Prop firms, on their own published rules
A prop firm is not a broker. It holds no client money, no financial regulator licenses it, and in most cases the funded account is simulated — FTMO’s own objectives page says “Initial Simulated Capital” in as many words. What you buy is an evaluation. The fee is the product.
None of that makes them a scam. It does mean the questions worth asking are different from the ones asked about a broker, and that the rules — which every firm publishes — matter more than the marketing that surrounds them.
Every programme we have read, side by side
The last column is the one that decides things, and no firm publishes it: how many losing trades in a row end the attempt, at 1% risk per trade. It is not the same as the daily limit, because a daily limit that pauses the account is not a way to lose.
| Programme | Target | Drawdown | Daily | Ratio | Ends after |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | — | 6 losers | |||
| | 1.67 | 6 losers | |||
| | 1.50 | 5 losers | |||
| | 1.30 | 5 losers | |||
| | 1.50 | 5 losers | |||
| | 1.50 | 4 losers | |||
| | 1.67 | 4 losers | |||
| | 1.63 | 4 losers | |||
| | 2.67 | 4 losers | |||
| | 1.00 | 3 losers | |||
| | 1.67 | 3 losers | |||
| | 2.00 | 3 losers | |||
| | 1.67 | 3 losers |
Worth reading twice: FundedNext's Stellar 1-Step and The5ers' Hyper Growth publish the same 10% target, the same 6% drawdown and the same 3% daily limit. One of those daily limits closes the account and the other pauses it, so the attempt ends after three losing trades at one firm and six at the other. Identical on the pricing page, twice the rope in practice.
Two of these rows are the same programme
FundedNext’s Stellar 1-Step and The5ers’ Hyper Growth publish the same 10% target, the same 6% drawdown and the same 3% daily limit. One ends the attempt when that limit is hit and the other pauses the account, which at 1% risk is the difference between failing 97% of the time and 43%. Side by side →
And within one firm: FTMO’s 1-Step asks half the profit of its 2-Step against the same drawdown, which makes it the easier programme by every published number and the one that fails 97% of the time rather than 78%. Why →
All five single-phase programmes together fail between 43% and 97% of the time on rules that look almost identical. Ranked →
All firms
Alpha One: 10% target, 6% drawdown · Alpha Pro 6%: 6% → 6% target, 6% drawdown · Alpha Pro 8%: 8% → 5% target, 8% drawdown · Alpha Three: 8% → 4% → 4% target, 6% drawdown · Alpha Swing: 10% → 5% target, 10% drawdown
2-Step: 10% → 5% target, 10% drawdown, from EUR 89 · 1-Step: 10% target, 10% drawdown
Stellar 1-Step: 10% target, 6% drawdown · Stellar 2-Step: 8% → 5% target, 10% drawdown · Stellar Lite: 8% → 4% target, 8% drawdown · Stellar Instant: no target, 6% drawdown
1-Step Prime: 10% target, 6% drawdown
Hyper Growth: 10% target, 6% drawdown, from USD 52
No figures published here until we have read them from the firm’s own pages.
No figures published here until we have read them from the firm’s own pages.
No figures published here until we have read them from the firm’s own pages.
Why so few have figures
5 of 8. A firm appears here with rules once someone has opened its own rules page, read the numbers and cited them with the date. The rest are listed without figures so that a reader searching the name finds an honest page rather than nothing — and they stay out of the search index until that changes.
Challenge rules are, unusually, worth publishing: firms print them themselves and they change on the order of months. That makes this vertical citable in a way broker spreads never were.
The number to compare on
Total profit target divided by total drawdown allowance. Above 1.5 you must make half again as much as you are allowed to lose. It is computable from what every firm publishes, and no firm advertises it. Run it against your own risk per trade, or see every programme ranked by the odds of a fatal losing streak.