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Futures Firms Comparator

Compare features of different Futures firms side by side

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Blue Guardian Futures logoBlue Guardian Futures
Elite Trader Funding logoElite Trader Funding
Headquarters

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

CEO

Sean Bainton

Country

United Arab Emirates

United States

Foundation

2021

2022-02-14

Banned Countries
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burma (Myanmar), Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Crimea, Croatia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Kenya, Kosovo, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Mali, Mauritius, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen
Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Congo, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen
Assets
Indices, Forex, Commodities, Crypto, Futures
Refund
✗
Payout Fee

2% processing fee on all withdrawals (Riseworks).

Platforms
Tradovate, ProjectX, Volsys, DeepCharts
NinjaTrader, Tradovate, TradingView, Rithmic, R | Trader, ATAS, Bookmap, EdgeProX, eSignal, Finamark, Investor/RT, MotiveWave, Quantower, Sierra Chart, Tickblaze
Demo Account
Unknown
Payout Methods
Transfer, Crypto
Transfer, Crypto
Live Account
✓
✓
Payment Methods
Card, Crypto, ApplePay, GooglePay
Card
Payout Frequency
  • 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.

Sim-funded: processed Mondays and Wednesdays after meeting each cycle's ATDs. LIVE ELITE: requests on business days; Vault releases follow a separate schedule.

Payout Guarantee

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.

Approval of eligible rewards or initiation of a LIVE ELITE transition within 48 business hours. Transfer initiation and bank receipt are not guaranteed. $1,000 compensation if ETF misses the deadline; ETF chooses the compensation method. Completed KYC and Rise verification and accounts in good standing required. Excludes weekends, US bank or federal holidays, system downtime and third-party delays.

Minimum Withdrawal

$500 across all account types.

1 Step: $250. Static, EOD, Diamond Hands and Fast Track: $100. DTF 10K/100K: $500; DTF 50K: $1,000. LIVE ELITE: $250.

Brokers
Rithmic, Tradovate
Maximum Withdrawal

Maximum per cycle, in USD:
1 Step 50K: 1000/1250/1500/1750; 100K: 1250/1500/1750/2000; 150K: 1500/1750/2000/2250
Static 10K: 500/500/500/1000; 25K: 750/1000/1250/1500; 50K: 1250/1500/1750/2000
EOD 50K: 1250/1500/1750/2000; 100K and Diamond Hands 100K: 1750/2000/2250/2500
Fast Track EOD: 500/750/1000; Static: 750/1000/1250. Three cycles; total 2250/3000 per the specific guide
DTF 10K: 1200 per cycle; 50K: 2500/2500/5000/5000; 100K: 1500/2500/3500/5000
Outside Fast Track: the fourth limit continues; combined sim cap of $25,000 per trader per round, with a $150,000 lifetime cap across all sim rounds. LIVE ELITE: uncapped above the assigned starting balance.

Other Payout Requirements

KYC and Rise onboarding with matching personal details. Country must be supported by payment providers and the live broker. Guam, Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands are unsupported. Active account and approved audit; wait for approval before resuming trading. Minimum age: 18 or the local age of majority, whichever is higher. Complete KYC within 5 days of submitting documents; ETF may deny rewards if this is not met. An audio or video interview of up to 60 minutes may be required. In sim, withdraw the cycle maximum and meet its ATDs to advance to the next cycle; ATDs reset. Dashboard payout requirements prevail in a conflict.

Commission

Per contract, per side: ES/NQ/YM $2.04; MES $0.56; MNQ $0.51; CL $2.26; MCL $0.76; GC $2.31; MGC $0.76; BTC $6.76; MBT $2.76; ETH $5.76; MET $0.46. Other rates depend on the contract. LIVE ELITE: minis $2 and micros $0.62, plus exchange fees.

Account Reset
✓

Standard evaluations: manual reset or automatic reset on renewal of a failed account. Fast Track: no evaluation reset. Sim-funded and DTF: up to 10 resets per account. LIVE ELITE: no resets.

