FTMO Review: Find Out What We Say About This US Prop Trading Firm (2024)

Spreads and Commissions

Unlike many prop firms, FTMO doesn’t use a third-party forex broker. Instead, FTMO has partnerships with various liquidity providers which supply your account with an institutional data-feed, delivering RAW spreads with Direct Market Access (DMA).

It’s important to understand that as a forex trader, when you’re trading with FTMO on a ‘real’ funded account, the funds are actually virtual and the FTMO team is copying your trades on their own live account. However, FTMO states that the trading account offered to you resembles the exact conditions of the real account.

Spreads

Taking a look at their spreads, we can see that they are pretty tight with spreads starting from 0.22. 0.65, and 0.27 on EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY respectively.

Commissions

One drawback when prop trading with FTMO is that unlike some other firms including Level Up Trading and SurgeTrader, they do charge a commission.

For forex, commissions are $3 per standard lot/roundtrip, 0.0040 percent/volume for equities, and 0.0010 percent/volume for metals.

Our Verdict on Spreads and Commissions

We scored FTMO well for their tight spreads but given they don’t absorb the commission like many other prop firms, this saw them lose points which culminated in a modest ranking overall.

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Qualification and Rules

FTMO has all the typical rules you would expect from a prop trading firm. They have profit targets, daily loss limits and maximum loss limits, although there are a few unique aspects that stand out as part of the FTMO evaluation – let’s dive in.

Hard Breach Rules

There are two steps to the FTMO audition; the FTMO Challenge and FTMO Verification.
To pass the FTMO Challenge, you need to meet the following requirements:

• Achieve a 10% profit target (20% for the Aggressive Account)
• Avoid a 5% daily loss limit (10% for the Aggressive Account)
• Avoid a 10% maximum loss (20% for the Aggressive Account)
• Open at least four separate trades on four separate days during the audition period

To pass the FTMO Verification, all the same rules apply except the profit target is reduced to 5% for Standard Accounts and 10% for Aggressive Accounts. The Swing Account follows the same rules as a Standard Account in both phases of the audition.

To demonstrate, if you’re currently sitting the FTMO Challenge with a $100,000 Standard Account, you would need to reach a $10,000 profit target without incurring a $5,000 daily loss, while also avoiding a $10,000 account drawdown.

If you were sitting the FTMO Verification with a $100,000 Standard Account, you would need to reach a $5,000 profit target without incurring a $5,000 daily loss, while also avoiding a $10,000 account drawdown.

Keep in mind that the percentage values increase/decrease with your account size, so if you make a 2% profit and your Standard Account value rises to $102,000, your new daily loss limit would be $5,100 (5% of $102,000) while your trailing drawdown limit would be $10,200 (10% of $102,000).

It’s important to recognise that your new account balance each trading day comes into effect at midnight CET, so any new daily loss amounts which reflect the updated balance will activate from this time.

Further, losses include open positions not just closed positions, so be aware that your floating profit and loss (PnL) contributes towards your daily loss and trailing drawdown limits.

Other Rules

During the audition phases, we can confirm that there are no other trading objectives you need to hit which makes things nice and simple.

There’s also no need to trade with a stop loss, no limit on how many lots you can open with risk, and no need to close your positions prior to the weekend or significant news events.

If you do pass the audition however, this all changes quickly and various additional rules apply for the standard account and aggressive account including:

• No weekend trades – FTMO restricts you from holding trades over the weekend
• No market break trades – FTMO requires you to close a position if the particular market is scheduled to close for longer than two hours
• No trading of news – FTMO restricts you from opening or closing certain trades before and after a significant news release event (2 minutes either side), although you can trade ‘non-targeted’ assets. For example, if the US NFP release is about to take place, you can’t open or close a USD pair, but you could open or close AUDNZD, GBPAUD, or EURGBP.

To understand which news events are restricted, you can visit FTMO’s economic calendar which clearly displays this.

It’s important to re-state that these rules only relate to FTMO Standard and FTMO Aggressive accounts and don’t apply if you’re a swing trader who chooses the FTMO Swing Account. We delve into the key differences further on.

Lastly, we can confirm that no stop loss is required at all for any account type when trading as an FTMO funded trader (or in the audition).

Our Verdict on Qualification and Rules

When it comes to the audition aspect, it’s no secret that we favour prop trading firms that offer a single-step evaluation process. While FTMO’s second step has a reduced profit target, we don’t think it’s enough to compensate forex traders for the fact that it’s still an extra hurdle you will face.

