Futures firms comparator
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51 differences
Am Langenwall 1, 18439 Stralsund, Germany
Algaroud Center, 2nd Floor, Office 101-05, Dubai, UAE
Lennard Wenderholm
Sean Bainton
Germany
United Arab Emirates
2021
Lvlup charges no payout fee.
2% processing fee on all withdrawals (Riseworks).
Both the evaluation and the funded account are simulated, unless a separate agreement says otherwise.
After completing the evaluation and trading consistently on a Simulated Funded Account, the Risk Management team may invite traders to Live. There is no fixed timeline; each trader is evaluated individually. From 28/09/2026, all eligible funded accounts merge into one Live Account at transition. Their starting Live drawdowns add together: five $50K accounts provide $10,000 of combined drawdown. The $15,000 cap applies to new purchases after 28/09/2026. Contract limits scale with the combined drawdown, up to 10 minis / 100 micros. At each live profit milestone of 0.5x, 1x and 1.5x the starting drawdown, 25% of that drawdown is deposited into the Live balance as a bonus. The bonus becomes withdrawable after five winning days with the account in profit. Instead of trading Live, the trader may choose a one-time Live Buyout of 50% of the combined starting drawdown at transition. It is available once per trader, with a 28-day cooldown afterward. Live accounts use end-of-day drawdown with no daily loss limit. CME professional data, trade commissions and platform fees are deducted from the balance. Contract limits may increase with consistent performance.
- Lvlup: every 14 days. The days in the cycle do not need to be profitable.
- Starter: after every 5 profitable days. 5 payouts at most; the fifth closes the account.
- Standard: every 3 days, from 3 days after the first trade
- Reserve: instant payout once eligible (5 winning days)
- Express: daily payouts
- Direct: instant payout from day one
Withdrawal eligibility is confirmed by the end-of-day (EOD) dashboard update. Once the withdrawal button is enabled, a request can be submitted at any time without waiting for the next EOD update.
Approved payouts are processed within 48 hours at most, usually 24 to 48h.
Payouts processed within 24 business hours. If Blue Guardian misses that window through a delay on their end, you receive an extra 10% profit share on that payout. Does not apply on weekends or bank holidays, nor to delays from compliance or risk reviews, Rise onboarding or a pending trader response.
- Lvlup: 10% of the starting balance per payout.
- Starter: 4% on 25K and 50K, 2.5% on 100K and 2% on 150K, never more than 50% of the profit generated.
- Starter: $500 on every size.
- Lvlup: no published minimum.
$500 across all account types.
- KYC with Sumsub before the funded account. The payout method must belong to the verified holder.
- Lvlup: the 40% consistency rule must be met when you request the payout.
- Starter: the account is locked from the request until the payout is approved.
- The full requested amount comes off the balance and the drawdown is not reset.
A failed account cannot be reset or reactivated: you have to buy a new evaluation.
Evaluation accounts can be reset at 30% off the original price. After failing the evaluation, the trader has 7 days to decide whether to reset. Funded accounts cannot be reset.
Payout Protector (+25% of the price): if a funded account fails while in profit, they review the case and may pay what was eligible. It does not prevent the breach or keep the account open, and it must be added at purchase.
Reserve challenges are configurable at checkout. Traders can choose a Daily Loss Limit or no Daily Loss Limit, combined with a 40% consistency rule (3-day pass) or a 50% consistency rule (2-day pass). The price varies depending on the selected combination.
Express challenges offer an optional 50% evaluation consistency add-on instead of the standard 40% rule, allowing traders to qualify after as few as 2 green days.
Scaling applies to funded Reserve and Express accounts only. Standard and Direct keep flat contract limits from start to finish.
On Reserve and Express you get full contract size during the evaluation, and funded limits start lower and grow with the account balance. Updated at end of day (EOD) on the closing balance; if the EOD balance drops below a trigger, the tier can go back down.