Add-ons
✓
✓
Instant
✓
✓
One Step
✓
✓
Account scaling
✓
~
Two Steps
✗
Max Drawdown

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.

1 Step: intraday trailing, including open profit. EOD, Diamond Hands, Fast Track EOD and DTF 10K/50K: trailing at session close on realized profit. Static, Fast Track Static and DTF 100K: fixed floor. Sim-funded trailing locks at the safety net, with a floor at starting balance + $100; the Static floor stays unchanged.

Profit Split

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 sim-account split is a maximum, subject to approval and payout limits. LIVE ELITE: 80% to the trader.

dailyDrawdown

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

EOD and Diamond Hands: daily limit with a hard breach; TradeShield can turn it into a daily lockout. In sim-funded it stops applying after reaching the safety net. Other plans have no base daily limit.

Three Steps
✗
Max Allocation
150,000
mandatoryBuffer
~
✓
Minimum Trading Days
  • 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

Standard evaluation: 5 days; One Day to Pass reduces this to 1. Fast Track: 3 days. DTF: no evaluation. Sunday and Monday count as one day.

Funded Phase Pricing Model

No activation

Rithmic: an additional $45/month per active account, also during evaluation. Professional data: $128 per exchange, subject to change. Non-professional level 1 data included; level 2 and optional platform licenses are extra. LIVE ELITE: $197/month per exchange and first account; each additional account, $197/month. ETF covers exchange fees after 3 months. The initial evaluation payment and add-ons are credited to the sim balance on activation, not as ATD profit; DTF excluded.

Minimum Profitable Days
  • 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

Standard sim and Fast Track: 8 ATDs for the first cycle and 10 thereafter. Standard purchases from 2 October 2026 at 2:00 PM Pacific Time: each ATD requires $250 and at least 30% of the best day; Static 10K/25K, $125. DTF per cycle: 10K, 5 ATDs with $150 and 50% of the best day; 50K, 15 ATDs with $600 and 62%; 100K, 20 ATDs with $500 and 50%. Fast Track has separate consistency criteria; its guide does not specify a daily dollar minimum.

Position size scaling
✗
~
Evaluation Phase Pricing Model

One-time fee

Standard evaluations: renewal every 30 days until passing and activation; passing does not cancel billing. Fast Track: one-time payment without renewal. First-purchase guarantee: request within 7 days, fewer than 5 trades and no account failure; conditions apply.

Maximum Accounts

Current evaluations: up to 5 active Elite Sim-Funded accounts. DTF: a separate limit of 5 active accounts per trader. Fast Track EOD: 1 per the specific guide, although the store shows 5. One registration per trader and one trader per household.

Merge Accounts
~
Maximum Trading Days

Standard evaluation: no maximum deadline while the subscription remains active. Fast Track: 10 calendar days.

Points Reward Program

2 points per dollar on eligible evaluation purchases and evaluation resets. DTF and funded resets excluded.

Expert Advisor (EA)
✗
~
VPN
✓
✗
Hedging
✓
✗
Requires Stop Loss
✗
Scalping
✓
~
Stacking / Layering (DCA)
✓
allowsMartingale
✓
✗
Maximum Risk Limit
✓
✓
Copy Trading
✗
~
News Trading
✓
✓
hasInactivityRule

At least one trade every 7 days on funded accounts.

One genuine trade every 7 days per account; an approved break is available once per quarter. Log in at least every 30 days. Scratch trades and prolonged lack of progress can lead to closure and forfeited payouts.

Consistency Rule
✓
~
Hold Weekend
✗
~
Prohibited Strategies
  • 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.

Abusive HFT, arbitrage, exploiting execution errors or low liquidity, wash trading, collusion, trading for others, manipulating ATDs or payouts, and simultaneously stacking maximum mini and micro limits.

Overnight positions
✗
~

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