For a scalper, a firm is compatible only when the same style remains eligible for a funded payout. Tradeify illustrates the trap: its Select evaluation has no daily loss limit, but its funded microscalping rule says more than half of both the number of trades and profit must come from trades held longer than 10 seconds to request a payout. It explicitly applies to funded accounts, not evaluation accounts. Missing this test blocks the payout request; the guideline says it does not by itself fail the account. A trader whose edge comes mostly from five-second trades should not treat a Select evaluation pass as evidence of funded fit.
The right question is not “Which firm has the fastest platform?” We have no controlled cross-firm fill sample that could answer that. Ask instead: Which exact evaluation and funded configuration can my existing time-stamped trades survive, and can I still reach a first withdrawal under its rules? This guide is a test method, not a league table or a promise that any strategy will be accepted. Official terms checked September 24, 2026.
A short answer you can reuse
If most of your trades last fewer than ten seconds, screen the funded conduct and payout rules before buying an evaluation. If your trades run longer but include large temporary gains that you give back, compare the intraday equity path against an intraday trailing floor, not only the closed P/L. If you trade several micros or scale in, compare the funded starting contract cap, not the evaluation maximum. Finally, reconstruct at least one complete payout cycle. No single brand wins all four tests; the shortlist changes with the trader's actual history.
Recompute your own trade log before looking at a badge
Start with a recent, representative cohort of closed trades from one strategy and the same futures product, ideally enough sessions to expose an ordinary bad day as well as a good one. A 100-trade sample is an illustration, not an adequacy standard imposed by any of the firms here. Export entry and exit times with timezone, fill-level timestamps where possible, instrument, quantity, fees, net P/L and account. Preserve the original export. If the file has one row per partial fill, do not call each fill a separate completed trade: reconcile fills into the position or trade unit the firm actually counts. If the export rounds times to the nearest minute, a ten-second test is simply not verified.
Count how many completed trades lasted strictly longer than ten seconds and what share of profit those trades produced. Suppose 70 trades closed in eight seconds and generated $1,200 profit, while 30 longer trades generated $800. Only 30% of trades and 40% of the $2,000 profit came from longer trades: both percentages miss Tradeify's funded threshold. This is arithmetic on a hypothetical all-profitable sequence, not a prediction that Tradeify would reject a specific account. A mixed winning/losing sample needs the firm's own denominator and trade-classification interpretation. Do not silently use gross winning trades where its review uses net profit; ask support before purchase if the calculation is material to your edge. A scalper with 60 longer trades generating 70% of profit might satisfy this particular duration test and still miss a different payout condition.
There is a crucial distinction between trades held exactly ten seconds and trades held longer than ten. The published Tradeify wording says longer than 10 seconds for both tests; do not round a 10.0-second observation up. If your timing data is too coarse to settle boundary cases, report a range rather than a false pass.
| Program and phase | Rule that a scalper must replay | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Tradeify Select evaluation | No evaluation DLL; 40% consistency and normally at least three days. The EOD drawdown floor is still enforced in real time. | Select evaluation |
| Tradeify Select funded | Choose Flex or Daily after passing; both face the funded trade-duration/profit rule. Flex has no DLL but five qualifying winning days; Daily has a DLL and buffer. Funded contracts initially scale down from evaluation maximum. | Guidelines, payout options |
| Apex EOD evaluation | Fixed daily loss amount and EOD trailing overall threshold; hitting DLL pauses, touching overall threshold fails | Apex EOD |
| My Funded Futures Rapid 50K evaluation / sim-funded | No evaluation DLL and an EOD maximum loss; then the sim-funded account trails the intraday equity high and requires a realized-profit buffer before payout. | Rapid 50K |
| Topstep Trading Combine | Maximum Loss Limit, profit target, best day under 55% of target to avoid raising consistency target, and a position cap. The post-pass Express Funded Account needs its own check. | Combine parameters |
This is not a measured execution-quality league table. The table names selected rule mechanisms, not every restriction of every product. If the unresolved question is client software or connection reliability rather than funded-stage rules, use the existing platform comparison for prop-firm traders. An EOD-calculated trailing level may still be enforced during the next live session. The absence of a daily loss limit never means no overall loss limit. The $50K label does not mean the same usable risk budget, buying power or withdrawal path across firms.
