Firm grades · published + recomputable
How TradersGuild grades a prop firm
Every grade is a single composite number turned into a letter — built from three parts we compute the same way for every firm, and publish in full below so you can recompute any grade yourself. We grade what firms PUBLISH — their rules, and dated review facts we can point at — never firm behaviour we can't verify.
The composite
Composite = 0.40 × Rules Fairness + 0.40 × Trader Sentiment + 0.20 × Transparency
Each part is scored 0–100 and shown next to the letter, so you always see WHY a grade is where it is — not just the letter. The composite is mapped to a letter with the bands at the bottom of this page.
1 · Rules Fairness — 40%
Fully mechanical from each firm's verified rules in our registry (the same numbers that power the calculators), scored on the flagship plan. Seven sub-factors, 100 points:
| Sub-factor | Max | How it scores |
|---|---|---|
| Drawdown type + lock | 25 | Static 25 · trailing end-of-day 15 · trailing intraday 5. Lock bonus: locks at your starting balance +3, locks at start+$100 +2, never locks +0 (cap 25). |
| Daily-loss regime | 15 | No daily loss 15 · soft/pause 12 · hard 6 · gated (basis unverifiable) 6. |
| Consistency rule | 15 | None 15 · ≥50% pass-gate 12 · 40% 9 · 30% 6 · ≤20% 3. Eval-only +2 (cap 15). |
| Payout terms | 15 | Split ≥90% 6 / 80–89% 4 · daily-or-weekly payout +4 · low minimum +2 · alternative payout paths +3. Marked * (provisional) where the firm's split/frequency/minimum isn't primary-sourced in the registry — then scored at a neutral 8.5/15 prior. |
| Speed to funded | 10 | 0 min trading days 10 · 1–2 days 8 · 3–5 days 6 · 6–9 days 4 · ≥10 days 3. |
| Profit-target ease | 10 | Target ÷ balance ≤6% 10 · 7–8% 8 · 9–10% 6 · >10% 4. Marked * where the target is gated/unpublished. |
| Flexibility | 10 | News allowed +5 · weekend holding +5. A funded-stage news restriction is surfaced, not docked (the evaluation still allows news). |
2 · Trader Sentiment — 40%
A transparent formula over cited, dated review aggregates only. We report what a platform SHOWS; we never assert firm behaviour. Every input stores its score, count, URL and check-date.
- Base. Trustpilot score ÷ 5 × 100.
- Volume shrink (Bayesian). Pull small-sample scores toward a neutral prior of 60: scoreadj = (v ÷ (v + 150)) × base + (150 ÷ (v + 150)) × 60, where v = review count. A 4.7 on 300 reviews is not a 4.7 on 45,000.
- Secondary blend. If a second citable aggregate with ≥100 reviews exists (e.g. PropFirmMatch), blend 0.7 primary / 0.3 secondary.
- Penalties (cited, dated, primary-sourced only). A 1★-share penalty of max(0, 1★% − 5) × 1.5 applies ONLY when the average score is ≥ 4.0 — a polarization detector for a high average hiding a fat 1★ tail; below that the low average already reflects the 1★ mass. Documented, primary-sourced events within 12 months: platform-failure / mass-closure −10, material payout-terms reduction −5. An active review-platform integrity flag −5 (and the flagged review count weighs at 50% in the shrink). All penalties combined are capped at −15.
- Secondary-only events (not from the platform/firm directly) are listed for context but never scored — the firm carries a Provisional badge until a primary source lands. Reddit / community signal carries zero weight.
3 · Transparency — 20%
How clear, current and self-consistent the firm's own published rules are. 100 points:
| Sub-factor | Max | How it scores |
|---|---|---|
| First-party source freshness | 25 | A first-party rules doc verified within 60 days: deep help/docs page 25 · shallow marketing root 20. |
| Doc clarity / no self-contradiction | 25 | Docks: daily-loss basis stated inconsistently across the firm's own docs −15 · profit-target gated −8 · a live legacy article contradicting current rules −10 · consistency gated −5. |
| Enforcement-doc clarity | 10 | Quantitative thresholds score high; subjective, discretion-laden conduct terms are docked (scored from the firm's own enforcement text). |
| Rule-change stability | 20 | Announced, coherent changes are fine; a material adverse overhaul within 12 months −4; a silent/retroactive change −10. |
| Fee clarity | 10 | Scored at a neutral prior and marked * (fees aren't encoded in the registry yet). |
| Gate density | 10 | Share of rule fields fully verified vs held-off — every held-off field docks 2. |
| Payout self-report vs tracker | −10 | A cited gap between a firm's self-reported payout total and an independent tracker docks −10. |
Letter bands
| Letter | Composite |
|---|---|
| A+ | 92–100 |
| A | 87–91 |
| A− | 83–86 |
| B+ | 79–82 |
| B | 75–78 |
| B− | 71–74 |
| C+ | 67–70 |
| C | 63–66 |
| C− | 59–62 |
| D | 50–58 |
| F | < 50 |
Our pledges
Grades are never tied to partnerships
A grade is computed only from the rules and the cited review facts. If we ever earn from a firm, its grade does not move — a partner firm's bad grade stays bad. The rubric above is the whole input; there is no hidden lever.
