Are you considering joining FTMO and taking on a $200,000 trading challenge? Unfortunately, there are a lot of prop firms available online right now, and some have very shady reputations, making it difficult to know who to trust.
Let’s see if FTMO lives up to the hype after reading hundreds of extensive reviews from traders and investors worldwide to compile a comprehensive review of the platform.
Who Are FTMO?
FTMO is a Czech Republic-based prop trading firm that specializes in Forex trading. They give up to $200,000 in trading capital to traders who successfully complete their challenge.
The challenge is to demonstrate that you are a consistently profitable trader, and if you are, you are given capital, from which you keep up to 90% of profits and FTMO keeps 10%. The company essentially seeks out profitable traders who only require funding and then provides them with the necessary tools and funds.
They are, without a doubt, the largest prop trading firm on our Top Prop Firms List and the personal first pick of thousands of people.
You can trade whatever instrument you want with them, including forex, commodities, indices, cryptocurrencies, stocks, and bonds.
Suppose you know how to trade successfully but have limited capital. In that case, you can use your talent to acquire access to a relatively large, funded account, allowing you to develop your equity more quickly. In addition, they offer extremely low spreads and no commissions, which outperforms the majority of retail brokers.
This sounds like a terrific idea in theory. You’re trading someone else’s money and keeping 90% of the gains with no risk to yourself or your money. But is it as good as it seems?
The FTMO Challenge
So, how exactly does the challenge with FTMO work?
The well-known challenge is essentially a two-step process for evaluating your trading abilities and skill levels. The first stage is the challenge to gain the $200,000 funding, followed by verification to prove that the first time wasn’t just luck or cheating.
After you purchase your chance at a challenge, FTMO will give you the details through email. The challenge and verification are both done on a demo account. In your client portal, you will be able to evaluate your account data and track every step of the challenge until you pass or fail.
You may be wondering why they are holding a challenge and why you should pay for it in the first place. Traders have to pay for it because if people had an unlimited number of trials, they would eventually win a $200,000 trading account even if they had previously failed 100 times due to sheer luck.
The challenge is to prove that they are investing $200,000 in a successful trader rather than one who will reach the maximum drawdown of $20,000 on the first day and lose the company’s money.
What Are The Exact Rules Of The FTMO Challenge?
Choosing Your FTMO Challenge rules
Before signing up for an FTMO challenge, there are several things to consider.
Funding size
- Your funding can range from $10,000 to $200,000. The $10,000 challenge is far less expensive to participate in. Therefore this could be a nice choice for new traders with limited capital.
The account currency
- If you’re in Europe, I’d recommend EUR, and if you’re anyplace else in the world, I’d recommend USD.
Normal or Aggressive Trading Style
- Accounts can be set to aggressive or regular trading styles. Aggressive account challenges are more expensive, but they allow for more drawdown on your account without losing the challenge. It increases the maximum drawdown from 10% to 20%.
Choosing the Broker
- FTMO was affiliated with some forex brokers before. However, they have since deleted all third-party retail brokers and opted to offer an in-house-developed trading solution, directly connecting traders to the right places, which is far faster, cheaper, and better than the bulk of the top options on the market in terms of brokers.
The New FTMO Challenge For Swing Traders
In their new update, FTMO has set a challenge for swing traders. With this challenge, you can hold positions overnight and over the weekends without repercussions or without failing the screening process.
The leverage is simultaneously reduced to 1:30, which is still plenty for swing traders.
The Verification Process
The first phase in the evaluation process is the FTMO Challenge. You must succeed here to proceed to the Verification phase. Therefore, the second and last step in becoming an FTMO Trader is Verification.
The Verification step aims to determine your trading consistency and whether you can trade their system or technique profitably over time while sticking to the rules. Compared to the FTMO Challenge stage, the Verification stage has more straightforward Trading Goals. In the verification, the Profit Target is reduced by half, and you have a full 60 calendar days to meet the targets.
You will be offered the option to trade for their Proprietary Trading Firm after clearing the Verification step and authenticating your results.
FTMO Profit Split A Stunning 90% For You
Since the beginning of the online prop firm industry, FTMO has been known for its 70% profit split. Other prop trading firms have based their services around this calculation.
To stay ahead of the curve, they are now offering traders up to 90% profit share, with the company keeping only 10% of your profits. They also provide a capital scaling program, which allows you to increase the balance of your funded account by 25% once the criteria are met.
This is by far the greatest profit split in the business, and it ensures that FTMO continuously goes above and beyond to innovate in this field.
Can you actually get funding?
You may be asking if it is possible to pass these challenges and receive funding, and will you be able to keep it? Frankly, it is doable, but it can be extremely difficult for 95% of traders.
Most traders lack emotional strength, courage, discipline, and sound risk-to-reward and risk-management strategy. As a result, most forex traders will fail in the long run.
