Think Capital Promo Code MADTRADES applies a 20% discount to ThinkCapital's evaluation challenges, cutting the entry fee on any programme and account size the firm offers. If you have never bought a prop firm evaluation before, the discount itself is the easy part — it is a single field at checkout. The harder part is understanding what you are buying before you get there, and that is what most of this guide is about.
What you are actually purchasing
ThinkCapital is a proprietary trading firm. It allocates simulated capital to traders who pass an evaluation, and pays out a share of the simulated profits those traders generate. It launched in 2024 and runs on the infrastructure of ThinkMarkets, a broker regulated by the FCA in the UK, ASIC in Australia, CySEC in Cyprus and the FSCA in South Africa.
That distinction matters for a first-time user. You are not opening a brokerage account, you are not depositing funds, and the accounts you trade are simulated. What you buy is access to an evaluation and a contractual promise to pay a share of profits if you pass and keep to the rules. Prop firms are not themselves brokers and generally are not regulated as financial institutions. The regulatory licences above attach to ThinkMarkets' brokerage clients, not to prop-firm participants — but a firm running on a regulated broker's technology and balance sheet is still a stronger counterparty than a standalone start-up with nothing visible behind it.
Step one: choose the programme before you choose anything else
New users often pick an account size first and a programme second. Do it the other way round. ThinkCapital runs four programmes and the rules differ between them, so buying the wrong one is the most common expensive mistake available to you.
Lightning — a one-step evaluation with a 10% profit target. The fastest route to funding and the least forgiving, because a single phase means one bad sequence ends the attempt.
Dual Step — the conventional two-phase model, with roughly a 9% target in phase one and 5% in phase two. Splitting the requirement across two stages, with a lower second target, reduces the pressure to force trades.
Nexus — a three-phase evaluation with descending targets in the region of 7%, 6% and 5%. A longer path, but a lower bar at each step, which suits a small but reliable edge.
Bolt — instant funding with no evaluation, at a higher up-front cost. Only worth paying the premium if you are already confident in your process.
Across the range, daily loss limits sit in the 3–4% band and maximum loss limits in the 6–8% band, varying by programme. Read the exact figures for the programme you are considering rather than assuming they carry across. Trading is available through TradingView and ThinkTrader, which is worth knowing in advance if you already work in one of those platforms.
Step two: creating the account
Sign-up for a first-time user follows the pattern common across this sector, and there are a few habits worth adopting on the way through.
Go to the official ThinkCapital site directly rather than through a search advert, so you know which site you are on before you enter anything.
Register with an email address you check regularly — evaluation credentials, rule notifications and payout correspondence all arrive there.
Use your real legal name and details. Identity verification usually happens at the payout stage, and a mismatch between your account details and your identity documents is a slow problem to unpick later.
Enable any two-factor authentication the firm offers before you make a purchase.
Read the terms while you are still on the free side of the process, not after paying.
When you read the terms, go straight to two sections. The first is the prohibited-strategy list: rules on news trading, hedging across accounts, copy trading and latency arbitrage vary between firms and are enforced at the payout stage rather than at the moment you place the trade. The second is the withdrawal review process — how a payout is assessed, what can delay or reduce it, and what conditions attach. That is the part that decides whether a passed evaluation becomes money.
Step three: account size and add-ons
Account sizes run from around $2,500 up to $600,000, and entry prices on the smallest accounts start in the region of $39–$59 depending on the programme. Because MADTRADES applies across programmes and account sizes rather than to one product, the percentage saving is the same everywhere while the absolute saving grows with the size you pick. A 20% reduction means you pay 80% of the listed fee, so on the smallest accounts the cash saved is modest and on the largest it is substantial.
That has a practical implication for a first purchase: there is no cost advantage to buying big early. The discount is not better on a large evaluation, so a first-time user gains nothing by skipping ahead of their own experience.
Add-ons are the other decision at this stage. The headline profit split is advertised as "up to 90%", and the "up to" is doing real work. The default split for most traders is 80%, which is around the sector norm rather than above it. Reaching 90%, and the fastest payout frequency, generally requires paying for an add-on at purchase. Work out the all-in figure — discounted fee plus any upgrade — before comparing ThinkCapital against a firm whose higher split is standard.
Step four: applying MADTRADES at checkout
Open the official ThinkCapital site and go to the challenge selection page.
Choose your programme: Lightning, Dual Step, Nexus or Bolt.
Select your account size and any add-ons you want included.
Proceed to checkout and look for the promo code or coupon field. It is sometimes collapsed behind a small link such as "have a code?", so expand it rather than assuming it is absent.
Enter MADTRADES exactly as written and apply it.
Confirm the 20% reduction appears in the order total before you pay.
Two points on how the code behaves. It normally cannot be combined with another promotion in the same purchase, so if the site is already applying a site-wide offer, compare which produces the lower total rather than expecting both to stack. And it does not cover a retry or reset if you breach a rule, unless the firm's terms say otherwise — so treat the discount as applying to the purchase in front of you, not to your whole journey.
If nothing changes when you apply the code, do not simply pay and hope. Check for stray spaces, refresh the cart, and confirm the total before completing payment. A discount that has not appeared in the order total has not been applied.
After payment: what a first cycle looks like
Once payment clears, you receive credentials for the evaluation account and trade it under the rules of the programme you chose. Payouts on the funded stage run on a cycle measured in weeks rather than on demand, so plan around a schedule rather than expecting instant access to profits. Before you buy, check the cycle length, the minimum withdrawal amount and the available withdrawal methods, because some methods carry their own fees that eat into a payout.
A sensible first objective is not a large payout but a complete lap: buy a small evaluation, pass it under the rules, reach the funded stage and take one withdrawal all the way through. That single cycle teaches you more about the firm than any amount of reading, and it costs comparatively little at the lower end of the account range.
Checks that cost nothing
Look at recent independent reviews and trader forums rather than testimonials on the firm's own site, and weight the newest ones most heavily. Sentiment in this young sector moves quickly.
Confirm which trading platform you will actually use — TradingView support directly is something many competitors do not offer, and it may influence your programme choice.
Note that ThinkCapital launched in 2024, so the track record is short by industry standards even with the broker backing behind it.
Treat the evaluation fee as at-risk money. Fees are generally non-refundable, and you are buying access to a simulated account rather than a regulated financial product.
Where the discount fits
MADTRADES reduces a fee you were going to pay anyway, and it changes nothing else: targets, drawdown limits and profit splits are unaffected by it. That makes it the last decision rather than the first. Choose the programme that matches how you trade, pick a size you can afford to lose, decide honestly whether the 90% upgrade is worth its price to you, and then apply the code so the total is 20% lower than it would otherwise have been.
Trading carries a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor. Evaluation fees are generally non-refundable unless the provider's terms state otherwise. Nothing here is financial advice.
Promotional terms, eligibility and values are set by the provider and can change at any time. Always confirm the current terms on the official site before signing up or completing a purchase.