The 5%ers is one of the oldest prop trading firms along with FTMO, and it has one of the best reputations in the industry.
But what makes it so good, and is the 5%ers a fit for you and your trading style?
The 5%ers funded accounts
The 5%ers is a little different from other prop trading firms in that their challenge model is a little bit unique. They also have very aggressive scaling and their top traders can manage up to $4,000,000 in trading capital.
Their funded account options are as follows:
- $24,000 for €235
- $40,000 for €385
- $80,000 for €745
When you sign up for any of these funding accounts, you get a smaller live account in the first stage of your trading:
- In the $24,000 account, you’ll start with $6,000 in instant funding
- In the $40,000 account, you’ll start with $10,000 in instant funding
- In the $80,000 account, you’ll start with $20,000 in instant funding
There’s a very tight stopout at less than 4%, which forces you to take very small trades. The idea is that you’ll take multiple winning trades to hit the target instead of hitting the target in one or two big trades.
In all three account types, there’s an aggressive trader program and a risk manager program.
There are a few key differences between the two:
In the aggressive trader program, you have 60 days to hit a 12% profit target, and there’s no mandatory stop loss.
In the risk manager program, you have 180 days to hit a 6% profit target, and you must have a maximum stop loss of 1.5% per trade.
It’s important to note that the profit split is 50% in either program! The only reason you may want to opt for the aggressive program is if you’re confident of your trading skills and want to trade with higher leverage.
The low risk program only gives you 1:6 leverage, where the aggressive program gives you 1:30 leverage.
1:6 leverage is quite small, and you may find it to be limiting in many cases. 1:30 is a lot more and can let you take much bigger trades.
For example, if you started with the $6000 account at 1:6 leverage, the biggest trade you could take is $36,000 or 0.36 lots.
At 0.36 lots, you could enter with a maximum 1.5% stop loss of 25 pips. Even if your stop loss was smaller at say 10 or 15 pips, you would not be able to take a bigger lot size for potentially higher profits.
Scaling up with The 5%ers
The really unique thing that makes The 5%ers really appealing to forex traders is the growth program.
All accounts have guaranteed funding up to $2.56 million. Every time you make 10%, you’ll be scaled up and your account size will be doubled.
If you start with the $24,000 account, in just 8 scaling steps, you can find yourself managing $2.56 million in trading capital.
There are hardly any other prop firms that offer professional forex traders so much trading capital.
Plus, the program rules are such that you’re forced to take low-risk trades to achieve the profit targets.
If you’re a profitable forex trader, you’ll find the prospect of $2.56 million dollars(or more) very appealing.
With each larger Forex trading account, you’ll need less steps to reach the $2.56 million mark.
The great thing is that your withdrawals actually don’t affect reaching your profit targets. So even if you made 5% in a month and withdrew your share, you’d still have to make only 5% more to reach the next level of funding.
How much can you realistically earn trading $2.56 million with The 5%ers?
Profitable traders may find The 5%ers really appealing, but let’s do a little bit of quick math to see how much you can really earn with such a large account.
There are three key things to keep in mind:
- You have a very tight drawdown of 4%
- If you’re trading the low risk program, you have very tight leverage of 1:6
- The profit split is 50-50, so you’re effectively trading half the account size
Once you’ve reached the $2.56 million mark, your buying power is $2,560,000 x 6 or $15,360,000. That equals 153 lots.
The maximum you can trade on MT4 is 100 lots, which is $1,000 per pip.
Your maximum stop loss is 1.5%, which is $38,400 or 38.4 pips.
Since your stopout is 4%, you’re probably not going to risk 1.5% on a single trade, so lets say you risked 0.5%.
At 100 lots, this gives you a stop loss of about 13 pips. Assuming you make a 1:1.5 in your Forex trading, that gets you 19 pips or $19,000 or a 0.75% ROI.
Not bad, right?
Remember, you have to split the profit 50-50, so your payout from that trade is actually $9,500.
Still not too bad for a single trade!
Now lets say you can make 4-5% per month.
1% of $2,560,000 is $25,600. Multiply that by 4 and you’re at $102,400.
Your 50% share of $102,400 is $51,200.
That’s more than most people make in a single year!
To make your 4%, you’d have to win at least 8 trades at a 0.5% risk, and you’d have to avoid at least 8 losses in a row from the very start to hit the 4% limit.
The 5%ers Freestyle Trading Program
In 2022, The 5%ers came out with a Freestyle Trading Program which is completely different from every other prop trading firm out there.