Four tests that change the answer
1. Duration: which unit does the firm count?
An eight-second scalp with two entry fills and three partial exits can appear as five rows, two positions or one trade depending on the export and platform. That ambiguity matters far more near a majority threshold than it does to a casual performance chart. Reconcile position lifecycles and timestamps before the calculation. Check whether overnight gaps, reconnects, timezones, partial exits and break-even trades alter the unit; if the policy does not specify it, do not invent a universal formula. Ask the firm how it measures the funded trade and profit proportions for your situation. Save the answer with its date and exact plan name.
The conduct screen is separate from a numerical duration screen. Tradeify says personal algorithms may be allowed under conditions but prohibits high-frequency bots and may request proof of sole ownership. Its guideline also prohibits hedging related products across accounts. A manual five-second strategy, an automated order generator and a copier are not interchangeable merely because all produce short holdings. Screen the actual execution method, including accounts and correlated products, against the conduct policy.
2. Loss path: EOD calculation is not the same as intraday safety
Replay account equity in time order, not merely end-of-day net P/L. A series of tiny realized wins could finish positive while its largest simultaneous open loss reaches a hard floor. Conversely, an intraday high-water-mark model may move the floor upward after an open gain even before the trader closes. MFFU's Rapid 50K guide distinguishes the EOD loss model in evaluation from an intraday equity trail in sim-funded. It also changes the T1 news rule across phases. This is exactly why “I passed the evaluation with these trades” is insufficient.
For an EOD model, record both the day-end balance that sets tomorrow's threshold and each later intraday touch of that established threshold. Apex's EOD evaluation rule explicitly says the threshold is calculated at the market close and enforced during the following session. Its fixed DLL pauses trading for the day while touching the overall EOD threshold fails evaluation. Those are different outcomes. Do not describe either as a harmless warning.
If your data contains only closed trades, the worst open-equity excursion is missing. You can estimate the realized sequence, but you cannot certify an intraday equity or open-position breach from the closes alone. Obtain account equity/checkpoint data from the provider, or mark that part of the comparison not verified. TSB Replay can test the rule scope its data actually supports; AI Coach can analyze the selected, recorded trade history, but neither should claim to reconstruct an unrecorded intraday equity path.
3. Capacity: compare the funded starting cap, not the headline evaluation cap
Take the maximum simultaneous size from your real sessions, including scale-ins. Normalize mini and micro contracts according to the exact plan's conversion rules. If your setup habitually runs three minis, a funded stage that starts at two is not the same product as an evaluation allowing four. Tradeify's Select payout policy documents reduced starting limits on funded accounts and EOD-based scaling. Topstep's Combine parameters give a 10:1 micro/mini ratio in Combine and Express Funded while explicitly saying that functionality does not currently apply to Live Funded. A single ratio across all phases would mislead the reader.
For one exact, current example, Tradeify Select 50K evaluation lists four minis (or 40 micros), while both Select funded payout paths start at two minis (or 20 micros) before their stated scaling triggers. A routine simultaneous three-mini scale-in fits the evaluation size cap but exceeds the funded starting cap. That single mismatch can remove Select 50K from this trader's immediate shortlist even if every scalp lasts long enough. It is not a verdict on a larger account size, a later scaled limit or the strategy's profitability.
Size affects a scalper's economics too. A strategy with a small average target can lose its edge after commissions, spread and slippage, especially when transformed from a mini to micros or copied across accounts. Recompute after-cost performance from your recorded fills; do not assume an advertised max contract count is a recommendation to trade it. We have no basis here to rank brands by real fill speed or total execution cost.
