9 Best Prop Trading Firms

If you’re into trading - from stocks and crypto to forex and so on - there’s every chance you’ve heard of prop trading companies, but loads of people still don’t know what they’re actually getting with one of these platforms.

Your main takeaway is that they give skilled traders like yourself the chance to trade with a firm’s capital and get the lion’s share of the profits. As you’ll no doubt see the second you dig a bit deeper, though, there are tons of awful firms and outright scams currently saturating the market. 

Yeah, you might not be risking your own money, but with most of the firms out there requiring some kind of activation fee or challenge fee to actually get funded, you’ll still want to know which firms are worth your time.

We want to cut through all that rubbish, and give you our 9 best prop trading firms for stocks and other asset classes - from the perspective of a team that actually knows what separates the good ones from the less desirable ones. 

So, we’ve put together this guide so you can start as you mean to go on - we’ll chat about:

• What prop firms are
• How they operate
• Why they’re beneficial
• How to choose the best prop firm for your needs

What Are Prop Trading Firms?

So, what actually are these firms? They’re basically just companies that fund you with their own capital in exchange for a share of the profits. In other words, you’re doing all the same trades you’re already used to doing - across all the same markets and asset classes - but with their money, not just your own. 

Now, how can a company even offer this? Couldn’t the most inexperienced retail trader essentially get given the keys to the city and end up bankrupting them overnight? That’s the thing - when you join a prop firm as a trader, you typically go through an evaluation process to prove your skills. 

Then, if you meet the firm’s requirements (such as hitting a profit target while following certain risk limits), you’ll be given a funded account where you can start trading real capital. 

Obviously, the, at times, very low activation fees aren’t going to make them much money for what they’re offering, so in return, the firm takes a cut of your profits while you keep the rest. It’s usually a split of around 70-90% of the profits in your favor (after all, you’re still the one doing the trades and making the money).

There are actually even firms that offer instant funding, where you don’t have to go through an evaluation at all, but we’ll chat more about that in a bit.

A lot of these prop firms also provide loads of resources to help you succeed, so that’s everything from mentorship and training programs to their own proprietary trading technology. 

And these firms exist all over the world - from major hubs like Dubai and London to fully remote platforms - and each prop firm sets its own rules and profit splits. There are a few prop firms out there where you’d turn up at a physical office, but the vast majority of them are remote prop firms, which only adds to the convenience.

How Prop Trading Firms Operate

First things first, unless you’re using an instant-funded account, you’ve usually got to pass some form of evaluation or challenge to actually get funded. When you (hopefully) pass this, you’ll have a funded account with real or simulated capital from the firm and can start earning real profit splits.

What’s actually more likely in most cases is that the “funded” accounts you’re using pay out real profits as if those trades were live.

Now, the best prop firms out there all have pretty strict risk management rules - everything from daily loss limits and overall drawdown limits to rules against risky behaviors like holding trades over major news events. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but this is a good thing. These rules protect the firm’s capital, and you become a more disciplined trader.

9 Best Prop Trading Firms

Before we get into our 9 favorite prop firms for stock trading and other assets, let’s take a look at each of them at a glance so you can get a quick refresher whenever you need one:

1. Atlas Funded

Atlas Funded is easily our #1 pick for the best prop trading firm, and for good reason. We think what really sets us apart is the “Pay After Passing” model (called the Atlas Access challenge) we’ve got - basically, you don’t even pay the full fee for the evaluation until you actually pass and get funded. We made it this way for newcomers in particular, since we know they might not be super confident they’ll pass the challenge. 

That is, of course, if you’re applying for an account with challenge options, rather than our instant funded accounts. You’ll see flexibility like that a lot on our site. But for all you seasoned traders who want evaluations, we’ve also got one-step and two-step challenge options with account sizes ranging from $10,000 up to $500,000.

Oh, and you can actually scale that account up to $2 million if you’re consistent enough, so you’ve got plenty of room for growth here. 

Now, profit splits. We get that it’s the main thing you’re looking for when deciding which prop trading firm to go for, so you’ll be happy to know ours are among the best in the industry: Atlas offers up to 90% profit share to traders, and you’ll even get to keep 100% of the first $10,000 in profits on each account. 

Combine that with our weekly payouts on demand, and it’s not really much of a surprise why Atlas Funded are the best prop trading firm on the market. 

Pros

• You only pay the challenge fee if you pass, so no stress if you fail
• 100% profit split
• Flexible rules

Cons

• Unavailable in the U.S.

2. FTMO

Next up, we’ve got FTMO, which is probably one of the most established prop trading firms in the industry. One of the things we at Atlas Funded can’t really compete with yet is longevity - we’re going strong since 2024, but FTMO have been operating since 2015. 

