Funded Academy Review
If you complete the Funded Academy evaluation you can get a funded trading account with a 70% profit split that can be scaled up to $1,000,000.
Funded Academy is a prop trading firm that wants to give people more control over their trading and improve the online prop funding industry with increased competition. They have taken into consideration some of the good and bad points of other prop firms to provide a range of trading challenges which you can participate in for a chance to get a funded account that can grow up to $1,000,000 and a 70% profit share.
Stage 1
The first step to getting a funded account with this prop firm is to pass stage 1. This is a trading challenge where you have to achieve certain objectives whilst following some simple rules. You can choose from 6 plans that range from $25,000 to $1,000,000. Prices start at $200 for the lowest option and $7,100 for the highest option.
The profit target is reasonable, especially considering you have no minimum or maximum time to achieve it. The leverage is limited to 1:10 but news trading and expert advisors are allowed.
- 10% Profit Target
- 4% Daily Drawdown
- 5% Max Drawdown
- No Minimum Trading Days
- 1:10 Minimum Leverage
- Real-Time Tracking Dashboard
- News Trading
- Trade Over Weekend, Double Leverage & No Stop Loss Required (Paid Add-ons)
Live Funding
If you successfully pass the evaluation phase, you will be entitled to request a live funded account. This gives you access to trade the Funded Academy’s capital and share 70% of any profits that you generate, with no specific profit targets required. This is acceptable, although some prop trading firms offer a profit share of 90%, including SurgeTrader.
The maximum drawdown is quite strict at around 5% but it is based on balance that you start with. The live account conditions are more or less the same as at the evaluation stage, so you will already have an idea of what to expect. You must still stick to the rules in order to maintain the account. Once eligible, you can request your first pay-out through Deel, allowing payments via Bank Wire, Crypto and more.
- No Profit Target
- 4% Daily Drawdown
- 5% Max Drawdown (Locks in at starting balance)
- No Minimum Trading Days
- 1:10 Minimum Leverage
- News Holding
- Bank Transfer & Crypto Withdrawals
The Funded Academy conditions are generally very competitive. The extended challenge never ends so you can pass it in your own time. There are no minimum trading days required to get a funded account. The maximum equity stop out on your funded account will be fixed at your beginning balance, thus giving your trades extra room to breathe.
You can only have one challenge going at a time, but you can have as many funded accounts as you wish, with the potential to manage up to $10,000,000 on the extended program. Expert advisors (EAs) are allow but you will need to pay for some add-on such as weekend trading, increased leverage and removing the stop loss requirement.
On the assessment account, the daily loss limit is 4% whilst the maximum trailing drawdown is 5%. Daily Loss Limit is calculated based on the previous day’s end of day (5pm EST) balance.
You must place a trade at least once every 30 days to avoid the account being deemed inactive. There is a stop loss required for each trade and you must close all positions before the weekend if you have not purchased the respective add-ons. Other prop firms do not charge extra for these features, FTMO having some of the best trading conditions.
Breaching Rules
There are soft breaches and hard breaches if you break any of the rules. They will close all positions that have breached the rules, which is known as a soft breach. You may still trade in your Assessment or Funded account, though.
Hard breach refers to breaking either the Max Trailing Drawdown or Daily Loss Limit rules. Both violations of these rules are considered severe. If you commit a hard breach, you will either fail the Assessment or lose your funded account.
If you have profits in your Funded account at the time of a hard breach, you will still receive your portion of those profits. For example, if you have a $100,000 account and you grow that account to $110,000. Should you then have a hard breach, they would close the account. Of the $10,000 in profits, you would be paid your 70% portion ($7,500).
Maximum Drawdown
The maximum your account can lose before you hard breach your account is known as the maximum trailing drawdown. Your Max Trailing Drawdown is initially set to 5% of your opening amount when you open the account. As soon as you hit 5% profits in your account, this 5% will catch up to your closed trading amount. The maximum trailing locks in at your initial amount and stops trailing your account once you have accumulated 5% in your account.
For instance, if you start with $100,000, you can withdraw up to $95,000 before breaking the Maximum Trailing Drawdown regulation. Let’s imagine you take your account to a closed balance of $102,000. As a result, your new Maximum Trailing Drawdown would be $97,000. This is your new high-water mark. Let’s imagine you increase your account to a closed balance of $110,000; this would be your new high-water mark. At this point, your $100,000 initial amount would serve as the fixed value for your Maximum Trailing Drawdown. You would therefore only break this rule if your account drew back down to $100,000, regardless of how high your account rises (note, you can still violate the Daily Loss Limit). For instance, if you increase your account to $170,000, you would only breach if your account equity reached $100,000, provided that you do not drawdown more than 4% in any given day.
Important Information: After you request a withdrawal, your initial balance will serve as your maximum trailing drawdown. This means that if you fully withdraw all of the profits from your account, it will also count as an account breach.
