🔍#Comparisons
28 articles
FTMO vs. FundedElite: Which Should You Buy? | A 1-Year Simulation of 5 Plans Under the Same Assumptions Puts FTMO 1-Step on Top, With FundedElite's Lite Putting Up a Good Fight [September 2026]
A 1-year Monte Carlo comparison of FTMO (2-Step / 1-Step) and FundedElite (2-Step / 2-Step Lite / 1-Step), run strictly to the official rules of each. Covers expected value at 0.5%/1%/1.5% risk per trade and 50–58% win rates, plus the differences in EA rules, refunds, free retries, and coupons.
FTMO vs Hantec: Which Should You Buy? Hantec Is the Only One Whose Max Loss Line Rises to the Starting Balance on Payout. FTMO Wins on Expected Value, and 1-Step Is Best If You Cap Daily Loss at 2.5% [September 2026]
We compare FTMO (2-Step / 1-Step) and Hantec Trader (Enhanced / EnhancedX / Endurance) on official rules and calculate expected value with a one-year Monte Carlo simulation. Hantec Enhanced's max loss line rises to the starting balance on your first payout. Includes a survey of post-payout drawdown behavior across 8 two-step firms.
[September 2026] Expected Value Summary: 5 Futures Prop Firms Where Self-Built Bots Are Allowed — TradeDay and Topstep Win at Zero Edge, Bulenox/Topstep/Tradeify Win With Edge
A summary comparing $50K accounts at 5 futures prop firms where automated trading is allowed 'self-built only, with conditions' (Bulenox, Tradeify, TradeDay, The Trading Pit, Topstep), run through identical Monte Carlo simulations. At 0.30 lots, one micro gold trade per day, over 1 year: at zero edge, TradeDay Quick Pay Intraday (+$2,522) and Topstep (+$2,519) are tied for the top. At 'medium' edge, Bulenox Qualification (+$25,529), Topstep (+$24,982), and Tradeify Select Daily (+$24,218) lead. None of them reach Category A's (fully automated OK) leader, FTMO Futures Pro (+$4,836 at zero edge). The Trading Pit is the only one that explicitly allows VPS; TradeDay and Topstep ban it.
[September 2026] Expected Value Roundup: 6 Futures Prop Firms That Allow Automated Trading | FTMO Futures Pro Wins at Zero Edge and With an Edge
A roundup comparing every plan at 6 futures prop firms that officially allow automated trading (FTMO Futures, FundedNext Futures, MyFundedFutures, Lucid Trading, BluSky, FFN) under the same Monte Carlo conditions. At $50K, 0.30 lots, 1 micro gold trade a day, over 1 year: at zero edge, FTMO Futures Pro wins with +$4,836 a year, followed by BluSky Propel at +$2,988. At 'medium' edge, FTMO Pro still wins at +$26,306, but FFN STEADY, MFFU Rapid EOD, and Lucid Daily all cluster around $24,000. Only FTMO and FundedNext explicitly allow VPS.
FTMO Futures vs Topstep: FTMO Wins on Expected Value, Topstep Wins on Monthly Cost. If You're Running a Bot, VPS Access Is the Deciding Factor [September 2026]
We re-confirmed the rules on both the futures prop leader Topstep and FTMO Futures, which entered the market in September 2026, on September 23, 2026, and compared them. The monthly fee is less than half at Topstep, but running the same lot size through evaluation to payout for a year gives FTMO Futures Pro the higher expected value ($50K, zero edge: +$4,836 vs. +$2,519). Covers activation fees, the fact that you can only withdraw 50% of the balance, an optional daily loss limit, resets that shift your billing date, VPS eligibility, and running a bot on a live account.
The5ers Futures vs FTMO Futures: Comparing Two FX Giants' Futures Launch by Automated Trading Policy [September 2026]
The5ers and FTMO have both launched futures products. On September 22, 2026 we measured prices and rules for every size on both official sites. The decisive difference is automated trading: The5ers' FAQ states outright, "algorithmic trading is strictly forbidden, and users will be banned from our programs," while FTMO states, "there is no reason to restrict discretionary trading, algorithmic trading, or EAs." FTMO also explicitly allows VPS and VPN, which puts it ahead of the dedicated futures firms if you plan to run an EA around the clock. We line both up against the same 26 US futures props on cost per unit of loss buffer, EOD drawdown, the scope of the consistency rule, and payout caps.
