FTMO Review 2026: Rules, Profit Split, Payouts and Verdict

FTMO is the longest-running and most trusted retail prop firm on the market. This 2026 review covers the two-step Challenge, the drawdown rules, account sizes from $10,000 to $200,000, the profit split up to 90 percent, biweekly payouts, MT5 support, and a candid look at where FTMO's rulebook helps or hurts you.

Since launching in 2015 out of Prague, FTMO has grown into the industry benchmark for what a legitimate funded-trader programme should look like. That reputation is worth something. Newer firms come and go, their payout pages disappear, their support goes quiet. FTMO has kept paying, kept auditing, and kept publishing evidence of it every month for close to a decade. That does not make it the perfect firm for every trader, but it is the safest starting point.

FTMO overview: who they are

FTMO Evaluation Global s.r.o. is headquartered in Prague and was founded by Otakar Suffner and Marek Vasicek. The firm has grown from a small Czech startup into an organisation with hundreds of staff, offices across Europe, and a customer base spanning nearly every country retail brokerage serves. That maturity shows in the trader dashboard, the audit process, and the support experience.

FTMO is privately owned, self-funded, and profitable. It is not backed by a broker in the traditional sense, though it does operate its own execution infrastructure. Payout proof pages, community footprint on Trustpilot and Prop Firm Match, and a documented history of paying out over $200 million in trader profits since inception put it in a category of its own.

How the FTMO Challenge works

FTMO runs a two-step evaluation. The first step is called the Challenge and the second is the Verification. Both steps must be completed inside a live trading account before you are offered a funded FTMO account.

Step 1: FTMO Challenge

• Profit target: 10 percent of the initial balance.
• Maximum daily loss: 5 percent of the previous day's balance.
• Maximum overall loss: 10 percent of the initial balance.
• Minimum trading days: none as of the 2023 rule update.
• Time limit: none. You can take as long as you need.

Step 2: FTMO Verification

• Profit target: 5 percent of the initial balance.
• Same 5 percent daily loss and 10 percent overall loss ceilings.
• Minimum trading days: none.
• Time limit: none.

Once you clear both steps, FTMO issues an FTMO Account, which is where real payouts begin. The drawdown rules stay the same on the funded account but the profit target is gone, so your only job is to keep the account inside the daily and overall drawdown while banking profits.

Account sizes and pricing

FTMO offers five account sizes at the time of writing. Exact fees fluctuate with promotions, so treat the ranges below as directional and check the FTMO site for current pricing.

The evaluation fee is refunded with your first funded-account payout, which means a passed challenge effectively costs nothing. This refund policy is one of the reasons FTMO is a favourite: your only real cost is the time and mental energy of passing.

Profit split and payouts

The default profit split on a fresh FTMO Account is 80 percent to you and 20 percent to FTMO. Once you enter the Scaling Plan, the split rises to 90 percent. Scaling kicks in after four consecutive months of 10 percent cumulative profit, and it also increases your account balance by 25 percent each time you qualify.

Payouts on the funded account are made biweekly by default, and you can choose your own payout day when you sign the trader contract. FTMO supports payouts in bank wire, Rise, and cryptocurrency depending on region. Most traders receive funds within 1 to 3 business days of the payout request being approved.

Platforms supported

FTMO supports MetaTrader 5, MetaTrader 4 and cTrader across all account sizes. MT5 is the most popular platform on FTMO for good reason: better execution reporting, more instruments, more sophisticated order types, and full support for expert advisors and custom indicators like Market Structure Pro.

Execution is on FTMO's own infrastructure, which means spreads and commissions are set by the firm rather than a downstream broker. Most traders report competitive spreads on major forex pairs and reasonable pricing on indices and metals. Crypto and exotic pairs carry wider spreads, so factor that into any strategy you build.

