FTMO Review

The short answer

FTMO sells a 1-Step and a 2-Step evaluation on simulated capital, and the price you are shown depends on where you are. FTMO sets the fee currency from your country, and the currency changes how much account you get for the same fee instead of changing the fee itself.

Neither route has a time limit. The difference that decides most accounts is the loss limit: the 1-Step’s 10% floor trails your best close, and its 50% Best Day rule stays with you once you are funded.

Once funded you keep 90% on the 1-Step and 80% on the 2-Step, rising to 90% through scaling. You can ask on day 14 or later after your first trade, once you have at least $20 of closed profit for a bank wire.

Two things to check before you buy. The 1-Step fee is never refunded, where the 2-Step’s may come back with your first payout. And on a funded Standard account you must close before weekends and cannot trade 2 minutes either side of major news, which only the 2-Step’s Swing type removes.

How it works

FTMO’s two evaluations share a 10% maximum loss and a no-time-limit rule, and differ almost everywhere else. The table compares them.

• Both limits are measured on equity, so open losses count. The daily limit is set from your balance at midnight Central European time. The maximum loss does not reset daily.
• The fastest pass is 2 trading days on the 1-Step and 8 on the 2-Step.
• After you pass, FTMO reviews the account for 1 to 4 business days, then you complete an ID check and sign the FTMO Account Agreement. A sample of that agreement is available from support on request.
• All FTMO accounts are demo accounts with fictitious capital.

How much does FTMO cost?

Two separate things decide what you see at FTMO’s checkout, and mixing them up is easy. The fee currency is set by your country and you cannot change it. The balance denomination is a control you pick, above the cards. The fees below are the euro prices, shown against the dollar balances the page opens on:

Changing the denomination does not change any of those fees. It changes what you get for them, and not in proportion. The same €1,080 buys $200,000, €160,000 or £140,000, so the dollar balance is the largest of the three at the top of the ladder.

The bottom rung is the exception, and it runs the other way. Every denomination gives 10,000 of its own unit there, so €89 buys $10,000 or €10,000 or £10,000. At that size the euro and pound tabs give the same number of units as the dollar tab, which is the reverse of every rung above it, where both give a smaller number.

The $100,000 rung on both routes is the only one FTMO was discounting when we checked. Treat the figures above as the list prices.

Four more costs sit outside that table:

• The fee you are charged depends on where you are. FTMO picks the fee currency server-side from your country, so a buyer in the United States is quoted in dollars at the same URL.
• The 1-Step fee is never refunded. The 2-Step fee may be refunded with your first payout, to the card or account you paid with.
• There is a fourteen-day withdrawal right, and it ends at your first trade. Clause 12 gives a consumer fourteen calendar days to withdraw from an order without giving a reason, and FTMO refunds the fee within fourteen days of that withdrawal. Opening your first simulated trade ends the right.
• After that the terms rule out refunds, and the only softer option is FTMO Points, which can be spent only with FTMO, cannot be cashed and expire.

Clauses 3.12 and 8.1 to 8.4 set out the bar that applies once you have started, and the substitute offered in its place:

Unless expressly agreed otherwise, once paid, you are not entitled to a refund of the FTMO Challenge Fee under any circumstances. […] When selecting the method for refund of a previously purchased FTMO Challenge Fee, we may, at our sole discretion, allow you the option to purchase FTMO Points as a form of refund. […] FTMO Points may be used exclusively to purchase services and products from us. […] FTMO Points cannot be exchanged for cash or other monetary value. […] FTMO Points have an expiration date, which will be shown to you at the moment of purchase and displayed in the User Area.

The clause admits an exception only where FTMO expressly agrees to one, so there is nothing a trader can require as of right. What replaces it is discretionary, spendable only with FTMO, and expires, so the alternative to a refund is credit that can run out before it is used.

• Some payment methods cost 3%: PayPal, Skrill and crypto. Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Revolut Pay are free.