E8 Pro vs E8 One: Which Should You Buy? Comparing "Static 8% + 2%/day cap" vs "Dynamic 6% + 40% Consistency" at the Same $366, for Both Smoothed and Spiky P&L [September 2026]
E8 Markets' E8 Pro (static DD 8%, daily 2.5%, daily profit cap 2%, payouts are 50% of profit and the fail line moves to the starting balance) and E8 One (dynamic DD 6% locked at the starting balance, daily 4%, target 9%, 40% consistency rule in Performance stage) both cost $488 at $100K — $366 with code E8. The answer depends on the shape of your P&L. Traders firing multiple times a day to smooth out returns come out ahead with Pro in Monte Carlo (4.5x vs 1.4x at zero edge). Traders who trade once a day and earn most of their profit from a handful of big days come out 2–7x ahead with One in real-data tests (+¥3.09M/+¥5.85M vs +¥630K/+¥1.37M per year). The reason: Pro's "2% daily profit cap" shaves 8–27% off big-day profits, and the buffer disappears on the first payout. Also covers which configuration to pick (8% for Pro, 6% for One).
Web3 Prop Firms Special [September 2026] | Sorting 22 Firms — from On-Chain Settlement to Exchange-Backed and Prediction-Market Types — by 'Is This Actually On-Chain?'
New prop firms settling on Hyperliquid or Arbitrum surged in 2026. We checked 22 firms on September 20, 2026, against their official rulebooks, terms of service, and Trustpilot — from the on-chain settlement type (Propr, Hypernova, HyperPNL, Carrot, DojiFunded), the chain-recorded type (Vanta, Hyper Stack, Solana Funded), the on-chain payout type (Investabl, FundedHive, AI Prop), Kraken-owned Breakout / Kraken Prop / Kraken Funded, the crypto-native type (SizeProp, HyroTrader, Crypto Fund Trader, Bitfunded, TradeXProp, Upscale), to the prediction-market type using Polymarket (Funding Predicts, PropMarket). Even firms calling themselves 'on-chain' run every evaluation phase as a simulation, and each firm's terms state that whether real orders get routed to the market after funding is entirely 'at the operator's discretion.' We cover whether you can buy from Japan, what to do once you receive USDC, and where the fees hit.
Which Hola Prime Plan Should You Buy? For EAs, the "2% Rule" Decides Everything
Hola Prime has five plans, and the right pick changes if you're running an EA (automated trading). The key is the "2% per trade idea" rule — it judges the stop-loss position at entry, not floating loss, and it only applies to funded accounts. Misread this and you'll throw away 30% of your lot size. We ran an actual strategy on real data across all four plans, and 1-Step Prime — the one with the heaviest target-to-max-loss ratio — came out on top in all three sub-periods. Also covers the per-instrument leverage (gold and indices at 10:1), and results from measuring instrument specs on our own account (Nikkei and Dow don't exist).
What Dan Cheung Means by "Rotation": It's Not About Doing More Trades — It's About Containing Losses to One Account
We looked into Dan Cheung's (London-based) account rotation, a term that comes up a lot in prop trading circles, based on his own public statements. It boils down to three lines: touch only one account at a time, close that account and move to the next once you hit your daily profit target or your stop, and never chase a losing account. People often mistake it for a way to trade more, but the real point is containing losses to a single account. We then checked whether this actually holds up under the terms of firms available from Japan, across four axes: consistency rules, minimum trading days, allocation caps, and multi-account clauses.
Is E8 Pro Good for Account Rotation? It Looks Like the Ideal 'No Consistency Rule, Daily Payouts' Setup - Until the 50% Buffer Kicks In
Which plan is best suited to account rotation - running one account at a time toward a small target, then moving to the next once you hit it? E8 Pro has no consistency rule, no minimum trading days, daily payouts, and a 1% minimum profit - conditions that line up almost as if they were built for rotation. Even the infamous "2% daily profit cap" simply doesn't come into play when you're rotating toward small targets. But there's a trap in the payout mechanism: even after requesting a payout, you only receive half of your profit. On top of that, the static drawdown permanently shifts to your starting balance on your first payout. We compared E8 Pro against Breakout Prop and The5ers across six angles. Verified against official help articles on September 17, 2026.
Breakout Prop vs. Fintokei: Which Should You Buy? 'Narrow Room, No Rules' vs. 'Wide Room, Many Rules'
A head-to-head comparison of Breakout Prop, the Kraken-backed crypto prop firm, against Fintokei, the firm that runs end-to-end in Japanese. The fee as a percentage of account size is nearly identical (Breakout Pro 0.545% vs. Fintokei Sapphire 0.549%), but the substance is opposite. Breakout has just two rules — daily loss and max drawdown — with no consistency rule, no minimum trading days, and no per-trade risk cap, but its max drawdown is a narrow 3–6%. Fintokei has a wide 10% max drawdown, but a cap on floating loss at 3% of balance applies to the sum of all open positions. Looking at target ÷ max drawdown, how easy it is to pass differs by 1.7x to 3.3x. Measured on both official sites on September 16, 2026.
