If you have spent any time looking into funded trading, you already know the name. FTMO is the firm everyone else gets compared to, the one your favourite trading YouTuber mentions, and the one your friend swears paid him out in under 24 hours. But hype is not proof, and a challenge fee is real money out of your pocket. So this review does the boring work for you: the actual rules, the actual pricing, what real reviewers on Google and Trustpilot keep repeating, and whether it makes sense for you specifically.
Ready to skip ahead and just get started? 👉 Start your FTMO Challenge here — and if you are not ready to pay yet, the same link gets you the free trial with zero capital at risk.
What Is FTMO?
FTMO is a proprietary trading firm based in Prague, Czech Republic that lets you trade with simulated capital instead of your own savings, and pays you a share of the profits you generate. You prove your skill in an evaluation, and once you pass, you get an FTMO Account of up to $200,000 and keep up to 90% of the simulated profits you make on it.
It has been operating since 2015, which is ancient history in a niche where firms appear and vanish within a year.
FTMO reports over 4.5 million customers worldwide and more than $650 million paid out in rewards, according to its own website.
It carries a 4.8/5 Trustpilot score across roughly 46,000 reviews, which is a genuinely rare combination of high volume and high score.
Every account is a demo/simulated account with fictitious funds — FTMO is upfront about this. You are being paid for performance, not managing a client's live cash.
Traders in 140+ countries take part, with the UK, Europe, Asia and Africa heavily represented.
The simplest way to think about FTMO is this: it is a skills exam with a salary attached. Pass the exam, get access to capital, keep most of the profit.
How Does FTMO Work?
FTMO gives you two doors into the same funded account, and picking the right one is the single most important decision you will make before checkout.
The 2-Step FTMO Challenge
Phase 1 (FTMO Challenge): hit a 10% profit target while never breaching a 5% Maximum Daily Loss or a 10% Maximum Loss.
Phase 2 (Verification): same risk rules, but the target drops to 5%. This phase is included in your original fee — you pay nothing extra.
Minimum trading days: 4 per phase, so one lucky trade will not get you through.
Time limit: none. You can pace both phases around your life, your job and your strategy.
Reward: 80% of simulated profits to start, rising to 90% through the Scaling Plan.
Fee refund: 100% of your original fee comes back to you with your first reward withdrawal.
The 1-Step FTMO Challenge
One phase only. No Verification. Hit a 10% profit target and you are through to the FTMO Account.
Tighter risk: 3% Maximum Daily Loss and 10% Maximum Loss.
Best Day Rule of 50%: no single day can account for more than half your total profit, which forces genuine consistency instead of one gambling session.
Unlimited trading period, same as the 2-Step.
Reward: 90% of simulated profits from day one of the funded account, with no scaling milestones to unlock it.
FTMO's own 1-Step stats include a fastest pass time of 2 days and an average reward of around $3,336, per the official 1-Step page.
The FTMO Account (the funded stage)
No profit target. Your only job is staying inside the risk limits and trading well.
Request your reward after a minimum of 14 calendar days from your first trade, with no open or pending positions at the time of request.
Withdrawals go out through the approved payment methods, and processing is fast once queued.
Scaling Plan adds +25% to your balance when you meet the criteria, with the path stretching up to $2,000,000.
Which door should you pick?
Choose 1-Step if you are a disciplined trader who wants 90% immediately and does not want to grind through a second phase. The 3% daily loss limit is the trade-off.
Choose 2-Step if you want the extra breathing room of a 5% daily loss limit and are happy to prove consistency twice before the money starts.
Who Owns FTMO?
FTMO was founded in 2015 in Prague by Otakar Šuffner and Marek Vrba, and it sits under the wider FTMO Group umbrella. Unlike a large chunk of this industry, ownership and leadership have stayed stable since inception — no mysterious rebrands, no offshore shell games, no sudden change of terms after a management shuffle.
The company is headquartered at Quadrio offices, Purkyňova 2121/3, Prague, Czech Republic, and lists both live chat and a phone line publicly.
