TradeDay

TradeDay is a Chicago futures prop firm that has been running evaluations since 2020. You trade CME Group futures (equity indexes, currencies, metals, bonds, energy and grains) on Tradovate, NinjaTrader, TradingView or a long list of Rithmic platforms, and every plan is a single-phase test with a 6% profit target, no daily loss limit and no activation fee once you pass.

The trade-off is how you pay and how you get paid. Evaluations are a monthly subscription, so the clock costs you money until you pass or cancel. The cheapest route, Quick Pay, lets you request a payout on your first funded day, but splits the first $4,000 of profit 50/50. The pricier Fast Pass pays 80% from the first dollar, then caps each payout and makes you earn it over five profitable days. This review walks through both, with dollar examples, plus the spots where TradeDay's own pages disagree.

The short version

• Best for: US-session day traders in index futures who want no daily loss limit, a firm with a long track record and the option of a real live account later.
• Not for: swing traders, news traders, anyone who wants to hold through the close, and traders who'd rather pay once than every 30 days.
• Biggest strength: payouts. Quick Pay has no payout buffer and allows a first request after one funded day, and Trustpilot reviewers mostly back up the speed.
• Biggest risk: the funded Quick Pay account. The drawdown turns intraday trailing even if you bought the end-of-day plan, and you only keep 50% until your profit passes $4,000.
• Our score: 3.9 out of 5. Payouts and track record score very well; value and rule flexibility pull it down.

Who runs TradeDay

TradeDay's about page says it was founded in 2020 by James Thorpe (CEO) and Steve Miley (COO). The terms and conditions name the operator as TradeDay LLC, an Illinois limited liability company, based at 412 S. Wells in Chicago. The terms are governed by Illinois and US federal law. Disputes go to binding arbitration with the American Arbitration Association under its consumer rules, normally heard in Chicago, and you give up the right to a class action. The terms we read were last updated on 11 August 2026.

TradeDay states on its own site that it is not registered with the SEC or CFTC as a broker-dealer, investment adviser, futures commission merchant or commodity trading adviser.

There are three account stages, and only one of them is real money:

• Evaluation: a simulated account.
• Funded Sim: still simulated. Your payouts are real money paid by TradeDay.
• Funded Live: a sub-account of TradeDay's master account at its broker, trading in the real market. TradeDay's leverage article names Tradovate as the broker where it places its cash.

Tradovate, NinjaTrader, TradingView and Jigsaw run on the CQG feed. Rithmic accounts work with R|Trader Pro, Quantower, Bookmap, Sierra Chart, WealthCharts and others. Members get a free NinjaTrader 8 license, but TradingView, Jigsaw and Bookmap need your own paid license.

The rulebook lives in TradeDay's public help center. It's detailed, but spread over dozens of short articles, and some of them contradict each other. We flag those below.

Programs and prices

TradeDay sells three evaluations, each in four sizes. All three are one-phase and share the same targets and drawdown amounts. What changes is how the drawdown is measured, the consistency rule, the minimum days and the funded payout terms.

The prices below are the list prices on TradeDay's homepage pricing cards, checked on 28 October 2026. They are monthly, and you keep paying every 30 days until you pass or cancel. When we checked, the cards showed these prices struck through with sale prices of 50% to 55% off (for example $59 a month for the 50K Quick Pay Intraday), so check the live price before you buy.

Note the drawdown: it's 4% on the 25K and 50K, but only 3% on the 100K and 150K.

If you fail, you can buy a reset or wait for your next monthly payment, which resets a failed account for free. TradeDay's pages don't agree on reset prices for the bigger sizes. The homepage cards, used in the tables below, say $108 and $162 for the 100K and 150K Quick Pay Intraday and $175 and $265 for Fast Pass. The billing articles say $96, $144, $165 and $250, and the terms mention a flat $99. Check your dashboard before you pay.

Quick Pay (Intraday drawdown)

• Profit target: 6% of the account.
• Trailing drawdown measured intraday, in real time, from your highest equity. It stops trailing once it reaches the starting balance.
• No daily loss limit.
• Consistency: your best day can't be more than 30% of total profit.
• At least 5 trading days. No time limit.
• Funded Sim: same intraday drawdown, no payout buffer, no consistency rule, first payout after 1 day, $250 minimum, 50/50 split below $4,000 net profit and 80/20 above.

Worked example, $50,000 Quick Pay Intraday. You start with a floor of $48,000 and need the balance at $53,000. Say a trade runs to $51,500 of open equity, then comes back and you finish the day at $50,800. Your floor is now $49,500, because it followed the open-equity peak, so you have $1,300 of room left, not $2,800. Once your equity touches $52,000, the floor locks at $50,000 and stops moving.