To enroll, it costs €550.
In the freestyle program, The 5%ers have eliminated the need for a profit target or a time limit.
Instead, you get a $50,000 account and you are assessed on your performance after you hit 100 trades.
As long as you make twice as much profit as you risked, you’ll be given a fully funded account.
The percentage is calculated by dividing your net profit % by your relative drawdown %.
On this funded account, you’ll have a maximum stopout level of 10% and no profit target. You’ll also get to keep 100% of profits!
Once you have a funded account, every time you place 100 trades, as long as you can keep your profits double of what you’ve risked, you’ll be scaled up. Here, scaling up is slower, as your account is not doubled.
Instead, there are 19 stages to reach $4,000,000 in funding.
To put that into perspective, in order to reach 19 stages, you’ll have to take 1,900 trades.
If you traded every single working day(261 total) for a whole year, you’d have to place 7.27 trades per day to reach $4,000,000!
However, since there’s a larger drawdown and there’s a 100% profit split, you could easily trade your way up to $1,000,000 in 13 stages and enjoy a comfortable withdrawal every single month.
One final catch with the Freestyle account is that Forex traders will be limited to just trading Forex major currency pairs, minor currency pairs, Gold, and Silver. Indices and crypto are not available to trade.
Sign Up HereThe 5%ers Bootcamp Program
The last type of program that The 5%ers makes available to Forex tradesr is the Bootcamp program.
The Bootcamp program has a very low entry cost at just €85.
Here, you’ll have to take three trading challenges with 5% maximum losses and 6% profit targets in each one.
Once you pass all three stages, you will have an opportunity to pay €215 and receive a $100,000 funded Forex trading account.
Once you’re funded, you’ll have to stay away from a maximum loss of 4% and achieve a profit target of 5% to get to the next level of funding all the way up to $4,000,000 in 17 stages.
The 5%ers Bootcamp program is actually quite strange, since there’s a LOT of demo trading to do before you reach the final stage.
The key difference between the Bootcamp program and the regular growth program is that you have a smaller target to hit and you have more leverage to reach it.
It’s also a good way for Forex traders to hone in their trading skills at a lower cost of just €85.
Beginner traders will also find this program appealing, since you don’t have to fork over €245 upfront. You’ll only have to pay the €215 when you directly receive a $100,000 account.
If you think about it, the Bootcamp actually takes you almost the same time to reach $100,000 in funding and less money than other prop firms.
In each demo stage, you have to make 6% profits, so you must make a total of 18% to get a fully funded account.
Compare that to another popular prop trading firm like FTMO, where you must make a total of 15% to get a fully funded account.
The only difference is that FTMO’s $100,000 account costs €540, and you can get this account for €300.
Even if you consider the 50-50 profit split and think of a $100,000 account as a $50,000 account, the $50,000 FTMO account still costs more at €345.
Sign Up HereIs it possible for Forex traders to get funded with The 5%ers?
At first glance, the 4% drawdown may seem very tight and may pu many potential traders off.
However, the key differentiating factor with The 5%ers is that it is a low risk evaluation program. The lesson to learn when Forex trading with The 5%ers is good risk management on your fully funded Forex account.
Financial markets are fickle beasts, and unless you control your risk, you’re likely to risk way too much and lose your account.
Having to avoid the 4% drawdown will teach you to execute on solid trading ideas instead of just jumping in the market whenever you feel like it.
Additionally, these guys offer instant funding, so the moment you sign up, you’re actually fully funded.
How much you can actually grow with The 5%ers depends on how well you manage your risk and drawdowns.
What other traders have to say about The 5%ers
On the whole, reviews about The 5%ers are stellar on TrustPilot. These guys have been in business for over 6 years and their average review is 4.8.
Their customer support team also takes the time to respond to customer reviews on TrustPilot, which is a nice touch.
Other perks with The 5%ers
Along with really competitive funded trader programs, The 5%ers offers a lot of trading resources to their full time traders.
There are daily trading rooms, frequent webinars to level up in your trading, and opportunities to connect with professional traders.
They go above and beyond in providing service to their traders, and this is probably because The 5%ers firm itself was founded by two professional forex traders.
Conclusion
The 5%ers is one of the industry’s leading prop firms with scaling options like no other firm. The low leverage may seem like a limiting factor at first, but it’s actually meant to help prevent you from risking too much.
The instant funding and the ability to withdraw while maintaining your growth percentage for scaling up make The 5%ers one of the best prop trading firms out there.