Introduction
Welcome to our Funded Trader Markets Review. Over the past few weeks, I have been trading with Funded Trader Markets 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
Funded Trader Markets are a new addition to the industry. Operating out of the United Arab Emirates, they opened their doors to traders early in August 2024 and are steadily building a good reputation amongst their traders.
They have a well-designed website that’s full of information, which I think is a good sign for a new firm as it shows they’re clearly taking themselves and the service they provide seriously.
Funding Programs
Funded Trader Markets have four different funding models available:
Instant Funding
The Instant Funding program is available in account sizes ranging from $2,000 for $59 to $100,000 for $1099. The maximum drawdown limit is 5% with a maximum daily loss limit of 3% of the initial account balance.
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The maximum drawdown limit trails the highest recorded account balance
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If you withdraw all profits from the account the maximum drawdown limit resets to its original position and if you only take a partial withdrawal then the maximum drawdown limit stays at the same figure as before the withdrawal, allowing the trader to build their own drawdown buffer in the account.
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There are 5 minimum trading days required for every payout and for a day to qualify as one of the minimum days the trader must make at least 0.5% profit.
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The initial profit split is 50%, and this increases by 10% on each withdrawal until the 4th when the profit split is 80% to the trader. From the 4th withdrawal onwards the profit split will remain at 80%.
One-Step Nitro
The one step nitro program is available in account sizes ranging from $5K for $27 to $200K for $522. This is for the consistency option, which I recommend. The non-consistency prices are a little higher.
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The profit target to pass the evaluation is 10%.
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The maximum drawdown limit is 6% and this trails the account balance high until 6% profit is achieved. Once the account reaches 6% profit the maximum drawdown limit is set at the initial account balance and will remain there for the life of the account.
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The daily drawdown limit is 4%.
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On the consistency option the biggest trading day during the evaluation cannot be more than 50% of the profit required to pass, and for the funded account the profit from the biggest trading day should not be more than 45% of the requested payout amount. For the non-consistency option there is no consistency rule on the evaluation, but there is a 30% consistency rule on the funded account.
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To pass the non-consistency evaluation phase the trader is required to complete a minimum of 4 trading days where they make at least 0.5% profit.
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Payouts are on demand, and for the first $10K of withdrawals the profit split is 100%. After that the profit split is 80% until the account is scaled up.
Two-Step Speed
The two step speed program is available in account sizes ranging from $5K for $27 to $200K for $538. This is for the consistency option, which I recommend. The non-consistency prices are a little higher.
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The profit target to pass phase one of the evaluation is 8%
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The profit target to pass phase two is 5%.
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The maximum drawdown limit is 8% of the initial account balance.
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The maximum daily drawdown limit is fixed at 4% of the initial account balance.
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On the consistency option the biggest trading day during the evaluation cannot be more than 50% of the profit required to pass, and for the funded account the profit from the biggest trading day should not be more than 45% of the requested payout amount. For the non-consistency option there is no consistency rule on the evaluation, but there is a 30% consistency rule on the funded account.
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To pass the non-consistency evaluation phases the trader is required to complete a minimum of 4 trading days where they make at least 0.5% profit.
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Payouts are on demand, and for the first $10K of withdrawals the profit split is 100%. After that the profit split is 80% until the account is scaled up.
Two-Step Standard
The two step standard program is the same as the speed program, but the profit target to pass phase 1 is 10%, the max drawdown is 10%, and the prices are a little higher.
Consistency vs Non-Consistency
Traders like to complain about consistency rules but I’ve grown to like them. I think that FTM are really setting themselves up for long term success, because they’re taking away the possibility for them to be abused by gamblers. Consistently profitable traders will understand consistency rules and will not have any problem with them. By creating an environment where traders have to be consistently profitable to succeed with the firm, the firm is ensuring that they are stable and also that the traders they pay out are actually profitable. This has many benefits for the firm if they need to hedge their risk or start sending trades to the live market in future.
I recommend the consistency option over the non-consistency option. The only benefit to the non-consistency option is that there is no consistency rule on the evaluation phases, which means you can gamble your way through them. The downside to this is that the non-consistency accounts have a higher initial price and once you have a funded account there is a 30% consistency rule, which means that your biggest profitable day cannot make up for more than 30% of the profit made during the payout period. The consistency accounts are much more lenient with a 45% consistency rule. So then, the only reason to take the non-consistency option is to have the ability to gamble your way through the evaluation, which is pointless because the evaluation doesn’t pay you and you will need to be consistent on the live account in order to receive a payout.
