Take Profit Trader uses a three-stage model: Test → PRO → PRO+. The Test is a one-step evaluation with EOD trailing drawdown, a 50% consistency rule, 5 minimum trading days, no daily loss limit, and profit targets of 6% ($1,500 for $25K up to $9,000 for $150K). PRO accounts switch to intraday trailing drawdown — the single biggest rule change between stages and the most common reason traders blow funded accounts in the first week. PRO+ is a live-market account with a 90/10 profit split, EOD drawdown, and no buffer zone. This page covers every rule at every stage, updated through April 2026.
Take Profit Trader is a futures-only prop firm founded in 2021 in Orlando, Florida by James Sixsmith. The model is straightforward: pass a one-step evaluation (the Test), trade a simulated funded account (PRO), and eventually earn an invitation to trade live capital (PRO+). The rules change at each stage, and the transitions between stages are where most traders get caught off guard.
The biggest trap in the entire TPT system is the drawdown switch. During the Test, your trailing drawdown is calculated at end-of-day. During PRO, it switches to intraday — meaning unrealised gains push your floor up tick by tick. Traders who coast through the evaluation on EOD trailing often blow their PRO account in the first week because they did not adjust for the tighter mechanic.
The Test uses end-of-day (EOD) trailing drawdown. The PRO account uses intraday trailing drawdown. This is the single most common reason funded TPT accounts get liquidated. Plan for it before you pass, not after.
The Test is TPT's one-step evaluation. You trade in a simulated environment, hit a profit target, and follow a set of risk rules. You pay a monthly subscription for as long as the Test is active. There is no time limit to pass.
| Account size | Profit target | Trailing drawdown | Max contracts | Max micros | Monthly fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | $1,500 (6%) | $1,500 | 3 | 30 | $150/mo |
| $50,000 | $3,000 (6%) | $2,000 | 6 | 60 | $180/mo |
| $75,000 | $4,500 (6%) | $2,500 | 8 | 80 | $210/mo |
| $100,000 | $6,000 (6%) | $3,500 | 10 | 100 | $240/mo |
| $150,000 | $9,000 (6%) | $4,500 | 15 | 150 | $360/mo |
Pricing is a recurring monthly subscription until you either pass and activate a PRO account, or cancel. Promotional codes can reduce the monthly fee significantly — TPT runs frequent sales. Always check the current pricing on the TPT website before purchasing.
Rule 1: Hit the profit target. Your net account balance must reach the starting balance plus the profit target shown in the table above. There is no time limit. Some traders pass in 5 days, others take months.
Rule 2: Do not exceed maximum position size. Each account has a hard cap on simultaneous open contracts. For standard contracts, follow the max contracts column. For micros, you can trade up to 10x the standard limit. You cannot hold both a standard contract and micro contracts in the same instrument simultaneously if the combined position exceeds the limit.
Rule 3: Do not hit the trailing drawdown. The trailing drawdown is calculated at end-of-day during the Test. Only your balance at 5:00 PM Eastern matters. Intraday dips that recover before the close do not move the floor. The drawdown trails upward as your end-of-day balance increases and stops trailing once it reaches your starting account balance. If your account touches the floor at any point (including intraday), the account is liquidated.
Rule 4: Trade approved products during approved hours. Most CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX futures are permitted. Trading hours are 5:00 PM to 4:00 PM Eastern, Sunday through Friday. All positions must be closed by 4:59 PM Eastern — the system auto-liquidates anything open past the cutoff.
Rule 5: Meet the consistency requirement. You must trade a minimum of 5 separate trading days. Additionally, no single trading day can account for more than 50% of your total net profit. If your best day is $2,000 and your total profit is $3,000, you fail the consistency rule ($2,000 / $3,000 = 67%). You would need to earn additional profit across other days to bring that ratio to 50% or below.
Rule 6: No counter positions. You cannot hold open positions in opposite directions within the same product or closely related products. No hedging.
TPT removed the daily loss limit across all Test account sizes as of January 2025. There is also no news trading restriction during the Test phase. Both of these changes made the evaluation more forgiving than it was previously.
After passing the Test and paying a one-time $130 activation fee, you receive a PRO account. The PRO account is still simulated — your orders do not hit the exchange — but the profits you withdraw are real cash.