Starting funded limits
- $25,000: 1 mini / 10 micros
- $50,000: 2 minis / 20 micros
- $100,000: 3 minis / 30 micros
- $150,000: 3 minis / 30 micros
Scaling triggers ($25K / $50K / $100K / $150K)
- +$1,500: 2/20 · 3/30 · 4/40 · 4/40
- +$2,000: — · 4/40 · 5/50 · 5/50
- +$3,000: — · — · 8/80 · 8/80
- +$4,500: — · — · — · 12/120
Flat limits (Standard and Direct)
- $25,000: 1 mini / 10 micros
- $50,000: 4 minis / 40 micros
- $100,000: 8 minis / 80 micros
- $150,000: 12 minis / 120 micros
1 mini = 10 micros; contracts can be mixed within the limit.
End-of-day trailing: it follows the highest closing balance and updates once the day ends; intraday moves do not shift it. On Lvlup it stops trailing once the account is up 6% and locks at the starting balance; Starter does not publish that lock. Touching it closes the account.
Trailing end-of-day (EOD) on all plans. Values per plan and size:
- Standard $25K / $50K / $100K / $150K: $1,500 / $2,000 / $3,500 / $5,000
- Reserve $25K / $50K / $100K / $150K: $1,000 / $2,000 / $3,000 / $4,500
- Express $25K / $50K / $100K / $150K: $1,000 / $2,000 / $2,500 / $3,500
- Direct $25K / $50K / $100K / $150K: $1,500 / $2,000 / $3,500 / $4,500
Once the trailing drawdown reaches the starting balance, it locks and stops trailing.
On Direct the drawdown becomes static after the account exceeds the initial trail balance or after the first payout request. After any approved payout the drawdown floor locks at starting balance + $100 on every plan.
80% on Lvlup and 100% on Starter.
90% on all funded accounts and plans.
A payout delayed beyond the 24-business-hour guarantee adds an extra 10% profit share on that payout.
No daily loss limit.
Soft breach on every plan: open trades are closed automatically and the account is disabled for the rest of the day, then reinstated the next trading day.
- Standard $25K: none. $50K / $100K / $150K: $1,000 / $2,000 / $3,000
- Reserve: configurable at checkout. Traders can choose no daily loss limit or a soft DLL of $600 / $1,200 / $1,700 / $3,000 on $25K / $50K / $100K / $150K. The price varies depending on the selected option
- Express challenge $25K: none. $50K / $100K / $150K: $1,000 / $1,250 / $1,750
- Express funded $25K / $50K / $100K / $150K: $500 / $1,000 / $1,250 / $1,750
- Direct $25K / $50K / $100K / $150K: $1,000 / $1,250 / $2,500 / $3,000
$1,000,000 per trader, adding up every active account, evaluation and funded.
Standard — Funded Buffer
- $25,000 → $1,600
- $50,000 → $2,100
- $100,000 → $3,600
- $150,000 → $5,100
Payouts are only available from profits earned above the buffer, and the buffer must stay intact when submitting a request.
Express
- $25,000 → $1,100
- $50,000 → $2,100
- $100,000 → $3,600
- $150,000 → $5,100
Payouts are only available from profits earned above the buffer.
Reserve
- No buffer to reach before a payout, but after any withdrawal the drawdown floor locks at starting balance + $100.
Direct
- No profit buffer requirement.
No fixed number of accounts: the limit is the total capital.
- Lvlup: no expiry, but you must trade at least once every 30 days.
- Starter: 30 days from the first trade; it does not renew.
5 in the evaluation. Any day with at least one executed trade counts.
- No minimum trading days on evaluation. Standard can be passed in as little as one trading day
- Express with the optional 50% consistency add-on can qualify after 2 green days
- Funded: one trade every 7 days to keep the account active
- Lvlup: activation fee after passing, due within 30 days. It is lower if the evaluation was monthly. No monthly fee once funded.
- Starter: no activation fee.
No activation
Lvlup Elite: 1 point per dollar paid out by Lvlup and 200 per passed Lvlup account; verified payouts and passes at other futures firms count too. 10,000 points unlock 12 months in a club with events and trips, where each point is worth $1. It cannot be bought.
- Lvlup: none; payouts follow 14-day cycles.
- Starter: 5 profitable days before each payout.
- Standard: no minimum. First payout 3 days after the first trade
- Reserve: 5 winning days before each payout, with a minimum of $100 / $150 / $200 / $250 profit per day on $25K / $50K / $100K / $150K. Winning days reset after every payout
- Express: no minimum
- Direct: no minimum
- Lvlup: monthly or one-time payment, your choice. The monthly fee runs while the evaluation is open and stops when you pass, fail or cancel.
