Simulated one-, two- and three-step challenges and Bolt instant funding, traded on ThinkTrader with TradingView
Checked 8 October 2026
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ThinkCapital sells four programmes: Lightning, a one-step challenge; Dual Step, a two-step challenge in Intraday and Swing versions; Nexus, a three-step challenge; and Bolt, an instant-funding account with no evaluation. The homepage shows Nexus from $39 for a $5K account and Bolt from $39 for a $2.5K account. All accounts are simulated: the firm says it "offers only demo accounts" to users of its Free Trial and challenges, and that Instant Funding accounts also trade in a simulated environment.
The homepage lists a profit split of up to 90% on every programme. On Dual Step the split is 80%, rising to 90% with scaling or an add-on; on Bolt it is 80%, with 90% available as a paid add-on. Its Terms of Service name TFG (Payments) Limited, with a registered office in London, as the provider, and say the provider is not authorised or regulated as a financial services firm. The firm markets itself as backed by the broker ThinkMarkets, and trading takes place on ThinkTrader, which integrates with TradingView.
Everything in this review comes from Think Capital'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 90% 1 Firm's wording: “80% (90% with scaling or add-on)” |
|---|---|
| Cheapest account | $39 (list price) 12 |
| Account types | 1-Step evaluation, 2-Step evaluation, 3-Step evaluation, Instant funding (no evaluation) 12 |
| Markets | Forex, Crypto, Indices, Commodities 1 |
| Platforms | ThinkTrader, TradingView 1 |
| 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) 12 |
| Restricted countries named | Afghanistan, Albania, Australia, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Cuba, Cyprus, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, North Korea, Palestine, Russia, Samoa, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia 1 Countries the firm names. Its list may also refer to sanctions lists or other countries — check the linked page. |
The homepage shows a starting price for each programme at its smallest account size. Our saved pages did not show prices for the larger challenge sizes, so we do not list them. Prices are shown as a purchase ("Buy for"), and the Terms describe the fee as paid for access to the challenge.
| Programme | Format | Account sizes | Price shown on saved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lightning | One-step challenge | $5K to $100K | $59 for $5K |
| Dual Step Intraday | Two-step challenge | $5K to $100K | $59 for $5K |
| Dual Step Swing | Two-step challenge | $5K to $100K | $82 (account size not labelled next to this price on the saved page) |
| Nexus | Three-step challenge | $5K to $100K | $39 for $5K |
| Bolt | Instant funding, no evaluation | $2.5K to $100K | $39 for $2.5K |
A ThinkCapital blog post dated 5 October 2026 lists the Bolt base prices below and says they are the "new standard list prices", not a limited-time promotion.
| Bolt account size | Base price |
|---|---|
| $2.5K | $39 |
| $5K | $71 |
| $10K | $127 |
| $25K | $279 |
| $50K | $479 |
| $100K | $899 |
Bolt add-ons cost extra and are priced as a share of the base price: 90% Profit Split (25% of the base price), On-Demand Payouts (25%) and Weekend Holding (15%). The Terms say Bolt add-ons can only be bought at checkout and cannot be added later. The Terms also list add-ons for the challenges: a 90% Profit Split Add-on and a Weekly Payout Add-on on Lightning, Dual Step and Nexus, a News Trading Add-on on Lightning and Nexus, and an "EA's Allowed Add-on" on Nexus. We did not see prices for the challenge add-ons.
| Rule | Lightning | Dual Step Intraday | Dual Step Swing | Nexus | Bolt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profit target(s) | 10% | 9% then 5% | 9% then 5% | 7%, 6%, then 5% | None (no evaluation) |
| Daily loss limit | 3%, balance-based | 4%, equity-based | 4%, balance-based | 4%, balance-based | 3%, equity-based |
| Maximum loss | 6%, trailing (per the Terms) | 7% challenge / 8% funded, fixed to initial balance | 7% challenge / 8% funded, fixed to initial balance | 8% of initial balance | 6% trailing, locked at initial balance once equity grows by 6% |
| Minimum trading days | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | No minimum profitable days |
| Maximum trading days | Not shown on saved pages | Unlimited | Unlimited | Not shown on saved pages | Unlimited |
| Leverage | 1:30 | Dynamic, up to 1:100 | Dynamic, up to 1:100 | 1:100 | Dynamic, up to 1:50 |
Figures are taken from the homepage, the Dual Step and Bolt pages, and the Terms of Service.
