Full review · Rated 9.0 out of 10 · Benchmarks, drawdown, Real Prop
PropShopTrader review 2026.
No payouts. Benchmarks instead.
PropShopTrader replaced the payout model almost every other prop firm uses with a milestone system it calls Benchmarks, then built a stocks programme alongside futures where the reward is a signing bonus rather than a withdrawal. It is the most structurally different firm in the category, and the least well explained. New account sales are also paused right now, which changes how you should read everything below.
Official sources only
Every threshold read from PropShopTrader's own FAQ and programme pages, never from a competing review.
Four contradictions published
The firm's own pages disagree in four places, including on its headline selling point. All four appear below.
Availability stated up front
Accounts reopen in September. The score reflects the model, and the pause is scored separately below.
The most complete multi-asset model in prop.
Stocks and futures under one roof, swing trading permitted on both, algorithms and copiers allowed outright, four Benchmarks preserved through a failure, and a funded phase with static drawdown and no payout caps. Nothing else in the category offers that combination. The only real caveat is timing.
You cannot buy an account today.
This review would normally open with a pricing table. There is nothing to put in it. PropShopTrader has entered a strategic partnership with PropAccount and suspended new account purchases during the transition.
Published by PropShopTrader · On site 25 August 2026
An exciting new chapter for PropShopTrader.
The notice sets out four things. The firm has entered a strategic partnership with PropAccount, which it frames as a next chapter of growth and expansion. As part of that transition, new account purchases are temporarily unavailable. It reassures the community that "we're not going anywhere". And it states that new account purchasing is expected to reopen at the beginning of September 2026, with an official launch date and further details still to come.
A waitlist is open in the meantime for traders who want to be notified when accounts go live, and support remains reachable by email. Existing accounts continue to trade normally throughout.
Read that carefully before you read anything else. A partnership-driven pause is not the same thing as a firm winding down, and PropShopTrader is explicit that it is continuing. But specifications published before a transition of this kind are the ones most likely to move. Every threshold in this review was accurate on 25 August 2026 and should be re-checked against the live pages once purchasing reopens, because a partner integration is exactly when account structures, pricing and reward mechanics get revised.
The practical consequence is simple. Use this review to decide whether the model suits how you trade, not to decide what to buy this week. If the Benchmark system is a poor fit for your style, the pause costs you nothing. If it is a good fit, the waitlist is the correct action and the specifications are worth verifying on the day.
What PropShopTrader actually is.
A multi-asset proprietary trading firm registered as PropShopTrader OÜ in Tartu, Estonia, offering evaluation accounts in both equities and futures. The evaluation programme is called Gladiator. The funded phase is called Real Prop.
The defining choice is that PropShopTrader does not run a payout model during the stocks evaluation. It runs a Benchmark model. A Benchmark is a performance milestone earned when a set of trading and risk conditions are all met at once. Benchmarks do not move money, do not change your account balance, and simply increment a counter on your dashboard. Accumulate enough of them on a single account and you become eligible for a Real Prop Trading Agreement, which is where actual money starts.
Futures accounts sit slightly differently. They are eligible for payouts during the evaluation, and PropShopTrader's own materials describe daily simulated payouts on Gladiator accounts. Stocks accounts are not: their reward is a signing bonus paid only after Real Prop approval and contract signature. That single distinction determines which market you should be trading here, and it is buried several clicks deep on the site.
What genuinely separates the firm from the futures-only field is breadth of permission. Swing trading is allowed on both markets, which almost no futures prop firm permits. News trading, algorithms and trade copiers are all explicitly allowed. A Tickblaze IgniteCopier licence, market data and an education programme are bundled with every account. And in Real Prop the drawdown becomes static rather than trailing, which is a materially better deal than the trailing thresholds that end most funded accounts elsewhere.
The three futures accounts.
Gladiator ships in three variants on the futures side, and they differ on the two things that matter most: how many Benchmarks stand between you and real capital, and what happens the first time a single trade goes badly against you.