Intraday trailing drawdown. This is the rule that matters most. Unlike the Test, the PRO drawdown is calculated in real time, including unrealised gains. If you enter a trade and it moves $1,000 in your favour before pulling back, your drawdown floor has already moved up by $1,000 — even if you close the trade at breakeven. The drawdown stops trailing once it reaches your original starting balance.
80/20 profit split. You keep 80% of approved payouts. The remaining 20% goes to TPT.
Buffer zone. You must build a profit buffer equal to your maximum drawdown amount before withdrawing at the full 80% split. On a $50,000 account with a $2,000 drawdown, you need to reach $52,000 before standard withdrawals. You can withdraw inside the buffer zone if the account is terminated, but the split drops to 50% if the account was active less than 60 trading days.
Weekly activity requirement. You must place at least one trade per calendar week. Failure to trade for an extended period can result in account suspension. Contact support if you need a temporary exception.
News trading restrictions. All PRO accounts must be flat — no open positions and no pending orders — one minute before, during, and one minute after prohibited news events. The key events are FOMC announcements (Wednesdays at 2:00 PM ET) and Non-Farm Payroll (monthly, Fridays at 8:30 AM ET). Crude Oil Inventories are restricted specifically for crude oil positions.
No counter positions. Same rule as the Test — no hedging across related products.
Maximum 5 accounts. You can have up to 5 active PRO accounts. Each must be managed individually. TPT does not permit automated copy trading between accounts on PRO.
TPT prohibits automated copy trading between PRO accounts. If you are running a trade copier on NinjaTrader and managing multiple TPT accounts, this restriction applies at the PRO level. Copy trading is permitted on PRO+ accounts.
If you violate a rule on a PRO account, you can pay a fee to reset it without re-evaluating. Reset fees vary by account size and are significantly higher than Test resets — ranging from roughly $399 to $1,499 depending on the account tier. This makes protecting your funded account substantially more important than passing the evaluation in the first place.
PRO+ is the final stage. It is a live-market account where your orders hit the exchange through Tradovate, TPT's regulated broker. You earn an invitation to PRO+ based on sustained profitability — generally after generating approximately $5,000 in cumulative PRO profits, although TPT has not published a fixed threshold.
PRO+ accounts receive a 90/10 split versus the 80/20 split on PRO. Every dollar you earn keeps more in your pocket.
PRO+ switches back to end-of-day trailing drawdown — the same mechanic as the Test. No more intraday floor ratcheting.
Every dollar earned is available for withdrawal immediately. No need to build a profit cushion before your first payout.
Unlike PRO, PRO+ accounts allow automated copy trading between up to 5 accounts — relevant for traders using a NinjaTrader trade copier.
TPT covers CME data fees on PRO+ accounts. However, trading on additional exchanges incurs a $135/month fee.
TPT's headline feature is day-one payouts. Once you are on a PRO account, you can request a withdrawal at any time — there is no minimum number of profitable days required. However, the buffer zone applies: you need to build profit equal to your maximum drawdown before withdrawing at the full 80% split.
| Feature | PRO | PRO+ |
|---|---|---|
| Profit split | 80/20 | 90/10 |
| Drawdown type | Intraday trailing | EOD trailing |
| Buffer zone | Yes — equal to max drawdown | No |
| Withdrawal frequency | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Min withdrawal | $250 (fee-free) / $50 fee under $250 | $250 (fee-free) / $50 fee under $250 |
| Processing time | ~24 hours to wallet, 12 business hours to bank | ~24 hours to wallet, 12 business hours to bank |
| Copy trading | ✗ Not permitted | ✓ Up to 5 accounts |
Payment methods include PayPal and Wise. US residents complete a W-9 tax form; international traders complete a W-8BEN.
Take Profit Trader supports over 15 trading platforms — the broadest platform support of any futures prop firm. The primary platforms are NinjaTrader (via CQG or Rithmic), Tradovate, and TradingView. Other supported platforms include Sierra Chart, Quantower, MotiveWave, R|Trader Pro, and several more.
