Its a Hard Prop Life: Decisions
Chapter 5: Special Episode
Well folks, it’s finally here; our last episode in The Prop Life series.
In chapter 1, we answered some basic questions around the what-and-why of prop trading. In chapter 2, we looked at the legalities around prop firms in the wake of My Funded Forex being exposed as a Canadian Forex scam website and in chapter three we took a deep dive into risk management and position sizing in prop accounts. I also strongly recommend you read chapter five, The Holy Grail if you have not already which defines the goals of what every prop trader should be aiming towards.
So without further to do, let’s get stuck into this week’s chapter.
We all know that there are an epiphany of prop trading firms out there. I use Apex myself, but the reality is that with anything in life, having all your eggs in one basket will always expose us to risk. What if one day Apex decides to change their rules to something much less favourable to traders? What if they increase their monthly fees exponentially or what if they stop doing these insane discounts all the time? Being over reliant on Apex is not what a prudent trader should be doing, there should be a back up plan so today I discuss the best options open to us.
My two recommendations for anyone looking to broaden their horizons are TopStep (60% off with that link) and TradeDay (50% off with that link). But don’t just take my word for it, let us dig in and find out why Apex (71% off with that link) is top of the pile but also why these two are good alternatives should you ever decide to take one.
As you can see from the above, Apex is our stand out candidate, it has a larger range of contracts, better profit split and the crucial Sierra Charts platform that I believe is the best charting software for retail traders.
But what we also need to look at is how much these companies charge for the privilege of using their services. Each of these guys have “sales” regularly, the truth is that they have these sales so often that anyone paying the regular price is either a moron or so new to the game that they have not yet realised!
So, let’s look at the base price and the sale prices:
You can clearly see from the above table that Apex leads the way in terms of monthly pricing structure, although once you are funded there is a funded account activation fee of $80 to keep in mind.
My order of preference of these three is:
1. Apex Trader Funding
2. TopStep
3. TradeDay
With both Apex and TopStep you can use Sierra Charts, this is a must-have for me. TopStep is the more expensive of the three and I only recommend you move there if you have to or if you have maxed out your funded account limits with Apex . TradeDay is 2nd on the list for their decent pricing but sadly they do not allow Sierra Charts and it is for this reason alone they find themselves third on the list.
Apex currently have a 71% sale (I know, it’s a strange number) and half price resets. All you need to do is enter the coupon code SAVE71 for your lifetime discount.
So let’s summarise what we have learnt in our Prop Life series:
Prop accounts are great for those of us in our first four years of trading allowing us to risk much less capital ($40 or so a pop rather than tens of thousands) whilst we are still learning
Prop accounts come with their own risk management system which is great for newbies still learning how to execute effectively and manage their position size
Prop accounts come in all shapes and sizes and knowing which one is right for you will take some time
You will need to “park” your passed evaluation accounts until you have accumulated enough of them to begin to decrease your risk in each account – this is the holy grail!
There are several prop firms to choose from out there, choose your firm wisely!
And with that folks, I bring our prop life series to a close! Thank you all for your continued support and keep hustling, there’s a way out of the 9 to 5 but its going to take blood, sweat and tears from you!
Much love,
PW
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