Long-term growth and capital scaling: Blue Guardian Futures vs. Phidias Propfirm

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

Suite 4.3.02, Block 4, Eurotowers, Gibraltar, GX11 1AA

Sean Bainton

United Arab Emirates

Gibraltar

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.

Express to Live converts the CASH account to LIVE after reaching its CASH target and requesting the first payout through “Switch to Live”. Phidias states that the full path from signup to first payout and LIVE conversion can be completed in 48 hours on every E2L size. Fundamental and Premium may transition to LIVE after 5 payouts or $100,000 in cumulative profits, subject to the risk team’s discretion.

• 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.

Fundamental: every 10 qualifying trading days. Premium: every 5 qualifying days. LIVE from Express to Live: daily.

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.

Phidias states that 90% of payouts are processed in under 30 minutes and all payouts within 24 hours.

$500 across all account types.

$500.

Fundamental and Premium: up to $2,000 per cycle on 50K, $2,500 on 100K, and $2,750 on 150K. LIVE accounts originating from Express to Live have no maximum daily limit.

Fundamental and Premium apply a 30% consistency rule on CASH accounts. A qualifying day must generate at least $150 on 50K, $200 on 100K, or $250 on 150K. Express to Live uses a separate bonus and automatic LIVE conversion system.

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.

Fundamental and Premium allow unlimited evaluation resets. A failed subscription also resets with the next 30-day renewal. Express to Live does not allow resets. Premium CASH permits one funded-account reset.

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.

Market-depth data and additional exchanges can be purchased from the member area.

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.

LIVE accounts may advance to ELITE after 60 days and a $125,000 balance, or MASTER after 120 days and $250,000. Transition remains subject to risk review.

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.

Express to Live uses a static drawdown that never moves. Fundamental and Premium use trailing drawdown calculated at the end of the day; the limit remains fixed during the session.

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.

Express to Live and Fundamental: 80%. Premium: 75% on the first payout, 80% on the second, 85% on the third, 90% on the fourth, and 100% from the fifth onward.

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

There is no daily loss limit on Express to Live, Fundamental, or Premium.

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.

A minimum threshold applies when requesting a payout, but withdrawals may reduce the balance to $50,100, $100,100, or $150,100. Phidias does not treat this as a locked 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

Evaluation: 0 days on Express to Live, 3 on Fundamental, and 1 on Premium. CASH: 0 days for the Express to Live bonus, 10 qualifying days between payouts on Fundamental, and 5 on Premium.

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

On Fundamental and Premium CASH accounts, a qualifying day must close with at least $150 on 50K, $200 on 100K, or $250 on 150K.

On LIVE accounts, traders may request a contract-limit increase in writing. The risk team may approve, reject, or adjust the limit.

One-time fee

Unlimited evaluation accounts. A trader may operate a LIVE account while pursuing a new evaluation. Simultaneous maximum: 5 Fundamental CASH, 5 Premium CASH, and 5 Express to Live CASH/LIVE accounts. The 10K Drawdown Summer Edition allows unlimited simultaneous entries, with only the trader’s best account counting on the leaderboard. Fundamental and Premium 150K accounts count as two slots in their category.

Phidias Wallet centralizes account subscriptions, bank or cryptocurrency withdrawals, purchases, activations, and LIVE-account funding directly from earnings. Phidias Points are an internal unit that cannot be transferred outside the ecosystem.

Robots, fully automated algorithms, and HFT are prohibited. Semi-automated software is allowed when the trader actively monitors and manually adjusts every trade.

Hedging is prohibited on the same underlying within one account (including ES vs MES), between CASH accounts, and through coordinated opposite trades between traders; violations can close all involved accounts and lead to a ban. Multiple assets may be traded simultaneously, but the contract cap applies across all symbols; bypassing it can close the account without refund.

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.

DCA is allowed to smooth entry points, provided consistent risk management is maintained.

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.

Phidias requires consistent position sizing and risk management. Lottery-style trading, excessive margin usage, or non-replicable patterns may lead to reduced contracts or account closure.

Allowed within the maximum account limits. Identical strategies exceeding the authorized allocation may result in account suspension.

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.

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.

There is no consistency rule during evaluation or on Express to Live. On Fundamental and Premium CASH accounts, no single day may represent more than 30% of total profit. It is calculated over at least 4 days.

Allowed only on Premium. Fundamental and Express to Live must close before the end of the session.

• 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.

Robots and fully automated trading; HFT; lottery-style or full-margin trades during high-volatility news; old or illiquid contracts; spreads between expirations; one-tick Treasury-bond arbitrage; exploitation of technical or market errors.

Allowed only on Premium. Fundamental and Express to Live must close before the end of the session.