For traders running a NinjaTrader trade copier, TPT accounts connect via CQG or Rithmic data feeds. CQG connects through NinjaTrader's built-in "NinjaTrader" connection type. Rithmic requires downloading R|Trader Pro first for initial authentication, then connecting NinjaTrader using the "Rithmic for NinjaTrader Brokerage" connection.
| Feature | Take Profit Trader | Topstep | Apex | MFFU |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluation steps | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Eval drawdown type | EOD trailing | EOD trailing | Intraday trailing | EOD trailing |
| Funded drawdown | Intraday trailing | EOD trailing | Intraday trailing | EOD trailing |
| Consistency rule | 50% (eval only) | 50% or 40% | 30% | None |
| Funded profit split | 80/20 → 90/10 | 90/10 | 100% first $25K, then 90/10 | 100% first $10K, then 90/10 |
| Max accounts | 5 PRO + 5 PRO+ | Multiple (platform limited) | 20 | Multiple |
| Daily loss limit | None | Yes | Yes (trailing) | Yes |
| Copy trading | PRO+ only | Varies | Permitted | Varies |
The standout advantage of TPT is daily payouts — no other firm matches the withdrawal speed. The standout disadvantage is the drawdown switch from EOD (eval) to intraday (PRO), which is the strictest funded drawdown mechanic in the industry. See the full comparison →
TPT's pricing looks straightforward until you factor in the activation fee and potential reset costs. Here is the real math for a $50K account.
Best case (pass first attempt, 5 days): One month of subscription ($180) plus the $130 PRO activation fee equals $310 total to get funded. This is competitive but not the cheapest — Tradeify can get you funded for $103 with no activation fee.
Average case (pass second attempt, 6 weeks): Two months of subscription ($360) plus $130 activation equals $490. This is where TPT starts to get expensive relative to firms with lower monthly costs or one-time pricing.
PRO reset scenario: You pass the Test, activate PRO, and breach the account in the first week because the intraday trailing drawdown caught you off guard. The PRO reset fee is roughly $399-$999 depending on account size. On a $50K account, assume $399. Your total is now $310 (initial path) plus $399 (reset) = $709 before you have earned a single dollar.
The lesson: the $130 activation fee is minor. The PRO reset fee is where TPT punishes mistakes. Protect your funded account aggressively — especially in the first week when you are adjusting to the intraday trailing drawdown mechanic.
Tradeify: ~$103 (one month, no activation). Topstep Standard: ~$198 ($49/mo + $149 activation). TPT: ~$310 ($180/mo + $130 activation). Bulenox EOD: ~$293 ($145/mo + $148 activation). TPT is not the cheapest, but the daily payout speed and no-daily-loss-limit evaluation are the trade-offs.
The EOD-to-intraday drawdown switch is not a theoretical risk. It is the single most common reason traders who pass the TPT Test fail their PRO account within the first week. Here are concrete strategies for managing it.
Cut your size in half for the first 5 trading days on PRO. If you traded 4 contracts during the Test, trade 2 on PRO until you have built enough cushion that the intraday trailing feels manageable. The profit will be smaller, but you will not blow the account learning how intraday trailing works.
Set a hard daily profit cap. On a $50K PRO account with a $2,000 drawdown, any day where you are up $600 is a good day. Close the platform. Walk away. The intraday trailing drawdown means every dollar of unrealised profit you give back is a dollar permanently subtracted from your cushion. Taking a $600 day and closing is better than letting a $1,200 winner pull back to $400.
Do not hold through the first 30 minutes of the US open. The 9:30 AM Eastern spike creates the biggest intraday equity swings. On an EOD account, those swings do not matter. On an intraday trailing account, a spike that runs your unrealised P/L to +$1,500 before pulling back to +$200 has permanently moved your floor up by $1,500. Trade the open if that is your edge, but manage the position aggressively — partial profits, tight trailing stops.
Track your drawdown manually. TPT's dashboard shows your current drawdown level, but it updates with a slight delay. Keep a manual calculation running: starting balance + highest peak balance - drawdown amount = your current floor. Know that number before every trade.
TPT limits traders to 5 PRO accounts, and copy trading is not permitted at the PRO level. This means traders running multiple TPT accounts must manage each one individually — entering and exiting trades manually on each account.
At the PRO+ level, copy trading is permitted across up to 5 accounts. A local NinjaTrader trade copier like Tradecovex can replicate trades from a lead account to multiple follower accounts simultaneously, making the PRO+ multi-account workflow manageable.
If you are running TPT alongside accounts at other firms (Apex, Topstep, Bulenox) that do permit copy trading at all stages, a trade copier lets you execute once and have every account follow — but you would need to manage the TPT PRO accounts separately until they reach PRO+ status.