4. Payout: can the same sequence reach the first request?
Build a mini timeline from purchase through evaluation, funded activation and the first withdrawal request. Put the trading-day and consistency rule beside the loss model. Tradeify Select removes the evaluation DLL but requires a 40% evaluation consistency objective and a post-pass permanent choice between Select Flex and Select Daily. Flex counts qualifying winning days; Daily imposes a DLL and buffer. Their payout guide distinguishes account purchase cohorts before and after September 1, 2026, so quoting a single cap without cohort is unsafe. Both paths also retain the separate funded microscalping test. Tradeify's current conduct guidelines additionally require at least one trade per account in each Monday–Friday week on evaluation and funded accounts; a trader who only activates the strategy occasionally needs to test that inactivity gate separately from the payout-day count.
MFFU Rapid's sim-funded 50K rules require $2,100 realized profit before a payout request and apply a $500 minimum request. A strategy could avoid the drawdown floor yet never reach that buffer at its normal size and time horizon. At Apex, an EOD evaluation can pass without a minimum trading-day count, but the subsequent Performance Account has distinct payout gates; passing the evaluation is not the same as cash received. Do not flatten either product into “daily payouts.”
An honest 20-session comparison worksheet
Create one row per account session, with all underlying trades attached. The worksheet needs: plan/version and purchase cohort; phase; starting balance; day-end balance; minimum observed equity; maximum open-equity high; greatest simultaneous mini-equivalent size; longest loss cluster; holding durations; number of completed trades; proportion of trades and profit beyond a relevant duration threshold; net P/L after recorded costs; qualifying-day result; and payout buffer after any withdrawal. If the plan's trading day rolls over at a non-local hour, align sessions to its clock, not your calendar date. Twenty sessions is a review example, not a universal statistical threshold or firm requirement.
Replay the same unchanged trade sequence against two or three exact programs. Mark each cell pass, breach, or not verified. “Not verified” is the right value when equity checkpoints, fills, applicable account terms or fee fields are missing; it is not a cosmetic disclosure. Re-run after changing size only if the alternative size is a realistic strategy variant, and label it as such. Do not quietly delete losing trades to produce a better plan fit.
The duration and simultaneous-size columns are manual policy-to-execution checks, not automated TSB Replay verdicts. TSB's current closed-trade Replay explicitly blocks a proved pass when the program requires live/intraday equity and labels position or account rules partial without complete supporting evidence; it does not calculate Tradeify's more-than-ten-second trade/profit test. Preserve the raw fills and the firm's current written interpretation. If they do not support an exact duration unit or size path, keep that cell not verified even when the closed-P/L result looks green.
Then write a decision in plain English: “My strategy clears the funded holding-duration test, but my typical two-contract scale-in breaches the starting cap,” or “The closed trades pass the daily realized limit, while intraday equity compliance remains unverified.” This gives a reader a useful shortlist even when no brand can be safely crowned best.
TSB's prop catalog is a place to inspect exact reviewed configurations, not an authority to replace a firm's current contract. Once the data are imported and reconciled, TSB's AI Coach can help question a selected personal trade cohort—for example, whether the same short-duration setup deteriorates after fees or which sessions produce repeated drawdown pressure. The answer is grounded in the recorded history available for that cohort; missing timestamps or equity checkpoints remain missing. The useful output is a sourced next test, not an AI guarantee of payout eligibility.
What this guide does not decide
It does not certify real fill speed, slippage, platform uptime, legal availability by country, or a firm's willingness to pay a particular trader. It does not imply “scalping allowed” means HFT bots, news spikes or copied accounts are allowed. Any named plan can change, and account cohorts may retain different terms. If your shortlist turns on one marginal duration or buffer calculation, get the answer from the firm's current written policy and save that evidence before paying.
Before purchase, classify every trade as under/over the firm's duration threshold, record its realized P/L and any known open-equity giveback, then replay both evaluation and funded phases. Ask support in writing if your style uses very short fills, bots, copy trading or event spikes. If no reviewed scope exists, mark the result not verified. The right shortlist is the one your actual time-stamped trades can plausibly pass, not the one with the best marketing word for scalpers.