However, if you’ve been consistently profitable with a smaller account, chances are, the FTMO challenge will work for you.
So much so that I would say FTMO might even make you a better trader since you must follow account rules such as drawdown, which forces you only to take high-quality trades.
Unless you take the new swing trader challenge, the only true disadvantage of the rigorous rules is that you can’t hold trades over the weekend.
During the normal challenge, you can hold trades over the weekend market closing. However, once funded, you must write to FTMO by Wednesday night to request permission to hold over the weekend so that they can assess the risk and implement any necessary hedges.
The Free FTMO Challenge
If you want to test the FTMO Challenge, their free challenge might be for you. This is a simplified version of the original challenge, but it is entirely free. The idea is to perfect your trading abilities and ensure that you can complete the task before investing in the real deal.
If do not succesd with this challenge, you don’t lose anything. Because this is a free challenge, you will not receive any funds if you complete it, but it will give you the confidence to take on the real one.
If you have a backtested forex trading strategy, you might put it to the test by participating in a free FTMO challenge. If you fail the challenge due to a drawdown or a violation of the maximum loss limits, you are clearly not prepared to pay for the genuine $100,000 account.
To get started, sign up, make an account on the website, and wait for the specifics through email. Then, log in to your new MT4 account and begin trading when you receive the account information.
You can check your trading account analytics in the Metrix on your client site. The free challenge is a terrific chance to put yourself to the test and get complex data on your trading success.
How long does it take to get funded?
You must have traded for at least 10 trading days to pass both the FTMO Challenge and the verification (not necessarily consecutive).
There is no need for you to wait for the duration of the Evaluation Process. You may get funded and manage your own FTMO Account in as little as 20 trading days.
What if you fail the challenge?
Suppose you violate any of the trading rules or fail the challenge. In that case, your account will be automatically invalidated, and you will no longer be eligible to continue in the evaluation process. If the breach occurs on your FTMO Account, it will be closed. Of course, you can always start over and order a completely new FTMO Challenge.
However, if you do not violate any of the trading rules during the verification or FTMO challenge, and you end with a profit at the end of the trading period, all positions closed, you will receive a free FTMO Challenge. This is to support good trading and the ability to manage risk in the face of shifting market conditions correctly.
Leaderboard
FTMO now offers a new and intriguing ‘Leaderboard’ function. You can check the equity and profit numbers from traders worldwide, sorted by area.
This feature is a terrific source of motivation and information for newer traders looking for funding. Moreover, it may inspire people to stay trading in the forex market because it demonstrates the incredible gains that are genuinely attainable.
Payment Proof – Withdrawals From FTMO
When selecting a prop firm, it is critical to work with a company with a track record of paying its traders on time. FTMO’s process, according to reviews, is simple and quick when compared to some of the other firms.
After confirming the payment, payouts are completed within 1-2 business days. Profits can be received via standard bank wire transfer, Skrill, or cryptocurrency. Withdrawals are not subject to any commissions at FTMO.
You do not need to make a minimum profit in order to get a profit split of up to 90%. Whatever profit you make, that’s what they share and pay you out.
Payouts are normally handled on the same day, and the support team is accessible to answer any queries you may have during the withdrawal procedure. Payouts are processed quickly, and the finance team is there to assist if needed!
Custom Withdrawals
In today’s market, FTMO is a bit of a thought leader. FTMO currently offers payments on demand, whereas other prop firms enable withdrawals if the goals are met at the end of the month. You can specify exactly when you wish to get paid each month.
On-demand payouts are available to all FTMO traders. The payout can be handled within 14 days, but you can also set your own Profit Split Day, which can be modified up to three times to ensure that you always receive your withdrawal on the most convenient day for you.
This isn’t going to make a big difference for many traders. Still, it’s just another example of the company going above and above to establish a true partnership with their traders, rather than just a prop firm.
The New FTMO Capital Scaling Plan
FTMO has launched a new capital scaling program that promises 25% growth every four months. To be qualified for capital scaling, traders must make a 10% profit for four consecutive months. You must make a profit every month, which might be 2% in month one, 3% in month two, 4% in month three, and 1% in month four.
It is vital to note that the account amount must be more than the initial starting value to request capital scaling. With this incentive, your trading account will double in size every 16 months (depending on how you compound your profits)! This is limited to a total of $2,000,000 per trader.
At each profit split, the eligibility is automatically evaluated, and traders are shown a summary of the progress and conditions. If you meet the requirements, simply confirm that you want your account scaled up while your payout is being processed, and they will issue you a scaled-up FTMO Account for your next trading period.
This scaling strategy works so well because FTMO uses demo accounts and a proprietary algorithm to control risk and place trades in live markets, which means you won’t be exposed to live markets on your trading accounts.