They even pioneered the whole two-step evaluation model that many firms now use. You’ve got to pass the FTMO Challenge (Phase 1) by getting a 10% profit target within 30 days, then pass a Verification (Phase 2) with a 5% profit target in 60 days. Only then you’ll get offered a funded account, with profit splits of 80%. That’s the main reason we haven’t ranked it higher.

That said, they’re still known for their professionalism - you’ll find no shortage of educational materials and dashboards where you can check on your performance.

One thing to note, though, is that even after you’ve passed, you’ll continue to trade on an FTMO demo account, but FTMO still pays out real profits based on that performance. This is basically just a way they can manage risk and some regulatory issues - it doesn’t diminish the fact that they do pay profits reliably (it’s a well-tested model, but you might still find it a bit strange that it’s not a “real” live account). 

Pros

• Well-established
• All costs and rules are disclosed upfront
• Loads of professional resources

Cons

• Strict evaluation targets

3. AquaFunded

Right off the bat, we thought it was worth mentioning that AquaFunded offers an instant funding, one-phase challenge, where you’ll need to reach an 8% profit target with no minimum trading days. A lot of firms out there offer more convoluted accounts, so the convenience here isn’t lost on us.

And how could we forget the profit splits of up to 95%! That’s some of the highest profit shares available.

Similar to FTMO, you’ve also got a bunch of asset classes at your disposal - you can trade forex, stocks, crypto and precious metals through their platform and partnered brokers.

But the thing is, while we appreciate how AquaFunded is trying to position itself as a trustworthy, transparent platform for traders looking to scale up - and early user reviews seem to reflect this - they’re still a fairly new firm. So, as with any new firm, we’d suggest you trade carefully until you build a bit of trust. 

Overall, though, we think AquaFunded is a solid option if you’re looking for quick funding and high profit retention.

Pros

• Up to 95% of profits
• Easy one-phase challenge
• Fast payouts

Cons

• Relatively new firm

4. FundedNext

FundedNext has rapidly become one of the more popular prop trading firms since its launch in 2021 - which is sort of an acceptable middle ground in the whole established vs. new firm argument we’ve been talking about. 

They’re based in the UAE, and we like the variation of three different funding programs they offer - Evaluation, Express, and Stellar - each with its own structure. And the fact that you can scale some of those account sizes up to $4 million, we love the growth potential here. 

The profit splits also go up to 90% for traders, so it’s not like they’re holding back just because you’re getting large account sizes. 

One thing we’re less impressed with, however, is the prices for their accounts. For example, on their $200,000 account, which is also the highest amount you can start with, you’ll be paying $1099.99 just for the evaluation. It’s a lot more than we’d like to see. And while they still have no time limits on some challenges, meaning you can take as long as you need to pass, it’s still something worth considering.

Also, because FundedNext is relatively new, it doesn’t really have decades of history, and all the different challenge types and rules are a bit complex for beginners. So, overall, you’ll want to thoroughly understand which program suits you before committing to this firm.

Pros

• FundedNext actually pays you a portion of profits even while you are in the evaluation
• Funding up to $4,000,000 through scaling
• No time pressure

Cons

• Short operating history

5. The 5%ers

The 5%ers do something well that we’ve not really talked about much yet in this list: long-term trader development. You’re really getting that community and educational support here, with everything from webinars and coaching to an option where top traders might even get a salary offer on certain high-stakes programs. 

The name itself here comes from the idea of the top 5% of traders - and this firm has been around since about 2016, so it’s pretty well established. Aside from that, The 5%ers offer a few different funding programs. One of our favorites is their instant funding model, where you can start with a live funded account (for example, a small account like $6,000 or $10,000) without a demo challenge. 

And look, we know those are small account sizes - especially when Atlas Funded offers instant funded accounts starting at $300,000 - but at least it’s fairly safe for newcomers. They also now offer a “Bootcamp” program, which is basically just a cheaper evaluation (demo account) with multiple stages, but at a lower cost, and a “Hyper Growth” program for aggressive scaling.

Probably one of the worst, but somehow also the best, aspects of this firm is their scaling system. The bad news is that their standard programs start around a 50% split, which is one of the lowest we’ve ever seen. The good news, though, is that you can increase as you move up or choose higher stakes programs, even reaching a full 100% to the trader for some account types. 

The trade-off is that some of those accounts might have other constraints or higher fees. So, it’s really a mixed bag with The 5%ers, which is why we’ve put it in the middle of our ranking - definitely still one to consider if you’re new to prop firm trading.

