Futures prop firm with five evaluation plans, a Direct to Funded account and a LIVE ELITE tier
Checked 9 October 2026
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Elite Trader Funding (ETF) is a futures prop firm. It offers five evaluation plans (1-Step, Static Drawdown, End of Day, Diamond Hands and Fast Track) and a Direct to Funded account that skips the evaluation. The home page refers to "six trading evaluations". Direct to Funded is bought with a one-time payment (funded activation fees apply once you start earning payouts) and has no evaluation phase. Evaluations are paid tests in a simulated futures account.
Passing unlocks an Elite Sim-Funded account, where the firm says you can keep up to 100% of simulated profits, up to $25,000 in total sim payouts per trader. Traders who qualify may move to LIVE ELITE, which the firm describes as its real-capital tier, with an 80/20 split.
Its Terms of Service name Elite Trader Funding LLC of Wilmington, Delaware, as the operator. The firm says it has been operating since February 2022 and has paid out $13M+ to 13,000+ funded traders. We have not verified these figures.
Everything in this review comes from Elite Trader Funding's own web pages, saved on 7–9 October 2026. Rules and prices change, so check the firm's site before you buy.
| Highest profit split | Up to 100% 1 Firm's wording: “Keep up to 100% of your simulated profits, up to $25,000 in total sim payouts per trader” |
|---|---|
| Account types | 1-Step evaluation, Instant funding (no evaluation) 123 |
| Markets | Futures only (contracts on indices) 12 |
| Platforms | NinjaTrader, ATAS, Bookmap, EdgeProX, MotiveWave, Sierra Chart, Quantower, Rithmic, Tradovate, TradingView 12 |
| Allowed / offered on at least one account type | Rules can differ between account types — check the linked page for the account you want. |
| Not allowed, or rules that apply (firm says so) | |
| US traders | Accepted (check any conditions on the linked page) 1 |
| Restricted countries named | Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Congo, Cuba, DR Congo, Guam, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, North Korea, Puerto Rico, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, US Virgin Islands, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen 1 Countries the firm names. Its list may also refer to sanctions lists or other countries — check the linked page. |
Evaluations are billed monthly. The evaluations page sends readers to a plan picker for live pricing, and we could not see the monthly evaluation prices in our captures. The Fast Track page describes a sub-$100 evaluation, and the evaluations page says the 10K Fast Track is available under $100 on the End of Day variant. If you breach the drawdown, most evaluations can be reset for $47; Fast Track has no resets.
After passing, an activation fee applies to the funded account: $87 a month, or a one-time fee that depends on size and plan (the Elite page lists 1-Step 50K $177, 100K $247 and 100K Diamond Hands $307). Fast Track evaluations are not eligible for one-time activation; the first month of funded activation is included in the Fast Track price. The home page shows "As Low As $47 Paid Once", and the Elite page says activation fees start "from $47 with the Double Down Deal". The Elite page also says pricing changes with promotions.
Direct to Funded is sold one-time, with no monthly evaluation subscription; the page does not show the price in our capture. The DTF page adds that funded activation fees follow standard ETF rules once you start earning payouts. The firm says repeat traders can lower the cost through its rewards programme.
| Evaluation | Max drawdown | Profit target | Daily loss limit | Min trading days to pass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Step (50K example) | Live trailing (follows highest unrealised profit, incl. open positions): $2,000 | $3,000 | None | 5 |
| Static Drawdown (10K, 25K, 50K; 25K example) | Static, never trails | $2,000 | None | 5 |
| End of Day (50K, 100K) | End-of-day trailing on realised balance (amounts by size not captured) | Not captured by size | $1,100 at 50K, $2,200 at 100K (hard breach) | 5 |
| Diamond Hands 100K | End-of-day trailing | $5,000 | $1,500 from prior day's close (hard breach) | 5 |
| Fast Track 10K | End-of-day trailing (EOD variant) or $500 fixed (Static variant) | $2,000 | None | 3 |
Each plan page notes that account sizes and risk parameters are subject to change. We have only listed figures that the plan pages tie to a size in our captures, and we could not reliably capture per-plan payout maximums.
| Direct to Funded | Max drawdown | Safety net before payouts | Active Trade Days to payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10K Mini Inferno | End-of-day trailing | $1,600 | 5 |
| 50K | End-of-day trailing (amount not captured) | Not captured | 15 |
| 100K | $5,000 fixed | Not captured | 20 |
Direct to Funded has no daily loss limit. The firm says you can earn up to $25,000 per DTF account, with up to $1,200 per cycle on the 10K.