This makes no difference to us as traders, but it allows FTMO to trust traders with higher amounts of funds.
When compared to other forex brokerage firms, the product is incredibly competitive. As previously stated, DT4X Trader has a more aggressive scaling plan, but that seems less sustainable.
Support
Naturally, you’ll want to know that if you are funded, you’ll be able to contact them whenever you need to since you’re using FTMO as your trading account. Fortunately, there are numerous ways to contact FTMO.
They have their headquarters in Prague’s historical center. You may also contact them by filling out the contact form, emailing them, using their 24/7 Live Chat, Messenger, or calling their phone number.
Education & Tools
If you’re making money, FTMO makes money too. For this reason, they offer a great number of tools and education for traders to succeed and become profitable in the forex markets.
Some of the most noteworthy educational partners of FTMO are Tradingview and Forex Peace Army. Besides dozens of partnerships, they have their in-house Trading Academy. However, their educational videos and blogs are mostly not intended for beginner traders.
Truth be told, the majority of forex content can be found online for free, but getting educated from a vendor is still a valiable option.
Tools For Traders
You can find a wide range of features and tools at FTMO, which is perhaps more important than education. They are all available through the client portal and completely free to use with a paid challenge.
Metrix
This analyzes all of your trades, including drawdown, profit, loss, trading times, and pairs, and compiles the statistics.
However, their Metrix website may take a minute to refresh data properly. If you’re not sure how much your daily loss is, wait for the website to refresh to get an actual daily loss limit amount properly. Otherwise, you may unknowingly exceed your daily stop limit.
Statistical App
This feature helps you develop a successful trading edge by examining the likelihood of various situations occurring on different pairs.
Account Analysis
This feature is comparable to Metric but far more extensive. It helps you better understand your trading and behavior while also increasing your market profitability.
Trading Journal
You can upload images of your trades to the trading journal. This greatly improves your understanding of the setups, refines your edge, and puts you one step closer to that $100,000-funded trading account.
Mentor App
This program, which works on MT4 and MT5, pushes you to stick to your trading plan and systematic rules by displaying a sophisticated EA on the screen. It’s not the most beneficial tool for disciplined or professional traders, but it’s a fantastic feature for new traders just starting out.
Equity Simulator
This excellent tool allows you to experiment with different win rates and risk-to-reward ratios to see how your account might develop and be affected.
Education
In a strict sense, FTMO does not have its own educational catalog. Instead, they provide discounts on some of the most popular forex training products in the industry through partnerships.
I’m not familiar with any of these mentors, so I can’t directly vouch for them. Nonetheless, if you’ve signed up with FTMO for one of the challenges, you should check them out since they may be able to offer you a large discount.
However, education is not their strongest competitive advantage above other prop firms.
Pros
There are far too many pros to list. But, aside from the obvious benefit of increased capital, they will enhance your profit share by 90/10 if you are profitable for at least 4 months in a row.
Their customer service is also excellent. There will never be an unanswered email or an unhelpful live chat support staff member.
Finally, their payouts are lightning-fast. Instead of the customary 2-4 business days, you get it within 24 hours, and in many cases, within hours.
Cons
Overall, they are a viable alternative for some people. However, far too many new traders believe that if they had access to a $100,000 account, they would be able to trade successfully. If you can’t successfully trade a $1,000 account, don’t even try a prop firm.
Around 90% of individuals who attempt the challenge fail, and 90% of those who pass lose their account within a short period. That is how they make money, and it is one of the best business models available.
The second part of the FTMO negatives is that many of your trade products are CFDs. These function by a brokerage matching your trades against the other traders on that broker, rather than by placing live orders on the market.
However, the “cons” described aren’t truly disadvantages in the traditional sense. Furthermore, it excludes gamblers and traders with inadequate risk management. FTMO is providing traders an additional 14 days if they are close to meeting their aim.
Conclusion – Is FTMO a scam?
In conclusion, FTMO is your best option if you seek a legitimate and respectable firm to provide you with $200,000 to trade with. They have an excellent reputation in the market for really paying out and providing excellent customer service and usability.
The no time-limit structure is a good point to choose FTMO, as you have plenty of time to complete the targets without paying the initial fee again. And there is a chance factor of passing the challenges as well, as market conditions can change swiftly.
To take the challenge, you must pay a fee, which is returned if you pass. It simply implies that if you pass, you will be funded, and it will cost you nothing. Once funded, you can trade and earn on an account with no risk. Therefore, I believe it is worthwhile. It is not simple to pass, and if you fail, you lose the fee.
But this isn’t some magical way to get rich quickly. The FTMO challenge is difficult to pass and even more difficult to maintain once funded. So if you’re new to forex and haven’t been consistent, I’d recommend starting with one of the free trials to assess your skills and work your way up to your $200,000 account.