As an active trader navigating markets for over a decade, I scrutinize prop firm opportunities extensively before committing capital. The right firm with reputable founders, logical rules and prudent risk controls can accelerate a trader‘s income potential tremendously.
Smart Funded Trader recently appeared on my radar promising uncapped evaluation timelines and funded accounts up to $400k. This review will provide comprehensive due diligence from my perspective on their offering.
Who‘s Behind Smart Funded Trader?
I always examine the creators of any prop trading firm before considering their combine. Smart Funded Trader was founded by:
Matt Diamond – 15 years trading experience across stocks, forex and futures. Former risk manager at TD Ameritrade and combine top performer at TrueTrader.
Connor Bruggemann – Expert developer with 12 years building trading tools and platforms. Former Trading Technologies and Coinbase engineer.
Michael Chin – Seasoned prop trading veteran featured on Forbes and Business Insider. Founded and exited two fintech firms over 16 years.
This team covers key domains – trading, tech and business operations. With proven expertise and skin in the game, I believe they can deliver a long-term sustainable firm.
Traffic Overload Resolved
When Smart Funded Trader first announced openings, their website crashed within hours due to a massive influx of applications. This initial tech disruption concerned me regarding site stability.
However, the founders were quite transparent about the scaling challenges and worked round the clock to upgrade capacity. Within a week, site performance normalized and traders smoothly began evaluations.
The team‘s commitment towards transparency on issues and rapid fixes reassured me of their priorities.
Two-Stage Evaluation
Smart Funded Trader implements a two-phase evaluation process for account funding qualification:
Stage 1 Combine
- Profit Target: 10%
- Drawdown Limit: 10%
- Duration: No expiry
- Minimum Trading Days: 3
Stage 2 Verify
- Profit Target: 5%
- Drawdown Limit: 5%
- Duration: No expiry
- Minimum Trading Days: 3
These pass rates align with industry norms. The 10%/5% profit and drawdown limits across two attempts provide sufficient leeway.
However, the uncapped duration truly accommodates traders like myself who prefer systematic approaches. This structure rewards consistency without time pressure.
In 2022, per Smart Funded Trader‘s transparency reports, they observed an average pass rate of 65% on stage 1 and 73% on stage 2 evaluations. This showcases that while targets seem achievable, their risk model itself filters talent.
Account Funding and Allocations
Here are the account sizes traders can trade up to based on combine performance:
| Combine Account | Potential Funding |
|---|---|
| $5,000 | $50,000 |
| $10,000 | $100,000 |
| $25,000 | $200,000 |
| $50,000 | $300,000 |
| $100,000 | $400,000 |
So clearing the $100k combine permits access up to a $400k allocation.
Beyond that, their scaling model facilitates account growth to up to $2 million through a series of profit and volume based milestones.
However, to unlock each increment, you need to achieve designated targets over 6-12 month periods. So traders have to continually prove skills as balances expand.
Reasonable Cost
To attempt a $5,000 combine costs $79 after promotional discounts. Their pricing tiers by account are:
| Combine Account | Challenge Fee |
|---|---|
| $5,000 | $79 |
| $10,000 | $99 |
| $25,000 | $199 |
| $50,000 | $499 |
| $100,000 | $799 |
| $200,000 | $1,049 |
Considering the profit potential from allocated accounts after passing, these fees seem fairly reasonable.
For example, the $799 charge for a $100K combine could yield a $400K fund. Even if we achieve just 10% annual returns off that, our profits would be $40,000. So combine costs get easily recovered and exceeded massively.
Lucrative Profit Splits
Smart Funded Trader offers very favorable profit splits starting at 90% in the trader‘s favor.
| Profit | Trader Share | Firm Share |
|---|---|---|
| First $500 | 90% | 10% |
| Next $1,500 | 85% | 15% |
| Next $5,000 | 80% | 20% |
| Beyond $7,000 | 75% | 25% |
So for the first $7K in net profits on a funded account, I would retain $5,525, with Smart taking $1,475.
Most prop firms cap out splits at 80/20 or 70/30. The gradually declining payout schedule here motivated me to cross $7K monthly to maximize income.
Risk Rules and Limits
Smart Funded Trader enforces various guidelines and limits to ensure responsible trading aligned with account size.
Margin Cushion Requirements
Funded accounts face margin calls as balances decline:
| Trading Day | Margin Remaining | Margin Call |
|---|---|---|
| Intra-day | <=50% | Initiated |
| Overnight | <=20% | Initiated |
So for a $100K allocation, the intraday buffer is $50K, beyond which positions get closed out.
Similarly for swing holds, if equity drops below $80K at any overnight rollover, a forced liquidation process starts.
Maximum Loss Per Trade
| Asset Class | Risk Limit | Example (on $100k) |
|---|---|---|
| Forex | 1% | $1,000 |
| Futures | 0.50% | $500 |
| Equities | 1% | $1,000 |
These norms align with sound practice given volatility profiles.
The 1% rule allows reasonable position size while constraining account drawdown risk. Losingdiscipline is prevented.
Platforms Supported
Smart Funded Trader integrates with all major retail trading platforms:
- MetaTrader 4/5
- NinjaTrader
- Tradovate
- CQG
Verified APIs connect accounts to their servers for centralized monitoring.
Overall Transparency
Between their site, Discord and webinars, Smart Funded Trader provides good transparency on key metrics:
- Trader pass rates
- Average account holding periods
- Biggest PnL days
- Platform issues
- Leaderboards
- Funding allocations
The openness here provides assurance on joins and exits happening.
Smart Tools and Features
Smart Funded Trader delivers various features to improve a trader‘s workflow:
- Smart Journal – Log trades automatically from any platform via API integrations. Attach images, annotations and analyze performance.
- Smart Library – Access video lessons, manuals and guides to accelerate learning. Contains trading strategy samples across assets.
- Smart Stats – Dashboard displaying account metrics like profit splits, monthly PnL, risk exposures and more. Keeps progress visible.
- Smart Alerts – Get notified on drawdowns, margin calls, forced liquidations so immediate action becomes possible. Very handy!
These tools create valuable transparency into account status. The forced liquidation alerts in particular help risk management.
Final Verdict
Evaluating various aspects of their offering, here is my conclusion:
Pros
- Credible team with aligned interests
- Generous yet logical combine parameters
- Technology supporting efficiency
- Reasonable challenge fees
- Max $400K funding potential quickly
- Lucrative profit splits policies
- Forced liquidation alerts
- Metrics transparency
Cons
- Scaling complexity for 2M stretch goal
- Phase 2 product depth still building
- Discord-first support can have lags
Considering the favorable aspects, I passed their combine selection filters based on skill, risk approach and activity metrics.
Within just 60 days of trading my strategy, I crossed the 10% profit target to secure a $100K account. I trade ideas both intraday and multi-day aligned with their risk limits using their Smart Alerts for risk discipline.
So far in 2023, I‘ve withdrawn over $150K in profits at 85/15 split rates. Smart Funded Trader has tremendously accelerated my earning potential in under 7 months through their logical prop trading model. I look forward to sustaining consistency to access larger allocations.
I hope this comprehensive review presented you an authentic inside look into Smart Funded Trader‘s combine program. As one of 3600+ funded traders on their platform now actively profiting, I recommend checking their offering out!