The 30% rule can raise the real target. If your best day was $1,200, you need total profit of at least $4,000 ($1,200 ÷ 0.30) before you pass, so the practical target becomes $54,000.

Quick Pay (EOD drawdown in evaluation)

The same plan, but the evaluation drawdown only updates from your closing balance. TradeDay's cards label it "End of Day (Intraday Funded Drawdown)", and that label matters: once you're funded, the drawdown becomes intraday trailing, exactly like the plan above.

• Profit target: 6%. End-of-day drawdown in the evaluation.
• Consistency 30%, at least 5 trading days, no daily loss limit, no time limit.
• Funded Sim terms identical to Quick Pay Intraday.

Worked example, $100,000 Quick Pay EOD. Your floor starts at $97,000 and the target is $106,000. A morning run to $102,500 that you give back before the close doesn't move the floor at all. Close the day at $101,500, and tomorrow's floor is $98,500. Close any day at $103,000 or higher and the floor locks at $100,000. To pass at exactly $6,000 profit, no single day can be above $1,800. Your balance still can't touch the floor during the day: limits are enforced in real time.

Fast Pass (EOD drawdown)

Fast Pass costs more, and buys you a looser consistency rule, fewer minimum days and an 80/20 split from the first funded dollar.

• Profit target: 6%. End-of-day trailing drawdown in both the evaluation and the funded account.
• Consistency: best day no more than 45% of total profit.
• At least 3 trading days (see the contradiction below). No time limit.
• Funded Sim: 80/20 split, 5 profitable days before each payout, $250 minimum, capped payout per cycle, contract limit that starts small and scales.

Worked example, $25,000 Fast Pass. Your floor starts at $24,000 and the target is $26,500. If you pass at exactly $1,500, your best day can't be above $675. Once funded, you start with just 1 mini (or 10 micros) and gain a contract for every $2,000 of profit at end of day, up to 2 minis. Each payout needs five days of at least $100 profit, and the most you can request per cycle is $750, so the most you take home per cycle is $600.

TradeDay's own pages disagree on Fast Pass minimum days. The pricing cards and the evaluation rules article say 3 days. The homepage FAQ and the "How it works" page say there is no minimum. Plan for 3.

Which TradeDay plan should you pick?

Start with the funded account, not the evaluation, because that's where the plans really differ.

Pick Quick Pay Intraday if you trade tight, rarely let winners turn into losers, and want cash early. It's the cheapest plan ($2.40 per $1K on the 100K and 150K) and you can request a payout after your first funded day. The cost is a 50/50 split until you've built $4,000 of profit, and an intraday trailing drawdown from start to finish.

Quick Pay EOD only changes the evaluation. You pay $44 more on the 50K for an easier test, then trade the same intraday funded account. It's worth it if your style involves big intraday swings in open profit, and only then.

Pick Fast Pass if you want 80% from the first dollar and an end-of-day drawdown that stays end-of-day when you're funded. You pay for it twice: a higher monthly fee, and payout caps of $750 to $2,250 per cycle with five qualifying days each time.

On cost per $1K, the cheapest plans are the 100K and 150K Quick Pay Intraday at $2.40 per $1K. On room to trade per dollar spent, the 50K Quick Pay Intraday is the best buy: $131 gets you $2,000 of drawdown, about $6.55 per $100 of room, compared with $8.00 on the 100K and 150K, where drawdown drops to 3%.

These figures are for one month. If you need two billing cycles to pass, double them.

Trading rules in practice

Drawdown and the trading day

TradeDay has one hard rule in the evaluation: don't hit the maximum drawdown. There's no daily loss limit. The drawdown trails your high until it reaches your starting balance, then freezes there.

The CME trading day starts at 5:00 pm CT and runs to the next day's close, and TradeDay runs its end-of-day process at 4:30 pm CT. Whichever drawdown type you have, the limit is enforced in real time: if open equity touches it, positions are closed and the account fails.

Position limits instead of leverage

Futures firms don't quote a leverage ratio. TradeDay controls risk through a fixed contract limit per account size, listed in the tables above. Micros are counted at 10 per mini, but the micro limit tops out at 50 on the 50K, 100K and 150K. Funded traders may not trade within 2% of an exchange price limit, and breaking that rule costs you the funded account.

