top of page

Choosing a
Funded Account

​

Real accounts vs 'Payable Sim' accounts

The first thing to understand is whether you will be given a real account, or a 'funded sim' account, when you pass the evaluation.

​

Let's imagine you pass the combine and make $5000 on your first day.  With a real account this money comes out of the market.  Everybody is happy - you get your %, and the funding company gets their %.

​

With a Payable Sim account, this is not the case.  The funding provider has to pay your share out of their own pocket - your wins do not come out of the market.  Your funding provider is betting against you!

​

For this reason, I will only discuss funding providers that will open a real account for you after you pass the evaluation.

​

The correct way to compare evaluations is to look at max daily loss and trailing drawdown as a percentage of the profit target.  For example, reaching a profit target of $10,000 with a drawdown of $5000 is a lot easier than reaching a profit target of $1000 with a drawdown of $250!  The actual profit target doesn't matter; what matters is how much risk you are allowed to get there.

​

Earn2Trade vs TopStep

The two most popular and established funding providers are Earn2Trade and TopStep.  A big difference between these two evaluations is Earn2Trade only has one stage, whereas TopStep has two stages with slightly different rules for each stage.

​

Earn2Trade vs TopStep Risk Allowance

Earn2Trade lets you risk $1500 to make $1750.  You need to do this once.

TopStep lets you risk $2000 to make $3000.  You need to do this twice.

​

In my opinion, this makes Earn2Trade much easier to pass.  Not only are you allowed more risk, you only need to do it once!

​

Earn2Trade vs TopStep Consistency Rules

Earn2Trade has a consistency rule that means the minimum possible number of days to reach the profit target is 4: 30% + 30% + 30% + 10%.

TopStep stage 1 does not have a consistency rule.

TopStep stage 2 allows the profit target to be reached in 3 days: 40% + 40% + 20%

Once you have reached the profit target, you can take 'dummy' trades with a single MES contract just to meet the minimum trading days.

​

Earn2Trade vs TopStep Fastest Time to Complete

Earn2Trade: mandatory 15 trading days

TopStep: mandatory 8 trading days (5 trading days in stage 1, 3 in stage 2)

​

Example of a Fast Pass Strategy

  • This assumes you have a high win-rate strategy that does not typically expect more than 1 consecutive losing day.

  • You can consistently capture 41 ticks a day while risking 40 ticks.

  • A losing day must be followed by a winning day.  For multiple losing days, it is generally easier to reset than to try and recover.

​

Earn2Trade

Day 1: 1ES x41t

Day 2: 1ES x41t

Day 3: 1ES x41t

Day 4: 1ES x21t

Day 5: 1MES x2t

Day 6: 1MES x2t

Day 7: 1MES x2t

Day 8: 1MES x2t

Day 9: 1MES x2t

Day 10: 1MES x2t

Day 11: 1MES x2t

Day 12: 1MES x2t

Day 13: 1MES x2t

Day 14: 1MES x2t

Day 15: 1MES x2t

​

TopStep

Day 1: 2ES x41t

Day 2: 2ES x41t

Day 3: 2ES x41t

Day 4: 1MES x 2t

Day 5: 1MES x 2t

Day 6: 2ES x41t

Day 7: 2ES x41t

Day 8: 2ES x41t

​

Note: with this strategy, a losing day on TopStep will bring you over 50% of your total trailing drawdown.  This makes the subsequent recovery day difficult.  With Earn2Trade, a losing day uses approx 1/3 of your total trailing drawdown.  This gives ample room on the subsequent recovery day.

​

Other differences

TopStep does not allow you to trade news and you must trade the front-month contract based on volume.  Earn2Trade allows you to trade news and there is no mention of when you must rollover.

​

If you buy two evaluations and take a 2-way bet on day 1, Earn2Trade only requires a further 2.5 winning days.  TopStep requires 5 winning days.

​

Summary

My recommendation is that the Earn2Trade Trader Career Path is a much easier evaluation to pass than TopStep.

bottom of page