FTMO also runs a Free Trial with no entry fee: a 14-day demo that FTMO says is closely aligned with the paid Challenge, except that the profit target drops from 10% to 5% and the 2-Step version is a single phase needing 2 minimum trading days instead of 4. You can hold one at a time, and delete it to start another, but FTMO calls it preparation rather than a qualification step, so passing it does not qualify you for an FTMO Account. FTMO says it does not currently offer a free trial for FTMO Futures, and the trial plays no part in the grade.

Platforms and trading conditions

FTMO offers MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradingView on both the 1-Step and the 2-Step.

• You trade CFDs on forex, indices, commodities, stocks and crypto.
• During the evaluation, news, overnight and weekend trading are all allowed.
• Expert advisors are allowed within server limits of 200 open orders at a time and 2,000 positions a day, and FTMO does not require a stop loss. A third-party EA shared by other traders can breach the allocation cap.
• VPNs and VPS are allowed, but do not log in to MetaTrader or cTrader from the United States, or set your location there.

The rules that matter

FTMO’s evaluation rules are short. Three rules decide what happens after you pass.

The 1-Step floor follows your best close

On a $100,000 1-Step, the floor starts at $90,000. Close a day at $104,000 and it moves to $94,000 for good, even if the next day ends lower. On the 2-Step the floor stays at $90,000 however much you make. The 1-Step floor resets to its starting level only when you take a payout and receive a new account.

Funded Standard accounts have news and weekend rules

Once funded on a Standard account, you cannot open or close a trade on an affected market from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after a listed news release, and that includes a stop loss or take profit being hit. You must also close positions before the weekend and before any market break longer than 2 hours. The Swing account type, available only on the 2-Step and only if chosen at purchase, has neither rule.

A cap on the trader

Your accounts can start with $400,000 in total, across 1-Step and 2-Step, before scaling. Identical strategies across several accounts count toward the same cap. Scaling then adds 25% every 4 months, up to $2,000,000, if you made 10% net profit in the period, took 2 processed payouts and your balance is positive.

Getting paid: how does FTMO pay out?

You keep 90% on the 1-Step and 80% on the 2-Step, rising to 90% through scaling. You can ask on day 14 or later after your first trade on the account, with every position and order closed.

A request needs at least $20 of closed profit for a bank wire and $50 for crypto. The largest payout depends on how you are paid: a card transfer stops at $20,000 and Skrill at $3,000, while bank wire and crypto carry no stated ceiling. FTMO charges no fee on any of them.

FTMO reviews the request in 1 to 2 business days, then typically sends the money within 1 to 2 business days of your invoice being approved. The rest of the detail:

• On the 1-Step, your best day must be no more than 50% of your profitable days’ total before you can be paid. Exceeding it is not a breach; you keep trading.
• You can be paid by bank wire, card transfer up to $20,000, Skrill up to $3,000, or crypto, with no FTMO fee. A request needs at least $20 of closed profit for a bank wire and $50 for crypto.
• 1-Step profits must be withdrawn. On the 2-Step you can leave them in the account to build a bigger buffer.

What can end your account

These rules can end an FTMO account. Each comes from FTMO’s own terms and FAQ:

• Equity touching the daily or maximum loss limit, including open losses.
• Trading in a restricted news window on a funded Standard account.
• Holding over the weekend or a long market break on a funded Standard account.
• Forbidden trading practices, or the same strategy repeated across accounts to get around the cap.

Who can join

FTMO accepts traders everywhere except the places and people it lists:

• Sanctioned countries: nationals and residents of Iran, Syria, Myanmar and North Korea. Nationals of the first three may be accepted if they live in the European Economic Area and hold an account at a traditional EEA bank.
• Business decisions: about 70 further countries, including Russia, Belarus, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Venezuela and Cuba, and six regions of Ukraine.
• People: anyone on a sanctions list, anyone with a financial-crime or terrorism record, anyone previously banned for breach of contract, and company trusts.
• United States and Australia: served by separate affiliated companies, on their own terms.

Who you are dealing with

FTMO discloses its companies down to their register entries. The table shows who does what.