Only Two Prop Firms Can Actually Run Grid/Trailing-Repeat EAs: "Not Banned" and "Usable" Are Different Things
If you want to run a grid or trailing-repeat ("trailing stop and repeat" / トラリピ) type EA on a prop account, checking only whether the ban list mentions it doesn't tell you anything. What actually kills the account is the "floating-loss cap" and whether drawdown is measured on equity or on balance. City Traders Imperium's 1-Step is the unique combination of balance-based DD, no daily DD, off-the-shelf EAs allowed, and grid explicitly permitted. Fintokei doesn't list grid among its 9 banned practices, but off-the-shelf EAs aren't allowed and a combined 3% cap across all open positions becomes the real limit on how many grid levels you can run. A comparison table across 10 firms, plus the formula for working backward from the floating-loss cap to figure out how many levels you can stack. Confirmed against each firm's official help center on September 16, 2026.
Prop Firms That Allow Averaging Down (Nanpin): What the Rules Actually Ban Isn't 'Buying the Dip' — It's Increasing Lot Size
Averaging down (nanpin) and martingale are treated as completely different things under the rules. Funded7's Rule 4 explicitly bans 'increasing lot size from 1.0 → 1.5 → 2.0,' while explicitly allowing averaging down at the same or a reduced lot size. Fintokei lifted its martingale ban entirely in July 2025. Includes a quick-reference table of how 10 firms treat this, a formula for working backward from your floating-loss cap to the number of steps you can take, and why the room left right after the final step differs by 7.8x between averaging down and martingale even at the same 5 steps. Confirmed with each firm's official help center on September 16, 2026.
I Checked 10 Prop Firms on Swapping EAs Mid-Challenge: FundingPips Requires Proof of Ownership for Self-Built EAs, Funded7 Flags You by Statistics If You Change Instruments [September 2026]
Switching from a trend-following EA to a mean-reversion EA is not a rule violation at most prop firms. Only two firms clearly ban it: FundedNext and TradingCult. Funded7, however, judges by the statistics of notional value rather than logic, so changing instruments or lot size can get you flagged. I also confirmed in the official help centers that FundingPips requires proof of ownership for fully automated self-built EAs, and explicitly bans connecting via VPN/VPS — though that ban sits in a single line inside the identity-verification section, in contrast to FundedElite, which allows VPS with prior notice.
Prop Firms That Won't Let You Change Strategy: Official Rules Checked | TradingCult Bans EAs Outright, Funded7 Disqualifies Running the Same EA Across Multiple Accounts [September 2026]
TradingCult bans EA and bot use outright, and a violation is a hard breach. The firm and FundedElite also explicitly ban 'account rolling.' At Funded7, even your own EA gets you disqualified for Group Trading if its results correlate too closely with another trader's. SuperFunded allows news trading freely during the evaluation but bans it within ±10 minutes only at the Funded stage, and FundedElite's strategy risk limit only applies at the funded stage — this article rounds up 9 firms whose rules change between the challenge and funded stages, based on each firm's official FAQ.
I Checked Multi-Account Allocation Caps at 14 Firms | The5ers Requires a Different Method Per Account, FTMO Has Unlimited Challenges [September 2026]
Try to run the same strategy across multiple accounts and you hit a total-allocation cap. The range spans 14x, from E8 Markets' $4.25M down to FundedNext and PipFarm's $300K. FTMO $400K, FundedNext $300K, Funding Pips $400K, SuperFunded $900K, Hantec $400K, Fundora ¥60M — the range is wide. Even more important is whether challenge-stage accounts eat into that cap, which runs in opposite directions depending on the firm. The5ers requires a different trading method per account, which rules out running the same EA across multiple accounts there.
Can You Change Strategy Mid-Way? | I Checked 20 Firms' Consistency Rules and Found They Go in Opposite Directions [September 2026]
FundedNext explicitly states you must 'maintain the same strategy through your challenge and Funded account,' banning switching from an EA that passed the challenge to manual trading. Fintokei, meanwhile, states plainly it has no consistency rule and won't add one retroactively. Even within one firm, Hantec's Enhanced has no restriction while EnhancedX caps you at 35% — opposite treatment. Here's what to check before changing your method, across 20 firms.
