Futures vs CFD vs Crypto Perps Prop Firms: Which One Is Right for You?
Education
From the outside, every prop firm sells the same thing. You pay for an evaluation, pass it, and trade the firm's money for a share of the profit.
Underneath, there are three very different products. A futures prop, a forex/CFD prop and a crypto perpetuals prop differ in what you trade, when you can trade it, how your drawdown is measured, what each trade costs you and how you get paid. Pick the wrong one for the way you trade and you can fail an account you should have passed.
This guide covers how the three compare, which one suits which trader, and the firms we partner with in each group.
A note on the links: the firm links and codes in this post are our partner links. If you use them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you, and the codes usually get you a discount. Every rule and number below is typical of each type of firm, not a promise about any one of them, so read the firm's own rule sheet before you buy.
The Short Version
Futures prop · Forex / CFD prop · Crypto perps prop
What you trade · CME contracts: NQ, ES, GC, CL and the micros · Forex pairs, index CFDs, metals, oil · BTC, ETH, altcoins, sometimes tokenized gold and indices
Price feed · Real CME exchange data · The broker's own feed · A crypto exchange feed
Hours · 23 hours a day, 5 days a week; usually flat by the 5pm ET close · Usually overnight holds allowed, weekend holds on some accounts · 24/7, weekends included
Drawdown · Fixed dollar amount, usually trailing · Percentage, usually static · Percentage, usually static
Smallest size · 1 micro contract · 0.01 lots · Fractional, any amount
Trading costs · Commission per contract · Spread, commission, overnight swap · Trading fees plus funding
Typical pricing · Monthly or one-time fee, often an activation fee · One-time fee, often refunded with the first payout · One-time fee
The rest of this post explains what those differences mean when you're actually trading.
Futures Prop Firms
A futures prop gives you a simulated account on real CME futures: the Nasdaq (NQ), the S&P 500 (ES), gold (GC), crude oil (CL) and their micro versions. You trade through futures platforms such as Tradovate, Rithmic, NinjaTrader or TradingView, on the same exchange data every other futures trader sees.
How the drawdown works
Most futures props use a trailing drawdown in dollars. On a 50K account it might be $2,000. "Trailing" means the limit follows your highest balance up. If you make $1,500 and give it back, you've used $1,500 of your drawdown even though you're back where you started.
Some firms trail at the end of each day, some trail intraday on every new high, and most stop trailing once the limit reaches your starting balance. This one rule decides more futures evaluations than anything else, so find out which version your firm uses before you take a trade.
The other rules to watch
Flat by the close. Most futures props make you close every position before the 5pm ET daily close and over the weekend. You can't hold a trade overnight.
Consistency rules. Many firms cap how much of your profit can come from a single day before you're allowed a payout. One huge day can delay your payout instead of speeding it up.
Whole contracts. Your smallest position is one micro contract (1 MNQ is $2 a point). That makes it harder to size your risk to an exact dollar amount than on a CFD or perps account.
Who it's for
Futures props suit day traders who trade the US session: the New York open, the opening range, VWAP and the overnight levels. These are all defined by CME hours, so the rules you trade by and the market you trade on run to the same clock. If you trade the indices intraday and you're always flat by the afternoon, a futures prop fits how you already work.
Our futures partners
- Tradeify (code PTM)
- TopOneFutures (code PTMTRADING)
- My Funded Futures
- FTMO Futures (code hlOVLGZkZctJyhncXyhY)
Forex and CFD Prop Firms
A forex/CFD prop gives you a simulated account at a broker, usually on MetaTrader 5, cTrader, Match-Trader or DXtrade, and some now on TradingView. You trade currency pairs and CFDs (contracts for difference) on indices like NAS100 and US30, gold, silver and oil.
A CFD tracks an underlying market, but the price comes from the broker's own feed, not the exchange. NAS100 follows the Nasdaq futures closely, but it isn't the CME tape, and spreads can widen around news and the daily rollover.
How the drawdown works
Most forex/CFD props use percentage limits measured from your starting balance. A common setup is a 5% daily loss limit and an 8–10% maximum loss. Because the maximum usually doesn't trail, every dollar you make is extra room. On a 100K account with a 10% static limit, you can always lose down to $90,000, however much you've made first.
Read how your firm calculates the daily limit. Some measure from the day's starting balance, some from the day's starting equity including open trades, and that difference matters if you hold positions overnight.
The other rules to watch
Holding trades. Most forex/CFD props let you hold overnight, and many allow weekend holds on certain account types. That suits swing trades and setups that take more than a session to play out.
News rules. Some firms restrict trading around high-impact news, others allow it. Check before you trade CPI or a jobs report.
