1-Step Prop Firms

FunderPro offers One Phase, Classic and Pro evaluations plus Instant accounts on MT5, cTrader and TradeLocker. One Phase/Classic pay 80% (90% add-on); Pro Daily pays 60% and Weekly 90%. Evaluation maximum drawdown is static, while Instant trails and adds 15% consistency, five profitable days and a 2% per-idea risk limit. Reward minimums and schedules depend on the program.

Funded Trading Plus offers Instant, Express, Classic and Activation simulated programs on MT5 and Match-Trader. Standard split is 80%, with eligible upgrades to 90%; Activation stays at 80%. Classic uses static drawdown and a daily 3% symbol-loss rule. Activation changes from static challenge drawdown to equity trailing when funded and requires 25% consistency for payouts.

Alpha Capital offers One, Pro, Swing and Three evaluations plus instant-qualified Direct. Pro, Swing and Three use static maximum drawdowns; One and Direct trail the highest balance. Standard splits are 80%, with eligible 90% purchase-time upgrades and 90% included on Direct. Duration, risk and payout conditions need to match the trading strategy.

FTMO (FTMO s.r.o., Prague) is the sector's most established simulated-funding firm, running a 2-Step and a newer 1-Step challenge. The most important fact is one almost every review gets backwards: the 2-Step fee is refunded 100% with your first payout, while the 1-Step fee is NON-REFUNDABLE. Net entry costs depend on the number of attempts, fees paid and whether the first eligible reward is reached. The 2-Step uses a STATIC 10% drawdown; the 1-Step uses an end-of-day TRAILING drawdown, a 3% daily loss, a 50% Best Day Rule displayed in Account MetriX — and the maximum-loss floor resets to 90% of initial capital when a reward is withdrawn and a new account is provided. FTMO charges no withdrawal commission, has no consistency rules on the 2-Step, and scales to $2,000,000. Scaling is subject to eligibility; a discounted CFD reset policy has not been verified here.

Crypto Fund Trader provides simulated standard evaluations plus Instant, Break and Ascend routes. Loss limits, leverage and rewards differ by model. The standard split is 80%, while Instant has a separate ladder. The daily and per-trade profit cap and reward conditions deserve close attention.

The5ers (Five Percent Online Ltd, a UK company — but contracted under Israeli law with exclusive jurisdiction in Tel Aviv) runs four CFD programmes: Bootcamp, Hyper Growth, Pro Growth and High Stakes. Its real strengths are genuine: drawdown is STATIC on every CFD programme, the split scales to 100% for free rather than as a paid add-on, and High Stakes offers 1:100 leverage. But two things are widely misreported. First, a 3.5% commission is taken from EVERY cash withdrawal — Rise, crypto and bank transfer alike; the only 0% route is non-convertible Hub Credit. Second, the celebrated ~70% fee refund is High Stakes only, is paid as account equity rather than cash, and is itself subject to that 3.5% on the way out. High Stakes qualifying days require 0.5% of initial balance using the lower of midnight balance and equity, less the previous day’s balance. Floating losses can reduce that result below the threshold; they do not automatically invalidate the day.

Trade The Pool is one of the very few prop firms built specifically for stock and ETF traders, the equities-focused arm of the 5%ers group (Five Percent Online Ltd). It offers simulated trading of more than 12,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs, including short-selling and penny stocks, with no Pattern Day Trader rule, on its own platform built on TraderEvolution. Its defining feature is a buying-power model paired with a Pump scaling engine that grows your buying power and daily-loss allowance by 10 percent at each 10 percent profit milestone. You pick a Flex track with unlimited time and fewer rules, or a cheaper Max track with a 60-day window and a stricter consistency rule, with day-trade buying power from 5,000 to 200,000 plus swing tiers. The profit split is 70 percent, payouts start 14 days after inception with a 300 dollar minimum, and US traders are welcomed. It is simulated and does not offer futures or crypto.