Blue Guardian Futures Review

Blue Guardian Futures is the futures arm of Blue Guardian, the CFD prop firm. It sells one-phase evaluations and an instant "Direct" account on CME futures, traded through Tradovate (with NinjaTrader and TradingView) or DeepCharts. You pay once, there's no activation fee and no monthly subscription, and every funded account pays a 90% split.

The prices look sharp. A $100,000 Reserve evaluation lists at $148, about $1.48 per $1,000 of funding, and the Express plan lets you withdraw every day once you're funded. The catch is the payout fine print: each plan has its own caps, buffers, winning-day counts and consistency rules, the help center and pricing widget disagree on a few numbers, and every payout loses 3% to a processing fee. This review goes through all four plans with dollar examples so you know what you're buying.

The short version

• Best for: intraday index and commodity futures traders who want a one-time fee, steady sizing and a choice between daily payouts (Express), no daily loss limit (Reserve) or no evaluation (Direct).
• Not for: anyone who holds positions overnight, runs a fully automated bot, or wants one simple set of payout rules.
• Biggest strength: price. At the $100,000 size, Reserve costs $1.48 and Express $2.05 per $1,000 of funding, with no activation fee after you pass.
• Biggest risk: the payout path. Caps of $1,000 to $4,500 per request, buffers, consistency rules and a 3% fee mean a funded account pays out in measured slices, and the payout review is where Trustpilot complaints pile up.
• Our score: 4.2 out of 5. It scores near the top on value and payout speed, and loses points on rule complexity, the overnight ban and a short public track record.

Who runs Blue Guardian Futures

Blue Guardian Futures shares its company structure with Blue Guardian's CFD business. The footer of the futures page names three companies:

• Blue Guardian Limited, in Gros-Islet, Saint Lucia, provides the simulated trading platforms.
• Iconic Exchange FZCO, in the IFZA Business Park, Dubai, operates the website ("t/a Blue Guardian") and handles payments.
• Blue Guardian Marketing LLC, also in Dubai, is described as a non-operational support office.

The about page names Sean Bainton as founder and CEO. Neither the about page nor the futures help center says when the futures arm launched. The help center does say that the current lineup (Standard, Reserve, Express and Direct) replaced older plans called Standard, Rapid, Pro and Instant Standard on 6 July this year, and accounts bought before then keep their old rules.

The terms and conditions are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates. Disputes go to binding arbitration under International Centre for Dispute Resolution rules, seated in Dubai, after a written notice and a 30-day window to settle. There's a class action waiver.

Evaluation and funded accounts are simulated. Blue Guardian says plainly that it isn't a broker and doesn't hold client funds. The exception is the Live Account, an invite-only tier for proven traders that, per the help center, uses real CME execution through a partner brokerage. More on that in the payouts section.

The rulebook lives in a separate futures help center, with one article per plan. Most articles were marked as updated this week when we checked on 28 October 2026, so reread yours just before you buy.

Programs and prices

All four plans share a 6% profit target (where there is one), an end-of-day trailing drawdown and a 90% split. Prices below are list prices from Blue Guardian's futures pricing widget, checked on 28 October 2026, before any coupon. They're the same on Tradovate and DeepCharts.

One rule applies to every plan: after any payout, your drawdown floor locks at starting balance + $100, so $50,100 on a $50,000 account. The room left after a payout is whatever sits above that line.

Standard

Standard is the straightforward evaluation: no consistency rule while you're being tested, and fixed contract limits from start to finish.

• Hit the 6% target in one phase. No minimum days, no time limit.
• Daily loss limit of 2% on $50,000 and up, as a soft breach: hit it and your trades close and the account pauses until the next trading day. The $25,000 size has no daily limit.
• EOD trailing drawdown that stops trailing once it reaches starting balance + $100.
• Funded: 40% consistency rule, a payout buffer, and a smaller cap on the first payout.

Worked example, $50,000 Standard. Your floor starts at $48,000 and your daily limit is $1,000. If you close a day at $51,000, the floor moves up to $49,000 and stays there even if the next day is red. Once a day closes at $52,100 or higher, the floor locks for good at $50,100. You pass at $53,000. On the funded account you need the balance above the $52,100 buffer before you can withdraw: at $54,000 you'd have $1,900 available, keep 90% ($1,710), and receive about $1,659 after the 3% fee.