The Same Strategy Can Take 3x Longer Depending on Where You Run It: Testing 8 Firms' Rules Against a Mechanical Strategy [Analysis]
Profit targets and max DD line up almost identically across firms, yet running the same strategy through their rules stretches the cycle time from 17.2 days to 59.6 days — a 3.5x spread. The cause is the '1% risk per trade' rule. Pass rates barely differ (33.7–38.7%), while firms with a 10% Phase 1 target are 5 points worse off at the first stage, and a 60% profit split cuts expected funded-stage income by 40%. Also checks Hantec's 3-minute rule, which is actually a ratio condition — 'net profit from trades closed under 3 minutes is 30% or more of total' — against 3,826 real trades' holding-time distribution.
Which Firm for Running Multiple Challenges at Once? Picking a Firm by Swing vs. Day Trading [August 2026]
When running multiple challenges at the same time, the criteria for picking a firm differ from running a single account. This piece sorts 16 firms along 3 axes — whether copying between your own accounts within the same firm is allowed, whether a violation on one account spreads to your others, and the cap on total capital — and gives separate recommendations for swing trading and day trading.
1-Step vs. 2-Step vs. Instant Funding: A Full Comparison — Which Evaluation Model Should You Choose?
Comparing prop firm evaluation models using independent data: 1-Step pass rate 17.5% vs. 2-Step 9.1% (Swiset), with passers taking an average of 6.4 days and failures dragging out to 41.5 days. Also covers Instant Funding's traps — high fees, low splits, and trailing drawdown. What matters more than phase count when choosing.
A Deep Comparison of Prop Firm Scaling Plans — The Conditions and Strategy for Growing an Account to $2M-$4M
Compares scaling plans that grow a funded account across the major firms: FTMO (4 months, +10% → +25%, up to $2M), FundedNext (+40%, up to $4M), and the doubling model at The5ers Hyper Growth / Funded Trading Plus. Explains the mechanism where payout history counts as a requirement, and how to play it to maximize scaling.
Hantec's 4 plans compared | Enhanced's max loss line rises to the starting balance once you withdraw. Which should you buy — the 2-step or the 3-step Endurance?
A re-check of Hantec Trader's Express, Enhanced, EnhancedX, and Endurance against the official help center as of September 2026. On Enhanced and Express, the max loss line locks to the starting balance on your first payout; on EnhancedX and Endurance, it doesn't move even after a payout. Compared by price, an approximate pass rate, and how much cushion is left after a payout.
DarwinexZero vs Fintokei Full Comparison | An 'Asset Manager' Prop, Broken Down for Japanese Traders
DarwinexZero (DXZ) runs on a completely different philosophy from a normal prop firm. We compare its DARWIN investor-funding model — up to €3M in capital for €38/month — against Fintokei for Japanese readers: the truth about the 15% split, and why it suits long-term career-focused traders.
Fintokei vs FTMO Head-to-Head: Which Should Japanese Traders Choose? A 7-Axis Comparison
Comparing Fintokei and FTMO across 7 axes: price, drawdown, profit split, Japanese-language support, news trading, weekends, and EA use. Whether you're chasing profit or peace of mind, this settles which one to pick using actual numbers.
Fundora vs Fintokei: Domestic Japanese Prop Firm vs. Japanese-Friendly Global Player — Which Should You Choose?
A 20-point comparison of Japan-based Fundora and Japanese-trader-focused Fintokei. Covers practical differences like domestic Japanese bank withdrawals, cTrader-only trading, and LINE support, plus recommendations by use case.
Prop Firm Scalping & News-Trading Rules at a Glance: A Thorough Comparison of 18 Firms
An 18-firm comparison of prop firm scalping hold-time minimums and news-trading restrictions (window length, hard/soft breach), organized into a 3-axis matrix. Includes strategy for NFP/FOMC days.
[Updated July 2026] Prop Firm Rule Leniency Ranking: 16 Firms Compared | Rated on Two Axes — 'Rule Leniency' and 'Discretionary Risk'
Comparing 16 firms: FundedHive, Lark Funding, The5ers, Fintokei, Funded7, FundingPips, Alpha Capital, Hantec, Fundora, E8 Markets, BlueberryFunded, FundedNext, SuperFunded, FundedElite, FTMO, and Forge of Traders. Organized by weekend holding, news trading, EA, scalping, consistency rules, and drawdown, plus a second axis rating how far each firm's discretion can go in shutting you down.