Gladiator Light
The forgiving one
- Benchmarks to Real Prop 6 to 8
- Automatic call-up At B8
- Qualifying days per Benchmark 5
- MAE warnings 3
- Dashboard counter X / 8
Gladiator Forge
The demanding one
- Benchmarks to Real Prop 6
- Move Live eligibility At B7
- Qualifying days per Benchmark 5
- MAE warnings None
- Dashboard counter X / 7
Gladiator Sprint
The payout one
- Payouts to Move Live 5
- Evaluation first Yes
- Qualifying days per payout 3
- MAE warnings None
- Consistency rule 50%
Light is the only account with an automatic promotion. Reach Benchmark 8 and the Real Prop agreement is issued automatically, subject to risk and compliance review. It also keeps the three-warning MAE system, so a single bad trade does not end the account. Forge gets you there in six Benchmarks instead of eight, but removes the warning system entirely: the first single-trade MAE breach fails the account outright. Sprint is a different animal again, a day-trading-only account with end-of-day drawdown that runs a separate evaluation first, then pays out five times before Move Live review.
On the stocks side the split is between intraday and swing, capped at five of each. Swing accounts measure Benchmarks on weekly realised profit rather than daily targets, only closed trades count, and there is no minimum number of trading days. If a position is opened on a Wednesday and closed a fortnight later, the Benchmark lands in the week it closed. That is an unusually accommodating structure for anyone whose edge needs more than a session to play out.
The Benchmark system, decoded.
Every Benchmark requires four things to be true at once: enough qualifying days, each clearing the daily target, an account balance above the eligibility threshold, and no risk breach along the way.
Stocks intraday, both drawdown types
Verified| Account | Daily target | Benchmark target | Max drawdown, intraday | Max drawdown, EOD | Signing bonus, intraday | Signing bonus, EOD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | $65 | $325 | $1,250 | $1,225 | $5,625 | $5,625 |
| $50,000 | $125 | $625 | $2,500 | $2,250 | $11,250 | $10,125 |
| $100,000 | $250 | $1,250 | $5,000 | $4,500 | $22,500 | $20,250 |
Notice what the last two columns do. Choosing end-of-day drawdown on a $50,000 or $100,000 stocks account reduces your signing bonus, by $1,125 and $2,250 respectively, because the bonus is indexed to the drawdown tier. On the $25,000 account the bonus is identical either way. That is a genuine trade-off between a gentler risk model and a smaller reward, and it is presented nowhere as a decision.
Futures intraday and swing
Verified| Account | Type | Target | Benchmark target | Max drawdown | Eligibility threshold | Signing bonus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | Intraday | $100 daily | $500 | $1,250 | $26,575 | None |
| $50,000 | Intraday | $200 daily | $1,000 | $2,500 | $53,125 | None |
| $12,500 | Swing | $500 weekly | $500 | $1,250 | $14,375 | None |
| $25,000 | Swing | $1,000 weekly | $1,000 | $2,500 | $28,750 | None |
A qualifying day is stricter than it sounds. Net profit and loss must meet or exceed the daily target. Losing days do not count. Profitable days below target do not count, though the profit stays in the balance. No-trade days do not count. On Light and Forge you need five qualifying days per Benchmark; on Sprint, three. Benchmarks stack sequentially and, critically, do not combine across accounts. Six Benchmarks spread over two accounts gets you nothing.
MAE is the rule that ends accounts here.
Most prop firms end accounts through a trailing drawdown. PropShopTrader adds a second mechanism that catches traders far earlier, and it operates on a single trade rather than on the account.
MAE stands for maximum adverse excursion, and it is the largest unrealised loss permitted on any one position. The limit is fixed at 50% of the original drawdown, so $625 on a $25,000 intraday account, $1,250 on a $50,000, $2,500 on a $100,000. It is measured on open profit and loss, meaning a trade that dips deeply against you and then recovers into profit can still have breached it.