• The terms state in clause 2 that FTMO is not regulated and that you get no financial-sector protection.

The wording leaves little room, and it comes with a route attached:

None of the Services are subject to laws regulating the financial sector in the countries where we provide the Services. We are not regulated by the Czech National Bank or a similar authority overseeing the financial sector in other countries. As a result, you will not receive regulatory protection associated with the financial sector with respect to the Services. […] The Czech Trade Inspection Authority […] is responsible for out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes. You can also use the platform at the following website to resolve disputes online: https://www.ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.

The firm says plainly that no financial regulator stands behind it, and then names a free state-run body that will hear a consumer complaint. An EU buyer keeps that route and their collective-action rights, because the terms contain no arbitration clause and no class-action waiver.

• Passing does not guarantee a funded contract. The seller only informs FTMO Trading Global, which “may” offer one.

This is the gap between what the home page sells and what the contract promises. FTMO markets “Become an FTMO Trader” and rewards of “90% of your simulated profits”. Clauses 6.1 and 6.2 describe something more conditional:

If you successfully complete the Evaluation Process, we will inform FTMO Trading Global s.r.o. (“FTMO Trading”) which may offer you a contract to participate in the FTMO Trader program […] Successfully completing the Evaluation Process does not guarantee your acceptance into the FTMO Trader Program. We are not responsible for you not being admitted into the FTMO Trader Program for any reason. […] The terms, conditions, and agreement between you and FTMO Trading are solely between you and FTMO Trading and you will be advised to read those documents carefully before agreeing to be bound by the terms and conditions.

Three things follow. Passing buys an introduction, not a contract. The company you paid disclaims responsibility for the outcome “for any reason”. And the agreement you are hoping for is with a different company, so a trader refused at that step has no refund under clause 3.12 and no claim against the seller.

• Czech law and Czech courts apply, with no arbitration clause or class-action waiver. EU-resident consumers can also use a free out-of-court route through the Czech Trade Inspection Authority, open for one year from when the matter is first raised.
• The email you register with cannot be changed, and all contract notices go to it.
• FTMO was founded in 2015 by Otakar Šuffner and Marek Vašíček.

FTMO’s Trustpilot profile scored 4.8 across 50,537 reviews on 27 August 2026, with 92% at five stars against 3% at one. The profile invites reviews, so the distribution is invited, not organic.

Why this grade

Passing FTMO’s evaluation does not entitle you to a funded account. That, and what happens to your fee if you are turned down, is what keeps its grade from going higher.

The evaluation is a paid test, and clearing it is not a contractual right to anything that follows. If FTMO decides not to offer you a contract, you have no refund and no claim against the company you paid. By then the fourteen-day withdrawal right in clause 12 is long gone, because it ends the moment you open your first simulated trade, and the alternative the firm may offer instead is credit that expires.

Its two lines are also less alike than the shared name suggests. On the 2-Step, your maximum loss is 10% of your starting balance and it stays there. On the 1-Step the same 10% trails your highest midnight balance upward, so the floor rises as you profit. The 1-Step carries a tighter daily limit too, 3% against 5%, and a rule that no single day may be worth more than half the total of your profitable days. The 2-Step fee can come back with your first withdrawal. The 1-Step fee never does.

Whether FTMO pays is the largest single part of our grade, and it is unscored here because no payout has been followed from purchase to bank. Support responsiveness is unscored for the same reason.

Our verdict

FTMO documents its rules, companies and payout process in detail, but the 1-Step and 2-Step are different products, funded Standard accounts restrict news and weekend trading, and passing still leaves the funded contract at FTMO’s discretion.

Best for

• Traders who want a static loss limit and a refundable fee, on the 2-Step.
• Swing traders who buy the 2-Step with the Swing account type.
• EU traders who want Czech courts and a free complaint route.

Avoid if

• You want the 1-Step price with the 2-Step’s static floor.
• You trade news or hold over weekends and would be on a Standard account.
• You need a guaranteed funded contract after passing.

Questions traders ask

Facts checked: 17 August to 17 September 2026. No payout independently verified.