Earn2Trade is best funded trader programs for futures that scales account size in stages instead of handing over one large account on day one. It fits methodical CME futures traders who want a structured progression, free platform access during the test, and a defined set of rules to trade against. Traders chasing instant six-figure funding, or anyone who trades Forex or crypto, should look elsewhere.
What Earn2Trade Is and Who It Is For
The model is simple to describe and harder to pass. A trader pays a monthly subscription, proves they can hit a profit goal without breaking a drawdown or daily loss limit, and then receives a funded-account offer from one of Earn2Trade’s partner proprietary trading firms: Helios Trading Partners, Appius Trading Limited, or Kronos Proprietary Trading. The profit split on funded accounts is 80/20 in the trader’s favor.
Everything here is built around CME-group futures. There is no Forex, no equities, and no broad multi-asset menu. That focus is the point. A trader who lives in the E-mini and Micro futures markets gets a program designed around how those instruments actually trade, including position limits expressed in contracts rather than dollars. Anyone looking for a trade-anything funding deal will find the structure too narrow and too rule-bound.
The Two Evaluation Products
Earn2Trade runs two evaluations that lead to the same funded outcome by different routes. A useful thing to know up front: at matching account sizes, both products use the exact same evaluation parameters. A $50,000 evaluation carries a $3,000 profit goal, a $2,000 end-of-day drawdown, a $1,100 daily loss limit, and up to 6 contracts whether it is bought as a TCP50 or a GAU50. The differences between the two products are about price and structure, not about the rules of the test itself.
Trader Career Path
The Trader Career Path is the flagship and carries the “Most Popular” label. It sells at three entry sizes, TCP25, TCP50, and TCP100, and its defining feature is a growth plan that scales capital upward as a trader keeps hitting profit goals and withdrawing them. The published ladder climbs from a $25,000 account through $50,000, $100,000, and on to $200,000, with profit goals and contract allowances rising at each rung from 3 contracts up to 16.
The ceiling depends on the tier purchased. A TCP25 account tops out at a $200,000 funded account, while TCP50 and TCP100 scale all the way to $400,000. Drawdown changes shape along the way, beginning as an end-of-day calculation, converting to a trailing drawdown on live capital, and finally locking at a fixed minimum near the top of the ladder. This is a program for a trader who can repeat a process rather than one who needs a single big score.
Gauntlet Mini
The Gauntlet Mini is the faster, larger-entry alternative. A trader picks a size from GAU50 up to GAU200, runs one evaluation, and gets funded at that level. It costs less than the Trader Career Path at the sizes they share, $170 a month for a $50,000 GAU50 against $190 for the equivalent TCP50, and it reaches entry sizes the Trader Career Path does not sell directly, including $150,000 and $200,000 accounts.
There is one quiet cost difference that matters. The Trader Career Path includes a free reset when the subscription rebills, and the Gauntlet Mini does not. For a trader who expects to need a reset or two, that perk narrows the price gap and can tilt the decision back toward the Trader Career Path even though its sticker price runs higher. Both products require a minimum of 10 trading days before an evaluation can pass.
LiveSim Versus Live After Passing
Passing the evaluation does not automatically mean trading the firm’s real money. Earn2Trade offers two funded routes, and the distinction is the single most misunderstood part of the program. A LiveSim account trades simulated capital against real-time market data, while a Live account trades real capital. Profits from a LiveSim account are still withdrawable, but with caps, whereas a Live account carries no withdrawal ceiling once funded.
The drawdown type shifts with the account, too. LiveSim accounts use an end-of-day drawdown, the same as the evaluation, and Live accounts use a continuous trailing drawdown. A trader who assumes “funded” means an uncapped real-money account on day one has misread the offer.
Markets and Platforms
All CME-group futures are in scope, covering CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX, including the Micros. The exclusions matter as much as the inclusions. There is no Forex on either product. Bitcoin futures are barred on live accounts and do not count toward completion, and Ether futures are disallowed outright on volatility grounds.