Trading rules to know

Beyond the daily and overall drawdown, FTMO's rule set is one of the more permissive in the industry. Here is the important detail:

• News trading: allowed on the Normal risk account, restricted on the Aggressive account.
• Weekend holding: allowed by default. No forced Friday close.
• Expert advisors and copy trading: permitted, provided the strategy is unique to you and not shared across accounts.
• Consistency: FTMO does not run a strict maximum-day-percentage rule on the challenge, but Scaling Plan reviews look at consistency. Habitually earning 80 percent of profit in one day flags the account.
• Maximum position size: no absolute cap, but position size is scrutinised during payout audits if it looks like gambling.

FTMO pros

• Longest verifiable payout history in the industry, over $200 million paid to traders since 2015.
• Static drawdown rules that do not trail your balance upward, which favours traders who compound profits.
• MT5, MT4 and cTrader support with in-house execution.
• No minimum trading days on either step, so a disciplined trader can pass in two to three weeks.
• Refunded evaluation fee on the first payout.
• Excellent trader dashboard with statistics on risk, holding time and consistency.

FTMO cons

• 10 percent profit target is one of the higher bars in the industry. Modern one-step firms often ask only 8 percent.
• Daily drawdown is measured off the previous day's balance, which can catch out traders who open positions late Sunday.
• Scaling to 90 percent takes at least four months of consistent 10 percent gains, which is a slower climb than some rivals.
• Evaluation fees are on the higher end for the biggest accounts, though they are refunded on funding.
• News trading restrictions on the Aggressive account are stricter than most competitors.

Who FTMO suits best

FTMO is a strong fit for the intermediate to advanced retail trader who wants a firm they can build a career around. If you plan to stay funded for years, compound your capital through the Scaling Plan, and rely on prop income month after month, FTMO's stability is worth the slightly higher profit target and evaluation fee.

It suits swing traders, structure traders and pattern traders more than pure scalpers. The rules are engineered around traders who can articulate a real edge. Discretionary traders who use tools like market structure, higher timeframe bias and confluence tend to do well on FTMO's mid-sized accounts.

FTMO does not suit gamblers, martingale users, or anyone whose strategy depends on trailing drawdown rules being generous. If you need weekly payouts, look at FundedNext. If you want to skip the evaluation entirely, look at The 5%ers.

How to pass the FTMO Challenge

The single biggest predictor of passing FTMO is risk management. Traders who blow the daily drawdown do so because they let one losing trade slip past the 1 percent risk mark and then chase it with a larger position. The mathematics are unforgiving. If you risk 1 percent per trade and lose four in a row, you are at 4 percent. Add a 2 percent position that runs against you and you have hit the 5 percent daily wall.

The safer approach is to risk 0.5 percent per trade until you are up 3 percent on the challenge, then increase to 1 percent for the final push to 10 percent. Cap yourself at two trades per day. Stop trading immediately at minus 2 percent for the day. And never open a position five minutes before major data.

Time-box the Challenge to at least 15 trading days even though FTMO no longer requires a minimum. That pace forces smaller, higher-quality entries and produces a smoother equity curve that audit teams like to see when reviewing your funded account later.

FTMO vs the alternatives

If FTMO's 10 percent target feels too steep, MyFundedFX offers a one-step variant with an 8 percent target and comparable drawdown. If you prefer weekly withdrawals to biweekly, FundedNext is the closest alternative with a similar two-step format. If you trade futures instead of forex, Topstep is a better fit because FTMO's futures instrument range is smaller than its forex range.

For a broader comparison, see our FTMO vs Topstep vs FundedNext analysis, and the full best prop firms of 2026 ranking.

Final verdict

FTMO remains the safest, most respected retail prop firm in 2026. Its rules are not the loosest, its target is not the lowest, and its split is not the highest at entry. But it is the firm most likely to still be paying you three years from now, and that stability compounds. For a trader who is serious about turning prop capital into consistent income, FTMO is the default answer, and every other firm on the market is measured against it.

Pair FTMO's rulebook with a repeatable structural framework and disciplined risk, and the numbers work out. If you want the structural reading part automated on MT5, that is what MSP is built for.

Keep exploring: the best prop firms of 2026 ranking, the FTMO vs Topstep vs FundedNext head-to-head, or the full Learn hub.