In December 2025, FTMO Group completed the acquisition of OANDA, a regulated retail forex broker founded in 1996 — making FTMO the first prop firm in the category to own a regulated broker outright, as documented in this independent review.
US traders, historically excluded, now access FTMO through the FTMO US setup routed via OANDA on MT5.
Why this matters to you: prop firms fail when the operator runs out of money or credibility. A firm that owns a 25-year-old regulated broker and publishes nine-figure revenue is not the same risk profile as an anonymous startup with a Discord and a Stripe link.
FTMO Features Explained In Plain English
This is where FTMO separates itself from the crowd of copycat firms. It is not just "pass a test, get capital" — there is an entire performance infrastructure attached, and most traders never use half of it.
Free Trial with no card required
You get a 14-day simplified version of the Challenge experience, with simulated capital and no fee. It is the single smartest first move if you have never traded prop rules before, because you get to feel the drawdown limits in real time instead of learning them expensively.
Test your exact strategy against real Trading Objectives.
Confirm your platform connection, spreads and execution before spending anything.
Run as many trials as you need before committing.
Account MetriX — your trading dashboard
MetriX is FTMO's analytics engine, and it is genuinely one of the best in the industry. It tracks your progress toward the profit target, your distance from every risk limit, and the behavioural patterns quietly draining your account.
Live progress bars for profit target, daily loss and max loss so you always know where you stand.
Breakdowns by trading session, day of the week, instrument and holding time.
Metrics like average win, average loss, expectancy, RRR and profit factor.
Instant notifications when you approach a rule breach, before it becomes fatal.
App Suite by FX Blue
A stack of add-on tools that plug into your platform and handle the things traders usually mess up manually.
Position-size calculators so you never fat-finger a lot size again.
Automated stop-loss and take-profit management.
Trade journalling and session analytics.
Alerting and correlation tools for multi-pair traders.
Multiple trading platforms
You are not forced onto one terminal. FTMO Global supports MT4, MT5, cTrader and DXtrade, so you can bring the platform you already know, with the indicators and EAs you already trust.
Standard vs Swing accounts
Standard: intraday focused. On the funded stage, restrictions apply around holding through selected high-impact news and over the weekend. Leverage runs at 1:100.
Swing: no news restrictions, no weekend-holding restrictions, at 1:30 leverage. Built for position and trend traders.
Crucially, per FTMO's FAQ, these news and weekend restrictions do not apply during the Evaluation Process at all — only once you are on a funded FTMO Account.
Wide instrument access
Forex majors, minors and exotics, indices, commodities, metals, crypto and stock CFDs. You are not boxed into one asset class, so if your edge is in gold or US indices rather than EUR/USD, it travels fine.
Scaling Plan
Consistency is rewarded structurally, not just verbally.
Meet the criteria and your balance increases by 25% at scale-up events.
The 2-Step path moves you to a 90% reward split once you scale.
The runway extends up to a $2,000,000 balance, which is a genuine career, not a side hustle.
Premium Programme
For top performers, FTMO layers on extras — better conditions, dedicated support and closer account management. It is the "we want to keep our best traders" tier that most firms simply do not have.
Performance Coaches and Psychology Course
FTMO employs actual performance coaches and publishes a full trading psychology course. Given that most challenge failures are emotional rather than technical, this is arguably the highest-ROI feature on the whole list and it costs you nothing extra.
FTMO Academy
A structured, free education path covering market mechanics, technical analysis, fundamental analysis, risk management and strategy building. Useful whether or not you ever buy a challenge.
Leaderboard, Economic Calendar and Trading Updates
The Leaderboard shows live rankings of top FTMO Traders, which is oddly motivating.
A built-in economic calendar keeps you off the wrong side of high-impact releases.
The Trading Updates page publishes holiday schedules, symbol changes and maintenance windows so you are never blindsided.
24/7 multilingual support
Live chat, email and phone, in multiple languages. This is one of the most consistently praised elements in public reviews — response times measured in minutes, not days.