Pros

• No time limit evaluation
• Instant funding option
• High scaling and profit potential

Cons

• Lower leverage on some accounts

6. FXIFY

Next up, we’ve got FXIFY, which we like since you can access accounts up to $400,000 in size upon passing the evaluation. That’s already a solid starting size that you’ll not see often, but the fact that you can scale that account up to $4 million over time definitely makes this a bit more special.

So, what’s FXIFY doing this low on the list, then? The profit splits start at 75%, which is not particularly impressive and puts a real dampener on the account size benefits. 

Fortunately, though, FXIFY somewhat makes up for this by giving you access to 300+ trading instruments on MetaTrader 4 or 5. This includes forex pairs, indices, commodities and crypto. 

One of the other banner features of FXIFY is instant payouts - they advertise some of the fastest payout processing in the industry, meaning once you request a profit withdrawal, they pay it out very quickly (often within a day or two).

And in terms of cost and process: yes, FXIFY’s challenges come with an upfront fee (like all firms), but they do have unlimited trading days to pass (no time limit), so you can take all the time you need to hit the profit target.

One thing to note, however, is that the range of instruments, while broad, is still slightly smaller than some competitors we’ve seen (in practice, most major assets are there, but perhaps not every single exotic pair)

Pros

• High funding and scaling
• Instant or very fast payouts
• No limits on trading style

Cons

• Newer in the market

7. E8 Funding

Moving on, let’s look at E8 Funding, which we saw quickly making a name for itself with some of the customizable evaluations you’ve got on offer. Basically, E8 gives you a choice between a preset 2-step challenge or a more custom 3-step evaluation program. 

The profit targets are a bit more moderate in the standard 2-step route (for instance, 8% in Phase 1 and 4% in Phase 2, but what we find interesting is the 3-step “E8 Track” where you can actually set some of your own evaluation parameters. You can choose your initial account balance, your drawdown limits - even your profit split, which is basically unheard of.

You’re essentially designing a challenge that fits your style. Now, of course, the custom option comes with a higher fee, but it’s still pretty unique if you want some flexibility in your challenge difficulty.

What we’re not so impressed by is that profit splits on the preset programs - they go up to 80% (not starting on), which is pretty sub-par compared to most of the other options we’ve chatted about today.

Additionally, E8 is relatively young, so the message about being cautious with risk, as we talked about before, is worth keeping in mind.

Pros

• Customizable challenges
• No time limits
• Modern platform

Cons

• Lower profit split ceiling

8. Funded Trading Plus

Remember before when we were talking about The 5%ers education aspects? You’re getting a lot of the same great features with Funded Trading Plus, which was actually born from Trade Room Plus (est. 2013), a live trading room service that later evolved into offering funded trading programs. 

What’s nice about Funded Trading Plus is the variety of programs it provides, where you can really see how well it’s catered to beginners, intermediate and advanced traders. You’ve essentially got three main types of programs here: Experienced Trader (one-phase evaluation), Advanced Trader (two-phase evaluation), and Master Trader (instant funding).

In the Experienced Trader program, you have one stage where you need a 10% profit with a 6% max loss limit - pass that and you’re funded with an 80% profit split. Not great, but about what you’d expect with their easiest tier.

The Advanced Trader is two stages: 10% profit target in Phase 1 with 10% drawdown, then 5% profit in Phase 2 with 10% drawdown. This is slightly easier in targets per phase, but two steps. 

Finally, we’re a big fan of the Master Trader program, which is an instant funding option where you can directly buy a funded account (no challenge) - obviously it costs much higher fees (from around $225 for a small account up to $4,500 for a $200k account), but you start trading live capital immediately. 

The firm’s rules are pretty straightforward, but we’re not so happy with how you can’t hold trades over the weekend in the Advanced (two-step) program, which might affect swing traders (their one-step program does not have this restriction, interestingly). 

Generally speaking, they’re not as flashy as some newer firms, but they are very much reliable and grounded. They get the job done.

Pros

• Multiple program options
• No minimum trading days
• You can trade almost any instrument

Cons

• No weekend holding 

9. TopOneTrader

And lastly, let’s take a look at TopOneTrader, which is definitely still a solid prop firm despite it being last on our list. We mainly like the fairly straightforward path you’ve got to funding and the quick payouts. 

With TopOneTrader, you can start with an evaluation for account sizes up to $200,000. That’s nothing really to write home about on its own, but successful traders can scale their accounts up to $5 million, which is one of the higher scaling potentials out there.

Another big selling point we noticed is that they allow a lot of freedom in trading: there are no minimum trading days, no daily cap on losses (they use overall drawdown limits instead) and they explicitly allow trading during weekends and news events, as well as the use of Expert Advisors (EAs). Basically, this means you can hold positions over a weekend or through NFP/Fed releases if you fancy, which not all firms grant.

