Author: Eduardo Montero
Last Updated on May 16, 2023
If you are interested in futures trading in the following list you will find what in my opinion are currently the best futures proprietary trading firms. In the last few years I have reviewed and thoroughly tested numerous prop firms, not only offering the futures market but also other instruments such as Forex, stocks,… I have also looked at the positive and negative opinions of other traders to know their experience working with these companies and finally here you have my assessment along with the main features of each of them:
What are the best futures prop firms?
| Prop Trading Firm | Funded Account Balance | Features | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50k balance for 100k balance for 150k balance for |
| ||
| 25k balance for $150/month 50k balance for $180/month 100k balance for $220/month 150k balance for $305/month |
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In the following comparison table you will find the main features of these futures prop trading firms:
| Futures Prop Firm | Balance / Fee | Profit Split | Profit Target | Max. Drawdown | Instruments | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
50k balance for 100k balance for 150k balance for | 100% of the first $5,000 you generate and 90% from that amount. | 6% | 2% Daily loss limit. 4% to 3% Max trailing drawdown (the percentage varies depending on the account you choose). | Futures Markets: CME Exchange (17 instruments) NYMEX Exchange (4) COMEX Exchange (3) CBOT Exchange (13) | ||
25k balance for $150/month 50k balance for $180/month 100k balance for $220/month 150k balance for $305/month | 100% of the first $8000. Then 80% of the profit for the first 12 months and 90% thereafter. | 6% | No daily drawdown. 6% to 2.5% Max trailing drawdown (the percentage varies depending on the account you choose). | Futures Markets: CME Exchange (30 instruments) NYMEX Exchange (7) COMEX Exchange (8) CBOT Exchange (19) |
Why are these the best futures proprietary trading firms?
As you know, futures are one of the most traded financial markets in the world. Futures contracts exist for all types of assets such as equity indexes, metals, energies, agricultural products, currency pairs, cryptocurrencies, interest rates, etc. They are used both for speculation purposes (trying to take advantage of price movements to obtain profits) and for hedging purposes (for example by portfolio managers, companies, etc. who wish to hedge their exposure to a certain instrument, a certain currency, etc.).
Among the advantages of the futures market we can point out:
- It is a financial market with greater transparency than others as we can easily access information on prices, participants, volume of transactions, etc.
- Futures markets are open almost 24 hours a day, unlike many of the underlying assets that are traded for only a few hours a day.
- Trading costs are quite low.
- There is a high level of leverage.
- It is easy to open short trades.
- The volatility of the futures market is quite high.
The main disadvantages of futures are:
- It requires more advanced knowledge than is necessary for trading other instruments.
- The time commitment to develop a profitable trading strategy is usually high.
- It requires an average amount of capital to make significant profits.
This last point is where proprietary trading firms add value by offering traders with a profitable strategy the possibility of:
- Access to a funded account in which to manage a much larger balance than they could trade with their own capital.
- A generous profit split scheme for the trader (up to 90%).
- And without the trader taking significant risk as it is not their money that is at stake.
Finding prop firms to access a funded account with which to trade Forex, stocks (more information: What are the best prop trading firms for stocks?) or cryptocurrencies (best crypto prop trading firms) is quite simple as there is currently a wide range of this type of companies on the market. For example, here you can see what I consider to be the best proprietary trading firms today, where you will see popular prop firms such as My Forex Funds, FTMO,…
Finding prop firms for futures is not so easy anymore because the offer is drastically reduced. In addition, in the case of prop firms for Forex or stocks it is common to find companies where the fee for accessing the evaluation period consists of a one-off payment or there are even proprietary trading firms that offer instant funding without evaluation or challenge of any kind. In the case of futures, most prop firms require a monthly fee to access the evaluation period and you must pay it as long as you do not exceed the evaluation period. That is why it is important to work with reliable and experienced prop trading firms whose objective is to attract profitable trading talent and make money from their share of the profit split and not other firms with a professional appearance that only seek to entangle you in a never-ending evaluation process and make money from the access fees.
Therefore, in order to draw up the comparison table on this page of what I consider to be the best prop firms for futures, the most important aspect I have relied on to show these companies and not others is:
The experience and reputation of the prop firms.
Both Topstep and Leeloo Trading are two US companies with years of experience in the market and have funded thousands of futures traders worldwide. Topstep is a trademark owned by Topstep LLC based in Chicago and Leeloo Trading is owned by Natural Trading LLC based in Montana. Both companies have good reputations and the majority of customer reviews I have found are positive: For example Topstep has at the time of writing an “Excellent” rating on the Trustpilot portal with 4.3 out of 5 stars out of over 1400 reviews. The majority of reviews (74% give it a 5 star rating). Here you can see my Topstep review for more details. Leeloo Trading is a lesser known company than Topstep but the rating is equally “Excellent” on Trustpilot with 4.7 out of 5 stars and 90% of users give it 5 stars.
In addition, Topstep offers this 20% discount that will allow you to save money on your first month’s subscription to any of their funded accounts.
Other factors that I have found positive about these futures prop firms are:
- Timely and uncomplicated profit payments.
- Good customer support to resolve doubts or any incident that may occur.
- Wide range of futures to trade.
- Possibility of using professional futures platforms such as NinjaTrader,…
I hope this information has been useful for you. If you want to tell me about your experience with any other company of futures prop trading, do not hesitate to contact me.
Author: Eduardo Montero
I'm Eduardo Montero. Computer scientist by profession and passionate about online trading with more than 10 years of experience in the financial markets. I'm the author of hundreds of articles published in other websites about the online trading industry. Learn more about me here: About the author.