👀 Prop firm updates, FOMC week and strong Bitcoin

Hi everyone, it’s Kieran. Another week is in the books and it’s time to do it all over again.

A relatively quiet week on social media, however some conversation about TakeProfitTrader moving from a broad open affiliate network to a smaller curated partner model “focused on long term brand alignment”. They are not the first to do this as Topstep and MyFundedFutures have moved in this direction too.

For the major firms, having hundreds of affiliates spamming their codes likely provides diminishing returns once firms reach a certain level of industry exposure. Seems like a logical approach.

📢 Firm Announcements via promojunction.io

• Blueberry Funded rolled out a major rulebook overhaul, removing several trading restrictions and adding new payout focused add-ons including on demand payouts and 7 day payout cycles.

• Alpha Futures confirmed former ProjectX users have now been migrated into Alpha Trader, with a limited public release and promo expected next week. Alpha also expanded its ZERO account lineup, including a new 25K ZERO account and higher max allocation.

• Tradeify highlighted key Select Plan features, including daily payouts, no consistency rule on funded accounts, and an end of day drawdown structure.

• Goat Funded Futures updated funded consistency to 30% while keeping evaluation consistency at 50%, with EOD plans still centered on a 6% target structure.

• Take Profit Trader updated its affiliate program, moving from a broad open network to a smaller curated partner model focused on long term brand alignment.

• Top One Trader announced policy changes for new accounts from March 13, including resets for 1 Step Flash and 2 Step Plus, a 3% daily profit cap for Flash Funded accounts, and a lower soft breach limit on Instant PRIME.

• Breakout expanded its tooling and account flexibility, adding a 1 hour open interest screener and allowing traders to run multiple evaluations and funded accounts up to $200K total.

• Crypto Fund Trader detailed its ELO based ranking system, where winning trades, passed phases, and payout requests improve rank, while failures reduce it.

• The5ers launched a new lower entry High Stakes option with the same leverage and drawdown rules but a revised 10% then 5% target structure.

• Funded Futures Family officially launched its new PRIME Plan, featuring one day to pass, three day payouts, no activation fee, no daily loss limits, and end of day drawdown.

• ATFunded launched its new Legacy program, positioning it as a more transparent 2 phase challenge with no time limits, no activation fee, and news trading allowed on close only.

• PipFarm added a new Extra 1% add on, allowing traders to increase daily loss limits from day one for an added fee.

• Finotive Funding rolled out local payment methods for Malaysia and Vietnam, with India, Indonesia, and Thailand set to follow, while also raising energy margin requirements due to geopolitical risk.

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🕜 Red Folder News

Here are this week’s red folder news events. A packed calendar this week with the key event being the FOMC meeting on Wednesday where the Fed is expected to keep interest rates steady. Powell’s comments regarding oil prices and the potential for inflation will be interesting, and potentially market moving.

📈 Markets

S&P 500 stuck in a range

US equity markets are holding up pretty well considering global events. SPX was down last week but no technical break yet. Futures green this morning. We continue to churn.

Bitcoin catching a bid

BTC is currently the best performing risk asset in the world. After a 50% retracement over the last 6 months, interest has returned, and BTC has delivered 7 consecutive up days, with futures green again this morning. Lot’s of potential.

Bitcoin v Gold

Zooming out, the BTC/gold ratio is trading inside a massive range. The latest bounce has occurred from the lower end of that range, leaving plenty of upside if the move continues. Long BTC/Short Gold could be the ‘pair trade’ of the year.

US Dollar on a roll

We talked about a potential USD short squeeze at the beginning of the year, when everyone was short the dollar. It’s played out pretty well and is attempting a breakout to the upside. Lots of major institutions will be on the wrong side of this trade, so we could get a monster squeeze if stops start getting triggered.

OK I think you’re all caught up, have a great week!

Kieran

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