While it’s true that FTMO offers a relatively large maximum loss percentage when compared to many other prop firms, providing greater room for drawdown before getting disqualified, our view is that it doesn’t counteract the two-step audition.

In consideration of the above, and the fact that there’s also a requirement to place a minimum number of trades, we ranked FTMO modestly for this section.

Accounts, Funding and Withdrawals

FTMO offers various account funding levels with the smallest starting at US $10,000 and the largest at US $200,000. While this might seem like a relatively small amount of initial capital compared to some other prop trading firms, FTMO does offer you the ability to scale up your account size to $2M, if you are continuously profitable.

If you don’t opt into automatic scaling, then your account size will be capped at $200,000, although FTMO does allow you to run multiple accounts with a total limit per trader of $400,000 (prior to any account scaling).

Account Types

FTMO offers three account types which include FTMO Standard, FTMO Aggressive and FTMO Swing.

The key differences are the Aggressive Account has a larger take profit target, but also a larger daily loss and maximum loss limit which can be beneficial if your strategy permits larger drawdowns.

As the name suggests, the Swing Account is designed for swing traders who typically hold positions open for longer periods of time. For this reason, if you’re trading with the Swing Account, you will be able to hold your positions open over the weekend and into significant news releases. Be aware however that leverage is limited with this account to minimise your risk level.

Demo Account

There’s also a free demo account which provides good insight into how trading with FTMO will be. We think this is a nice feature as various prop trading firms don’t or can’t offer this capability.

Scale-up

As we have mentioned, a unique aspect about FTMO is the use of an automatic scaling system where if you are consistently profitable, the amount of funds you have at your disposal increases by 25% every four months. We like this approach as it rewards trading talent and profitable trading strategies.

While there are no profit targets when you’re a CFD or Forexfunded trader to request a profit withdrawal, you do need to generate a 10% profit across four consecutive months (or an average 2.5% per month for standard accounts) to qualify for an automatic scale-up.

Additionally, the profit split percentage also increases, moving from the standard 80% up to a whopping 90%.

Funding

To pay for the audition itself, you have several options to choose from including via Visa, Mastercard, Nuvei, bank transfer, Skrill, Checkout.com or Confirmo, which also supports crypto payments in Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC and others. Be aware that some payment methods do incur fees.

Once you have paid, there is also a range of currencies which you can denominate for your account, these include USD, GBP, EUR and AUD.

Withdrawals

Profit splits are done on a monthly basis which is fairly standard for most prop firms, but FTMO spices things up as you can request a ‘payout on-demand’ after 14 days from your first placed trade (assuming your account is in profit).

You can also choose which day after the 14 day period you want to get paid out from FTMO, which we think is a nice touch. Once you have requested your pay out, payments are usually processed within a day or two.

Importantly, with FMTO there is no profit target when you are a funded trader which means you can request a profit split whenever you want, assuming there is profit in the account.

We can also confirm there are no withdrawal fees.

Our Verdict on Accounts, Funding and Withdrawals

While we didn’t score FTMO full points for this section due to the absence of a $1M funded account, the diversity of account options, a unique scaling system, and diverse funding methods with flexible withdrawals saw it perform well overall.

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Trading Platforms

FTMO offers trading on various platforms including MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader. All three of these platforms are very popular and each has different pros and cons which we will expand upon below.

MetaTrader 4

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is the most popular forex trading platform in the world, offering an unrivalled community of traders and developers. It’s no surprise that MT4 boasts over 15,000 expert advisors (EAs) which you can use with FTMO given there are no restrictions on algorithmic and automated strategies.

Desktop

With the MT4 desktop app you can personalise your trading environment, modify indicators, templates, chart types and various other settings. There are 30 built-in indicators, 9 timeframes, and 24 analytical objects including fibonacci tools, Gann tools and more.

Web

The web application bears a striking resemblance to the desktop version and offers nearly all the identical functions. Its main advantage lies in its versatility, as you can access it on any device, making it particularly useful when your regular computer is unavailable.

Mobile

The MT4 mobile application proves incredibly valuable while you’re on the go, offering nearly all the essential features. It allows you to access market data, track and execute trades, and utilise EAs for automated trading strategies.

