Introduction
Welcome to our FTMO Review. Over the past few weeks, I have been trading with FTMO and looking into every aspect of the service they offer to traders so that I can provide the information you need to decide whether they are the right prop firm for you.
Overview
Based in Prague, FTMO are widely regarded as one of the best online prop firms in the industry, they’ve been operating since 2015 and they have an excellent reputation amongst traders and industry professionals. With the tagline “Traders Wanted”, FTMO launched their international operation in 2017 with a long term goal of developing the project into an international investment company.
First impressions of FTMO are exceptional, thanks to their professional, well written, and informative website which contains all relevant information in an easy to navigate design. They have a Trustpilot score of 4.8 over almost 12K reviews, and as they’ve been in business for so long, they are a brand that traders find easy to trust.
Funding Programs
There’s only one funding program available with FTMO, the 2-step evaluation. FTMO were the first firm to offer the now ubiquitous 2-step evaluation model, where the trader is asked to pass an initial challenge of making 10% profit before moving on to the verification phase where they are asked to make 5% profit before they are given a fully funded account to trade. Throughout the challenge and verification phases the trader must not lose 5% in a day or 10% overall, and there is no time limit.
Traders can choose from a normal FTMO evaluation account or a ‘Swing’ account. The swing account allows traders to trade around news events, hold trades overnight and over the weekend, and has 1:30 max leverage. The normal account has 1:100 max leverage and traders with a normal account cannot hold trades over a weekend or hold trades overnight in a market that closes for more than 2 hours, and they cannot open or close any positions (including take profit and stop loss orders) within 2 minutes of a high impact news event.
- Traders ARE allowed to trade news and hold overnight and over a weekend during the challenge & verification phases
Traders can choose to have their account balance in a range of different currencies including USD, GBP, EUR, CZK, CAD, AUD, CHF in account sizes equivalent to USD $10K, $25K, $50K, $100K, and $200K. The prices at FTMO are some of the highest in the industry, but at least they’re refunded when the trader passes the evaluation and reaches their first profit split.
Once a trader is funded they can request a payout after 30 days and the profit split starts at 80% to the trader. Subsequent withdrawals are bi-weekly, and the profit split increases to 90% once the trader has scaled up their account.
FTMO also offer a free trial account which can be set up to simulate an evaluation.
Trading Platforms
Traders are spoiled for choice at FTMO, with Metatrader 4 & 5, cTrader, and DXtrade all available to choose from.
Account Dashboard
The FTMO account dashboard is neatly packaged, professional, and user friendly. The dashboard contains everything an FTMO trader needs, and more!
Account MetriX
The account ‘MetriX’ page contains lots of information relating to the trader’s performance on the account:
Trading Journal
Possibly my favourite thing about the FTMO Account Dashboard is the Trading Journal. In here you can attach screenshots to your trades, add comments on the entry and exit strategy, comment on the trade, and best of all you can apply tags to each trade which you can then use to filter the journal results.
The graphs below show the results for the filtered Trading Journal data, so once trades have been tagged in the journal, the journal can be filtered to only show trades with certain tags and the results of those trades will be displayed in the graphs below.
Economic Calendar
The FTMO Economic calendar retrieves data from Forex Factory. The interface for this calendar is superb, with easy to use filters for ‘Day’, ‘Impact’ and ‘Restrictions’. Some of the higher impact news events such as CPI and GDP have an associated YouTube video which explains everything a trader needs to know about that news item and can be found by clicking the YouTube icon on the news event. The trader can also click the calendar icon to add a news event to their personal calendar.
Symbols & Updates
The Symbols & Updates section of the dashboard contains a ticker which displays current prices, spreads, and commissions:
There is also a ‘Symbol Specifications’ section which shows the symbol information such as margin requirements, contract sizing, and trading hours.
Trader’s Analysis
The ‘Trader’s Analysis’ section of the dashboard is a an excellent tool for monitoring trading performance. The tool shows data for all FTMO accounts ever traded by the trader (including free trial accounts), whether they passed or failed, and the results can be filtered by date, account type, account result, and the trader can also choose to exclude certain account numbers.
Equity Simulator
Understanding the relationship between win rate, RRR, sample size, and risk is vitally important for traders. The Equity Simulator on the FTMO dashboard is a great tool for traders to use to see how changing different strategy parameters might affect their results.
Margin Calculator
Understanding the margin requirements for different assets can be tricky, especially if the asset is quoted in a different currency to the trading account. To solve this problem FTMO provide their traders with a Margin Calculator which is available from the dashboard.
Trading Conditions
The trading conditions at FTMO are some of the best in the industry. With a huge range of symbols to trade including forex majors & minors + some exotics, stock indices, commodities, crypto, and even a selection of stocks, there is something here for all traders. The spreads and commissions are competitive, if not the absolute best, and the trade execution is good with very little slippage.
Scaling Plan
If a trader is able to generate at least 10% net profit in a four consecutive month period, and at the same time has processed at least two payouts in those four months, then FTMO will scale the trader’s account up by 25% of the initial capital and will increase the trader’s profit split to 90%. The scale-up cap per trader is $2M.
Here is a table that shows the potential scale-up path for a $400K account over a 16 month period:
Customer Support
FTMO have a range of options for traders who need to contact support – a web contact form, email support, live chat, WhatsApp, and phone support. I have personally contacted support on live chat, where I received a response and answer to my questions within a few minutes, and email, where I received a response after 9 hours. In both cases support were courteous, professional, and answered my queries with their first response.
Premium Programme
FTMO have a Premium Programme which gives traders a path for progression with FTMO that can lead to a number of benefits. There are two levels to the Premium Programme, ‘Prime’ and ‘Supreme’:
Traders that reach Supreme status have an opportunity to apply to trade with Quantlane
Community & Content
FTMO have a thriving community of traders and provide a lot of useful content across multiple channels…
Discord
Here you will find a community of FTMO traders that’s extremely active.
FTMO Academy
The FTMO Academy is a free educational resource for traders, which includes lessons and exams on various trading related topics ranging from the basics of the financial markets to technical analysis, risk management and building a trading plan.
YouTube
FTMO’s YouTube channel is full of videos of trader interviews, coaching sessions, and general educational material for traders.
Conclusion
Over the past 9 years, FTMO has proven to be a reliable firm to do business with. They have a strong record of paying their traders and are respected across the industry, including by their rival prop firms.
The FTMO experience feels premium in every area – from the website and dashboard to customer service and trade execution. Everything is exceptionally good.
FTMO’s commitment to trader education is a promising sign. They offer a wealth of information and tools to help their traders learn and grow, including the FTMO Academy, Trader’s Analysis and Journal sections on the dashboard, the Equity Simulator, and the Mentor App. FTMO ensures their traders are well-informed and equipped with the tools needed for success.
I highly recommend considering FTMO. They’ve proven to be trustworthy, and nearly every aspect of their service is industry-leading or very close. The only downside is their high prices, but as the saying goes, “You get what you pay for.”
