👀 Another acquisition as prop firm consolidation continues

Hi everyone, another week is upon us and the markets are open, so let’s get into it.

Consolidation continues to be one of the biggest trends across the prop firm industry. Earlier this year, Topstep acquired The Futures Desk and Instant Funding acquired Funded Trading Plus, with larger firms increasingly buying smaller operators for their technology and infrastructure rather than simply their customer base.

The latest deal sees Funded Futures Network announcing plans to acquire PropEd Capital, with PropEd founder Ethan Warmuskerken set to take over as CEO of FFN and PropEd becoming its dedicated education division.

The firms plan to combine their operations, with FFN also acknowledging that outstanding payouts and extended processing times have frustrated traders. It says PropEd’s technology will help introduce Rise, automate payout processing and rule enforcement, and reduce manual delays.

It is another sign of how the industry is beginning to mature. Larger firms are not simply buying competitors for their customer lists, but acquiring the technology and expertise needed to fix operational weaknesses and expand.

📢  Firm Announcements

• FundedNext introduced three payout structures for Stellar 2-Step and Stellar Lite accounts. Traders can now choose between Standard payouts at 80%, three-day payouts at 60%, or On-Demand payouts at 90% with a 40% consistency rule.

• Blue Guardian announced major changes to its BGF Live programme. Eligible funded accounts will now be combined into one live account when traders are promoted, with their drawdowns merged up to a maximum of $15,000. Traders can also choose a one-time cash buyout worth 50% of their combined starting live drawdown.

• Hola Prime changed its automated trading policy for new accounts. EAs, indicators and trading bots will now require a paid add-on and will only be available through MT5, with automated trading no longer permitted on cTrader. Existing accounts retain their current rules.

• Top One Futures added Black Arrow as a new platform option, featuring copy trading, market replay, custom indicators and one-click chart trading. Existing platforms remain available.

From Payout Junction, here are the firms that paid out the most over the last 7 days 🏆️.

🔥 Monitor prop firm payouts LIVE on Payout Junction - https://payoutjunction.com.

🕜 Red Folder News

Here are this week’s red folder news events. US inflation is back in focus, with Core PCE, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, due on Wednesday. The week should then finish with plenty of volatility as nonfarm payrolls are released on Friday.

📈 Markets

Nasdaq back to all-time highs

Can’t keep tech down. Despite the chaos around the world, the US 10-year yield breaking above 5% and generally fearful market sentiment, the Nasdaq took out its summer highs and closed the week strongly. Buying into fearful market sentiment remains a time-tested contrarian strategy.

Bad Breathth

The indices are back near their highs, yet more stocks have made 52-week lows than highs for five straight sessions. The S&P 500 is up 1.2% over the past month, while nine of its 11 sectors are down. Tech momentum is hard to fight, but the deterioration in market breadth is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Bubble watch

Market concentration is now at levels seen near the peak of previous major bubbles. Historically, concentration has tended to top out at around 40%. The ten largest AI stocks now represent 41% of the market.

The Big (hedge fund) Short

Nasdaq hit fresh all-time highs, but hedge funds were heavily shorting beneath the surface. Goldman Sachs and CFTC data show shorts increased by $15.8bn through 22 September, the largest weekly short build in more than a decade. Probably nothing…

Gonna be an interesting week. Have a good one!

London Prop Trading Expo

The London Prop Trading Expo returns on 23 and 24 October at Old Billingsgate, with more than 64 speakers, 39 exhibitors and up to 4,000 traders expected across the two days.

There’ll be live trading, trader education, industry panels and plenty of prop firms in attendance. If you’re heading along, use code PAYOUT for 50% off tickets.

Find out more here

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