The maximum trailing drawdown high-water point is reset to the beginning balance upon withdrawal. This is justified by the fact that the programme is set up to be mutually beneficial. This prop firm runs the risk of going bankrupt while still having paid a trader earnings by not locking in the maximum drawdown at the beginning balance. As an illustration, you increased an account from $100,000 to $110,000. You then ask for a $10,000 withdrawal. In this case, they would give you $7,000 while keeping $3,000 for themselves. Also, this would bring the account’s balance back down to $100,000, basically starting it again from scratch. The maximum withdrawal of 5% would then be permitted on your account, which would result in a loss of $5,000. In this case, you would have received $7,000 in earnings while the company suffered a $2,000 loss. So, the rule of locking in the maximum trailing drawdown at the starting balance at the time of the initial withdrawal provides a win-win, long-term relationship.
Locked in Max Drawdown
The Locked in Max Drawdown feature on the extended program enables traders to expand their account and benefit from more freedom and flexibility. Your Max Drawdown will increase to your account’s opening balance once you’ve made your first withdrawal or earned 5% profits. The more gains you generate and keep in the account, the greater drawdown tolerance you provide yourself, provided that you do not lose more than 4% per day.
Please be aware that removing the entire profit from your first withdrawal would send you beyond the drawdown restriction because your drawdown is fixed at your beginning value. In order to increase your balance and provide you greater drawdown options, they recommend keeping a buffer in your trading account.
Withdrawals
Profits are withdrawable once each calendar month at any time. The Funded Academy shall also withdraw their portion of the earnings earned at the time of any withdrawal request.
Send an email to support with the amount you wish to withdraw when you are prepared to take your gains. Your profit share will then be posted to your Deel account, where you can withdraw it using any of their supported withdrawal methods.
Important Information: After you request a withdrawal, your initial balance will serve as your maximum trailing drawdown. This means that if you fully withdraw all of the profits from your account, it will also count as an account breach.
Brokers
Funded Academy use the well-known brokerage firm Eightcap. They are a respected and regulated broker that have top trading conditions including tight spreads, low commission fees and quick trade execution speeds. You can focus on your trading strategies knowing that they are partnered with a broker that must operate in an open and honest manner.
Platforms
You can trade with Eightcap using the industry standard MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform. This is one of the most user-friendly trading platforms which is why it is utilised by millions of forex traders all over the globe. There is an abundance of built-in tools that enable you to conduct in-depth market analysis and make informed decisions. Thousands of free and paid tools are also available to further enhance the capabilities of the platform.
You can use MT4 for both manual and automated trading. It makes opening and managing trades a breeze, from any device of your choice. There are lots of tutorials online if you are not already familiar with MT4 but it does have a quick learning curve but they also provide the MT5 platform if you want to take your trading to the next level. Whilst the platforms are very similar, MT5 has more features and functionalities overall.
Instruments
You can trade all of the trading instruments provided on your Eightcap account which includes forex currency pairs, commodities, stocks, indices and cryptocurrencies. Whatever your interests, there is something for everyone to trade with very competitive trading conditions. The Funded Academy use the RAW accounts from EightCap. These accounts have commission charges for Forex and Equity Share CFDs. The other products do not carry a commission.
Traders Dashboard
When you register with the Funded Academy, you get access to a modern and intuitive trader dashboard. From here, you can conveniently manage your account and track your trading activity. This ensures that you are sticking to the rules and on target to reach your trading objectives. Receive personalised trading history and reports of your trading activity to see what’s working and what’s not.
| Maximum capital | $1,000,000 |
| Profit split | 70% |
| Scaling | Yes |
| News trading | Yes |
| Weekend trading | Yes |
| Automated trading | Yes |
| Free trial | No |
| Maximum leverage | 1:20 |
Overall, there are some positive aspects to the Funded Academy all things considered. The evaluation program and funded account rules are very straight forward. The profit targets are achievable and trading rules pretty much inline with what you would expect form other proprietary trading firms. You can trade a great selection of financial instruments on the popular MT4 platforms. The handy trader dashboard let’s you keep track of everything and they do work with a good broker in Eightcap.
On the other hand, the profit share is not the highest you will find whilst the initial fee is also quite high in comparison to some other prop firms, such as FTUK. You would also need to pay for some add-ons to give your strategies more flexibility whilst there is no MT5 platform and leverage is restricted to 1:20. If you can see past these limitations and want to try a relatively new prop trading firm, then the Funded Academy are certainly worth giving consideration.
How many lots can I trade? (Max Lots with Risk)
$25K – 2.5 lots with risk
$50K – 5 lots with risk
$100K – 10 lots with risk
$250K – 25 lots with risk
$500K – 50 lots with risk
$1 million – 100 lots with risk
