Introduction
Welcome to our Trade the Pool Review. Over the past few weeks, I have been trading with Trade the Pool 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
Trade the Pool is an online prop firm for stock traders, and has been operating since 2022 under the leadership of CEO Michael Katz. The firm was developed and operated by Five Percent Online Ltd, which owns and operates the popular and respected The5ers prop firm.
The team at Five Percent Online Ltd comprises many experienced traders who pride themselves on operating ethically and honestly in this otherwise highly inconsistent industry. They have proven themselves to be a strong and trustworthy business over more than 8 years of operation with The5ers, so traders are in very safe hands at Trade the Pool.
Reputation & First Impressions
Overall their reputation is a good one. Anyone who knows the online prop firm industry knows that Five Percent Online is a professional team who do what they say they’re going to do. They’re one of the few trustworthy businesses in the industry and their reputation carries over to Trade the Pool.
First impressions are also good. The website is the first thing that most people will come across when looking into Trade the Pool, it’s a clearly laid out and vibrant site that contains all of the information needed to understand what they do.
Trade the Pool are not new to the scene anymore, but because they’re a stock trading prop firm and their funding programs are a little different to those commonly seen at CFD prop firms, traders have been slow to realize the opportunity here and so the firm is still relatively unknown.
Their Trustpilot score at the time of writing is 4.5 from 173 reviews, and the vast majority of recent reviews are 5 stars. The Trustpilot reviews tell a bit of a story, where early on when there were some teething problems they did receive some poorer reviews, but they have since corrected these issues and are now consistently receiving 5-star reviews. This shows that they have identified their weaknesses and have worked on them, which is exactly what we want to see, and I think that as their Trustpilot review count grows the score will steadily push closer to 5 stars.
Funding Programs
The funding program at Trade the Pool is a little different to the programs offered by CFD firms. At Trade the Pool traders all trade as part of one large pool, so rather than being given a trading account with a balance and leverage to trade, traders are allocated an amount of buying power from the overall pool.
For example, if a trader chooses to purchase a Mini BP account with $20,000 of buying power, that $20,000 represents the maximum position size that they can trade. They can buy or sell up to $20,000 of stocks at any one time.
The available funding programs are shown in the table below:
Daily Loss Limit
If the daily loss limit is reached the account is paused until the following day, but the trader can pay a fee to reset the daily loss allowance if they think there are still some good opportunities to trade that day. The cost to reset the daily loss allowance is: Mini BP = $25, Super BP = $50, Extra BP = $100, Ultimate BP = $250.
Maximum Loss Per Trade
The maximum loss per trade is 30% of the daily loss limit. So for the Mini BP account, where the maximum allowed daily loss is $300, the maximum loss that can be taken on a single trade is $90.
Activity Restrictions
There are some key restrictions that traders should be aware of:
Day Trader
- During the evaluation, the trader’s most profitable trade cannot be responsible for more than 30% of the total profit target. Example: If you profit target is $1800 then the most profitable trade during the evaluation period cannot be more than $540.
- All profitable positions mys be at least 10 cents per share in profit.
- Trading is not allowed on a symbol that has made a move of 8% within 4 minutes, and a symbol will be halted if it moves 10% in 5 minutes. Once trading is resumed on a halted symbol the trader must wait at least one minute before entering a new position.
- For a trade to be considered profitable, the difference between the entry and exit time must be at least 60 seconds.
- In pre and after-market a trader can only trade a symbol if the number of shares traded on that day is more than 20,000.
- During market hours a trader can only trade a symbol if the number of shares traded on that day is more than 200,000.
Swing Trader
- During the evaluation, the trader’s most profitable trade cannot be responsible for more than 30% of the total profit target. Example: If you profit target is $1800 then the most profitable trade during the evaluation period cannot be more than $540.
- For a trade to be counted as a profitable trade, it must be held for a minimum of 1 overnight trading day.
- To hold a position overnight the minimum average volume (last 14 days) of a ticker must be at least 500,000 shares.
Scaling Plan
At Trade the Pool traders have an opportunity for unlimited growth. Each time the trader reaches 10% profit their account is allocated more buying power and an increased daily loss limit.
For example, a Mini BP account has $20,000 buying power with a $300 daily pause level. If the trader reaches the 10% profit target then they are given an additional $2,000 buying power and their daily pause level is increased by 1% of the profit target, to $320.
The scale-up target is 10% for all account types, and the increase in the daily pause level is always 1% of the scale-up target, but the accounts each scale the buying power up by differing amounts:
- Mini BP the scale-up target is $2,000 and the buying power is increased by $2,000.
- Super BP account the scale-up target is $8,000 and the buying power is increased by $5,000.
- Extra BP account the scale-up target is $16,000 and the buying power is increased by $10,000.
- Ultimate BP account the scale-up target is $26,000 and the buying power is increased by $20,000.
Overnight Positions
On the swing account a trader can hold positions overnight provided the average traded volume of the ticker for the last 14 days is at least 500,000 shares. If the stock is reporting earnings after market or pre-market the following day then it will not be available for overnight holding.