A restructure never resets a record
Rebrands, ownership changes and rule overhauls do not wipe the slate. The 12-month event window keeps counting pre-remodel events and the sentiment record keeps pre-remodel reviews. Only sustained, dated improvement in the cited inputs moves a grade — there is no redemption shortcut.
We grade what firms publish, not what they do
Every mover is a citation, not our opinion. We never assert a firm's behaviour or payout follow-through — only what its rules say and what dated review platforms show.
How fresh the data is
- Every sentiment input shows the date it was checked. Each grade displays "Sentiment data checked" next to the letter.
- A full re-audit of all sentiment inputs runs quarterly. A light monthly ping re-pulls each score; a move ≥0.3 or a count jump ≥25% triggers an early re-audit of that firm.
- Any input over 120 days old shows a stale-data note; over 180 days, the sentiment part is suppressed and the composite is shown as rules + transparency only.
- Any new primary-sourced controversy triggers an immediate re-audit and an "Under review" overlay.
- The rules and transparency parts recompute automatically whenever the underlying rule registry changes.
Graded firms
TradersGuild grade
Citations (3) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.8/5 on 45,000 — checked 2026-07-14
- Event: 2024-02
- FTMO rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-05
TradersGuild grade
Citations (4) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.3/5 on 19,103 — checked 2026-07-14
- Event (secondary — listed, not scored): 2025-05
- Event: 2026-03-01
- Apex Trader Funding rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-15
TradersGuild grade
Citations (4) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 3.5/5 on 13,000 — checked 2026-07-14
- Event: 2025-12-23
- Event (secondary — listed, not scored): 2026-04
- Topstep rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-13
TradersGuild grade
Citations (2) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.4/5 on 9,000 — checked 2026-07-14
- TakeProfit Trader rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-13
TradersGuild grade
Citations (2) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.7/5 on 860 — checked 2026-07-14
- Bulenox rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-15
TradersGuild grade
Citations (4) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.9/5 on 18,000 — checked 2026-07-14
- PropFirmMatch: 4.56/5 on 221 — checked 2026-07-14
- Event (secondary — listed, not scored): 2026
- MyFundedFutures rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-15
TradersGuild grade
Citations (3) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.55/5 on 3,000 — checked 2026-07-14
- PropFirmMatch: 4.74/5 on 151 — checked 2026-07-14
- Tradeify rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-15
TradersGuild grade
Citations (3) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.5/5 on 73,172 — checked 2026-07-14
- Event (secondary — listed, not scored): 2026-01
- FundedNext rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-09
TradersGuild grade
Citations (3) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.75/5 on 25,000 — checked 2026-07-14
- PropFirmMatch: 4.76/5 on 1,150 — checked 2026-07-14
- The5ers rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-09
TradersGuild grade
Citations (2) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.5/5 on 61,956 — checked 2026-07-14
- Funding Pips rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-13
TradersGuild grade
Citations (3) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 3.8/5 on 1,079 — checked 2026-07-14
- Event: 2025-09-17
- Elite Trader Funding rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-15
TradersGuild grade
Citations (2) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.9/5 on 17,000 — checked 2026-07-14
- Alpha Futures rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-09
TradersGuild grade
Citations (2) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.4/5 on 6,088 — checked 2026-07-14
- FXIFY rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-09
TradersGuild grade
Citations (3) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.55/5 on 2,600 — checked 2026-07-14
- Event: 2026-05-20
- Funded Trading Plus rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-12
TradersGuild grade
Citations (5) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 3.4/5 on 3,339 — checked 2026-07-14
- Event: 2026-05
- Review-platform integrity flag — checked 2026-02-22
- Payout self-report vs tracker
- Goat Funded Trader rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-12
TradersGuild grade
Citations (2) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.7/5 on 4,794 — checked 2026-07-14
- Earn2Trade rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-15
TradersGuild grade
Citations (2) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.7/5 on 2,508 — checked 2026-07-14
- OneUp Trader rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-12
TradersGuild grade
Citations (3) ▾▴
- Trustpilot: 4.5/5 on 849 — checked 2026-07-14
- Event (secondary — listed, not scored): 2026
- BluSky rules (first-party) — checked 2026-07-12
Grades reflect published rules and cited, dated third-party review data — not a recommendation, and not financial advice. Rules and review scores change; every input links to its source so you can confirm it.