You fail an evaluation by hitting either the daily loss limit (where the plan has one) or the max drawdown, whichever comes first. On End of Day and Diamond Hands, touching the daily loss limit fails the account immediately; the TradeShield add-on converts this hard breach into a soft breach. On Diamond Hands, open losses count intraday towards the daily loss limit.
The 5-day minimum can be lifted with the One Day to Pass add-on, which is not available on Fast Track. The End of Day and Static pages say you are not required to spread profits evenly across days. However, the Terms of Service define a Consistency Rule (your highest single-day profit must not exceed your total profit times a consistency percentage) and a minimum share of best-day profit for a day to count, and the Fast Track page refers to "the consistency rule"; we could not see which plans or stages these apply to. The LIVE ELITE page says there is no consistency rule.
On 1-Step, Static, End of Day and Fast Track, all trades must be closed one minute before market close on the instrument traded, and End of Day plans allow no overnight positions. Diamond Hands lets you hold positions across the overnight session and through the weekend; weekend gaps are assessed at Monday open and gap risk is yours. Direct to Funded also allows holding through the overnight session and weekends.
Position limits: on the evaluation plans 1 mini counts as 10 micros for position math, and going over the cap fails the account. Diamond Hands is capped at 2 minis or 20 micros and Fast Track at one mini or 10 micros. On Direct to Funded, 1 mini counts as 1 micro, so micros do not add headroom.
Funded accounts need at least one placed trade per week; on Direct to Funded, missing a week closes the account and voids pending payouts. Elite Sim-Funded traders must log in at least every 30 days and place one valid trade per account each calendar week. Once an Elite Sim-Funded account is up 20%, giving back more than 35% of accumulated profit can remove LIVE ELITE eligibility. Most traders can hold up to 5 active Elite Sim-Funded accounts.
The home page says there are no time limits and the Elite page mentions "no pass-deadline pressure", but the Terms of Service say that, upon activating a funded account, it must reach its Safety Net within 45 calendar days (the Terms also give a 25-calendar-day limit in another case). We treat the Terms as the binding rule for funded accounts.
The Terms of Service say all Elite accounts must be flat from 5 minutes before an event to 5 minutes after it starts; the captured text does not show which events are covered. Traders still in the evaluation phase do not have this rule. A help-centre article says ETF does not impose any restrictions during major economic news events. The two pages appear to conflict; for funded accounts we rely on the Terms, as they are more specific.
The Terms say all trades must have a minimum duration of ten seconds, and prohibit high-frequency trading. The Terms also list as prohibited: hedging across accounts with correlated instruments (e.g. NQ and MNQ or ES and MES), holding long and short positions at the same time, Martingale and dollar-cost averaging, arbitrage, coordinating with other traders, and trading contracts that are not the most current, highest-volume contracts.
Bots, AI and automated trading need written authorisation. The trade copier article says the only automated tools currently authorised are its approved trade copiers. You can trade ETF accounts with the firm's approved trade copier partners. The firm says it reviews user sessions when a reward is requested; violations can lead to resets or forfeited profits, and repeat violations to account failure and a permanent ban. Allowing any third party to manage or execute trades on your account is also prohibited.
Elite Sim-Funded payouts need a set number of Active Trade Days per cycle: 8 for the first cycle and 10 for each one after on standard plans, and 5, 10, 15 or 20 per cycle on Direct to Funded depending on size. Before payouts, you must earn realised profits equal to your max drawdown + $100 (the safety net), after which the drawdown is permanently removed for payout eligibility. Each payout cycle has a $100 minimum request. The payouts page says the per-cycle maximum scales with account size and cycles completed, with an example that grows toward $2,000. The plan pages and home page show other "Up to" figures that our captures do not tie to a size, so we have not listed them; the Terms say reward minimums and maximums are set out on the trader's dashboard.
Simulated payouts are capped at $25,000 per trader, with a $150,000 lifetime cap across re-entries. Payouts are processed through Rise (riseworks.io) by ACH bank transfer or cryptocurrency. The Terms say rewards are paid within 48 hours of a request, excluding weekends and US bank and Federal holidays.
You may qualify for LIVE ELITE after any one of: 5 payouts, 50 active trading days, or reaching the $25,000 payout cap. The Terms say ETF may convert a trader to LIVE ELITE at any time at its sole discretion and sets the starting balance. Declining a LIVE ELITE offer bars you from ETF's services for two calendar years.
On LIVE ELITE you keep 80% of profits, payouts are uncapped above your starting balance with a $250 minimum, and requests before 1:00 PM EST are prioritised for same-day processing on a best-effort basis; others are generally handled within 24 hours on business days. The firm guarantees eligible payouts are approved within 48 hours.