On Dual Step Intraday the daily limit is a fixed 4% of initial equity, and the breach level resets every day at 5 PM EST/EDT from end-of-day equity, including floating profit or loss. On Dual Step Swing the reset uses end-of-day balance, so floating profit or loss does not move the next day's level, but equity is still checked against it. The Dual Step maximum loss is fixed to the initial balance on both versions; the Intraday help-centre article says it "does not trail, and it never resets", and that commissions and swaps count towards it. On Bolt, the Terms say the 6% maximum loss trails the account's high-water equity until equity first reaches the initial balance plus 6%; from then on the breach level is fixed at the initial balance. Bolt's 3% daily limit is measured against equity and resets daily at 5 PM EST.
Profit targets must be reached with all trades closed; floating profit does not count. The Terms require at least one trade on at least three different calendar days in the challenge phase. Every account needs at least one trade every 30 days to stay active. Breaching a drawdown or inactivity rule is a hard breach, and the help centre says the trader is then not eligible for a profit split even if the account is in profit.
The news trading FAQ says news trading is prohibited on both challenge and funded accounts for Lightning, Dual Step Intraday, Nexus and Bolt, and allowed by default on Dual Step Swing. On the restricted programmes, no trades (including limit and stop orders) may execute from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after a high-impact "Red Folder" event on ForexFactory, and any activity in that window ends the account and forfeits profits. Bolt uses a wider window of 5 minutes either side, and no news add-on is offered for Bolt. Lightning and Nexus traders can buy a News Trading Add-On at checkout, which lifts these restrictions in both phases.
Weekend and holiday trading is allowed on Lightning, Dual Step Swing and Nexus and not allowed on Dual Step Intraday, according to the Terms. On Bolt, all positions must be closed before 21:00 UTC on Friday unless the Weekend Holding add-on was bought. The Terms also ban gap trading: opening trades when major events are scheduled and within 15 minutes before or after a market closes for 2 hours or longer.
The help centre says automated trading and EAs are "permitted at ThinkCapital by default across all Account Types", but traders must tell support in advance about any ThinkTrader-compatible tool they plan to use. The Terms are stricter in wording: they prohibit EAs, scripts or robots unless the risk team has granted an exception in writing, and only for ThinkTrader-compatible tools.
Copy trading, account management and "pass your challenge" services are prohibited. The strategy guidelines also prohibit grid (reverse) trading, hedging across multiple accounts, collusion, latency arbitrage, high-frequency trading, martingale, and trading on delayed data feeds or charts. Order layering, splitting a position into many smaller simultaneous trades, can lead to profit deductions. VPNs and VPS are not allowed for account access, with one exception: a VPS from ForexVPS. VPN or VPS use during KYC checks is prohibited.
Lightning, Dual Step and Nexus funded accounts show a 14-day payout cycle, or 7 days with an add-on. An older help-centre article dated May 2024 says the weekly add-on is not available on Lightning; the homepage and the Terms both list it for Lightning, so we used those. For the funded stage, the Terms set a condition of closing at least 0.5% profit on at least three different calendar days, counting a day only if the balance at its start is at or above the initial balance, and say the number of profitable days required for payouts varies by product. The Terms say the challenge fee is reimbursed if the funded account is in profit and all terms have been met.
Bolt pays on a 14-day cycle as standard, or on request once eligible with the On-Demand Payouts add-on. A first Bolt payout needs cumulative closed net profit of at least 6% of the initial balance, at least 14 days since the first trade (unless On-Demand Payouts was bought), and no single day above 20% of closed net profit for the period; no minimum number of profitable days applies. The Bolt fee is refunded with the third approved payout on that account. The Terms set no monthly payout cap on Bolt.
The payout FAQ says payouts are processed within 3 business days. Methods are USDT crypto (TRC20 or ERC20), Rise, and transfer to a ThinkMarkets personal live account; the homepage also lists USDC. Rise payouts carry a flat $50 fee once a month. The ThinkMarkets transfer is not available to residents of countries ThinkMarkets does not onboard, including the United States. The minimum payout is $100, and all positions must be closed before a request.
