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Comparison · Forex

How much freedom you get at Hola Prime and SFX Funded

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Hola Prime View profile No discount right now
SFX Funded View profile No discount right now

Time limits

Neither firm imposes a traditional "deadline" to pass their challenges, but they both limit your freedom to walk away from the charts.

  • Inactivity trap: At both Hola Prime and SFX Funded, you cannot leave your account untouched for 30 consecutive days. If you do, the account is closed (hard breach), forcing you to trade even when market conditions are unfavorable just to keep the account active.
  • Minimum trading requirements: Hola Prime forces you to trade for at least 2 to 3 days depending on the challenge (Pro or Prime). SFX Funded is more restrictive in its 2-Step Ascend (5 days per phase) and 1-Step Pro (4 days), preventing you from advancing quickly even if you hit the profit target on day one.
  • Payout cycles: At Hola Prime, you are locked into the cycle you choose at purchase (biweekly or monthly); you cannot change it later. SFX Funded limits your first standard payout on the Ascend plan to a minimum 14-day wait.

Weekends and news

The freedom to hold positions or trade during volatility is heavily restricted depending on the account type you choose.

  • Weekend restrictions: At Hola Prime, you cannot hold positions over the weekend on Pro sim funded or Direct accounts. You must close everything by Friday 15:45 EST; failing to do so in a Direct account results in immediate termination. SFX Funded is more lenient here, allowing weekend holding across its programs.
  • News trading bans: Hola Prime prohibits opening or closing trades 5 minutes before and after high-impact news on Pro and Direct accounts. SFX Funded imposes a similar restriction but with a narrower 4-minute window (2 minutes before and after) for all funded accounts.
  • Stop Loss obligation: Hola Prime removes the freedom to manage risk without a Stop Loss; it is mandatory on all funded and Direct accounts. SFX Funded does not strictly require a Stop Loss.

Where you can trade from

Geography and technical access are significant barriers at these firms.

  • Excluded countries: Hola Prime has a massive list of over 30 banned jurisdictions, including major markets like India, China, Russia, Pakistan, and Vietnam. SFX Funded has a much shorter list, primarily banning Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and Myanmar.
  • VPN and VPS limits: Hola Prime does not allow you to circumvent geographic restrictions via VPN. You cannot trade manually through a VPS; VPS usage is strictly reserved for EAs and requires a dedicated static IP.
  • US restrictions: Hola Prime prohibits MT5 access from any US-based IP address.

What the platform limits

The technical environment restricts both the software you use and how you execute your strategy.

  • Software choice: SFX Funded limits you to only two platforms: MetaTrader 5 and MatchTrader. Hola Prime offers more variety (cTrader, TradeLocker) but restricts EAs exclusively to MT5.
  • EA and Automation limits: At Hola Prime, you cannot use EAs on Direct accounts. On others, you must pay a 10% surcharge (add-on) to enable them. SFX Funded prohibits all third-party EAs; you can only use tools you developed yourself.
  • Copy trading ban: SFX Funded completely removes the freedom to copy trades, whether from your own accounts, external providers, or signals. Hola Prime allows limited internal copying (one master to one copier) but forbids copying from other prop firms.

What the rules cost you

Every rule acts as a financial limit on your potential earnings or your ability to keep trying.

  • Capital risk (Price): Choosing SFX Funded limits the number of attempts your budget allows, as their $100K 1-step challenge costs $699 compared to Hola Prime’s $579.
  • Drawdown margin: Hola Prime restricts your breathing room with a 6% maximum drawdown on Prime 1-Step. SFX Funded's Rapid program is even tighter, allowing only a 4% trailing drawdown.
  • Payout friction: Hola Prime limits your net profit by charging a 2.5% fee on every payout. SFX Funded limits your liquidity by capping the first two payouts at $10,000 each.
  • Risk per idea: Hola Prime limits your execution freedom with a hard cap of 2% risk per "idea" (combined positions) on funded accounts. Crossing this can lead to account closure.

Restrictions that add up

The combined weight of these rules creates a high-pressure environment. At Hola Prime, the "Pro" model combines news trading bans, weekend restrictions, a mandatory stop loss, and a payout fee, making it a very rigid environment for discretionary traders. On the other hand, SFX Funded uses the "Stability Index" (consistency rule) alongside a total ban on copy trading and third-party tools. This forces you to be a strictly manual, highly consistent trader, effectively banning anyone who relies on external signals or automated portfolio management. Both firms use 30-day inactivity rules to ensure you can never truly "set and forget" a strategy, keeping you tethered to the platform.

Frequently asked questions

Which firm is more expensive to start a $100,000 1-step challenge, Hola Prime or SFX Funded?

SFX Funded is significantly more expensive for this specific size. Their 1-Step Pro account costs $699, while Hola Prime offers the 1-Step Prime Challenge for $579. This means starting with SFX Funded requires a higher initial investment for the same starting balance.

