Prop Firms keep paying huge amounts to their funded traders each month, but if you do try to get funded, it can start getting expensive very quickly. With lots of new prop firms emerging and so many different funding models, it can be hard to find the best deals.
In this article, I’ll explain the cheapest prop firm challenges in five different categories. If you want to support My work creating this article, feel free to use the links when getting prop firm account.
My Forex Fund
If you want the very cheapest prop firm account that you can buy, My Forex Funds is the prop firm for you. They offer a $5000 evaluation account for just $49. My Forex Funds evaluation consists of two phases the first with a profit target of 8% in 30 days for phase one, then a profit target of 5% in 60 days for phase two.
These phases have a 12% maximum drawdown and 5% daily drawdown limit. But be careful because daily drawdown is calculated using both equity and balance. You can learn more about this in my Explanation article.
Once you pass the evaluation, you are eligible for 75% of the profits that you make, which has increased to 85% by the third month. While My Forex Funds offers the cheapest prop firm account in the industry, 5k is quite small and more experienced traders may want to go for a larger funded account.
E8 Funding
E8 Funding offers the cheapest 100K account with its E8 track program, which only costs $358. This evaluation consists of three phases with an 8% profit target in 30 days for phase one and a 5% profit target in 60 days for phase two and three.
These accounts have 8% maximum and 5% daily drawdown limits, with daily drawdown being calculated using both equity and balance. The E8 track funded account pays out an 80% profit split bi-weekly even though the E8 Track costs significantly less than other 100K prop firm accounts, you may want to consider choosing an alternative because the third phase makes it significantly harder to pass.
With other two-step prop firms, you pass much earlier and are therefore refunded the evaluation fee earlier than with E8 track which mitigates the benefit of the cheaper evaluation fee.
The Funded Trader
If you want a cheap 100K account but would prefer a shorter two step challenge, The Funded Trader’s Royal Challenge is the best choice. This costs $489, which is really cool.
The Royal Challenge has an 8% profit target in 35 days for phase one, then a 5% profit target in 60 days for phase two. It has a 10% maximum drawdown and 5% daily drawdown, which is calculated using both equity and balance.
The Royal Challenge funded account pays an 80% profit split which can be increased to 90% with scaling. The 10% maximum drawdown means that the true backing is higher than E8 track, but it isn’t as high as the My Forex fund’s Evaluation as 12%.
This is reflected in My Forex fund’s more expensive Evaluation fee of $499. If you divide true backing by the evaluation fee, you can calculate a value I call drawdown multiplier, where the higher the better.
The 100K The Funded Trader’s Royal Challenge has a drawdown multiplier of 24.1, while My Forex funds has a drawdown multiplier of 25.3. This means My forex funds offers more true backing per dollar of Evaluation fee, which is a good thing but doesn’t show the whole picture.
The profit split is just as important as true backing when earning prop firm payouts. By multiplying the drawdown multiplier by the profit split, we can find the absolute drawdown multiplier.
At the start when The Funded Trader has a higher profit split, it has a higher absolute multiplier. But in the end, once they both have the same 90% profit split, My Forex Funds has the higher value in line with its higher drawdown multiplier.
Also, despite having the same profit targets, the higher My forex Funds 12% maximum drawdown means that its Evaluation has lower drawdown to profit target ratios, meaning it is easier to pass. While these differences between the 100K The Funded Trader Royal Challenge and the 100K My forex Funds Evaluations are small, so they are very evenly matched, I want to highlight the importance of factors other than price that are important when choosing a prop firm.
My Funded FX
Even though the prop firms I’ve mentioned up until now are great deals for the price, sometimes the hardest part about passing a prop firm challenge and getting funded is the time limits.
If you find them a problem, you will likely want to choose a no time limits prop firm. My Funded FX offers the cheapest no time limit evaluations with their $5000 account costing only $50.
My Funded FX actually offers two different funding models, the one step evaluation and the two step evaluation. The two step evaluation has a profit target of 8% for phase one, then 5% in phase two with no time limits in both phases.
The thing that makes the My Funded FX’s two step evaluation unique is its 8% maximum drawdown. It is static maximum drawdown, unlike the trailing relative drawdown that most no time limits prop firms offer.
This makes the evaluation easier to pass and means that you can withdraw everything you make from the funded account with an 80% profit split without losing the account like you would with the relative drawdown rule.
The two step evaluation also has a 5% daily drawdown rule which is calculated using equity and balance. The My Funded FX one step evaluation has rules similar to other One Step firms. But the $5000 evaluation is the cheapest in its category.
It has a 10% profit target with no time limits. However, it has a 6% relative drawdown which is trailing. This means if you withdraw all the profits you made on a funded account after making more than 6% profit, you will lose the account. The one step valuation also has a 4% maximum daily drawdown rule and pays an 80% profit split from the funded account.
The Funded Trader Knight Challenge
If the relative drawdown rule isn’t a problem for you and you want a larger one step funding challenge, The funded Trader’s Knight Challenge is the cheapest choice. It costs $489. It has the same 10% profit target with no time limits and 6% relative drawdown, but lower 3% daily drawdown. Once you pass the evaluation, The Funded Trader Knight Challenge pays out an 80% profit split, which can be increased to 90% with scaling.
However, the Night Challenge only has 1:30 leverage, while My Funded FX offers 1:100 leverage. So if a high leverage one step evaluation is important for you, the more expensive My Funded FX one step evaluation may be the best choice.