The enforcement differs sharply by account. Gladiator Light, all stocks accounts and legacy accounts keep a three-warning system, and the account fails on the third flag. Forge and Sprint have no warning system at all: the first single-trade MAE breach fails the account immediately. If you size positions wide and rely on recovery, Forge will end you before the drawdown ever comes into play.
The daily loss limit does not fail the account
On Sprint accounts the daily loss limit is $625 on the $25,000 and $1,250 on the $50,000, and hitting it is a soft breach. Positions close and you are locked out until the next session opens at 6:00 PM EST. The account survives. That is the correct implementation, and it stands in useful contrast to the MAE rule sitting next to it, which does not forgive at all on Forge and Sprint.
One further detail on failures. When a breach happens during the session it stops further trading immediately, but the failure email only goes out at or after the 6:00 PM EST end-of-day report, and the reset option appears only after that. Resets must then be initiated within 48 hours of that report. Miss the window and the option closes.
How traders actually get paid.
There are three separate reward mechanics here and they apply to different people at different stages. Confusing them is the most common mistake made about this firm.
Futures during evaluation. Futures accounts are eligible for payouts while still in the Gladiator phase, and the firm describes daily simulated payouts on Gladiator accounts, with Benchmarks 2 to 7 paying on Light and 2 to 6 on Forge. Benchmark 1 does not pay. On Sprint the structure is explicitly a payout ladder: five payouts, then Move Live review.
Stocks during evaluation. Nothing. Payouts are not available during the stocks evaluation phase at all. The entire reward is deferred into a signing bonus that is released only after Real Prop approval and contract signature. On a $100,000 intraday account that bonus is $22,500, which is a large number, but it is a number you receive at the end of a long process rather than during it.
Both, in Real Prop. An 80/20 split in the trader's favour, no payout caps, and payouts on a monthly cadence with qualifying profitable days required beforehand. The signing bonus is released in three tranches: 50% on execution of the agreement, 25% with the first qualifying payout, 25% with the second.
Stocks is a deferred-compensation model, not a payout model
If you are trading stocks here, you should expect to earn nothing at all until you clear six to eight Benchmarks on a single account, pass a risk and compliance review, and sign a Real Prop agreement. Every Benchmark needs five qualifying days above the daily target. That is a minimum of thirty to forty qualifying days on one account before a single dollar moves. The bonus is real and it is substantial. It is also a long way away, and the firm is candid that transition is never guaranteed.
Real Prop and the scaling ladder.
This is the part of PropShopTrader that is genuinely better than the futures-prop norm, and the reason the model is worth taking seriously despite everything above.
On transition the drawdown becomes static. It mirrors the tier you demonstrated during evaluation, at $1,250, $2,500 or $5,000, and it does not trail upward as profits accumulate. Anyone who has lost a funded account to a trailing threshold that ratcheted up behind a good week will understand exactly how much that matters. Futures traders may hold up to three Real Prop accounts; stocks traders one.
Representative Real Prop scaling framework
Illustrative, set by the risk team| Phase | Static drawdown | Daily loss limit | Futures contracts | Stock buying power | Profit to scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase one | $1,250 | $250 | 2 | $25,000 | $1,500 |
| Phase two | $2,500 | $500 | 3 | $50,000 | $3,000 |
| Phase three | $5,000 | $1,000 | 4 | $100,000 | $6,000 |
| Phase four | $10,000 | $1,500 | 6 | $200,000 | $15,000 |
| Phase five | $15,000+ | Dynamic | 8 to 10+ | $300,000 | Internal review |
Starting position size in Real Prop is one to five futures contracts or the micro equivalent, with stock buying power aligned to the tier. Scaling is explicitly not time-based; it is reviewed against demonstrated behaviour. And there is no application process and no buy-in for the transition, which removes the paywall some competitors put in front of their live tier.