Platform access is one of the program’s real strengths. NinjaTrader, Tradovate, TradingView, Finamark, and R|Trader and R|Trader Pro are all free during the evaluation, with Finamark including a 90-day live trading license. Beyond those, Earn2Trade supports a long roster of third-party software that traders bring their own license for, including Bookmap, Jigsaw Trading, ATAS, Quantower, MultiCharts, and Sierra Chart. The Sierra Chart route comes with a caveat the firm states plainly: Sierra no longer officially supports Rithmic, so connection issues are the trader’s risk. Few evaluation firms hand over a professional charting and order-flow stack at no extra cost during the test, and that alone lowers the real cost of an attempt.
Pricing
Earn2Trade prices by tier as a recurring monthly subscription, with no upfront activation fee to start an evaluation. Reset costs are flat at the smaller sizes and scale up at the larger Gauntlet Mini tiers.
| Plan | Account Size | Monthly Price | Profit Goal | EOD Drawdown | Daily Loss Limit | Max Contracts | Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TCP25 | $25,000 | $150 | $1,750 | $1,500 | $550 | 3 | $100 |
| TCP50 | $50,000 | $190 | $3,000 | $2,000 | $1,100 | 6 | $100 |
| TCP100 | $100,000 | $350 | $6,000 | $3,500 | $2,200 | 12 | $100 |
| GAU50 | $50,000 | $170 | $3,000 | $2,000 | $1,100 | 6 | $100 |
| GAU100 | $100,000 | $315 | $6,000 | $3,500 | $2,200 | 12 | $100 |
| GAU150 | $150,000 | $375 | $9,000 | $4,500 | $3,300 | 15 | $130 |
| GAU200 | $200,000 | $550 | $11,000 | $6,000 | $4,400 | 16 | $155 |
At $150 a month, the TCP25 entry point sits at the affordable end of the futures evaluation market, and the $100 reset is reasonable for traders who expect to take more than one attempt. The recurring structure rewards traders who pass quickly and penalizes those who drag an evaluation across many months, since the subscription keeps billing until the account passes or fails. One detail worth weighing at the same size: the Gauntlet Mini undercuts the Trader Career Path on monthly price, but the Trader Career Path’s free reset on rebill can erase that gap for anyone who fails an attempt.
Rules and Restrictions That Affect Cost and Usability
The headline numbers are easy to read. The rules underneath them are what actually decide whether a trader passes, and what funding is worth once they do.
Drawdown Mechanics
Earn2Trade uses three drawdown types across its accounts. The end-of-day drawdown, used in evaluations and LiveSim accounts, recalculates the minimum balance based on closed positions at the close of each session. The trailing drawdown, used in Live accounts, updates continuously on both open and closed positions through the day. The fixed drawdown locks the minimum balance at a set level and applies only at the top of the Trader Career Path ladder.
The end-of-day drawdown sounds forgiving, and there is a trap inside it. The minimum balance only resets at the end of the day, yet a trader can still blow the account intraday if open equity falls below that minimum in real time. Treating the end-of-day drawdown as if it ignores intraday risk is the fastest way to fail an evaluation that looked comfortable on paper.
The Maintain Consistency Rule
The Maintain Consistency rule is the restriction most likely to surprise a profitable trader. Across an evaluation, no single trading day may account for 30% or more of total profit. The rule does not fail a trader for a big day on its own; it simply requires more trading until that day shrinks below 30% of the total. The math is direct: divide the largest daily profit by 0.3 to find the total profit needed. A $1,200 day requires $4,000 in total profit to come into compliance.
There is a defensible logic here, since the rule filters out one-lucky-trade funding. It is also a genuine constraint. In natural trading, a small number of sessions generate the bulk of profits, and this rule works directly against that pattern by forcing a strong day to be diluted across additional ones. It applies only during the evaluation, not on LiveSim or Live accounts, so its bite lands exactly where a trader is trying to prove themselves.
Withdrawals and Funded-Stage Costs
Funded payouts run on a weekly cycle. The partner firms process withdrawals on Wednesdays, and a request must be emailed by 2pm on the prior Friday to make that week’s run. The minimum net withdrawal is $100, and a fee applies to every request regardless of size: $50 per withdrawal on Rise for non-US traders or 1.5% for US traders, $50 on Deel, $5 to $40 on Bayzat, and 0.735% for direct crypto.