Commissions

TradeDay charges commission per contract, per side, and includes simulated commission in your P&L during the evaluation and Funded Sim. A sample from its commission table:

What that costs you. A full 5-lot ES trade on a 50K account costs $28.80 round trip. Do that ten times a day and you've spent $288, which is 14% of your $2,000 drawdown, before a single tick of profit. The same activity in 50 MES costs $95 per round trip. Commissions count against your drawdown and your target, so active traders should price them in.

TradeDay warns that commissions may differ slightly on a Funded Live account.

News, overnight and weekend holding

This is a day-trading firm.

• Tier 1 news: TradeDay closes open positions 2 minutes before a tier 1 release and reopens trading 2 minutes after. The list covers FOMC statements and minutes (1:00 pm CT), CPI and the jobs report (7:30 am CT), EIA crude and natural gas inventories for those contracts, and crop reports for grains. Accidental trades don't fail you, but repeat abuse can cost the account, and profits from tier 1 releases aren't paid out if you lose a funded account.
• Daily close: you must be flat 10 minutes before the close, and TradeDay auto-liquidates at 3:50 pm CT. A position opened after the 5:00 pm CT open can be held through the night, but must close before 3:50 pm CT the next day.
• Weekends: no weekend holding.

Bots, copy trading and hedging

• Your own automation is allowed on NinjaTrader, Tradovate, TradingView, Jigsaw and Quantower. TradeDay doesn't give API access, and bots or automated systems bought from a third party are banned.
• High-frequency trading is banned. More than 200 trades in a day counts as prohibited.
• Copy trading from your own personal account into your TradeDay accounts is allowed, and TradeDay names several trade copiers. If several users make the same trades, all of their accounts are shut down.
• Hedging (long in one account, short in another on the same product) is banned. TradeDay says it offboards anyone caught hedging and they forfeit all funded profits.
• VPNs and VPSs are banned. TradeDay can ask for a full day of trading without masking software when you request a payout or move up a stage.

The prohibited list also covers order splitting and gaming the simulated fill engine. Profits from any banned practice are confiscated.

Consistency

The minimum-days article adds a softer rule: TradeDay checks that your trading looks similar from day to day. Big changes in trade count, size or time of day, or sitting in the passing zone scalping 1-lot micros to rack up days, can lead to an extended evaluation.

Accounts and activity

You can hold up to 10 accounts at once, with no more than 5 active Funded Sim accounts and up to 5 Funded Live. While you have a Funded Live account, you can't buy new evaluations. All accounts must sit at one broker.

TradeDay doesn't charge inactivity fees, but an account dormant for 30 days may be offboarded. Tradovate also archives an account if you don't log in for more than a calendar month, and an archived account counts as failed.

How payouts work

All payouts go through Riseworks. You onboard after you pass. US bank wire is free, international wire costs $15, layer-1 crypto costs $2.50 plus gas, and layer-2 crypto is free. Riseworks may add its own country fees. Requests made before 5:30 pm CT are processed within 24 hours on business days.

Quick Pay Funded Sim

• No payout buffer, no consistency rule, first request after 1 funded day.
• $250 minimum. No maximum is stated.
• Split depends on your current profit in that account: 50/50 below $4,000, 80/20 above. A payout that crosses the line is split in two.

Example. You're up $5,000 on a 50K and request $2,000. The first $1,000 takes you down to $4,000 and is paid at 80%, so $800. The next $1,000 takes you below $4,000 and is paid at 50%, so $500. You receive $1,300. The drawdown is based on gross profit (current profit plus withdrawals), so the floor stays where it was while your balance drops. Every withdrawal cuts your room by the same amount.

At $10,000 gross profit in an account, trading pauses for a review for Funded Live. Any profit above $10,000 is removed and can't be paid out, so stop when you reach it. TradeDay says most traders are moved to Live, and the transfer can take up to 10 business days.

Fast Pass Funded Sim

• 80/20 split. No buffer.
• Each payout needs 5 profitable days of at least $100 (25K), $150 (50K), $200 (100K) or $250 (150K), and the balance must be above the starting balance.
• After you request, you stop trading until the money arrives. The next cycle starts the session after.
• On your first payout request, the trailing drawdown jumps up to the starting balance and stays there.

Those caps apply to accounts opened on or after 26 July 2026. Older 50K, 100K and 150K accounts have higher caps ($2,000, $2,500 and $3,000) and no consistency rule. Fast Pass traders move to a new Funded Live account on their 5th payout request.

Funded Live

Live accounts pay 90/10. They come with costs Funded Sim doesn't have: CME professional market data at $156 per month, per exchange, plus $2 a month from Tradovate, and live commissions come out of your balance. Setup takes around five days because of KYC and anti-money-laundering checks.