Overnight swap. Holding a CFD past the daily rollover costs (or occasionally pays) a swap fee. It's small on a single night and adds up on a trade you hold for a week.
Where you live. Many forex/CFD firms restrict or exclude US residents. Check eligibility before you buy.
Who it's for
Forex/CFD props suit traders who want flexible sizing, room to hold trades, and a drawdown that doesn't follow their profits up. They also suit anyone who trades forex pairs or gold rather than index futures. If you trade the London session, hold through the New York session, or like to size every trade to an exact percentage of the account, this is usually the better fit.
Our forex and CFD partners
Tradeify FX lets you hold over evenings and weekends and allows news trading. FTMO supports TradingView for the Challenge, the Verification and the funded account, and has a separate US site run with OANDA, linked on our Partners page.
- Tradeify FX (code PTM or TRICKEY)
- FundedNext (code TRICKEY)
- Top One Trader
- FTMO
- Blueberry Funded (code Phantom20)
Crypto Perpetuals Prop Firms
A perps prop gives you a simulated account on perpetual futures ("perps"): crypto contracts like BTC and ETH, and on some firms tokenized gold, indices and FX. Perps are the most traded product in crypto.
A perp is a futures contract with no expiry date. Instead of settling, it stays close to the spot price through a funding rate: every few hours, traders on one side pay traders on the other. When the perp trades above spot, longs pay shorts, and the other way round when it trades below.
What's different about perps
No expiry, no rolls. You never have to roll a contract or deal with a gap between contract months.
The market never closes. Perps trade 24/7, weekends included. There's no daily halt and no Sunday-open gap, and you can react to weekend news as it happens.
Fully flexible sizing. You can trade any fraction of a coin, so you can risk an exact dollar amount on every trade.
Shorting works the same as buying. There's nothing to borrow and no restrictions on going short.
The costs and risks to know
Funding. If you hold a position on the crowded side, funding is a steady cost that can be larger than any trading fee. Check the funding rate before you hold a trade for days.
Thin hours. A 24/7 market has quiet periods. Weekend and late-night liquidity is thinner, spreads widen and wicks can be sharp, which matters if your stop is tight.
Drawdown. Perps props usually use percentage limits like CFD props, but read your firm's rules. A 24/7 market means your daily limit resets at a time the firm chooses, not at a market close.
Who it's for
Perps props suit traders who already trade crypto, traders who can only trade evenings and weekends because of a day job, and anyone who wants fully flexible sizing. They suit traders who think in price structure and levels more than in session times, because a market that never closes has no opening bell to anchor to.
Our perps partners
- Tradeify 24/7 (code PTM)
- MyFundedPerps (code PTM)
How to Choose
Most traders can pick by answering three questions.
1. When can you trade? If you can trade the US morning and always be flat by the afternoon, a futures prop fits. If you need to hold trades overnight or across sessions, look at forex/CFD. If you can only trade evenings and weekends, perps are the only one of the three that's open then.
2. What do you trade? Index futures and the New York session point to futures. Forex pairs, gold, or the London session point to forex/CFD. Crypto points to perps.
3. Which drawdown can you live with? A trailing dollar drawdown punishes giving back open profit. A static percentage drawdown gives you more room once you're up. If your trades often run into profit and pull back before they hit target, a trailing drawdown will cost you accounts.
Many traders end up running more than one type. That's fine, as long as you know each account's rules and don't trade them all the same way. If you run several accounts on the same idea, a trade copier saves you placing every order by hand, and Traders Connect works across forex, CFD and futures platforms.
Before You Buy Any Evaluation
Whichever type you choose, check these on the firm's own rule sheet before you pay:
1. The drawdown type, trailing or static, intraday or end of day, and when it stops trailing.
2. The daily loss limit, and whether it counts open trades.
3. Holding and news rules, overnight, weekend and around high-impact releases.
4. Payout rules, including consistency rules, minimum trading days and how often you can withdraw.
5. The full cost, including activation fees, resets and monthly charges, not just the headline price.
Risking more per trade doesn't improve your odds of passing. It gets you to the target or the drawdown faster, whichever comes first. A smaller risk per trade and a method you can repeat will pass more evaluations than a big swing on day one.
Every partner link and discount code we have is on one page: PTM Partners, with futures, forex/CFD, perps, trade copiers and the backtesting tools we use.
The Account Is the Easy Part
Choosing the right prop firm takes an afternoon. Passing the evaluation and keeping the funded account takes a method you can follow the same way every day. Phantom teaches one in two curricula, Foundations for forex and CFDs and Futures for index futures, both built on objective rules you can check your own trades against. Both have free preview lessons.