeDay, Elite Trader Funding, UProfit, and DayTraders all ban VPS use, leaving you with nothing but keeping a PC running at home. FTMO leaves this door open.

Copying between your own accounts is also permitted

Copy trading across your own accounts is permitted, provided each account independently and fully complies with all applicable rules. Copying does not pool, average, or otherwise modify the individual rule requirements of any account.

Copying from someone else's account — whether via signal service, master account, or copier, manual or automated — is banned.

There's a catch with off-the-shelf EAs

It isn't stated as banned, but it's effectively unusable.

By using a third-party EA, you risk being denied the Sim-Funded Account, since no copy trading across registrations is allowed and FTMO requires you to use a unique strategy.

If other people are also using the same EA, it can be treated as "copying across registrations," meaning you could pass evaluation and still be denied progression to a Funded account. On top of that, there's an API cap on the number of orders you can send. Any high-frequency-firing design needs to be rebuilt around this.

In short, a self-built EA is the assumption here.

Pricing and rules (confirmed September 22, 2026)

Growth: looser rules, easier to get into

Pro: wider room and a higher withdrawal cap

Shared conditions

• 90/10 profit split, no activation fee, no minimum trading days, no time limit
• Reset fees vary by plan and size: Growth $109 / $159 / $219, Pro $129 / $189 / $259 ($50K / $100K / $150K, confirmed September 23, 2026). Resetting doesn't change your billing date
• Commissions are $0.50 per side for minis, $0.20 per side for micros. Exchange fees and NFA fees are charged separately
• There's no concept of leverage (it's futures, so it's margin-based)
• You can buy unlimited evaluation accounts, but Funded accounts are capped at 3 concurrently, totaling $450,000
• News trading is allowed
• Platforms are NinjaTrader / Tradovate / TradingView. All are auto-provisioned and usable with the same credentials, switchable at any time
• On first login you must sign the CME non-professional certification

How drawdown works

Max loss uses EOD trailing and locks permanently once it reaches the starting balance.

• At the start of each trading day, it's calculated as the highest balance based on each prior trading day's closing value (or the starting balance, whichever is higher) minus the max loss amount
• Since it only moves based on settled balance, it never ratchets up from intraday floating profit
• Once it rises, it never falls
• Once it reaches the level of the starting balance, it locks there permanently

This is different from Apex-style intraday trailing (which ratchets up following floating P&L), and is more straightforward for EA operators.

Daily loss is based on the balance at the start of that day, resetting at the session open at 7:00 AM JST (during US daylight saving time). Unlike max loss, it can go both up and down.

Growth's daily loss doesn't exist during the evaluation phase and only applies softly at the Funded stage (a breach auto-closes positions and stops trading for that day). Pro is hard at both evaluation and Funded — a breach ends the account.

The schedule if you're trading from Japan

This is day-trading only. All positions and open orders must be closed by 5:10 AM JST the next morning (6:10 AM during US winter time), or they get automatically force-closed.

The main action in US stock index futures happens from 10:30 PM JST to 5:00 AM JST. That means a schedule of the market moves while you're asleep, and you close right before you wake up.

Doing this manually would wreck your life. This is exactly why VPS being explicitly permitted matters. If you can complete the close-out on a VPS, this schedule stops being a problem.

Payout rules

• 90/10 profit split
• Growth requires 4 business days of "qualifying days"; Pro requires 5 business days. Growth's condition is $150+ profit per day; Pro's is $200+
• Growth allows withdrawing up to 50% of profit above the starting balance; Pro allows up to 100%
• The per-request cap is $2,500 for Growth and $5,000 for Pro (up to $8,000 for larger sizes)
• Minimum withdrawal is $20
• At least 50% of the requested amount must be newly generated profit from this cycle. You can't withdraw purely carried-over profit from a previous cycle
• Methods are Wise, Revolut, bank transfer, Visa Direct, and Mastercard Send

Once you move to Live Funded, after clearing a one-time buffer, it becomes daily withdrawals with no cap. However, market data fees apply (one exchange's worth is covered by the company).