FTMO Pricing: What It Actually Costs
FTMO charges a one-time fee per challenge. No subscriptions, no monthly platform charge, no withdrawal fee, no hidden data fee. And the fee is fully refunded with your first reward withdrawal once you become an FTMO Trader.
2-Step FTMO Challenge fees (Standard risk)
$10,000 account — around €155
$25,000 account — around €250
$50,000 account — around €345
$100,000 account — around €540
$200,000 account — around €1,080
These are the widely cited standard-risk prices, confirmed across independent trackers including The Payout Report and BrokerAnalysis.
1-Step FTMO Challenge fees
The 1-Step ladder starts lower, with entry pricing reported from roughly €79–€89 on the $10,000 size and scaling up to around €999 on the $200,000 size, per TradingPilot and BrokerAnalysis. Because FTMO runs frequent promotions and prices vary by currency and risk mode, always confirm the live figure on the order screen before paying.
What the fee actually buys you
Access to the full Evaluation Process, including Verification on the 2-Step at no extra cost.
Your chosen platform, real-time data and FTMO's low-commission trading conditions.
Account MetriX, App Suite, Academy, coaching resources and 24/7 support.
A path to a funded account with no further payment required, ever.
Costs people forget to budget for
Failed attempts. The fee is only refunded if you pass and withdraw. Fail, and you buy again.
Resets. If you breach a rule mid-challenge, a paid reset is often cheaper than a fresh purchase — check the offer in your dashboard.
VPS hosting, if you run EAs and need 24/5 uptime.
Your own preparation time, which is free but not cheap.
The value maths, done honestly
On a $100,000 2-Step account at roughly €540, a modest 5% month is $5,000 in simulated profit.
At the 80% split that is $4,000 to you, plus your €540 refunded on that first withdrawal.
At the 90% split post-scaling, the same month pays $4,500.
The fee stops being a cost the moment you pass. That is the entire pitch, and it is a fair one.
Offer to know about: FTMO runs regular promotional pricing and discount windows, including seasonal sales that have historically knocked 15–20% off challenge fees, and the $10,000 tier has been promoted as low as €89. Deals move fast and are not always announced widely, so the practical move is to 👉 check the live pricing and current offer on your dashboard now rather than wait and miss it.
Is FTMO Legit Or A Scam?
FTMO is legitimate, and the evidence is not subtle.
Over a decade of continuous operation since 2015, through multiple market regimes and an industry-wide regulatory shake-up that killed many competitors.
$650M+ in reported rewards paid to traders, publicly stated.
4.8/5 on Trustpilot from roughly 46,000 reviews — volume that is very difficult to fake.
A real registered company with a physical Prague office, published phone number and named leadership.
Ownership of OANDA, a regulated broker operating since 1996.
Public, versioned rulebooks and a Forbidden Trading Practices page, so the terms are readable before you buy rather than discovered after.
The honest nuance: FTMO is a simulated trading and educational service, and it says so plainly on every page. You are not trading real institutional money. The rewards, however, are very real, and the payout record is the most documented in the sector.
What real reviewers consistently praise
Payouts arriving quickly and without invented excuses.
Support that responds fast and in your language.
MetriX analytics that genuinely improve trading.
The fee refund actually landing with the first withdrawal.
Rules that are clear, published and applied consistently.
What real reviewers consistently complain about
Losing a challenge on a single bad day and forfeiting the fee — which is the design, not a malfunction.
Frustration with rule breaches that came from not reading the rules.
Occasional slippage or spread widening around major news, which is normal market behaviour but stings during an evaluation.
Restricted jurisdictions and eligibility checks catching people out at signup.
Verification and KYC adding a few days before funding.
Read enough negative reviews and a pattern emerges: the overwhelming majority are traders who broke a rule, not customers who were cheated. That distinction matters a lot when you are deciding where to put your money.
Is FTMO Worth It?
For the right trader, yes — comfortably.