For traders arriving with a verifiable track record there is also the Spartan Program, a direct entry route into Real Prop that skips the evaluation entirely. It requires verified live broker statements, a minimum of three to six months of live history, demonstrated drawdown control, and no simulated payout records. That last condition is worth reading twice: a history of prop-firm simulated payouts appears to work against you rather than for you.
Where PropShopTrader contradicts itself.
All four are on the firm's own domain right now. The first one contradicts the headline selling point printed on the homepage, which makes it the most important paragraph in this review.
"No consistency rules" is not true on every account
The homepage advertises No Consistency Rules, in both Sim and Live as a flagship differentiator, and the stocks and futures benchmark tables do carry a line reading "Consistency Requirement: None". But the FAQ's Sprint section lists, among the conditions for every payout Benchmark, "Consistency requirement met (50%)", and the benchmarks page repeats it. Sprint accounts have a 50% consistency rule. If you buy Sprint expecting the homepage promise, you will be wrong about it.
Forge either has an automatic call-up or it does not
The FAQ states plainly that on Forge, "Call-up is at the Risk Team's discretion" and that "Forge does not have an automatic call-up". The benchmarks page states, of the same account, that "RPTA is automatically issued at Benchmark 7 (subject to risk and compliance review)". These cannot both be operative. The real prop page sits on the fence, describing Benchmark 7 only as the Move Live eligibility point. Assume discretionary and be pleasantly surprised.
Up to 90%, or 80/20
The FAQ's opening answer states that traders keep up to 90% of the profits. The real prop page and the futures page both specify an 80/20 split to start, with adjustments possibly available through structured participation and internal review. Both statements can be reconciled if 90% is a ceiling reached after scaling, but the FAQ presents it as the headline number and does not say so. Plan on 80/20.
Three MAE flags, or one
The FAQ's failure answer says an account fails when it "breaches its max trailing drawdown or gets 3 MAE flags". Two answers further down, the same page says that on Forge and Sprint "there is no warning system, first single-trade MAE breach fails immediately". The second statement is the specific one and almost certainly the operative one, but a trader who reads only the failure answer will size a Forge account as though they have three lives.
Resets, limits and platform access.
Unusually for the category, PropShopTrader lets you carry progress across a failure, which changes the economics of a bad run considerably.
Two reset options exist. A standard reset issues a fresh account with no preserved Benchmarks. A Benchmark reset issues a fresh account carrying up to four previously earned Benchmarks, with an optional drawdown preservation add-on available only on this route. The cap is four regardless of how many you had: reach Benchmark 6 or 8 and fail, and only four carry over. Each account can be reset a maximum of ten times over its lifetime, and that is a hard limit.
On account counts, the ceiling is twenty per trader. Futures allow ten payout accounts in any combination of Light, Forge and Sprint. Stocks allow ten, capped at five intraday and five swing. Sprint evaluation accounts are uncapped and do not count toward the limit; a passed evaluation beyond the ten-account cap waits in reserve until a slot frees up. When you transition to Real Prop, all Gladiator accounts are closed rather than failed, and if you subsequently fail a Real Prop account you restart from the Gladiator phase with a new one.
Platform access is tied to holding an active account
Tickblaze and Rithmic market data access is linked to having at least one account with a status of Normal. If your only account breaches, access is suspended until you perform a reset. Practically, that means a failure does not only cost you the account, it also costs you your charts and your data feed until you pay to continue.
How we checked this. Same four steps, every firm.
Sourced
The official FAQ plus the benchmarks, real prop, futures and stocks programme pages, read in full.
Cross-checked
Every figure matched against a second PropShopTrader page. That is how all four contradictions surfaced.
Dated
Each table carries the date it was read. With a partner transition underway, dating matters more than usual here.
Labelled
Anything the firm marks as illustrative or discretionary is labelled that way rather than presented as a guarantee.
The balance sheet.