Who has more restrictive news trading rules, Hola Prime or SFX Funded?

Hola Prime is more restrictive for its Pro and Direct account holders, enforcing a 10-minute "no-trade" window (5 minutes before and after news). SFX Funded restricts news trading for all funded accounts, but the window is shorter at 4 minutes (2 minutes before and after). However, Hola Prime allows news trading on its Prime and evaluation accounts, whereas SFX applies the limit to all funded stages.

Which firm imposes more geographic restrictions, Hola Prime or SFX Funded?

Hola Prime is much more restrictive regarding geography. It bans residents from over 30 countries, including India, China, Russia, and Pakistan. In contrast, SFX Funded only lists 5 banned countries (Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and Myanmar), making it accessible to a much wider global audience.

Who makes it harder to withdraw small amounts of profit, Hola Prime or SFX Funded?

SFX Funded makes it harder for bank transfers, requiring a minimum of $100, though they allow USDT withdrawals for amounts under $100. Hola Prime has a $50 minimum for both crypto and wire transfers, but they impose a 2.5% fee on every withdrawal (minimum $5 or $25 depending on the method), which acts as a constant tax on your profits that SFX Funded does not charge.

Field by field

Hola Prime and SFX Funded, side by side

Rules, plans, platforms, leverage, commissions and payouts of both, with the option to see only what differs.

Head to head

59 differences

No active discount right now.

No active discount right now.

Headquarters

L1, Shaw House, 201 Wan Po Road, Tseung Kwan O

23691-001, A2 Building, IFZA Business Park, Dubai Digital Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis, United Arab Emirates

CEO

Somesh Kapuria

Husam Samy

Country

Hong Kong

United Arab Emirates

Foundation

2024

2024

Banned Countries
Afghanistan, Belarus, Burundi, Central African Republic, China, Cuba, North Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, India, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Libya, Mali, Moldova, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine, Vietnam, Yemen, Zimbabwe
Syria, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar
Assets
Forex, Indices, Commodities, Crypto
Forex, Commodities, Indices, Crypto
Brokers
Hola Prime Markets

In-house liquidity provider

Refund
Yes

Pro and Prime: 100% of the fee paid is refunded with the fourth successful payout from the same account, not available on Direct. Cancellation refunds must be requested within 14 days without any trading activity.

Yes

The evaluation fee is refundable. Under the published standard conditions, the refund unlocks alongside the fifth successful payout.

Payout Fee

2.5% per payout. Minimum fee: USD 25 for bank wire or Rise; USD 5 for crypto.

No data
Platforms
Metatrader 5, cTrader, MatchTrader, TradeLocker
MatchTrader, Metatrader 5
Demo Account
Metatrader 5
ID71034PasswordTest@123ServerHolaprime-Server1
MatchTrader
ID458795Passwordj8U^$T3R2
No data
Payout Methods
Crypto, Transfer, Rise
Transfer, Crypto
Payment Methods
Card, Crypto
Card, PayPal, Crypto
Payout Frequency

Pro and Prime: on-demand, biweekly or monthly cycle selected at purchase; it cannot be changed later. Direct: every 14 days from the first trade in the cycle. After a payout, a new trade starts the next cycle.

Depends on the program. Rapid and Ascend allow an early payout after 3 days with a 40% split. Standard payouts retain an 85% split and require the applicable trading days, profit and SFX Stability Index. Instant and 1-Step Pro allow payout requests once their requirements are met, without a fixed bi-weekly cycle.

Payout Guarantee

Processing within one hour of an eligible request, following a prior review of up to 24 business hours. Business days only; additional verification or incomplete details may cause delays.

Requests are processed within 48 business hours. SFX advertises $1,000 compensation if it misses that deadline.

Minimum Withdrawal

Bank wire or crypto: USD 50. Rise: USD 500. Thresholds apply to the trader share, excluding the firm share.

Payouts below $100 can only be processed through USDT TRC20. Bank transfer is available from $100.

Crypto Weekend Trading
No data
Yes
Maximum Withdrawal
No data

Maximum of $10,000 per request for the first two payouts. This limit is removed afterwards.

Forex

Pro: 100:1. Prime and Direct: 50:1. Exotic pairs: Pro 10:1; Prime and Direct 5:1.

30:1
Metals

Pro: 20:1. Prime and Direct: 10:1.

10:1
Energies

Commodities: Pro 5:1; Prime and Direct 2:1.

10:1
Indices

Pro: 20:1. Prime: 10:1. Direct: 5:1.

10:1
Crypto

Pro: 2:1. Prime and Direct: 1:1.