FTMO is worth it if
You have a strategy with a documented edge and you just lack capital.
You want the strongest payout track record in the industry rather than the cheapest fee.
You value no time limit, so you can trade at your natural pace instead of forcing setups.
You want the option to scale toward $2,000,000 rather than being capped early.
You want the analytics, coaching and education stack, not just an account login.
FTMO is probably not worth it if
You have never traded consistently profitably on a demo account.
You need the cheapest possible entry above everything else.
You cannot emotionally handle a hard daily loss limit.
You are hoping to gamble your way to the target — the Best Day Rule and minimum trading days exist precisely to stop that.
The honest verdict
FTMO is not the cheapest prop firm and it does not pretend to be. What it sells is certainty: that the rules will not change on you, that the payout will arrive, and that the firm will still exist next year. In a niche full of operators who cannot promise any of those three, that premium is the best money you will spend.
Is FTMO Good For Beginners?
It can be, provided you use the on-ramp instead of sprinting past it.
Start with the Free Trial and run your strategy against the real objectives until the limits feel automatic.
Work through the FTMO Academy and the Psychology Course before paying a cent.
Buy the $10,000 account first. Same rules, same skills, far less pressure and a much smaller lesson if it goes wrong.
Choose the 2-Step if you are new, because a 5% daily loss limit is far more forgiving than 3% while you are still building discipline.
Use MetriX weekly to find your actual leaks instead of guessing.
Beginners fail FTMO for one reason above all others: oversizing early to chase the target fast. Aim for 0.5% a day and the 10% target arrives on its own.
How To Pass The FTMO Challenge
Risk 0.5–1% per trade, maximum. Aggressive sizing is the number-one cause of daily-loss breaches.
Set a personal daily stop well inside the official limit — down 2% on a 5% account, stop trading, close the laptop.
Never revenge trade. Almost every blown challenge is a recovery attempt gone wrong.
Spread your minimum trading days out naturally instead of forcing trades to tick a box.
Trade the pairs and sessions you already know. An evaluation is not the time to discover exotics.
Use the economic calendar and stay flat through the releases that historically wreck you.
Remember there is no time limit — 10% over eight patient weeks beats 10% attempted in three reckless days.
On the 2-Step, treat Verification as a slower version of Phase 1, not an easier one.
FTMO Pros
Over a decade of operation with the most documented payout record in prop trading.
$650M+ paid to traders and 4.5M+ customers served.
4.8/5 Trustpilot from around 46,000 reviews.
No time limit on either evaluation route.
Up to 90% profit split, immediately on the 1-Step.
100% fee refund with your first reward withdrawal.
Scaling Plan up to $2,000,000 with +25% balance increases.
Free Trial with no capital at risk and no card needed.
MT4, MT5, cTrader and DXtrade all supported.
Elite analytics through Account MetriX and App Suite.
Free Academy, psychology course and access to performance coaches.
24/7 multilingual support with genuinely fast response times.
No monthly fees, no subscriptions, no withdrawal charges.
Swing accounts for weekend and news holding.
Owns OANDA, a regulated broker operating since 1996.
News and weekend restrictions do not apply during the evaluation at all.
FTMO Cons
Fees are higher than budget competitors on a like-for-like basis.
The fee is forfeited if you fail — the refund only comes with a successful first withdrawal.
The 1-Step's 3% daily loss limit is tight for volatile strategies.
The 1-Step Best Day Rule caps single-day profits at 50% of total, which frustrates news traders.
Standard funded accounts restrict weekend and high-impact news holding.
Some jurisdictions are excluded, and eligibility rules apply.
Payouts require a minimum 14 days from your first trade.
Swing accounts cost more and run at lower leverage.
No instant-funding option — you must pass an evaluation.
All trading is simulated, which some traders philosophically dislike.
FTMO vs Other Prop Firms
On price: cheaper firms exist. Almost none can show a comparable multi-year payout history.
On profit split: 80–90% sits at or above the industry norm, and the 1-Step's day-one 90% beats most 2-Step competitors that gate the top split behind milestones.