LIVE ELITE costs include a flat $197 per month per exchange on the first account for Level 1 and Level 2 data and FCM fees (each additional account adds $197), and commissions of $2.00 per mini and $0.62 per micro. LIVE ELITE runs on an end-of-day drawdown with no mandatory daily loss limit; an account with a 20% or greater drawdown from its high-water mark is reviewed. After 20 trading days on LIVE ELITE you can ask the Risk Team for a higher contract limit. The Terms also contain a clause limiting when rewards can be requested from reserve amounts held in a LIVE ELITE account (30 Active Trading Days after a condition our capture cuts off).
The firm says it supports multiple trading platforms. The payouts page lists TradingView, NinjaTrader, Tradovate, Quantower, Sierra Chart and MotiveWave "and many more" as platforms, and the help centre has connection guides for Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Rithmic and Tickblaze. Platform subscription costs are the trader's responsibility, and from January 28, 2026 new accounts that select a Rithmic data feed incur a separate monthly connection cost per active Rithmic account.
LIVE ELITE trades on Rithmic-compatible platforms only, including Rithmic, R | Trader, ATAS and Bookmap; Tradovate and NinjaTrader are not supported there. EdgeProX is an optional $34.99 a month platform, which the firm says it covers after 3 months of genuine trading. LIVE ELITE exchanges are CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX and EUREX.
ETF's Terms state that it operates an evaluation and skill-assessment programme for futures traders, and that simulated account balances are not deposits, wages or compensation. The Terms say ETF is not regulated by CFTC/NFA rules and is not a broker-dealer or commodity trading advisor. You must be at least 18.
Refunds: all sales are final, with one exception, its 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, for which conditions apply; we did not capture those conditions. The Terms add that funded account fees are non-refundable and auto-reset purchases are final.
Its restricted-countries page says citizens or residents of a restricted country cannot purchase, obtain funding or receive rewards; the list we captured includes Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Russian Federation, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen, among others. It lists Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as unsupported US territories, says the list is subject to change, and says your country must be supported by both Rise and Stripe. Additional countries may be restricted from LIVE ELITE.
ETF offers futures traders a choice of drawdown styles across its evaluations: static, end-of-day trailing or live trailing. Diamond Hands and Direct to Funded are the plans that allow holding positions overnight and over the weekend; the other evaluations require positions to be closed before market close. Bots and automation other than approved trade copiers are not authorised without written permission, and funded accounts have the event window described above.
Costs include the monthly evaluation fee, an activation fee after passing, and platform or data costs.
MyPropGenius Rating:
The rating measures how openly Elite Trader Funding discloses its rules, pricing, payouts and ownership (our Transparency Index methodology). It does not measure how likely you are to pass or be paid.
Its Terms name Elite Trader Funding LLC with a Delaware address, state that it is not a broker-dealer or commodity trading advisor and not regulated under CFTC/NFA rules, and describe account balances as simulated. Its Terms name the company, Elite Trader Funding LLC, with a Delaware address, but we did not find any founder, owner or team member named on the pages we read. Its help-centre refund page states that all sales are final, and its Terms agree. Its homepage and Payouts page give only overall claims and a 48-hour payout approval guarantee. We found no Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) copy of its homepage; the firm says it has operated since February 2022.
Its Transparency Index score is 59/100 (Mixed). We do not verify payouts or test accounts; this is what the firm’s own pages show.
Check the current rules and prices on the firm's own website before you buy.
We have no commercial relationship with Elite Trader Funding. Links to its website are not affiliate links.
Elite Trader Funding offers five futures evaluations and a Direct to Funded account bought with a one-time payment, with simulated payouts of up to 100% capped at $25,000 per trader before a possible move to an 80/20 LIVE ELITE account. The rules are detailed and vary by plan, and the Terms add limits the marketing pages do not mention, such as a no-trading window around certain events for funded accounts and a 45-day safety-net deadline. The exact rules for each account are on its plan page and in the Terms.
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Find my matchEvaluations and Elite Sim-Funded accounts are simulated. LIVE ELITE is the tier the firm describes as real capital.
Up to 100% of simulated profits on Elite Sim-Funded, up to $25,000 in total sim payouts per trader; 80% on LIVE ELITE.
Yes on Diamond Hands and Direct to Funded. End of Day plans allow no overnight positions, and the 1-Step, Static and Fast Track pages require trades to be closed one minute before market close.
During the evaluation, the Terms' event rule does not apply. For Elite accounts the Terms require being flat from 5 minutes before to 5 minutes after the start of certain events (our capture does not show which), although a help article says ETF does not restrict trading during major economic news events.
Through Rise (riseworks.io) by ACH bank transfer or cryptocurrency.
$47 on most evaluations; Fast Track cannot be reset.