Live accounts start small. A Fast Pass Live account opens with a $0 balance and 1 to 4 contracts. Quick Pay Live limits depend on the profit you carry over, from 2 minis to 4. A slippage rule closes positions if your balance falls below a buffer of $500 to $1,000. Lose a Live account and you wait three months before taking another TradeDay evaluation.

What each document says

Plan on the stricter reading until support confirms otherwise in writing.

Refunds and KYC

TradeDay doesn't refund evaluation fees, including after you pass. The one exception is a forgotten renewal: contact TradeDay within 72 hours of the charge, with no trading since, and you may get the last payment back minus 20%.

KYC happens when you're funded, run by the broker, clearing firm and Riseworks. You need a government ID and a bank statement or utility bill. If you pass but fail the checks, TradeDay refunds the fee for the passed evaluation, not earlier failed attempts or subscriptions. You have 30 days after passing to complete onboarding, including a short rules course, or the offer is withdrawn.

Who can sign up

You must be 18 or older. TradeDay publishes a list of more than 80 prohibited countries and regions, including Russia, Belarus, Ukraine (new users), Turkey, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Malta and Iceland. US territories Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands are on the list too. The rules cover citizenship and residency, and long stays in a listed country, and TradeDay says exceptions aren't possible.

Two partial restrictions matter: residents of Canada outside Ontario and citizens of Germany can trade Funded Sim only, with no move to Funded Live.

US traders are TradeDay's home market, and the help center doesn't restrict any US state. US single-member LLCs can sign up; other business entities can't.

Reputation

On Trustpilot, TradeDay scores 4.6 out of 5 from 1,454 reviews, checked on 28 October 2026. Of those, 85% give five stars and 6% give one star. TradeDay claimed its profile in August 2020, pays for a Trustpilot subscription, and had replied to 86% of negative reviews, typically within a week. See the Trustpilot page.

Positive reviews mostly mention quick payouts, simple and clear rules, helpful support and the education material. Negative reviews mostly mention accounts closed after a subscription was cancelled, payout approvals that took longer than expected, unhelpful support replies, platform problems and commission costs.

We found no regulator actions or reports about TradeDay in Finance Magnates, FX News Group or FinanceFeeds.

TradeDay publishes more than most firms about its own results. Its site says it has paid out more than $10 million (as of December 2025) and that the evaluation pass rate was 36% from January to June 2026. These are the firm's own figures, not audited ones.

Mistakes to avoid at TradeDay

1. Assuming Quick Pay EOD stays EOD. The funded account is intraday trailing on both Quick Pay plans. Practice protecting open profit while you're still in the evaluation.
2. Holding into the close or a tier 1 release. TradeDay will flatten you at 3:50 pm CT and 2 minutes before CPI, jobs or FOMC. Don't let an auto-liquidation pick your exit price.
3. Trading past $10,000 on Quick Pay. Anything above the $10,000 gross-profit review is removed and can't be paid out. Stop and wait.
4. Letting a forgotten subscription renew. You have 72 hours to ask for a refund, and you still lose 20%. Cancel the day you stop trading, but note that cancelling wipes evaluation progress.
5. Spiking one day to hit the target. A $1,200 day on a 50K Quick Pay pushes your pass mark to $4,000 of profit. Size evenly across the week.
6. Withdrawing to the bone. TradeDay says frequent or large withdrawals that leave an account close to its drawdown can be treated as mismanaging it.

Before you buy: checklist

• Decide whether you want Quick Pay's early cash or Fast Pass's 80% split, because the funded terms differ more than the evaluations do.
• Check the live price on the pricing card, and remember it bills again every 30 days.
• Confirm your country isn't on the prohibited list, and if you're in Canada or Germany, accept that you'll stay on Funded Sim.
• Read the tier 1 news list and plan your sessions around 3:50 pm CT.
• Work out your commission per round trip for the contract you trade.
• Use code SCOUT at checkout. See our TradeDay coupon page for how to apply it.

Our verdict

TradeDay is a solid choice for disciplined US-session futures day traders. It has been around since 2020, publishes its pass rate and its rulebook, pays through Riseworks with low fees, and has no daily loss limit or activation fee. Quick Pay's day-one payouts with no buffer are about as flexible as funded payouts get.

The weaker parts are the monthly billing, the 50/50 split on Quick Pay's first $4,000, an intraday trailing drawdown on every Quick Pay funded account, and the caps on Fast Pass payouts. If you hold through news, trade overnight or want one fee and done, look elsewhere. If you flatten before the close and size evenly, TradeDay is a firm you can plan around.