Funded Trader Markets

Yes. The official help center's "Is Martingale/Layering allowed?" article states: "Yes, martingale and layering strategies are allowed within a single account." Among the roughly 20 firms we cover, only Fintokei, FundedHive, and this one (FTM) name martingale as explicitly allowed. There is a condition, though: if you run the same approach across multiple accounts, the same currency pair must be opened within 5 minutes of each other, or after the earlier position is fully closed. Positions opened more than 5 minutes apart are treated as "prohibited sequential trading" and excluded from payout, and if that profit exceeds 20% of total profit during the evaluation phase, you'll have to retake the challenge. This restriction doesn't apply if you use the official trade copier to open and close across all accounts at the same time.

Yes. The official help center says: "At Funded Trader Markets, we permit the use of Trading Bots across all accounts and phases, though certain types of bots are restricted." Seven categories are banned: HFT bots, news-scalping bots, bots that exploit demo-server quirks, multi-account reversal bots, arbitrage bots (reverse and latency), tick-scalping bots, and emulators. Triggering these means suspension or a ban, with no refund. We didn't find a source-code submission requirement in the terms, but the terms of service do ban "third-party or commercially sold strategies, including those marketed as passing the challenge," so avoid running an off-the-shelf EA as-is.

Yes, as long as it's your own trading. The official help center says you may copy "from another evaluation firm's account, a retail broker, or any other external or internal source, as long as the trades were originally your own." What's banned is copying someone else's trades, using signals, and using the same bot as someone else. Using another firm's Funded account as a master feeding multiple FTM accounts is an unusually permissive setup for this industry. The martingale/layering 5-minute rule and the IP restrictions still apply on top of this, though.

Yes. Per the official help center: (1) your trading IP must not match or overlap with another user's, (2) VPN/VPS use is strictly forbidden at purchase and when submitting KYC, (3) the country of your purchase IP must match your KYC country, (4) VPN/VPS access to the dashboard is not allowed, and (5) MT5 and cTrader ban trading from US IPs entirely (including via VPN/VPS). Violations can mean "payout denial, account restrictions, or a full ban," with no refund. If you're running an EA on a VPS, you'll need to at least do the purchase, KYC, and dashboard steps from your home connection. Household members using the service must be declared in advance, and there's a household-level funding cap.

At the Funded stage, profit from trades closed within one minute of opening is voided (the account isn't failed). During the evaluation phase, if profit from trades under one minute exceeds 20% of total profit, you have to retake the challenge. Tick-scalping-style EAs run straight into both of these.

It depends on the plan. On 1-Step Nitro, during evaluation the rule is "daily profit must not exceed 50% of that phase's profit target," and after going Funded it's "daily profit must not exceed 45% of cumulative profit." For example, on a $10,000 account with a $1,000 (10%) target, earning over $500 in a single day would breach it. A violation doesn't fail you immediately — you keep trading until enough compliant days accumulate. 2-Step Plus has no consistency rule at the Funded stage, and Instant Funding's is 15%.

Payment methods are crypto (USDT, TRC20) and Rise (bank transfer or crypto). Crypto withdrawals carry a 5% processing fee, deducted from the trader's share. The minimum withdrawal is 1% of the initial balance. Payouts are on-demand; 1-Step Nitro, 2-Step Plus, and Instant Plus allow partial withdrawals, but Instant Standard / Pro is full-amount withdrawal only. They advertise a "double your payout if not paid within 24 hours" guarantee, and as of September 10, 2026 the official dashboard showed $7,798,818 cumulative, 5,250 payouts, an average of 24 minutes 45 seconds, and 99.2% paid within one hour. Requesting a payout requires at least 5 trading days (a profit day = 0.5%+ profit).

The base split is 70%, and a free add-on raises it to 90%. But that comes with the "Shield Risk Protocol": floating (unrealized) loss must always stay under 1% of balance. Going over 1% auto-closes all positions and steps the split down (50% on the 1st violation, 40% on the 2nd, 30% on the 3rd, permanently 20% from the 4th). This rule is also a condition for keeping the base 70%, and choosing the 90% add-on applies it during evaluation too (a 1st violation there just continues the evaluation; a 2nd fails it). It doesn't mix well with strategies that carry floating losses, so check the official FAQ for the latest conditions before buying.

It appears you can. The official site's Jurisdictional Restrictions list nine countries — Cuba, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, North Korea, Russia, and Cyprus — and Japan is not among them (confirmed September 27, 2026). That said, there's no explicit statement that Japan is allowed. The site supports Japanese display (/ja) and has Japanese-speaking staff. Note that MT5 and cTrader are stated not to be for US residents. There's a contradiction in that they advertise "CySEC-compliant operating standards" while putting Cyprus on their own restricted-country list — keep in mind that this "compliance" isn't an actual license.

On 1-Step Nitro and 2-Step Plus, once the same account receives its 3rd payout, 100% of the fee (or more, depending on the promo you bought under) is paid out as a "performance bonus" (official help center: "When Will The Refund For My Purchase Fee Be Processed?"). Instant (Standard / Pro / Plus) and 1-Step Nitro X are excluded.

Standard (5% max drawdown) and Pro (3% max drawdown) both keep their max-drawdown line trailing the highest balance, and it never locks to the initial balance. Splits are staged: 50% on the 1st payout, 60% on the 2nd, 70% on the 3rd, 80% from the 4th on. Withdrawals are full-amount only, and a full withdrawal resets the line back to its starting position. Plus (6% max drawdown) locks to the initial balance at +6% profit, and the split starts at 80% — but it's subject to the Shield Risk Protocol, which forces a full close and lowers the split if floating loss exceeds 1% of balance. A 3% daily drawdown, 15% consistency, and no evaluation phase are common to all three.

As of September 10, 2026, Trustpilot's rating is unavailable due to "guideline violations," and Trustpilot itself states it removed multiple fake reviews for this company. There are 414 reviews, and the ratings are polarized — 65% are 5-star, 26% are 1-star. Numbers like "3.9 / 463 reviews" cited by third-party sites are cached figures from before the suspension. Negative reports mention sudden failures from misunderstanding the trailing drawdown, forced closes from spread widening around news, trouble with Rise payouts, and support responsiveness. On the other hand, there are also plenty of reports of payouts landing "within minutes to a few hours." Having launched in August 2024, they've been operating for about two years.