Can you use this from Japan?

Yes.

• Japan is not on the general exclusion list (about 100 countries)
• Japan is also not on the live-account exclusion list (41 countries), meaning you can progress all the way to the live stage
• You must be 18+ and an individual only (corporate accounts are not allowed)

That said, the site UI is in English. The language switcher includes Czech, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and French, but not Japanese. Support, on the other hand, covers 21 languages, including Japanese.

Reputation

• Trustpilot 4.8 / 52,613 reviews. No rating suspension
• Officially stated cumulative payouts of over $650M, over 4.5 million customers, 140 countries, 11 years since founding
• Note that in 2025, the FTMO Group acquired the international broker OANDA. OANDA Prop Trader has since been discontinued, and its domain now redirects to FTMO. However, FTMO Futures runs on NinjaTrader and Tradovate, and OANDA is not mentioned anywhere in the futures FAQ, terms, or blog

Pros and cautions

Pros

• One of the few futures prop firms that explicitly permits both automated trading and VPS use
• The consistency rule disappears at the Funded stage. The longer you run it, the more this pays off
• EOD trailing locks in the starting balance. You're not thrown around by intraday floating profit
• No minimum trading days, no time limit, no news restrictions
• A scale of 52,613 Trustpilot reviews and 11 years of operating track record

Cautions

• Monthly billing. However many months it takes you to pass becomes your cost directly. Cheap if you clear it in one month, but if it takes 4 months, it costs more than double what a one-time-fee competitor charges
• Day-trading only. No holding positions overnight
• Funded accounts capped at 3 concurrently. Fewer than something like Apex's 20 accounts
• Off-the-shelf EAs are effectively unusable
• Live Funded's terms aren't public. You'd need to email support for a sample, and the automated-trading rules at the live stage are not disclosed
• Commissions are billed separately

FAQ

Q. Can I really run a bot?

The official forbidden-practices page states, "Automated trading is permitted." What's banned is anything aimed at manipulation, abuse, or unfair advantage, high-frequency strategies, and latency arbitrage. There's no distinction between evaluation and Funded.

Q. Can I put it on a VPS?

Yes. The official FAQ explicitly states, "VPN/VPS is also allowed." There are only two conditions: not residing in a country where the service isn't offered, and retaining sole control over your own registration.

Q. Should I buy Growth or Pro?

Pro is the better deal per unit of drawdown room. At $50K, Growth costs $59.5/month per $1,000 of loss room, versus $46.3/month for Pro. The target-to-room ratio is also easier for Pro at 1.0x, compared to 1.5x for Growth. In exchange, Pro's daily loss is hard, and the evaluation consistency requirement rises to 50%. If you can manage your own daily loss, Pro is the more rational choice.

Q. Can I use an EA I bought?

You'd be better off not to. It isn't stated as banned, but because a "unique strategy" is required, the official FAQ explicitly states that using a third-party EA risks having your Funded account denied. A self-built EA is the assumption here.

Q. Can I buy this from Japan?

Yes. Japan is on neither the general exclusion list nor the live-account exclusion list. The UI is in English, but support is available in Japanese.

Q. Are the rules the same as FX-side FTMO?

No. The CFD side and the futures side have entirely separate FAQs, forbidden-practices pages, and terms. For example, the CFD side caps EA server requests numerically at 2,000 per day, while the futures side has no such numeric limit. Don't buy the futures product assuming FX-side habits carry over.

Reference links (official)

• FTMO Futures product page
• Forbidden practices (source of the "Automated trading is permitted." clause)
• Trading objectives and rules
• How it works (Evaluation → Sim-Funded → Live Funded)
• FAQ: Which instruments and strategies can I use
• FAQ: VPN and VPS
• FAQ: Supported platforms
• FAQ: Who can join

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