- Starter: one-time payment only.
- On Volumetrica, Lvlup monthly ($129, $225, $369 and $476) and Starter ($161, $226, $291 and $356) cost more. Lvlup one-time costs the same on both platforms.
One-time fee
Your own bots are allowed, for the holder's own trading. High-frequency bots and bots that copy trades between different traders are forbidden.
Allowed within the same account. Forbidden across accounts, yours or another firm's.
No minimum trade duration, but no HFT and no sub-60-second trades at the contract limit.
Microscalping (trades held seconds with minimal profit margins) is prohibited. Automated scalping systems that exceed 200 trades per day are not allowed. Exploiting tight brackets or the simulated market's absence of slippage is forbidden.
Contract limit by account size, counting all open exposure together (1 mini = 10 micros). Risking an outsized share of the account on a single move is forbidden.
Max risk-to-reward ratio: 5:1. For every $100 of profit target, your initial stop loss cannot exceed $500. Mental stops are accepted but excessive risk-taking can lead to warnings or payout disqualification. Adjusting stops to add risk goes against policy; only move stops forward to trail and protect profits.
Additional risk guardrails:
- Trade within 2% of any CME price limit is prohibited.
- Trading without clear risk management, excessive sizing, inconsistent contract sizes or "all-in" strategies may be considered gambling and lead to account review.
- Holding a position into the daily 16:10 EST auto-close is fine; the auto-close itself doesn't breach the account.
Only between your own accounts, within contract and capital limits. Copying other traders or following signal groups is forbidden.
Allowed in evaluation and funded, with no 3-minute restriction. The general terms of Prop Account, the company running the evaluations, do forbid opening positions 3 minutes before and after a news event.
Allowed on both challenge and funded accounts, on every plan. Traders can open, manage and close positions during high-impact news. Blue Guardian warns that slippage and spread widening may occur.
At least one trade every 30 days; the timer cannot be paused. On Lvlup it also applies once funded.
At least one trade every 7 days on funded accounts.
40%: your best day cannot exceed 40% of total profit. On Lvlup it applies in the evaluation and at every payout request; on Starter, only in the evaluation. Exceeding it does not fail the account: you keep trading until it drops below 40%.
A single trading day cannot equal or exceed:
- Standard: 40%, on the funded account only
- Reserve: configurable as 40% (3-day pass) or 50% (2-day pass), on the evaluation only
- Express: 40% on the evaluation by default; an optional 50% evaluation consistency add-on allows qualification after as few as 2 green days
- Direct: 20% on the first payout, 25% on the second, 30% from the third onwards
Calculation: Highest Net Profit Day / Total Account PnL. On evaluation accounts, passing is delayed until the ratio complies with the selected threshold. On funded accounts, payouts are blocked until the ratio drops below the applicable threshold. Violating the rule does NOT terminate the account.
- Exploiting price errors, delays or latency
- High-frequency trading (HFT)
- Hedging or arbitrage across accounts, other firms included
- Front-running and insider information
- Group trading, signals or copying other traders
- Having a third party trade or pass the evaluation for you
- All-in or excessive risk on a single move
- Passing with one strategy and switching it once funded
- Trading at or near the contract limit for under 60 seconds (Prop Account terms)
- Automated scalping systems exceeding 200 trades per day.
- AI, bots and fully automated trading mechanisms (all account types).
- Hands-off, continuous day-and-night trading or complete automation.
- Placing multiple limit orders at the same price to manipulate fills.
- Strategies aimed at exploiting isolated fills in low-liquidity or gapped markets.
- Using tight brackets or absence of slippage in the simulated market for favorable fills.
- Trading during tier 1 economic data releases.
- Coordinated trading across unconnected accounts (identical or opposing strategies).
- Microscalping (trades held seconds with minimal margins).
- Trading within 2% of a CME price limit.
- Trading without a stop loss, relying on the trailing threshold to close trades.
Everything closed by 15:55 CST on normal days; trading resumes at 17:00 CST. Hours change on holidays and closing in time is the trader's job.



