Strengths
- Stocks and futures under one roof, which almost no competitor offers
- Swing trading permitted on both markets, with weekly rather than daily Benchmarks
- Static drawdown in Real Prop instead of a trailing threshold
- News trading, algorithms and trade copiers all explicitly allowed
- Up to four Benchmarks preserved through a failure, with an optional drawdown preservation add-on
- No payout caps and no buy-in at the Real Prop transition
- Tickblaze licence, market data, indicators and education bundled with every account
- A direct-entry route for traders with verifiable live broker history
Frictions
- New accounts cannot be purchased until September 2026
- Stocks pay nothing at all during the evaluation phase
- Four contradictions between official pages, one of them on the headline claim
- A single MAE breach ends a Forge or Sprint account with no warning
- Benchmarks do not combine across accounts, so progress is trapped per account
- Choosing EOD drawdown on larger stocks accounts cuts the signing bonus
- Platform and data access is suspended when your last account breaches
- Real Prop scaling is explicitly illustrative and entirely at the risk team's discretion
Strong fit
- Traders who want equities and futures from one firm and one dashboard
- Swing traders shut out of every futures-only prop firm
- Systematic traders running algorithms or copying across accounts
- Traders who value a static funded drawdown above fast early payouts
- Experienced traders with live broker statements who can skip the evaluation
- Anyone who plans in months rather than in payout cycles
Poor fit
- Traders who need income from the evaluation phase, especially on stocks
- Anyone wanting to buy an account this week
- Traders who size wide and rely on positions recovering from deep drawdown
- Anyone spreading effort across several accounts, since Benchmarks do not combine
- Traders who want a published, contractual scaling schedule
- Anyone unwilling to read four programme pages before their first trade
Frequently asked.
Can I buy a PropShopTrader account right now?
No. PropShopTrader has entered a strategic partnership with PropAccount and new account purchases are temporarily unavailable during the transition. The firm states that purchasing is expected to reopen at the beginning of September 2026 and that an official launch date will follow. A waitlist is open, existing accounts continue to trade normally, and the firm is explicit that it is not shutting down.
What is a Benchmark and how is it different from a payout?
A Benchmark is a performance milestone, not a withdrawal. Earning one does not move money or change your account balance; it increments a counter on your dashboard. Benchmarks measure whether you can meet trading and risk conditions consistently, and accumulating enough of them on a single account is what makes you eligible for a Real Prop agreement. Futures accounts are separately eligible for payouts during the evaluation. Stocks accounts are not.
How many Benchmarks do I need for Real Prop?
On Gladiator Light, six to eight on a single account, with the Real Prop agreement issued automatically at Benchmark 8 subject to risk and compliance review. On Gladiator Forge, six Benchmarks brings you to Benchmark 7, the Move Live eligibility point. On Gladiator Sprint, five payouts brings you to Benchmark 5 and a risk team review. Benchmarks earned on different accounts do not combine.
Does PropShopTrader have a consistency rule?
It depends on the account, despite the homepage saying otherwise. The stocks and futures benchmark tables state no consistency requirement. Gladiator Sprint accounts do carry a 50% consistency requirement as a condition of every payout Benchmark, stated in both the FAQ and the benchmarks page. Verify against the account type you are actually buying.
What is MAE and how many warnings do I get?
MAE is maximum adverse excursion, the largest unrealised loss allowed on a single trade, fixed at 50% of the original drawdown. Gladiator Light, stocks and legacy accounts keep a three-warning system and fail on the third flag. Forge and Sprint have no warning system: the first single-trade MAE breach fails the account immediately.
What is the profit split?
The real prop page and the futures page both specify 80/20 in the trader's favour as the starting split, with adjustments possibly available based on structured participation and internal review. The FAQ separately describes keeping up to 90% of profits, which is best read as a ceiling reached through scaling rather than a starting figure. There are no payout caps in Real Prop and payouts run on a monthly cadence.
How does the signing bonus work?