Scaling Plan
Funded Trader Markets has a great scaling plan for traders on their two-step evaluation models, which has 3 tiers and allows the trader to scale their account up to $3M.
The 3 tiers are Pioneer, Legend, and VIP. To qualify for each tier the trader must make at least 8% profit over the course of 2 months, and they must make at least 3 payout requests in the 2 month period. The maximum profit that can be counted towards the scaling target in any month is 5%.
When the Pioneer funding level is achieved the account balance is increased by 30% of the initial balance, the trader is given a 100% profit split, max drawdown is increased by 1%, they get a monthly salary of up to $1K, and they will receive a free trading account if they lose their pioneer account.
Once the scale up criteria are met again the trader reaches the Legend level, which increases the account size by 35% of the initial balance, increases the daily loss limit by 1%, increases the max drawdown limit by 1%, and increases the monthly salary to up to $3K.
Upon achieving the scale up criteria again the trader reaches VIP status. At this point the account balance is increased by 40% of the initial balance, the daily and max drawdown increase by 2%, the monthly salary is increased to up to $5K, the trader is assigned a personal customer service rep, and the trader is given two free accounts if they lose their VIP account.
Once VIP level is achieved the account will continue to scale up by 40% each time the scaling criteria are met.
Trading Platforms
At Funded Trader Markets traders can choose to use either cTrader or Match Trader.
cTrader is a superb trading platform, but is costly for the firm to provide and this is reflected in the higher trading commissions for traders on this platform.
Match Trader is growing in popularity amongst prop firms, mainly because it allows them to accept US based traders. Match Trader now has integrated Trading View charts, which is great for traders.
Account Dashboard
The Funded Trader Markets account dashboard looks really good, and contains all of the usual information that a trader needs.
Symbols & Trading Costs
There’s a good selection of symbols to trade at Funded Trader Markets. They have the major Forex pairs and crosses, with a couple of exotics, gold, silver, a selection of the most popular stock indices, UK & US oil, and some crypto.
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Spreads are wider than at some of the leading firms.
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If you choose the cTrader platform the commission is $7 per lot round trip on Forex and commodities.
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If you choose the Match Trader platform the commission is up to $3 per lot round trip on Forex and commodities.
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There is no commission on Indices and Cryptocurrency.
Payouts
Payouts at Funded Trader Markets are on demand once consistency rules have been met, and for the one and two step programs there is an initial 100% profit split on the first $10K of profits after which the profit split is set at 80% until the accounts are scaled up.
Payouts are processed within 24 business hours via Rise or Crypto.
Customer Support
Customer support is available via live chat, email, and Discord, and it’s very good. I’ve bothered the live chat and Discord mods on multiple occasions and each time I’ve been met with a fast, polite, and knowledgeable response. There was one query to which they didn’t have the answer immediately to hand, but they went away and got the answer for me within a few minutes.
Conclusion
After spending some time reviewing Funded Trader Markets and bothering their support team with questions, what do I think?
Well, we do have to be wary of new firms in this industry but I have a feeling that Funded Trader Markets will be sticking around. They’ve clearly built their funding programs with sustainability in mind. Some traders will feel that the consistency rules are unnecessary, but in an industry that’s plagued with gamblers and people trying to game the system, consistency rules make a lot of sense and we should feel good about a firm that is setting itself up for long term success.
One area that I think is lacking when compared to the competition is the spreads, which are a little too wide.
The two-step funding programs clearly offer the most value and I think the consistency options make more sense than the non-consistency options. The Instant Funding program is difficult to recommend vs the evaluation models, due to the lack of scaling and the minimum profitable days requirement for each payout. Similarly I can’t recommend the one-step Nitro program over the two step programs, simply because it doesn’t have a scaling plan. Trading is all about return on investment, and the two-step models offer the best potential here.
I prefer the Standard program over the Speed program because the prices are not much different and by achieving an additional 2% profit in the first evaluation phase the trader benefits from an additional 2% max drawdown for the life of the account, and that makes a huge difference.
Overall I think that Funded Trader Markets are a great new addition to the industry. Everything about their product is well designed and they have clearly put a lot of thought in to each aspect of the service they provide. If you’re considering trading with a new prop firm then I think Funded Trader Markets are a solid option.