Serious Traders should seek another firm.
**Update 4/4/25**
Your response is that you updated people of the new drawdown limit, but bulk of my review was about how you took 50% of my profits when taking me to live. I assure you there was no notice of this, and if this is anywhere on your site or you have given some notice that you take 50% of traders profits when taking them to live, I will take this review down.
Be careful for unannounced and omitted rule changes. When I first started with ETF, I read through their rules, and followed all rules and guidelines with my trading. After 1 payout, and roughly 60 trading days, I was called up to a live account. When I originally read the rules, and started trading, this was the rule for the amount of money taken to live:
"The starting balance of the consolidated Live Elite account will be equivalent to the combined total realized profit earned from your eligible Elite Sim-Funded accounts."
However, ETF only gave me 50% of my profits to take to live, and they kept the other 50%. Here is the exact verbiage used in the e-mail.
"If 50% of the Live Elite Investment is lost due to trading activities, ETF will close the account, which means any remaining balance will be forfeited."
"Starting Onboarding Balance: 50% = $4,720 (Total $9,440)"
I sent an e-mail just to make sure I understood:
"My account will be funded with $9,440, however I can't fall below $4,720+$300 for any reason, so I basically have an account funded with $4,420?"
Response from ETF:
"Correct, your account can't fall below that."
I went back to the rules to find that original rule, but it was no longer there. I had saved the rules when I started, as I always try to keep the rules front of mind to make sure I am trading in the way the firm recommends. Also, after going live I had to send multiple emails to get my account unlocked, as it was just randomly locked for days, causing me to miss entire days of trading. There is not another firm out there, that I'm aware of, that keeps half of your hard earned profit when taking you to live. So, if your goal is to be a successful trader and get a live account, I would work with any other firm in the futures space. It can also be frustrating to work with a firm that requires you to follow their rules, while they are allowed to change their rules at any time.
There was also another rule they changed before sending me to live, letting them take another $200 besides half my profit. While not as consequential, just shows the pattern of ETF:
"Question: Does my LIVE ELITE account come with a trailing drawdown?
Answer: No. Your account will have a fixed liquidation point set at the starting balance +100, mirroring the Elite Sim-Funded setup."
Then the e-mail I received was this:
"Minimum allowable balance (auto-liquidation): $300"
Your response is that you updated people of the new drawdown limit, but bulk of my review was about how you took 50% of my profits when taking me to live. I assure you there was no notice of this, and if this is anywhere on your site or you have given some notice that you take 50% of traders profits when taking them to live, I will take this review down.
Be careful for unannounced and omitted rule changes. When I first started with ETF, I read through their rules, and followed all rules and guidelines with my trading. After 1 payout, and roughly 60 trading days, I was called up to a live account. When I originally read the rules, and started trading, this was the rule for the amount of money taken to live:
"The starting balance of the consolidated Live Elite account will be equivalent to the combined total realized profit earned from your eligible Elite Sim-Funded accounts."
However, ETF only gave me 50% of my profits to take to live, and they kept the other 50%. Here is the exact verbiage used in the e-mail.
"If 50% of the Live Elite Investment is lost due to trading activities, ETF will close the account, which means any remaining balance will be forfeited."
"Starting Onboarding Balance: 50% = $4,720 (Total $9,440)"
I sent an e-mail just to make sure I understood:
"My account will be funded with $9,440, however I can't fall below $4,720+$300 for any reason, so I basically have an account funded with $4,420?"
Response from ETF:
"Correct, your account can't fall below that."
I went back to the rules to find that original rule, but it was no longer there. I had saved the rules when I started, as I always try to keep the rules front of mind to make sure I am trading in the way the firm recommends. Also, after going live I had to send multiple emails to get my account unlocked, as it was just randomly locked for days, causing me to miss entire days of trading. There is not another firm out there, that I'm aware of, that keeps half of your hard earned profit when taking you to live. So, if your goal is to be a successful trader and get a live account, I would work with any other firm in the futures space. It can also be frustrating to work with a firm that requires you to follow their rules, while they are allowed to change their rules at any time.
There was also another rule they changed before sending me to live, letting them take another $200 besides half my profit. While not as consequential, just shows the pattern of ETF:
"Question: Does my LIVE ELITE account come with a trailing drawdown?
Answer: No. Your account will have a fixed liquidation point set at the starting balance +100, mirroring the Elite Sim-Funded setup."
Then the e-mail I received was this:
"Minimum allowable balance (auto-liquidation): $300"
Response from Elite Trader Funding
The +$300 from 0 auto-liquidation is not set by us but by our broker. This is standard for all Live accounts.
We notified all our users that we had changed our rules with a notification for a whole month in your dashboard.
We notified all our users that we had changed our rules with a notification for a whole month in your dashboard.