Signing bonuses apply to stock accounts only, never to futures. They range from $5,625 on a $25,000 account to $22,500 on a $100,000 intraday account, and are indexed to the drawdown tier, so choosing end-of-day drawdown on the larger sizes reduces the bonus. Payment happens only after Real Prop approval and contract execution: 50% at signature, 25% with the first qualifying payout, 25% with the second.
How many resets can I do?
A maximum of ten per account over its lifetime, and that is a hard limit. A standard reset gives you a fresh account with no preserved progress. A Benchmark reset carries over up to four previously earned Benchmarks and unlocks an optional drawdown preservation add-on. Resets must be initiated within 48 hours of the end-of-day report confirming the failure.
Can I swing trade or run algorithms?
Yes to both, which is rare in this category. Dedicated swing accounts exist on stocks and futures, measured on weekly realised profit with only closed trades counting and no minimum trading days. News trading, algorithms and trade copiers are all permitted, and a Tickblaze IgniteCopier licence is bundled with every account. Note that PropShopTrader states it is not responsible for losses caused by overnight gap risk on positions held through the close.
Final verdict.
PropShopTrader has built the most complete multi-asset proposition in prop trading, and it is not a close contest. Equities and futures under one roof, swing trading on both, systems and copiers permitted, and a funded phase with static drawdown and no payout caps. No competitor currently offers that combination at any price.
The strengths are real and several of them are unique. Equities and futures under one roof. Swing accounts with weekly Benchmarks and no minimum trading days. Algorithms, copiers and news trading all permitted rather than grudgingly tolerated. Four Benchmarks preserved through a failure. A static drawdown in Real Prop instead of a trailing floor. No buy-in at the transition. Taken together that is a coherent argument that the firm wants durable traders rather than fast churn, and it matches what the marketing claims.
What stands between this and a perfect score is presentation rather than substance. Four contradictions sit between official pages, and one of them softens the headline promise on the homepage. The stocks programme defers all compensation into a signing bonus that is thirty to forty qualifying days away at minimum, which deserves stating far more plainly than it currently is. A single MAE breach ending a Forge account without warning is defensible risk management, but it belongs in a banner rather than two answers down the FAQ. None of that changes what the model is worth. All of it changes how carefully you should read before your first trade.
The practical recommendation. Trade futures here if you want cash flow during the evaluation, since futures accounts are payout-eligible from Benchmark 2 and stocks accounts are not. Trade stocks here if a five-figure signing bonus is worth waiting through a full Benchmark run for. Take Light over Forge unless you are certain about your single-trade risk, because the three-warning MAE system is the difference between a bad trade and a dead account. And whichever you choose, re-verify every threshold in this review on the day purchasing reopens, because a partner integration is precisely when specifications change.
Accounts reopen in September
Join the waitlist, then verify.
New account purchases are paused during the PropAccount transition. Check the official pages for the launch date and confirm the specifications before committing.
Affiliate disclosure. TraderPayout may earn a commission if you open an account through links on this page. Commission arrangements do not influence the score, the figures published above, or the discrepancies we flag. Every specification in this review was read from PropShopTrader's own documentation before any commercial relationship was considered.
Sources and verification.
- Official FAQ: programme basics, benchmark rules, payouts and signing bonuses, failures and resets, multiple accounts, MAE, platform accessVerified
- Benchmarks page: qualification rules for intraday and swing, eligibility threshold formula, Light, Forge and Sprint requirementsVerified
- Real Prop page: static drawdown tiers, profit split, payout structure, signing bonus release, scaling framework, Spartan ProgramVerified
- Futures page: intraday and swing benchmark structures, both drawdown typesVerified
- Stocks benchmark structures, both drawdown types, and signing bonus tiersVerified
- Account availability and the PropAccount partnership announcementCaptured
- Evaluation pricing, unavailable while purchasing is pausedNot published
- Independent payout verification and third-party review volumeNot assessed