Again, the 80% profit splits aren’t fantastic, but at least they refund 100% of your challenge fee on your first payout. So if you pass the challenge and make a profit, your initial fee comes back to you when you withdraw profits, which effectively makes the evaluation free (plus they sometimes give a little bonus). 

On the downside, TopOneTrader prohibits a few unfair tactics: you can’t engage in copy trading from another person’s account, high-frequency trading arbitrage or martingale strategies on their accounts. 

As a prop firm ourselves, this is actually fair enough, since they don’t want automated exploitation or linking to other prop accounts to game the system. We know that these aren’t things most ordinary traders do, but if someone was thinking of a fast copy-trade arbitrage strategy, it’s not allowed. 

Overall, though, TopOneTrader is well-regarded for delivering what it promises, which is just a quick, flexible funded account with as few constraints as possible.

Pros

• Profit payouts every two weeks
• Flexible trading conditions
• High scaling potential

Cons

• No copy trading or HFT

Benefits of Prop Trading Firms

As you can probably already tell, you’re getting loads of benefits with prop trading firms that you’re not getting as a solo trader - let’s look at a few of these in a bit more detail now:

Trade with Larger Capital

Obviously, the biggest benefit prop firms give you is the buying power - often tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars - so you can trade bigger sizes without having to fork up the money yourself. 

The risk-free element is nice, but your main benefit here is the profits, since a 5% gain on a $100,000 funded account is $5,000, compared to, say, $50. Basically, you’re not risking sitting in a position too long and overextending yourself just to reach a profit target you’re satisfied with - you can get it way quicker.

Professional Environment & Resources

All the best prop firms also give you access to educational resources and trading tools so that you’re actually getting better as a trader. This might include: 

• Webinars
• Training programs
• Advanced charting software
• Risk management tools

For example, you’ll see some firms with performance coaches or detailed analytics dashboards that you’re just not getting as a solo retail trader.

Discipline and Structure

Trading with a prop firm imposes a structured risk management framework. There are clear rules on maximum drawdowns, daily losses, etc., that you’ve got to follow. And look, we get that this might seem restrictive, but it actually instills a bit of discipline, which is something you’re going to need if you want to be a successful trader.

Essentially, prop firms force you to manage risk properly and trade consistently, or you’ll end up losing the account. 

How to Choose the Best Prop Trading Firm

With so many prop firms now available, how do you even know what the best ones are? Before you consider signing up to any of the firms we’ve chatted about so far today, we’ve got a few non-negotiables you’ll need to think about so you know if your chosen platform matches your trading style and goals:

Profit Split and Payouts

The best firms out there are going to give you at least an 80% profit split. That needs to be your minimum - no point settling for less when there are other firms like Atlas Funded, for example, that provide 90% profit splits with weekly payouts.

That’s another thing - check the payout frequency and reliability: do they pay weekly or monthly? Is the first payout locked for a period or can it be immediate? 

Fees and Refund Policy

We’ve already told you how prop firms charge fees for their challenges, but these range pretty widely (could be $100 up to $1000+ depending on account size). Basically, you just want to be sure that the fee you’re being charged is actually reasonable for the potential funding you’re getting. And is that fee refundable if you succeed (many firms refund your fee when you pass and get your first payout)?

Allowed Instruments and Platforms

Are you the kind of trader who never wants to put all their eggs in one basket/asset class? Then pick a firm that’s got multi-asset trading support. For example, some of the firms we’ve chatted about today (like Funded Trading Plus or TopOneTrader) offer a pretty wide range of instruments, but then there are others like Apex Trader Funding that only focus on futures.

So just make sure the firm’s broker/platform actually offers the markets you are interested in before you’ve bought an account and it’s too late. The same goes for what trading platform is used - MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView integration, etc. Choose one you’re comfortable with.

Reputation and Trustworthiness

This one’s super important. Never just take a firm’s word for how great it is. Read some reviews on Trustpilot, ForexPeaceArmy - even Reddit - to see if they pay out reliably and actually treat you fairly as a trader. 

Seeing a pattern of payout complaints or “gotcha” rules being enforced? You’ll know to steer clear. Even just a bit of transparency around who they are (location, team) and whether or not they’ve got a community presence (active on Discord or social media helping traders) goes a long way.

Start Your Prop Trading Journey with Atlas Funded

If you’re ready to take that all-important leap into prop trading, we encourage you to consider Atlas Funded - our top-ranked prop trading firm. We’ve got everything you should be looking for in a prop firm:

• Some of the highest profit splits in the whole industry
• Trader-friendly rules
• Generous payouts
• An active community on Discord
• Innovative features

Ready to get started? Check out our programs today and take advantage of the discount we’re currently running - and don’t forget to sign up for our monthly $200,000 giveaway!

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