Which prop firm, and which account, to start with

Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up through them with code ABHI, you get a discount and I get a commission. It doesn't change what I've written here, and I've tried to be as clear about the cons as the pros.

The question, and the better question

"Which prop firm is best?" is the most common DM I get, and it's the wrong question. I trade Apex, Lucid, Tradeify and MyFundedFutures at the same time, with the same 20-point stop and the same two trades a day, and I take payouts from all of them. The rules differ at the edges. The payouts arrive. None of them is the one.

The better question is "which account should I buy this week, with the money I have, given the trader I am". That has an answer, and it's usually boring: a 50K, from whichever of two firms is running a sale, bought from the firm's own website with a discount code. The rest of this page is why.

What one attempt costs

Start here, because it's the number that actually decides most people's first purchase. The four firms price a 50K differently, and the sticker price hides one thing: Apex charges an activation fee when you pass, the others don't. So Apex looks cheapest and nets out close to the others, with one real difference in when you pay.

If you have about $100, or about $500

Same advice, different patience. Buy whichever 50K account is cheapest on the day you're ready, and if nothing is on sale, wait. Tradeify and Lucid both run something close to 50% off about once a month, and their plans are similar enough that a beginner won't feel the difference. If you're the kind of person who needs several attempts to pass, and most people are at the start, Apex's very cheap evaluations mean each failure costs the least, and the $99 activation only comes due once you've actually passed.

With $500 you have room for something better than a second attempt: you can hold half of it back. Pass one account before you buy a second. The screenshots of people running twenty accounts came after they could run one.

• About $100One 50K, cheapest on the dayApex if you want the cheapest retry. Tradeify or Lucid if you catch a sale; they cost more per attempt but nothing on passing.
• About $500One 50K now, the rest held backA second account is a reward for passing the first, not a hedge against failing it.
• Never traded futuresA 50K with no daily loss limit, and micros until the rules feel normalLucidFlex has no daily loss limit and no consistency rule on funded, which removes two ways to fail while you're learning the third: the trailing drawdown.
• Coming from forex or gold CFDsSame 50K; trade MGC or GC if gold is your marketGold futures are available at all four firms. Your edge in gold transfers; the contract maths and the drawdown rules are what's new. No spread, commissions instead.

Why always the 50K

People ask whether to save money with a 25K. Compare the arithmetic instead of the price. A 25K gives you roughly $1,000 of drawdown and asks you to make $1,500 to pass, for a first payout of about $1,000. A 50K gives you $2,000 of room, asks for $3,000, and pays $1,500 to $2,000 on the first request depending on the firm. You are doing the same work per dollar of target, with twice the room for it to go wrong, and a first payout that covers the account cost several times over. The 25K saves you a few dollars up front and costs you the margin that keeps beginners alive.

25K · drawdown room

≈ $1,000

25K · profit target

$1,250–1,500

25K · first payout cap

≈ $1,000

50K · drawdown room

$2,000

50K · profit target

$3,000

50K · first payout cap

$1,500 at Apex and Tradeify Growth · $2,000 at Lucid Flex

A 100K or 150K makes sense later, when your sizing has outgrown two minis and you've proven you can run a 50K to several payouts. Not before.

The four firms, honestly

I'd call the top two a close race between Tradeify and Lucid right now, with Apex the sensible budget choice and MFF the one I trade least. None of that is a ranking you should over-read: my accounts at all four pay out, and the rail each one uses to pay you matters as much as the rules.

• ApexCheapest evaluations by a distance, so failing costs leastPay the $99 activation only when you pass. The drawback is the slowest payout rail of the four (Plane, three to five days) and the strictest payout ladder: six payouts and the account closes. Apex payout guide.
• LucidFlex has no daily loss limit and no consistency rule on funded; no activation feeThe cleanest rule set for a beginner. The drawback is cost per attempt: evaluations are pricier, so being stuck in eval hurts more, and Flex caps each payout. Lucid payout guide.
• TradeifyFastest payouts of the four (Rise, about two days) and plans close to Lucid'sAlso no activation fee. The drawback is the highest list price, which is why I say wait for a sale, and a 35% consistency rule on Growth that you have to plan around. Tradeify payout guide.
• MyFundedFuturesNo activation fee, quick payout processing, pays through RiseThe drawback is that its plans and names change more often than the others, so anything I write about the rules goes stale fast. Read the current plan page before buying, and treat it as a second firm rather than a first.

Evaluation or straight-to-funded

Every firm now sells a way to skip the evaluation: pay several times the eval price and start on a funded account. People ask if it's a shortcut. It's a specific tool for a specific person: someone who has the capital, has proved they can trade, and keeps failing evaluations because they over-size to pass them fast. For that trader, a straight-to-funded account removes the temptation and lets them trade at their real size from day one.