On flexibility: no time limit is a serious edge over firms that impose a 30-day countdown.
On stability: owning a regulated broker is currently unique in the category.
On tooling: MetriX, App Suite, the Academy and human performance coaches together are unmatched.
On scaling: a $2,000,000 ceiling is at the top end of what retail prop firms offer.
If you plan to make funded trading a career rather than a weekend experiment, the firm that will still be around and still paying is worth more than the one that saved you €60 today.
Frequently Asked Questions About FTMO
What is FTMO in simple terms?
FTMO is a proprietary trading firm that evaluates your trading skill, then gives you a simulated account of up to $200,000 and pays you up to 90% of the profits you generate on it.
How much does FTMO cost?
The 2-Step Challenge runs from roughly €155 for a $10,000 account to around €1,080 for $200,000, with the 1-Step starting lower. It is a one-time fee, fully refunded with your first reward withdrawal.
Is the FTMO fee really refundable?
Yes. FTMO refunds 100% of your original fee alongside your first reward withdrawal once you become an FTMO Trader. If you fail the evaluation, the fee is not returned.
Is FTMO free to try?
Yes. The Free Trial gives you a simplified 14-day version of the Challenge with simulated capital, no fee and no capital at risk. You can 👉 start it here.
What is the difference between the 1-Step and 2-Step FTMO Challenge?
The 1-Step is a single phase with a 10% target, a 3% daily loss limit, a 50% Best Day Rule and a 90% reward from day one. The 2-Step has a 10% then 5% target across two phases with a more forgiving 5% daily loss limit and an 80% reward that scales to 90%.
What is FTMO's profit split?
80% on the standard 2-Step funded account, rising to 90% through the Scaling Plan, and 90% immediately on the 1-Step route.
Is there a time limit on the FTMO Challenge?
No. Both evaluation routes have an unlimited trading period, so you can pass at your own pace.
How many trading days do I need?
The 2-Step requires a minimum of 4 trading days in each phase. There is no requirement to trade every day.
What is FTMO's maximum daily loss?
5% of your initial balance on standard 2-Step accounts, and 3% on the 1-Step. Breaching it ends the attempt.
What is FTMO's maximum overall loss?
10% of your initial balance across all routes.
How big can an FTMO account get?
Evaluations go up to $200,000, and the Scaling Plan can grow a funded account toward $2,000,000 with +25% balance increases when you meet the criteria.
When can I withdraw my first payout?
You can request your reward after a minimum of 14 calendar days from your first trade on the funded account, with no open or pending positions at the time of request.
How does FTMO pay traders?
Through its approved payment methods, which have historically included bank transfer, crypto and e-wallets. Available options are shown in your dashboard.
Which platforms does FTMO support?
MT4, MT5, cTrader and DXtrade on FTMO Global. FTMO US traders currently access MT5 through OANDA.
Can I use Expert Advisors and automated strategies?
Yes, EAs are permitted, subject to FTMO's Forbidden Trading Practices policy. Avoid latency arbitrage, tick-scalping exploits and any strategy that games the simulated environment.
Can I trade news on FTMO?
During the evaluation, yes — news restrictions do not apply on any account type. On a funded Standard account, restrictions around selected high-impact releases apply. Swing accounts remove them entirely.
Can I hold trades over the weekend?
During the evaluation, yes. On a funded Standard account, no. On a funded Swing account, yes.
What is the FTMO Swing account?
A funded account type with no news or weekend-holding restrictions, priced slightly higher and running at 1:30 leverage instead of 1:100. Built for swing and position traders.
What is Account MetriX?
FTMO's analytics dashboard, showing live progress toward your targets, real-time distance from every risk limit, and detailed statistics on your trading behaviour.
What happens if I break a rule?
The attempt ends. Depending on the situation you may be offered a paid reset, or you can purchase a new challenge. A funded account that breaches limits is closed.
Does FTMO offer a free retry?
