Image © Adobe Images
In the past few months, the funded trading industry has seen lots of changes and development, which can be considered a crucial phase of the evolution of proprietary trading.
This thorough update to all things related to trading and all supported on it thoroughly explores the latest trends, challenges, and the various opportunities in the funded trading universe.
Industry Growth and Performance Metrics
According to recent statistics, the current state of the funded trading industry is quite interesting. Despite the continuous influx of newbies, success is hard, according to a poll conducted by PipFarm for the entire industry.
This represents a very competitive field, as only 40% of prop firm clients achieve profitability.
To trade at the average level of investment of prop firm challenges, the average trader will invest around $4,270, which gets successful traders a return of $1.9 million and a return of $7.6 million.
Technological Advancements
In 2025, the industry adopts cutting-edge technology, and the companies utilise AI-powered analytics and advanced trading platforms.
To meet the need, Traders has been extended to include futures trading through the cooperation with Devexperts' DXtrade system, which brings US and European futures markets' Level 1 and Level 2 data.
In addition, Lark Funding has made the integration of the Match-Trader platform developed by Match Trade Technologies a part of their technological capabilities.
Major Platform Updates
By 2025, major prop firms will have geared up for the policy changes. For traders, FTMO and The5ers have made it easier by implementing one-step challenge programs, and that is why traders can access the funding.
Strict membership criteria have also been implemented in The5ers in order to select traders who are fully engaged and adhere to the group rules.
Trader Preferences and Platform Selection
There are many features, and the criteria for selecting a prop firm are ever-increasing for the modern trader. The most important factors to traders are clear operating rules (79%) and fast fund withdrawals (75%).
On the other hand, only trailing drawdown (54%) and consistency rules (53%) are warned as a reasons to stay away from some platforms. Check CTI traders testimonials as they reveal crucial details about payout reliability, customer support quality, and overall trading conditions.
Regulatory Developments
Between 2025 and now, regulators have demanded much more scrutiny of the prop trading platforms. The lack of regulations on the retail prop firm space, with demo accounts vs live market trades, is really questionably serious at this stage.
FINRA has been working closely with firms, which are obliged to comply with FINRA’s requirements when it comes to implementing AI and crypto asset trading.
Emergence Programmes
The industry has been treated to the appearance of several new players bringing genius to funded trading.
Launched in 2023, BrightFunded gives access to $400,000 in potential funding and over 150 trading instruments, including over 40 crypto pairs.
Futures traders get an attractive program on Apex Trader Funding from those managers who manage up to $4 million from the client funds, with favourable profit splitting terms.
Trade the Pool has established itself as a unique trading platform specialised in stock trades: over 12,000 stocks and ETFS are ready to be traded.
The funded trading industry is growing and looking forward towards potential regulatory changes to come to be in place in 2025. To keep on providing competitive offerings to traders, platforms are changing their models towards long-term viability.
At this point, the focus is now moving to building more sustainable and more realistic trading environments that are able to effectively prepare the trader for the actual markets.