Two further costs hit early profits. A LiveSim account with non-professional CME status carries a one-time $139 activation fee deducted from the first withdrawal, so that first payout has to clear the minimum, the activation fee, and the withdrawal fee combined. LiveSim withdrawals are also capped. A Gauntlet Mini LiveSim allows a maximum of $4,000 withdrawn, which requires reaching $5,000 in profit before the 20% split, after which the trader must move to a Live account. A Trader Career Path LiveSim caps at the relevant profit target less the 20% share. Data fees are covered during the evaluation for non-professional traders, then run $140 a month per exchange on Rithmic Live accounts and $156 a month per exchange for NinjaTrader Live holders. None of these figures is unusual for the funded-futures space, but together they mean the first dollars out of a LiveSim account are smaller than the raw profit suggests.
Bottom Line
Earn2Trade is a strong choice for a disciplined CME futures trader who treats funding as a process rather than a lottery ticket. The Trader Career Path’s scaling growth plan is the real draw, and the free professional platforms make attempting it cheaper than the sticker price implies. The Gauntlet Mini is the better pick for a trader who wants to start at a larger size right away and is willing to give up the free reset to pay a lower monthly fee. What separates this program from a brochure is its honesty about the rules, and a buyer should read those rules as carefully as the prices.
Our guide about the top futures prop firms and prop firm scaling plan comparison are helpful for beginners, while the TradeDay funded account review and Toptep review go into details about great alternatives to Earn2Trade.
Pros
- Free access to NinjaTrader, Tradovate, TradingView, Finamark, and R|Trader during the evaluation, with Finamark including a 90-day live license.
- A genuine scaling path from $25,000 up to $200,000, or as high as $400,000 on higher Trader Career Path tiers, that rewards repeatable consistency instead of one-and-done funding.
- Low entry cost of $150 per month on TCP25, resets starting at $100, and no upfront activation fee to begin.
- Broad third-party platform support covering Bookmap, Jigsaw, ATAS, Quantower, MultiCharts, and more.
- An 80/20 profit split with no withdrawal ceiling once a trader reaches a real-money Live account.
Cons
- The funded stage frequently routes through LiveSim, a real-data but simulated account with hard withdrawal caps ($4,000 on a Gauntlet Mini LiveSim) and a one-time $139 charge on the first withdrawal, so passing does not immediately mean trading real firm capital.
- The Maintain Consistency rule penalizes the natural pattern where a few sessions drive most of the profit, forcing extra trading days to dilute a strong one.
- The Gauntlet Mini leaves out the free-reset-on-rebill perk that the Trader Career Path offers, which raises the real cost of the faster track for traders who need more than one attempt.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between the Trader Career Path and Gauntlet Mini?
Both lead to the same funded outcome and use identical evaluation parameters at matching account sizes; the differences are price and structure. The Trader Career Path scales capital upward as a trader hits profit goals, climbing from $25,000 toward $200,000 or as high as $400,000 on higher tiers, and includes a free reset on rebill. The Gauntlet Mini is a single evaluation at a chosen size from $50,000 to $200,000, costs less monthly, but has no free reset.
How much does Earn2Trade cost?
Earn2Trade charges a recurring monthly subscription with no upfront activation fee. The Trader Career Path runs $150 (TCP25), $190 (TCP50), and $350 (TCP100), while the Gauntlet Mini runs $170 (GAU50) up to $550 (GAU200). Resets start at $100, and the Trader Career Path includes a free reset at each subscription renewal, which can offset the Gauntlet Mini’s lower monthly price for traders who need more than one attempt.
What is the difference between LiveSim and Live accounts at Earn2Trade?
A LiveSim account trades simulated capital against real-time data with withdrawal caps, while a Live account trades real capital with no withdrawal ceiling. The drawdown type also shifts: LiveSim uses an end-of-day drawdown like the evaluation, but Live accounts use a continuous trailing drawdown calculated in real time. A trader who assumes passing means an uncapped real-money account on day one has misread the offer.
What is the Maintain Consistency rule at Earn2Trade?
The Maintain Consistency rule requires that no single trading day account for 30% or more of total profit across an evaluation. It does not fail a trader for a big day; it simply requires more trading until that day falls below 30% of the total, found by dividing the largest daily profit by 0.3. It applies only during the evaluation, working against the natural pattern where a few sessions drive most of the profit.