FTMO has historically offered free or discounted retries under specific conditions, and paid resets are commonly available. Check the offer shown in your dashboard, since terms vary.
Does FTMO run discounts or promotions?
Yes, frequently — including seasonal sales that have reduced fees by 15–20% and promotional entry pricing on the $10,000 tier. Live pricing is always shown at checkout, so 👉 check the current offer here.
Is FTMO available in my country?
FTMO serves traders in 140+ countries, with some jurisdictional exclusions. US traders are served through the separate FTMO US setup. Verify eligibility at signup.
Is FTMO available in Nigeria and across Africa?
Yes, FTMO accepts traders from across Africa including Nigeria, and African traders make up a fast-growing share of its base. Confirm your specific eligibility during registration.
Do I need trading experience to join FTMO?
Not formally, but you should be consistently profitable on a demo before paying a fee. Use the Free Trial and Academy first.
How long does it take to become an FTMO Trader?
Anywhere from days to months. FTMO's own 1-Step data shows a fastest pass of 2 days, but with no time limit, most successful traders take weeks rather than days.
Is FTMO real money or demo?
All FTMO accounts are simulated with fictitious funds. The rewards paid to you are real money.
Is FTMO regulated?
FTMO provides simulated trading and educational services rather than brokerage, so it is not a regulated broker itself — but FTMO Group now owns OANDA, a regulated broker operating since 1996.
Who owns FTMO?
FTMO was founded in Prague in 2015 by Otakar Šuffner and Marek Vrba and operates under FTMO Group, which completed its acquisition of OANDA in December 2025.
Is FTMO worth it for small accounts?
Yes. The $10,000 challenge teaches you the exact same discipline the $200,000 one demands, at a fraction of the risk, and you can scale up once you have proven yourself.
What is the best FTMO account size to start with?
Start with $10,000 or $25,000 unless you already have documented consistency at larger sizes. Scaling later is easy; recovering from a blown $200,000 fee is not.
Can I have more than one FTMO account?
Yes, traders commonly run multiple accounts, subject to FTMO's combined-capital and account rules.
Does FTMO have a consistency rule?
The 1-Step uses a 50% Best Day Rule, meaning no single day may exceed half your total profit. The 2-Step focuses on the published Trading Objectives instead.
What are FTMO's forbidden trading practices?
Practices that exploit the simulated environment rather than demonstrate real skill — including latency and arbitrage abuse, gap exploitation and coordinated group trading. The full list is published on FTMO's site.
Does FTMO offer coaching?
Yes. FTMO provides access to performance coaches, a full psychology course and the free FTMO Academy.
How is FTMO's customer support?
24/7 via live chat, email and phone in multiple languages, and it is one of the most frequently praised aspects in public reviews.
Final Verdict: Should You Start Your FTMO Challenge?
Here is the whole review compressed into one paragraph. FTMO is the most proven name in funded trading — a decade in business, $650M+ paid out, 4.8/5 across tens of thousands of reviews, a regulated broker under its ownership, no time limit on your evaluation, up to 90% of profits in your pocket, a full refund of your fee when you pass, and a path that runs all the way to a $2,000,000 account. It is not the cheapest and it will not hand you capital for nothing. It will, however, still be here paying traders long after the discount firms have disappeared, and that is precisely what you are buying.
If you are already profitable, you are leaving money on the table every month you trade a small personal account instead of $100,000 of simulated capital. If you are not there yet, the Free Trial and Academy cost you nothing and will make you sharper either way.
Not ready to pay? Start the Free Trial, no card, no capital at risk.
Ready to go? Pick your size, choose 1-Step for speed and 90%, or 2-Step for a more forgiving risk buffer.
Watching your budget? Check the live checkout for the current promotion before it rotates out.
Your edge is worthless without capital behind it. Go get the capital.
Trading involves significant risk. FTMO provides simulated trading and educational services with fictitious funds. Verify all pricing, rules and eligibility on the official order screen before purchasing, as terms and promotions change.