If you're failing evaluations because of discipline, a straight-to-funded account is the most expensive way to find out that discipline doesn't come with the receipt. Fix the sizing on a cheap eval first. Most of my accounts are straight-to-funded today, and I bought the first one after I'd already passed plenty of evaluations.

EOD or intraday drawdown

Most 50Ks come in two flavours. An end-of-day trailing drawdown moves only at the close, based on where you finished; an intraday one moves in real time, including on unrealised profit, so a spike that touches +$500 and reverses has already dragged your floor up. Intraday accounts are usually cheaper. I trade EOD, and I'd tell any beginner to do the same: the intraday version punishes exactly the kind of trade a beginner takes most, the one that goes your way for a moment first.

What you can trade

I trade NQ, only NQ, and I have for about three years. That's a personal niche, not a rule: the movement in Nasdaq is enough for me, so I stopped looking elsewhere. But the firms don't care what you trade as long as it's a CME-group futures contract. Gold (GC, and the micro MGC), euro (6E), crude, the S&P (ES and MES), Bitcoin futures: all available at all four firms. Apex paused metals for a while in 2026 and has reinstated them, so gold is open everywhere again.

Two things trip up people arriving from CFDs. There's no spread; you pay a small commission per contract instead, a few dollars round trip on a mini. And there's no "XAUUSD" or "EURUSD" symbol; you're trading a dated contract like GCZ6 or 6EZ6, which rolls every quarter. Your platform handles the roll, but the symbol you type is different from the one you're used to.

Nasdaq

NQ ($20/pt) · MNQ ($2/pt)

Gold

GC ($100/pt) · MGC ($10/pt)

Euro

6E · M6E

S&P 500

ES ($50/pt) · MES ($5/pt)

Spread

none; commission per contract instead

Scalping

allowed at all four; true high-frequency and sub-second flipping is not

Copying your own accounts

allowed at the firms I use, up to each firm's account limit; read the copier rule before you start; hedging between accounts is banned everywhere

Buying it safely

Four identical comments appeared under one of my reels offering "Lucid 25K Pro for ₹5,000, I have a 100% coupon". That's a scam, and versions of it run under every futures creator's posts. There is no 100% coupon and there are no authorised resellers; an account bought from anyone other than the firm is an unauthorised account, and the firm can and does close them along with any profit in them.

• OnlyFrom the firm's own websiteapextraderfunding.com, lucidtrading.com, tradeify.co, myfundedfutures.com. Nowhere else, not from a Telegram group, not from a DM.
• WithA creator's discount codeMine is ABHI; any creator's is fine. The code is how the discount is applied and it's the only legitimate way to pay less than the list price.
• UsingA card in your own nameKotak and ICICI debit cards work for me with international usage switched on; RedotPay is the low-forex-markup alternative. Firms match the card name to the account name.
• NeverA reseller, a "coupon holder", or someone else's loginYou're not saving money; you're buying an account with a ban attached, and the payout you eventually earn is the one they'll refuse.

The questions I get, answered once

• "Is Lucid actually good, or is everyone paid to say so?"Both can be trueCreators are paid by every firm on this page, including me. Lucid is where most of my accounts sit because Flex has the fewest ways to fail and the payouts have been reliable. That's the reason; the affiliate link is the disclosure.
• "Tradeify or Lucid Flex for a beginner?"Whichever is cheaper this weekThe plans are close enough that the price is the deciding factor. If both are full price, wait; one of them will be on sale within the month.
• "Which Apex account, normal or EOD?"50K EODThe intraday one is cheaper and moves your floor on unrealised profit. EOD is the one I trade.
• "How many days to pass?"No minimum on the plans I tradeYou can pass in a day if you hit the target without breaching consistency. Don't try to. The account that passes in a day is usually the one sized to blow the week after.
• "Can I do forex pairs on these?"Currency futures, yes6E for the euro, 6B for the pound and so on. Same idea as the pair, different symbol and tick size.
• "What are the commissions?"A few dollars per contract round tripEach firm publishes its schedule per platform. On a $400 trade it's noise; on a 5-tick scalp it isn't, which is one more reason for 20 points.

The whole thing on one card

Size

50K, always, to start

Drawdown type

EOD trailing

Tight budget, expect retries

Apex; activation due only on passing

Beginner, can wait for a sale

Tradeify or Lucid, whichever is cheaper

Never traded futures

LucidFlex; micros until the rules feel normal

From forex or gold

same 50K; MGC or GC if gold is your market

Straight-to-funded

only with capital and a sizing problem, never a discipline one

Where to buy

the firm's site, a creator's code, your own card

My own view as of September 2026, as someone who trades and is an affiliate of all four firms named. Prices are the discounted figures I've seen with code ABHI and change with each sale; drawdown, target, payout and consistency figures are from each firm's published rules for 50K accounts as of 2026 and can change without notice. Check the firm's site before buying. Nothing here is financial advice, and trading futures involves substantial risk of loss.