Dual Step: the Dual Step page says a 10% return over three months raises the account size by 20%, with scaling up to $1,000,000. Bolt: the Terms give a 20% capital increase when closed profit over a three-month review reaches 10% of the initial balance and the account has at least four successful payouts in that period, with all Bolt accounts capped at $500,000. The Bolt product page describes it differently (10% across four payouts in two months, for a 25% increase); we used the Terms, which are more detailed. The allocation FAQ caps funded Lightning, Dual Step and Nexus accounts at $600,000 in total, with scaling up to $1.5 million; the Dual Step page lists $1,000,000 as the maximum allocation with scaling. Bolt is limited to one account per size, $192,500 in total, and counts towards the $600,000 limit.
The help centre says ThinkCapital "currently offers accounts exclusively on ThinkTrader". ThinkTrader integrates with TradingView, so traders can trade and manage the account from within TradingView. Listed instruments are forex, commodities, indices and cryptocurrencies. Crypto is not available on Bolt, where only forex, commodities and indices can be traded. The firm says it offers raw spreads. It also lists a free backtesting tool.
The Terms of Service name the provider as TFG (Payments) Limited, with a registered office at 85 Great Portland Street, London W1W 7LT. The Terms say the provider "is not authorised or regulated as a financial services firm or investment firm in any jurisdiction", that the contract is solely with TFG (Payments) Limited, and that its affiliation with the ThinkMarkets group does not extend ThinkMarkets' regulatory protections to customers. Separately, the Bolt page describes ThinkMarkets as a regulated broker, naming the FCA and ASIC in one answer and the FCA, ASIC and CySEC in another. The Terms describe the trading funds as fictitious and the trading as not real.
The Terms list restricted jurisdictions including Australia, Cyprus, Russia, Vietnam, Iran, North Korea, British Columbia and some regions of Ukraine. Clients in Malaysia, Pakistan, Cambodia and Indonesia can buy only Bolt. US clients are accepted but limited to the ThinkTrader platform. Challenge fees are not refunded if a trader fails the challenge, cancels or breaks the Terms, and where a refund is due the provider may keep a $20 processing fee, except where the refund results from the provider's own material breach or the fee would conflict with statutory rights. The homepage claims total payouts of "$4M+", while the How it works page claims "over $5,000,000"; we have not verified either figure.
MyPropGenius code for Think Capital: ERHAN001. MyPropGenius earns a commission when you use this code or our link. Codes and any discounts change, so confirm the code and the final price at checkout. This does not change the review or the firm's Transparency Index score.
MyPropGenius Rating:
The rating measures how openly Think Capital discloses its rules, pricing, payouts and ownership (our Transparency Index methodology). It does not measure how likely you are to pass or be paid.
The Terms name the entity, its London registered office and English law, and say the contract is solely with that company; the footer says ThinkCapital offers only demo accounts and does not act as a broker. The Terms set out a 10-day right of withdrawal that is lost once demo trading starts, the cases where no refund is due, and a $20 processing fee, and refer to a separate Refund Policy that we did not read. The homepage gives a total ('$4M+') and a 'Real Payouts' strip of named, dated payouts with account sizes, but the newest entry is dated 28 Jan 2026, more than eight months before we checked on 10 Oct 2026.
Its Transparency Index score is 63/100 (Good). 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.
Ad: MyPropGenius has an affiliate relationship with Think Capital. We earn a commission if you buy through our links. It does not affect the firm's score, which comes from the Transparency Index.
ThinkCapital sells one-, two- and three-step challenges and an instant-funding account, all simulated and traded on ThinkTrader. Dual Step Swing allows news trading and weekend holding by default; Lightning, Dual Step Intraday, Nexus and Bolt restrict news trading, and Bolt adds a trailing loss limit and a best-day cap. Read the Terms alongside the product pages before buying, because several figures differ between them.
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No. The firm says all its accounts, including Instant Funding accounts, are demo accounts in a simulated environment, and its Terms describe the trading funds as fictitious.
The homepage shows Nexus at $39 for a $5K account and Bolt at $39 for a $2.5K account.
Only on Dual Step Swing by default. On Lightning, Dual Step Intraday and Nexus, no trading activity is allowed from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after high-impact (Red Folder) news; Lightning and Nexus can lift this with the News Trading Add-On. Bolt uses a 5-minute window either side and has no news add-on.
Challenge-funded accounts pay every 14 days, or 7 days with an add-on; Bolt pays every 14 days or on demand with an add-on. The firm says payouts are processed within 3 business days.
ThinkTrader, which integrates with TradingView.
Yes, according to its pages, but its Terms limit US clients to the ThinkTrader platform.