The FTMO 500k Challenge – did FTMO ever offer it, and do they currently offer it now?
FTMO 500k Challenge
At the time of writing, the answer to this question is “sort of”. From September 5th – 11th, the Czech prop firm currently has a promotion where, for each $100,000 in evaluations you purchase, you will receive one entry into a prize draw. The winner of the prize draw gets a free FTMO 500k Challenge. So obviously, if you buy an FTMO 200k Challenge, you will get two entries into the draw. The winner will be announced on September 30, 2022.
That’s pretty incredible when you think about it, because the largest evaluation available at the time of writing is the 200k challenge, and that costs over $1,000. So, with that figure in mind, getting a free 500k evaluation is huge. However, there will no doubt be traders who are disappointed that the half million challenge isn’t available for direct purchase.
Another interesting observation is the fact that a 500k Challenge would exceed the maximum initial capital allocation rule. That’s a maximum of $400,000 per strategy/trader. Currently, the only way to obtain this with FTMO is to pass the 200k Challenge twice and request for the accounts to be merged into one.
See also: FTMO Review.
Challenge Rules
If we apply the existing FTMO rules, then the 500k challenge should look like this:
- You need to gain $50,000 in 30 calendar days.
- You may not lose more than $25,000 in a single day.
- You may not lose more than $50,000 during the whole challenge.
- You must trade for at least 10 days.
It’s quite likely that the 500k account will be available in “Swing” format. This simply means lower leverage (1:30 instead of 1:100), and the automatic permission to hold trades overnight. However, it almost certainly won’t be available in the “Aggressive” format, as the maximum account limit for this trading style is 100k.
While this may be just a short-term offer to encourage people to buy the 6-figure challenges, this could also be a way for FTMO to gauge possible interest in much larger accounts. While the prop firm may be a market leader, there’s no denying that there is a number of other prop firms out there which are slightly more competitive. For example, at $600,000, My Forex Funds‘ maximum capital allocation is 50% higher than FTMO’s, and the initial profit target for the first phase of the evaluation is 8%, not 10%. It would be really fascinating if FTMO shift their maximum account size up a gear.