Prop Trading Firms

Research & Comparison - beyond the shiny websites: actual rules, hidden clauses, and real trader experiences.

This is about the business of proprietary trading, not your trading skill. The flags below tell you whether the numbers work in your favour after you add up all fees, challenge costs, and account losses - not whether you're a good trader. You can get paid out and still lose money overall.

  • Values are normalised for 100k US equity to make comparisons easier.
  • 1st Target is the total return you must generate from purchase until money comes your way for the first time.
  • Target is the ongoing profit needed per payout cycle once funded.

A single value does not tell you much about the quality - the combination of them and the rules do. Read more details about this.

Firm Price 1st Target Target DD Cycle Notes Flag
FTMO 2-Step $540 15% 0% 10% (50% daily) 14 days None Gold Standard
FTMO 1-Step $499 10% 0% 10% (33% daily) 14 days 50% consistency Gold Standard
InstantFunding Instant $4,624* 5% 0% 5% (100% daily) 7 days None Positive
InstantFunding Instant GO $3,699* 5% 0% 5% (80% daily) 7 days None Positive
InstantFunding IF Micro $589 5% 5% 6% (67% daily) 8* days 15% consistency Positive
InstantFunding One Phase $649 11.5% 1.5% 8% (38% daily) 4* days 40% consistency Positive
InstantFunding One Phase Micro $259 8.5% 1.5% 7% (43% daily) 8* days 15% consistency Positive
InstantFunding Two Phase $539 14.5% 1.5% 10% (50% daily) 4* days 40% consistency Positive
InstantFunding Two Phase Micro $413 13.5% 1.5% 10% (40% daily) 8* days 15% consistency Positive
InstantFunding IF Micro Clarity $589* 5% 5% 6% trailing (67% daily) 7 days Risk Management Toolkit Avoid
InstantFunding One Phase Clarity $649* 10.5% 1.5% 6% trailing (67% daily) 7 days Risk Management Toolkit Avoid
FundingPips Zero $444 4.8%* 1.8%* 5% (60% daily) 8* days 15% consistency Caution
FundingPips 1 Step $566 13%* 2%* 6% (50% daily) 7* days 35% consistency Caution
FundingPips 2 Step $544 15%* 2%* 10% (50% daily) 7* days 35% consistency Caution
FundingPips 2 Step Pro $422 13%* 1%* 6% (50% daily) 7 days None Caution
Blue Guardian Instant $506 7% 2.5%* 6% (50% daily) 5 days None Warnings
  • * Normalised to 100K-equivalent. InstantFunding sells an 80K Prime model at $3,699; the 100K price is extrapolated for comparison.
  • * Best-case scenario trading days, due to consistency rules.
  • * FundingPips min-profit and min days are based on a mix of contradicting rules and the consistency requirement.

Updated: Jul 2, 2026

No affiliation! Content provided here is based on hours of digging through actual contracts and fine prints, direct support statements & real life experiences. No firm had any say or input on how the content is provided, other than the responses they provided during verifying certain issues.
Flags
Net Verified Profitable - money landed at your bank exceeds 125% of all costs: purchase fees + taxes + add-ons + any breached accounts.
Positive - you got paid, but getting paid back does not mean your business is profitable.
Known Caveats - something's off with this firm/offer. Not a dealbreaker if you know about it going in.
Red Flag - something is fundamentally wrong here (in our opinion).

This section is a work in progress - more firms and deeper rule analysis are being added regularly.