MetaTrader 5

MetaTrader 5 (MT5) expands upon the foundational features of its predecessor and introduces the ability to trade in equity markets. Additionally, it offers a wider range of indicators (38 instead of 30), analytical tools (44 instead of 33), and timeframes (21 instead of 9). Moreover, MT5 provides real-time updates on market developments and economic news.

cTrader

The cTrader platform is an all-in-one multi-asset trading software that has more advanced trading capabilities when compared to MT4. It provides a detailed depth of market (DOM) feature with ECN/STP market execution, algorithmic trading via cBots, backtesting capabilities and other advanced order types.

Our Verdict on Trading Platforms

We scored FTMO well for this section given they aren’t only integrated with both MT4 and MT5, but cTrader as well. This ensures that traders of all experience levels, preferences and persuasions are catered for.

Markets and Leverage

With FTMO you can trade various asset classes including forex, commodities, indices, crypto, stocks and bonds. There’s 28 major and 14 minor FX pairs, 10 cryptos, 14 indices, and various commodities and stocks to trade.

In our view the range of markets is ok, but it’s primarily geared towards FX and indices, so keep this in mind if you primarily trade other asset classes.

Leverage

FTMO offers pretty substantial leverage of up to 1:100 on Standard and Aggressive accounts, while it is capped at 1:30 for Swing Accounts. As far as prop trading firms go, this is undoubtedly on the higher end of the spectrum.

Our Verdict on Markets and Leverage

FTMO offers huge leverage on its standard and aggressive accounts. While excessive leverage can fast-track your risk of ruin, we think having the flexibility and offering you the choice is good nonetheless.

As far as markets go, we think the offering is a little limited when it comes to stocks, crypto and commodities, but their forex and indices markets are robust.

In consideration of the above, we scored FTMO well for this section.

Customer Service

FTMO has a decent customer service offering given they can be contacted 24/7 via various channels including live chat, WhatsApp, phone or email.

Their live chat is good because you get to speak to a real person also immediately, and their customer service team speaks over 16 languages.

While writing this FTMO trading review, we had to ask the customer service team various questions as we couldn’t find some required information on their website. All of the engagements we had with FTMO were great and the team were very helpful.

Their FAQs are also pretty robust, although it feels a little clunky as the search results don’t always retrieve what you’re looking for.

Our Verdict on Customer Service

Overall we scored FTMO well for customer service given there is always someone available to field your enquiries.

Education

FTMO’s educational material is top-notch in our opinion as it covers a wide range of topics from trading strategy and psychology, to market analysis and more.

Video content

They have a ‘Trading Academy’ section within their trading portal which is segmented into three categories including Beginner, Trading Platforms, and Trading Tips.

As the categories suggest, the content is created for traders of all levels, and is freely accessible on YouTube, so you don’t need to be a funded trader or sitting the audition to watch it.

There’s also various other sections called ‘Account Overview’, ‘Evaluation Process’, ‘FTMO Events’ and ‘FTMO Interviews’. Each section contains multiple video explainers which we think are done very well and are informative.

We particularly like the ‘FTMO Interviews’ which feature stories from some of FTMO’s top funded traders. We think the content provided here is great as it provides aspiring traders with the inspiration they need to keep moving in the right direction.

Written content

While YouTube is the primary driver of their educational content strategy, useful tidbits covering trading psychology, trading strategies, and promotional offers are also shared across their other channels.

They also have a wealth of information on their blog which has various categories including ‘FTMO Traders Analysis’, ‘FTMO Traders Q&A’, ‘Trading Psychology’, and more.

Apps

To complement their video content, FTMO provides a suite of proprietary trading apps which we think is a great addition to the offering.

Account MetriX

The Account MetriX app sits within FTMO’s trading portal and provides you with an easy way to keep track of your trading progress towards becoming a funded trader.

Account Analysis

The Account Analysis app provides you with a breakdown of your trades including win rate, average profit, and profit factor.

Statistical App

The Statistical App provides a weekly overview of the most popular trading instruments, what’s trending, what’s ranging, and which assets are appreciating in price the fastest.

Mentor App

FTMO’s Mentor App is another useful tool which they have designed to assist you with strengthening your money management and trading discipline.

It can plug directly into your MT4, MT5 or cTrader platform, and serves as a guide by sending you notifications when a rule is breached.

Equity Simulator

We think the equity simulator is a very useful tool as it provides the ability to simulate and forecast how your trading strategy will perform over the long-term.

To use this tool, you need to plug in your standard risk-to-reward ratio (RRR) when you take trades, what your risk percentage is, what your average win rate is, and a few other metrics.

The tool will then forecast various account growth trajectories based on your trading parameters.

