Tradeify Steps Into Retail with Slay Markets Launch and Exclusive NinjaTrader Clearing Deal
U.S. prop trading firm Tradeify has made its most significant move yet — crossing the line from prop evaluation into regulated retail brokerage. The company has officially launched Slay Markets under a newly registered introducing broker entity, Tradeify Brokerage LLC, and signed an exclusive clearing and technology partnership with NinjaTrader Clearing LLC and NinjaTrader Connect. The retail waitlist went live on May 19, 2026 at slaymarkets.com, with early access prioritized for Tradeify’s existing funded traders before a broader rollout in the coming weeks.
From Challenge Firm to Regulated Broker: How Slay Markets Works
Slay Markets operates through a two-entity structure standard across the U.S. retail futures market. Tradeify Brokerage LLC serves as the customer-facing introducing broker — registered with the CFTC and a member of the National Futures Association. Behind it, NinjaTrader Clearing LLC functions as the sole futures commission merchant, holding client funds and handling all trade clearing and execution.
This means customers contract with Tradeify Brokerage LLC but their assets are held at NinjaTrader Clearing — a setup that mirrors the IB/FCM separation model used by most regulated U.S. retail futures brokers. As of April 30, 2026, the NFA counted 69 futures commission merchants and 885 introducing brokers among its membership. Tradeify’s registration places it firmly within this well-established regulatory framework. For traders curious about how prop firms are evolving their structures, this launch represents a notable shift in how funded trading companies position themselves.
NinjaTrader’s Exclusive Role: Infrastructure as a Competitive Advantage
The exclusivity in this deal deserves attention. NinjaTrader isn’t simply providing clearing services — it is powering the entire technology layer through NinjaTrader Connect, an end-to-end infrastructure platform that handles onboarding, funding, risk controls, and market access through a single API. This gives Tradeify CME Group futures access for its trader community without requiring the firm to build or license its own FCM stack or brokerage technology from scratch.
Brett Simberkoff, CEO of Tradeify, described the launch as a logical progression: “Tradeify was built to help retail traders develop their skills and scale their trading. Creating an easy path to take their capital to a live brokerage account when they felt they were ready was a necessary chapter in that journey. With NinjaTrader handling the infrastructure, Tradeify aims to focus on creating the best possible user experience.”
Martin Franchi, CEO of NinjaTrader Group, added that the move from prop firm to introducing broker “represents a natural extension for firms exploring new ways to serve traders,” describing NinjaTrader’s infrastructure as built to help firms “launch, differentiate, and scale a complete trading experience.”
The Prop-to-Broker Pipeline: Why This Move Makes Strategic Sense
Tradeify’s Slay Markets launch follows a pattern that has been gaining momentum across the prop trading space. Several firms have begun exploring brokerage operations as a way to build more sustainable, recurring revenue models alongside their evaluation programs — which are inherently transactional and depend on a constant flow of new challenge participants.
By offering funded traders a direct path to a regulated live account, Tradeify is positioning itself to retain high-performing traders who might otherwise migrate to a conventional broker after building confidence through the prop environment. The move also reduces the firm’s dependence on challenge fee revenue and opens access to a new client segment: retail traders seeking CME futures access without going through a prop evaluation process.
Tradeify now operates across two distinct regulated entities — the prop evaluation side and the introducing broker side — serving traders at different stages of their journey. Understanding the difference between a prop trading account and a retail brokerage account becomes increasingly important as firms blur the traditional boundaries between the two.
What This Means for the Broader Prop Industry
Tradeify’s Slay Markets launch isn’t just one firm’s business story — it’s a signal about where the prop trading industry is heading. The decision to build on a formal regulatory structure (CFTC registration, NFA membership) rather than launching through an offshore vehicle reflects the increasingly compliance-conscious direction the sector is taking, particularly as scrutiny of prop firms intensifies.
For traders, the most direct consequence is the emergence of a cleaner pathway from funded challenge to regulated live-money account within a single ecosystem. That pathway removes a significant friction point: historically, graduating from prop trading to real-money brokerage required starting over with a new platform, new rules, and a new institutional relationship from scratch.
For other prop firms observing this move, the message is clear: the infrastructure partners needed to make this transition are accessible, and at least one firm has now demonstrated a replicable model. Those exploring how to evaluate prop firms that offer full trading lifecycles — from challenge to funded to live account — will increasingly want to factor in whether a firm has this kind of regulated infrastructure. Expect more firms to explore similar paths, particularly those with large funded trader communities and the appetite to formalize their regulatory footprint.
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Source: TradeInformer