Reserve

Reserve is the cheapest plan per dollar of funding and the most configurable. You pick two settings at checkout, and the price changes with each.

• 6% target, no time limit, no minimum days.
• Daily loss limit: none by default, or an optional soft-breach limit for a lower price ($600, $1,200, $1,700 or $3,000 by size).
• Consistency in the challenge: 50% by default (with a 1% cushion, so 51% in practice), or 40% for a lower price. No consistency rule once funded.
• The trailing drawdown never stops trailing during the evaluation. Once funded it stops at starting balance + $100.
• Funded: no buffer, but you need 5 winning days before each payout and can take only 50% of your profit per request.

Here's what each combination costs at list price:

The headline price on the pricing page is the cheapest column. If you want the "no daily loss limit" version that the plan is marketed on, a $100,000 account costs $240, not $148.

Worked example, $100,000 Reserve at $148. Your floor starts at $97,000, your daily limit is $1,700, and you pass at $106,000. Because the drawdown keeps trailing in the challenge, a day that closes at $104,000 lifts your floor to $101,000. Under the 40% option, no single day can be more than 40% of your profit, so if you pass at exactly $6,000 your best day can't exceed $2,400. Once funded, you need five days of at least $200 profit each. With $4,000 of profit you could request $2,000 (50%), keep $1,800 at 90%, and receive about $1,746 after the fee.

For Reserve accounts bought on or after 27 July 2026, payouts two to five also need a minimum net profit since your last payout: $500, $750, $1,000 or $1,250 by size.

Express

Express is built for cash flow: once funded you can request a payout every day, up to a daily cap.

• 6% target, 40% consistency rule in the challenge only (a 50% option costs more), no time limit.
• Daily loss limit as a soft breach. The $25,000 challenge has none, but the $25,000 funded account has a $500 limit.
• Funded contract limits start lower and grow with your balance (see the scaling table below).
• From the second payout on, you must make new profit equal to 50% of your previous payout before you can request again (accounts bought on or after 2 September).

These are the help center figures, updated on 27 October 2026. The pricing widget shows bigger limits on the challenge stage for two sizes: $1,500 daily and $3,000 drawdown on the $100,000, and $2,250 and $4,500 on the $150,000. Its funded-stage figures match the help center. Until Blue Guardian lines them up, plan around the smaller numbers.

Worked example, $100,000 Express. Your floor starts at $97,500 with a $1,250 daily limit, and you pass at $106,000. A 40% consistency rule means at least three trading days: at exactly $6,000 of profit, no day can be above $2,400. Funded, the buffer is $102,600. At $104,000 you'd have $1,400 available, under the $1,500 daily cap. You keep $1,260 and receive about $1,222 after the fee, and you'd need $700 of new profit before the next request.

Direct

Direct skips the evaluation. You start funded, but you have to earn a "payout goal" before your first withdrawal.

• No target to pass. Daily loss limit as a soft breach (for accounts bought on or after 21 July 2026).
• Consistency on every payout: your best day must be under 20% of profit for the first payout, 25% for the second and 30% after that.
• No payout buffer, and full contract size from day one.

Worked example, $50,000 Direct. Your floor starts at $48,000 and your daily limit is $1,250. Before your first payout you need $3,000 of profit, the same as passing a 6% evaluation, and with a 20% consistency rule your best day can't exceed $600 at that point. That's at least five profitable days. You can then withdraw up to $2,000 and keep $1,800 before the fee. Your floor locks at $50,100 after the payout, so with $51,000 left in the account you'd have $900 of room.

The pricing widget calls Direct's drawdown "static drawdown (no trailing)", while the Direct rules article describes an EOD trailing drawdown that stops at starting balance + $100. Assume the trailing version.

Which Blue Guardian Futures plan should you pick?

Reserve is the best value, and the right pick for most traders who can pass a test. The $100,000 version costs $148, or $1.48 per $1,000, with the optional daily limit and 40% consistency. The trade-offs: the drawdown keeps trailing through the whole challenge, payouts need five winning days, and you can only take half your profit per request.

Express suits traders who want regular, smaller withdrawals. At $205 for $100,000 ($2.05 per $1K), it's the second cheapest, but the drawdown is the tightest of the four at that size ($2,500) and the daily payout caps keep each withdrawal modest.