On the day trader account, a trader can hold positions overnight with reduced allowed maximum exposure, provided the stock is not reporting earnings after market or pre-market on the following day. In order for a day trader account to hold a trade overnight the trade must be opened after the account exposure has dropped from intraday to overnight, which happens 10 minutes before the market closes.
Stocks are Different
If you’re familiar with prop firms that are focused on Forex and CFD trading, where typically a firm will offer a leveraged account to traders with an evaluation profit target of around 10%, you might be wondering why the profit target at Trade the Pool is higher relative to the account buying power.
With Trade the Pool traders are trading stocks, where prices can make much bigger moves in a day than Forex pairs. The currency market is heavily influenced by central banks, whose job it is to keep their currencies stable. This leads to Forex pairs only moving against each other in relatively small increments.
In the stock market traders are trading the stock price of an individual company, which for any number of reasons can dramatically increase or decrease in value in a very short space of time. It is not unusual to see stock prices move 10% or more in a day.
With over 12,000 stocks and ETFs to choose from at Trade the Pool, there is far more opportunity for stock traders than there is for Forex traders, and this is reflected in the profit target relative to the buying power of the account.
PDT Rule
One of the many benefits that comes from trading stocks with a prop firm is bypassing the PDT rule.
PDT stands for “Pattern Day Trader”, and any US trader that places at least 4 day trades in a 5 day period will be given PDT status. In order to trade in the US, pattern day traders must have at least $25,000 in their margin account, and if the account falls below this level they are not allowed to trade until they have brought the account balance back up to $25,000.
One of the many benefits for US traders trading with Trade the Pool is that they bypass the PDT rule, and can day trade stocks with their maximum personal risk only being the cost of the evaluation, which is significantly less than $25,000.
Trading Platform
Trade the Pool uses a trading platform called Trader Evolution, which is a feature-packed proprietary trading platform designed with stock trading in mind.
Trader Evolution is packed with tools for the trader to use to find their edge in the market. The charts are highly customizable, with a wide range of available indicators, and there are useful features such as a ‘gainers/losers’ list, a high/low list, customizable watchlists, super dom, time & sales panel, and market depth with real trading volume and level 2 data from the stock exchange.
The platform layout is highly customizable, and it’s easy to set the platform up with different panels across multiple screens.
Trade execution is fast, although the trader should be aware that there can of course be slippage when the markets are moving fast such as around the open or during a high-impact news event.
Account Dashboard
The Trade the Pool account dashboard is simple, but it contains everything the trader needs to know.
Trading Conditions
Symbols
At Trade the Pool traders are trading real shares, and there are more than 12,000 stocks & ETFs available to trade. From popular stocks such as Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, and Google, to penny stocks, and ETFs for stock indices, Gold, Bitcoin, and much more, there is something here for all traders.
All symbols can be shorted, and there is no extra fee for hard-to-borrow stocks.
Commissions
The commission is a minimum of 75 cents or half a cent per share. For example, if a trade is opened for 50 shares then the commission will be the minimum of 75 cents, and if a trade is opened for 200 shares then the commission will be $1, which is half a cent per share.
Trade Execution
Trade execution has been superb for me, with every trade entry and exit filled instantly.
Customer Support
The customer support team at Trade the Pool is really good, it’s the same team that supports The5ers and they have a very good reputation. Whether you reach out to them via live chat or email, they will respond quickly and with all of the information you need.
I’ve reached out to support a few times on live chat and each time I have been connected to an agent and had my query answered within a few minutes.
Education & Content
On the website, there is an ‘Education’ section that shows a message to say it’s coming soon, so we can look forward to that, but there is already a blog section that contains a lot of very useful educational content for traders.
They also have an active Discord server, which is full of traders and Trade the Pool staff who are happy to help answer questions and share their trading ideas.
Head over to the Trade the Pool YouTube channel and you will find that not only are there numerous educational videos, but there is also a daily live trading room where they look at and talk about potential trading opportunities for two and a half hours every day, starting an hour before the open.
In addition to all of this, Trade the Pool also posts useful trading ideas on X over an hour before the market open.
Overall this is a strong sign that Trade the Pool wants their traders to succeed!
Trade The Pool Review – Conclusion
The Trade the Pool funding program is the first for stock traders, and whether you’re an experienced stock trader or are entirely new to stock trading, Trade the Pool has you covered with all the tools you need to succeed.
The funding program is a little different if you’re used to the standard CFD evaluation programs, and the world of stocks & ETFs can be daunting at first, but don’t let that put you off! Trade the Pool makes it easy for traders to start learning about the world of stock trading, as they share some stocks to watch every day pre-market on X, and their daily live trading room is a great resource for generating ideas and seeing how someone who trades stocks every day goes about their business.
The trading platform is excellent. It’s packed full of features, is slick, and the layout is highly customizable. With over 12,000 stocks & ETFs available to trade, there are endless opportunities to be found.
I highly recommend checking out Trade the Pool. There’s a free trial, so if you’re new to stocks like I was then use the free trial, look at the daily stock picks, and follow along with the live trading room. You’ll soon see the potential here, it’s huge!