2:1
Forex
3 / lot
4 / lot
Metals
1.5 / lot - 3 / lot
4 / lot
Energies
1.5 / lot
4 / lot
Indices
0 / lot
0.4 / lot
Crypto
0 / lot
0
Commission-Free Option
No data
No
Swap Free
Yes

Optional at purchase for all Forex accounts; pricing is listed under Add-ons.

No
Account Reset

After a hard breach a new evaluation or account can be purchased.

Available for Ascend during evaluation and for funded Ascend, 1-Step Pro and Rapid accounts within 10 calendar days of the first trade. A funded reset subsequently applies a 50% split.

Add-ons
Yes

Swap-free: +10% of the base fee before discounts. EA Trading: +10%, MT5 only and unavailable on Direct. cTrader: USD 20 fixed surcharge where available. Alternative payout cycles have different configurator prices; the table shows the base option.

Yes
Instant
Yes

Direct Account provides funded access without an evaluation phase.

Yes
One Step
Yes

1-Step Prime Challenge.

Yes
Account scaling
Yes

Four-month cycles from the first trade: at least 10% net profit, two profitable months, two payouts and a positive balance. Manual request required. Increases based on the original balance: 25% first, 40% second and 50% from the third, up to USD 4 million per user. Loss limits are recalculated on the scaled balance. Unavailable during PCP.

Yes

Reviewed every 3 months. Requires profitability in 2 of the 3 months, at least 10% cumulative profit and 2 payouts. Balance increases by 25% of the initial balance up to $3.2M.

Two Steps
Yes

Available as 2-Step Pro Challenge and 2-Step Prime Challenge.

Yes
Max Drawdown

Pro and Prime: static floor based on the initial balance, also monitored against floating equity. Direct: trails the highest end-of-day balance, only moves upward and locks at the starting balance after the full drawdown distance is earned. A payout does not lower that floor.

Rapid: 4% trailing. 1-Step Pro: 6% trailing. Ascend: 8% static. Instant: 6% trailing.

Profit Split

The table shows the base biweekly 80% option. Pro and Prime also offer on-demand 80% and monthly 95% with an advertised 20% surcharge; Direct offers a separately priced biweekly 90% variant. The cycle is selected at purchase and cannot be changed later.

85% base split, with the possibility of reaching 100% through the scaling program. Rapid and Ascend allow an early payout with a 40% split.

Free Trial
No
No
Profit After Breach

A hard breach forfeits profits and pending payouts. Forex daily-loss-only exception: profits may still be paid if every trade had a stop loss and no trade exceeded 1% of the initial balance in profit or loss.

No data
Daily Drawdown

Calculated from the previous day closing balance and includes realized and floating results. Resets at 17:00 EST as stated by Hola Prime. Breaching it is a hard breach.

Rapid and Instant: 3%. 1-Step Pro: no daily limit. Ascend: 4%.

Three Steps
No
No
Max Allocation

Standard combined allocation across sim funded and Direct accounts: USD 400,000 per trader or strategy. USD 90,000 cap for Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Israel, Thailand, Botswana, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Jamaica and Mozambique. Combined Forex and Futures: USD 800,000. Prime Circle and scaling have separate conditions.

500,000
Maximum Accounts

Evaluations: unlimited purchases. Sim funded and Direct: up to four 50K accounts, two 100K accounts or one 200K account, within the total allocation limit. 100K and 200K accounts cannot be active together. Direct: at most two active accounts.

No data
Merge Accounts
Limited

Only same-model Pro or Prime sim funded accounts, with no open trades or active cycle and a combined balance matching an available size. Unavailable for evaluations, Direct or PCP. Allocation limits and promotional-account exclusions apply.

Yes

Funded accounts from the same evaluation type can be merged when both remain at their initial balance, have no open trades and their combined capital does not exceed $500,000. Instant accounts cannot be merged.

Maximum Trading Days

No evaluation deadline, subject to the inactivity rule.

No time limit.

Minimum Trading Days

Pro: two days per phase. Prime 1-Step: two days. Prime 2-Step: three days per phase. Direct: no minimum. A day counts when at least one trade is opened.

Rapid: no minimum during evaluation. 1-Step Pro: 4 evaluation days. Ascend: 5 days in each phase. Instant: no evaluation.

Points Reward Program

Prime Circle: five lifetime Forex payouts, with no consecutive-payout or minimum-amount requirement. Only master payouts count when copying. Automatic eligibility subject to compliance, Platinum support, one pre-trading platform switch and allocation growth: USD 25,000 per three unique payouts of at least 1.5%, up to USD 1 million. The geographic USD 90,000 cap remains.

No data
Monthly Competition
No
No
Minimum Profitable Days

Pro and Prime: three profitable days per biweekly cycle or seven per monthly cycle. Each day requires at least 0.5% net of the initial balance, measured using the lower of closing balance and equity minus the previous closing balance. On-demand uses consistency and minimum-profit requirements. Direct has no profitable-day minimum.