Standard costs more ($3.30 per $1K at $100,000, $2.83 at $150,000), but it's the only plan with no consistency rule in the evaluation and the largest first payout caps. Pick it if you want the chance to pass in a single day and can trade steadily once funded.

Direct is the most expensive: $5.99 per $1K at $100,000 and $14 per $1K at $25,000. You still need 6% profit and a 20% consistency rule before the first payout, so you pay a premium to skip a test the payout goal partly recreates.

Trading rules in practice

Drawdown and the trading day

The floor rises only on a new highest closing balance, ignores open profit during the session, and never moves back down. It stops at starting balance + $100 on every plan except a Reserve evaluation.

Blue Guardian's trading day runs from 6:00pm to 4:10pm New York time (5:00pm to 3:10pm Chicago time). All open positions close automatically at 4:10pm ET, and that forced close doesn't count as a breach. The help center doesn't publish a separate reset time for the daily loss limit; it says a soft breach is lifted at the start of the next trading day.

Contract limits and scaling

Size is capped by contracts, not leverage. One mini equals ten micros, and orders above your limit are rejected.

Standard and Direct use flat limits: 1 mini on $25,000, 4 on $50,000, 8 on $100,000 and 12 on $150,000. Reserve and Express give full size in the evaluation (Reserve allows 2 minis on $25,000), then start funded accounts smaller and scale up at end of day as your balance grows:

Drop back below a trigger at the close and your limit drops with it. One small mismatch: the pricing widget lists 2 minis for a funded $25,000 Reserve account, while the scaling table starts it at 1.

Commissions and data fees

The instrument list publishes a total cost per side for each contract. A few common ones:

A full-size trade on a $50,000 account (4 ES contracts) costs $23.04 round trip. Ten of those in a day is $230.40, nearly a quarter of the $1,000 daily limit, before any losing trade. Scalpers on micros pay less per contract but take more trades, so add it up.

On DeepCharts, CME Level 1 data is included; other exchanges cost $5 extra and Level 2 depth from $12.10.

News, overnight and weekend holding

News trading is allowed on all four plans, in the challenge and once funded. The help center only warns about slippage. The exception is the Live Account, where news trading is banned.

Overnight and weekend holding are effectively off the table, since every position closes at 4:10pm ET each day. Swing traders should look elsewhere.

Bots, copy trading and hedging

• Bots: AI, bots and fully automated, hands-off systems are banned on every account. Semi-automated tools are allowed if you monitor and manage the trades yourself. Automated scalping above 200 trades a day is restricted.
• Copy trading: allowed between accounts you own, including your own outside accounts and third-party copier software. Copying signal providers, groups or other traders is banned.
• Hedging: banned, including opposite positions in the same or closely correlated contracts across your own accounts.

Consistency rules

Each plan applies its consistency rule at a different stage:

Breaking a consistency rule never breaches the account. You just keep trading until your best day is a small enough share of total profit.

Microscalping, price limits and other bans

• Microscalping: less than 50% of your total profit may come from trades held under 10 seconds, in the evaluation and when funded.
• 2% price limit rule: you can't trade within 2% of a CME daily price limit.
• Martingale sizing is banned, as is exploiting the simulator's fills or lack of slippage.
• Stop losses aren't mandatory, but "all-in" sizing can trigger a review.
• You can hold at most 5 funded accounts at once. Extra ones wait until a slot opens.

Inactivity

Evaluations need one trade every 30 calendar days. Funded accounts upgraded on or after 10 October 2026 need one every 10 calendar days (7 days for older ones). Miss it and the account is breached.

How payouts work

All funded plans pay a 90% split, through Rise or crypto, and Blue Guardian deducts a 3% processing fee from every payout. KYC must be complete before any payout. Requests are processed within 24 business hours.

The Standard article lists payouts as "3 Days" and explains it as 3 days after your first trade. It doesn't spell out the gap between later requests.

Blue Guardian's own pages disagree on a few payout details:

The guarantee clock pauses on weekends, bank holidays, during compliance reviews and while Rise onboarding or documents are pending.

Fee refund. The refund policy says all sales are final once your credentials are emailed. There's no fee refund on passing or on your first payout. The one exception is the Live transition, below.

