How we rate prop firms

We rate every firm by the same 21 criteria in 5 categories, using only public documents. The most important question comes first: after you pass, whose money do you trade?

The four zones

The zone shows what a firm is. The score shows how good it is inside that zone.

Five categories

Key scales

Account after you pass. Real account guaranteed by the documents = 100. Only live capital after a pass, at the firm's discretion = 80. Live capital for a selected few, the rest simulated = 60. "May be invited", with no live stage described = 60. Simulated, or the documents say nothing = 0.

Real capital you can lose in one day = daily loss limit ÷ total loss limit. Up to 3% = 100 · 3–10% = 80 · 10–25% = 40 · over 25% = 0. A "$100,000 account" with a $10,000 total limit and a $5,000 daily limit scores 0: you can lose half the firm's real risk in a day.

Profit split. On firm capital, 50–70% for the trader = 100. On a paid challenge, 80–100% = 0: at that split a firm can only pay from fees.

Trustpilot (firms with 500+ reviews). Share of 1-star reviews up to 5% = 100 · 5–10% = 60 · over 10%, or a Trustpilot warning = 0.

Red flags

Any one of these puts a firm in the red zone, whatever its score:

1. Mass non-payment of payouts.
2. A ban, licence withdrawal or warning from the firm's home regulator, or a fraud lawsuit. A procedural fine is not a red flag; it caps the regulation score at 70. Lists of firms not authorised in another country (for example India's RBI Alert List or the US CFTC RED List) are shown on the firm's page but do not make it red.
3. A rule changed retroactively to cancel payouts already earned.

If a firm advertises "real capital" while its contract says "simulated", the contract decides: we score "whose money" at its lowest and say so on the firm's page. This alone does not put a firm in the red zone.

If a contract calls the account both "real" and "notional" or makes the firm your counterparty, we score "real" as not confirmed: maximum 60, zone no higher than yellow.

Verified share

We score only what we could check in a document. A criterion we could not verify counts as average: 50 out of 100. A firm gets no extra points for keeping things private, and loses none for a page it hasn't written yet. Next to every score we show the share we verified, so you can see how solid it is. Inside a zone, firms are sorted by score; on a tie, the firm with more verified data comes first.

What else we show, but do not score

Access — who can join: country limits, in-person interviews, licences required. Some US firms are hard to join from abroad; we keep them in the rating so you can see what a real prop looks like.

Rules for ourselves

• One methodology for all firms. Weights are fixed before scoring.
• A change means a new version, published here, and every firm re-scored. Latest changes: on 2 November 2026 we refined criterion 1 (account after you pass); on 5 November 2026 we started counting unverified criteria as average (50), and a "real capital" claim against a "simulated" contract moved from the red flags to the lowest "whose money" score.
• No firm can pay for its place, score or zone.
• Errors and firm replies: see Corrections and right of reply.