For payouts: Rapid and Instant require 10 trading days; 1-Step Pro requires 7 qualified days; Ascend requires 5 days and its first standard payout is available after 14 calendar days.

Position size scaling
Limited

Pro sim funded: maximum open exposure of 10 lots on 25K, 20 on 50K, 40 on 100K and 80 on 200K; no cap on 5K and 10K. From the second scaling, each step adds 10% of the original cap. Prime and Direct: no explicit lot cap, subject to idea risk. First violation: closure, deduction and requested reactivation; second: 30% split and termination.

No data
Expert Advisor (EA)
Limited

MT5 only with the purchased EA Trading add-on; unavailable on Direct, cTrader, MatchTrader and TradeLocker. Strategy declaration and distinct settings required; identical strategies may be grouped for allocation. Analytical tools may not automatically execute or modify orders.

Limited

Trade managers, calculators and EAs developed by the trader are allowed. Third-party EAs and EAs designed to exploit rollover or perform news scalping are prohibited.

VPN
Limited

IP must match the registered country, including KYC and payments. No geographic circumvention. VPS permitted only for trade-taking EAs with a dedicated static IP; manual VPS trading is prohibited. No MT5 access from US IP addresses.

Yes
Hedging
Limited

Hedging within a single account is allowed. Hedging across multiple accounts (offsetting buy/sell positions on the same instrument) is prohibited.

Yes
Requires Stop Loss
Limited

Required on sim funded and Direct accounts. There is no fixed three-minute deadline; it must be placed before closing. A trade without a stop loss is treated as unlimited risk and can cause account closure.

No
Scalping
Yes
Yes
Stacking / Layering (DCA)
Limited

Multiple entries are combined as one idea for risk limits. DCA, averaging down and systematically increasing losing exposure are prohibited.

Yes
Martingale
No
No
Maximum Risk Limit
Yes

Sim funded and Direct: at most 2% of the initial balance per idea, not per ticket. Risk is combined across overlapping positions and same-asset, same-direction re-entries within ten minutes, including chains. Not applicable during evaluation. PCP: 1% per idea and at most 30% aggregate margin.

Yes

Maximum floating loss: 2% on Rapid, Ascend and Instant; $300K and $400K Instant accounts have a 1% limit. 1-Step Pro has a 1% limit, with a warning and split reduction to 40% on the first violation and closure on the second.

Copy Trading
Limited

Only own Hola Prime accounts. Challenge to challenge: unlimited. Sim funded: one master and one copier. Challenge to sim funded: only one receiving funded account; sim funded to challenges: unlimited. Copying from other prop firms is prohibited. Applies to accounts purchased on or after 15 September 2026.

No

Copying trades, manually or through software, between the trader's own accounts or from external traders or signal providers is prohibited.

News Trading
Limited

Prime and all evaluations: allowed. Pro sim funded and Direct: no opening or closing affected instruments from five minutes before to five minutes after high-impact news, including SL, TP and pending orders. Previously opened positions may be held. Pro: offending profit removed; Direct: account closure. PCP also restricts Prime news trading.

Limited

Funded accounts restrict trading from 2 minutes before until 2 minutes after high-impact news. News straddling, news bracketing and manipulation of the simulated environment are also prohibited.

Inactivity Rule
Yes

Hard breach after 30 consecutive calendar days without opening a trade, in evaluation and sim funded. Closing trades, changing SL/TP or placing pending orders does not count as activity.

Accounts are closed after 30 days of inactivity.

Consistency Rule
Limited

No consistency target to pass Pro or Prime. On-demand sim funded: best day at most 40% of cycle profit and total profit of at least 2% of the initial balance. Direct: best day at most 20%. A partial payout resets the calculation; retained profit does not replace new-cycle profit. PCP may impose additional conditions on high-risk traders.

Yes

Maximum SFX Stability Index for payout: Rapid 15%, 1-Step Pro 20%, Ascend 25% and Instant 15%.

Hold Weekend
Limited

Prime and Pro evaluations: allowed. Pro sim funded: close before 15:45 EST Friday; automatic closure and suspension until Monday. Direct: same deadline, but a hard breach and termination.

Yes
Prohibited Strategies

HFT and tick scalping; arbitrage or exploitation of errors and liquidity; grid, martingale and DCA; unsupported one-sided bets, overexposure and account rolling; third-party accounts, devices, management or signals; cross-account hedging; material changes in strategy, assets or risk after passing; hyperactivity and unauthorized automation. MT5: at most 100 simultaneous orders and 1,000 positions or modifications daily. Sanctions may include profit adjustments, restrictions, PCP or termination.

Copy trading; third-party EAs; HFT; latency arbitrage; tick scalping; martingale and grid; news scalping; coordinated reverse trading; exploitation of errors or slow feeds; account sharing or third-party account management.

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