KYC. You'll need photo ID, a live selfie or video check and proof of address from the last 3 months. Verifying through a virtual machine, remote desktop or proxy is banned, and the provider's decision is final.

The Live Account. Reaching your fifth payout can put you in a "Live Review Pool", though promotion isn't guaranteed. If approved, funded accounts with at least one payout merge into one Live Account with real CME execution, daily payouts, no payout caps and no consistency rule, but no news trading. Each account contributes drawdown ($1,000 for $25,000 up to $4,500 for $150,000), capped at $15,000. You can instead take a one-time Live Buyout worth 50% of that combined drawdown in cash. Unused evaluations are closed on promotion and refunded only if more than half their drawdown remains.

Who can sign up

The futures help center lists 58 restricted countries and regions, including Iran, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia and Vietnam. Check the full list before you pay, because it also includes countries you might not expect, such as Bulgaria, Iceland and Malaysia.

The United States isn't on the list. Cards must be in your own name and match your account details; third-party payments can cost you the account and its payouts.

Reputation

Blue Guardian Futures has no Trustpilot profile of its own. Its reviews sit on the shared blueguardian.com profile, listed as "Blue Guardian CFD", alongside the CFD business. Checked on 28 October 2026, that profile shows no TrustScore: Trustpilot says the rating is unavailable because of a breach of its guidelines and that it has removed a number of fake reviews. The profile shows 2,117 reviews, 741 in the last 12 months, split 62% five-star, 8% four-star, 4% three-star, 2% two-star and 24% one-star. It doesn't show a claimed badge or reply rate. See the Trustpilot page.

Finance Magnates reported the warning label and suspended rating on 13 March 2025.

Most reviews are about the CFD side. Filtering for "futures", the positive ones mention payouts arriving within the 24-hour window and quick support. The negative ones describe payouts denied after a KYC check flagged a "virtual machine", payout interviews that led to denials, trouble getting working DeepCharts credentials, template replies from support, and rule changes applied to older accounts. We can't verify individual reviews, but the themes line up with where the rulebook gives the firm discretion: the payout review and KYC.

The site claims more than $35 million in payouts across the group, with no futures-only figure.

Mistakes to avoid at Blue Guardian Futures

1. Buying Reserve for "no daily loss limit" at the headline price. The $148 price on a $100,000 includes a $1,700 daily limit. The no-limit version is $240.
2. Forgetting that Reserve's drawdown never stops trailing in the challenge. A big winning day lifts your floor permanently. Bank gains slowly near the target.
3. Withdrawing everything you can. After any payout your floor locks at starting balance + $100. Take the full $2,000 cap from a $50,000 Direct account that's up $3,000, and you're left $900 above a $50,100 floor.
4. Ignoring the 4:10pm ET close. Every position is flattened then. Don't plan a trade that needs the overnight session.
5. Letting commissions eat the daily limit. At $5.76 per ES round trip, a busy day of full-size trades can cost more than $200 before any loss.
6. Doing KYC through a proxy, virtual machine or remote desktop. The help center bans it, and the provider's decision is final.

Before you buy: checklist

• Decide which payout style you want: daily (Express), half-profit requests after 5 winning days (Reserve), or larger capped withdrawals (Standard).
• Check the exact Reserve options in the checkout, because the daily limit and consistency choice can almost double the price.
• Check the Express daily limit and drawdown at checkout, since the widget and help center differ on two sizes.
• Make sure your country isn't on the 58-entry restricted list and that your card is in your own name.
• Plan for the 3% payout fee and the minimum withdrawal ($250 or $500).
• Use code SCOUT at checkout. See our Blue Guardian Futures coupon page for how it works.

Our verdict

Blue Guardian Futures is one of the cheapest ways into a funded futures account, and the plan menu is useful. A $148 Reserve evaluation on $100,000 or a $205 Express with daily withdrawals is good value for a disciplined day trader who sizes up gradually and flattens before the close.

The price is low because the payout side is tightly managed. Caps, buffers, winning-day counts, consistency rules, a 3% fee and an active compliance review all sit between your profit and your bank account, and Trustpilot complaints cluster there. Read the rules article for your plan from top to bottom, keep your KYC clean, and plan your first few withdrawals as partial ones.