The real cost of Blue Guardian Futures and BrightFunded Futures

Algaroud Center, 2nd Floor, Office 101-05, Dubai, UAE

Building A1, Dubai Digital Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Sean Bainton

Jelle Dijkstra

2021

2023

2% processing fee on all withdrawals (Riseworks).

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.

Prime Program requires Risk approval: eligible after 5 payouts on one account (the SIM account maximum), 10 across accounts, or 20% profit on one account. Only accounts with at least one payout move to Live. Choose Live or a cash-out of 50% of MLL per eligible account within 24 hours; no answer means Live. SIM accounts close and evaluations pause. Cash-out or a Live breach: 21 days without new purchases or resuming evaluations. Live starts at $0 with real capital, EOD drawdown, 80% split, daily payouts and no consistency rule. One Live trader per household; other household members cannot hold SIM Funded accounts.

• 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.

• BrightPlus: up to one approved payout per session; first payout from 24 hours after the first trade. Each subsequent payout requires fresh closed profit of 1% of the original account size.
• BrightCore: winning-day cycles, counted again from the next full session after each payout.

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.

Processing within 24 business hours of the request.

$500 across all account types.

Minimum request: $250, before the profit split.

Per request: 25K $1,000; 50K $2,000; 100K $3,000; 150K $4,000.

• BrightPlus: also limited to the balance above the buffer.
• BrightCore: the lowest of the size cap, 50% of current profit, and balance minus (starting balance + $100). The 2x addon doubles only the size cap.

At least 18 or the higher local age of majority. Sumsub KYC and a signed contract before SIM Funded activation, within 24 hours of completing both. One profile per person. The minimum trade duration rule must be met in each payout cycle. USDC on ERC-20 or bank transfer.

Per contract, per side, USD, all fees included: ES/NQ/RTY/YM 2.88; MES/MNQ/M2K/MYM 0.95; NKD/ZC/ZL/ZW 3.65; 6A/6B/6C/6E/6J/6N/6S/NG 3.10; M6A/M6B/M6E 0.84; CL 3.00; MCL 1.20; QM 2.70; QG 2.00; GC/SI/HG/PL 3.15; MGC 1.30; HE/LE 3.60; ZS/ZM 3.63. Round trip: twice these rates.

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.

After a breach, within the time shown on the dashboard. Restarts evaluation even from SIM Funded, keeping the account number and addons. Costs 55% of the current list price including addons; addons cannot change and the hedging warning is not restored.

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.

Optional at purchase, with additive surcharges on the base price: 100% Profit Split +20%; 2x Payout Cap +40%; BrightCore only, 3 Day Payout Cycle +20%. Targets, drawdown and contracts do not change.

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.

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.

• BrightPlus: intraday trailing on peak equity, including open profit. In SIM it locks at starting balance + $100 once equity reaches the buffer.
• BrightCore: trailing on the highest closing balance, updated between 4:45 and 5:59 PM ET. In SIM it locks at starting balance + $100 on the first approved payout, even if previously higher.
  No lock during evaluation. Touching the floor with live equity breaches the account at any time.

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.

The split applies to each requested amount; the full request is deducted from the account balance.

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

No separate daily loss limit.

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.

BrightPlus: starting balance + MLL + $100, retained after every payout. Only closed profit counts. Falling below pauses payouts without breaching the account. BrightCore has no such buffer.

• 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

No explicit minimum. Consistency requires at least 2 sessions on BrightPlus and 3 on BrightCore in practice.

No activation

• 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

• BrightPlus: no winning-day requirement.
• BrightCore SIM: 5 per payout, or 3 with the addon. Minimum closed net profit per session: 25K $100; 50K $200; 100K and 150K $300. Days need not be consecutive; at most one per session.

One-time fee

Up to 5 active SIM Funded accounts across all plans and sizes. Unlimited evaluations. With all 5 slots used, another evaluation pass waits until a slot opens.

No time limit, subject to inactivity rules.

Trade2Earn: activity earns BrightTokens redeemable for perks and evaluations, with no cash value. On Live, Prime Ladder pays bonuses every 10 winning days through Diamond (80 days); Prime Trader at 90 is status only. Total bonuses per account: 25K $5,000; 50K $10,000; 100K $20,000; 150K $30,000. Losing days and payouts preserve progress; an account breach resets it.

Only exclusively self-authored software with no third-party access. It must not mirror another trader, be a black box or run simultaneously at other firms. Source-code review may be required.

VPN/VPS allowed without concealing identity or location or bypassing country restrictions. Only the owner may trade the account.

Prohibited within and across your accounts, including different expiries, mini/micro and correlated instruments in the same group. First occurrence: warning, positions closed and profit removed while losses remain. Second: account breach. One warning per evaluation and one over the lifetime of SIM, not renewed by payouts or resets. Both accounts are penalized for a cross-account hedge.

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.

More than 50% of net winning-trade profit must come from trades held longer than 15 seconds. Partial fills count separately. Equality is insufficient. Noncompliance delays passing or blocks payouts without breaching the account; the calculation restarts after each payout. Exploitative tick scalping and HFT are prohibited.

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 BrightFunded accounts within the same profile. Copying others, signals or group trading is a hard breach.

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 7 days on funded accounts.

Open a new trade every 30 calendar days in evaluation and every 7 trading sessions in SIM, excluding holidays. Closing, editing and unfilled pending orders do not count. Advance warning; missing the deadline deactivates the account as a hard breach.

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.

Evaluation only: best session / total net profit, up to 50% on BrightPlus and 40% on BrightCore. Includes commissions and losing days. Recalculated at session close; equality is allowed. Delays passing without breaching the account. Does not apply in SIM.

• 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.

Exploiting simulated prices, latency, fills or liquidity; arbitrage, spoofing, layering, abusive HFT, oversized one-way bets, account rolling, third-party management and risk or size changes inconsistent with normal trading. Terms allow affected profits to be removed, extra limits imposed or accounts closed.

Automatic close at 4:45 PM ET, Monday to Friday, without a breach for auto-close. CME session runs from 6:00 PM to 5:00 PM ET the next day; holiday cutoffs may be earlier.