Performance Coaches

FTMO also has psychology-major performance coaches who can assist you with increasing your trading discipline while boosting self-confidence. We should add that this service is only available to funded FTMO traders.

Our Verdict on Education

We’re big fans of FTMO’s education section and think they provide a very good selection of materials to suit traders of all types and experience levels. This, combined with their suite of apps and performance coaches, led us to score FTMO full points for this section.

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Trust and Community

FTMO has an ‘Excellent’ ranking on Trustpilot, scoring 4.9 stars with over 5,000 reviews. They also have a 4.8 star rating on Facebook Reviews, with the vast majority of reviews across both platforms overwhelmingly positive.

Social media

FTMO has a significant social media following with over 200,000 on Instagram, 43,000 on Twitter, 80,000 on Facebook, and 90,000 on YouTube.

The content produced by FTMO is focused on trading advice, education and memes, which in our view is a good balance.

Unlike some other prop firms who flaunt pictures of wealth, lamborghinis and private jets, FTMO actually provides valuable content which offers insights and learnings, mixed with a bit of humour.

On YouTube specifically, each video receives anywhere between a few thousand views and hundreds of thousands, and there’s not a picture of a yacht or a sports car in sight.

Community

While FTMO doesn’t have a Discord or Telegram community, there are various unofficial Facebook groups which are full of activity and engaged traders sharing wins/losses and insights.

FTMO does have a ‘Chat with Charts’ section on their portal which is a forum for sharing trade ideas and analysis with other FTMO traders. It’s similar to TradingView’s ‘Ideas’ section but clunkier, and it doesn’t garner much activity or engagement.

Our Verdict on FTMO Trust and Community

When it comes to Trust, we scored FTMO full points given their ‘Excellent’ review on Trustpilot and the overwhelmingly positive sentiment of the comments. They also provide the location of their offices and can be easily contactable via phone, email and live chat support.

On the community side of things, we think FTMO could benefit from a ‘live chat’ community in a Discord server as there isn’t any official community channel other than their ‘Chat with Charts’ section (which isn’t great).

On balance however, FTMO does perform well for this section, especially on the ‘Trust’ side.

How to Sign Up with FTMO

Getting set up with FTMO is pretty straightforward, although it does entail a fair few steps which we have outlined in detail below.

1. Register An Account

You will need to fill in some personal information including name and country of residence. You will then receive an account confirmation email which you will need to click to verify. From here, you will have access to the FTMO dashboard.

2. Select Account Currency

The next step is to select which account currency you want to denominate your account in. You have various currencies to choose from including USD, EUR, GBP and more.

3. Select Risk Mode

Here you can choose if you want to trade with a standard or aggressive account (the Swing Account is only available under standard).

4. Choose Account Balance

At this point you choose how much capital you want to audition for. As mentioned previously, the lowest level is $10,000 while the highest is $200,000.

5. Select Platform

It’s now time to choose which platform you want to trade on. FTMO offers MT4, MT5 and cTrader, so there is plenty to consider. If you’re unsure which platform is best for you, take a read of our MT4 vs MT5 review and our cTrader vs MT4 review.

6. Provide Billing Information

It’s time to fill out your personal information. Some of it will pre-fill from when you signed up but now you need to add your address and postcode.

7. Select Payment Method

Select the currency you want to pay in, tick the two disclaimers, and click pay.

8. Pay

You can choose to pay with various methods including via Visa, Mastercard using Nuvei, a bank transfer, Skrill, or Confirmo which also supports crypto payments in Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC and others.

Congratulations – you made it! You’ll be ready to start your audition within 24 hours after FTMO receives your payment.

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Our Final Verdict

FTMO provides a good offering overall and scores very well in various departments including funded account types, platforms, education, and customer service.

We particularly like that they offer multiple account types to suit whatever your trading style is, and their unique scaling system for both profit split and capital allocation is a good approach because it rewards disciplined and continuously profitable traders.

However, we can’t ignore the fact that a two-step audition process is required along with the requirement to make a minimum number of trades on a minimum number of days.

What’s more, FTMO doesn’t absorb commissions like some other forex prop firms do, and maximum funding before scaling is relatively low at $200K.

Collectively, this resulted in us scoring FTMO a 8.25/10 overall.

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About the author: Noam Korbl

Noam Korbl is the co-founder and has been a trader since 2014. He has Finance degree at Monash University and is an investor in shares and equities and successfully started and sold the online business Hearing Choices.