👀 Topstep reveals $1.1B payouts

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

Payout numbers in focus this week on social media as Topstep has for the first time given an insight into the size of it’s business, by reporting $1.1 billion in lifetime payouts. 🤯 They have been around since 2012 but still pretty crazy numbers!

In the the sprit of sharing, FTMO also released payout numbers, reporting they had paid out £31.5million in February alone. That is also a huge number. For comparison, the largest payout total tracked on Payout Junction over the last 30 days was $21 million (Tradeify). This industry is growing and putting up big numbers.

📢 Firm Announcements via promojunction.io

• Apex Trader Funding announced a major platform refresh, describing a new phase focused on simplicity, fairness, and transparency for traders.

• Funded Trader Markets increased crypto payout limits to $5,000 per transaction, aiming to reduce withdrawal friction caused by KYC restrictions.

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

• Blueberry Funded released a major rulebook overhaul removing several trading restrictions and introducing a 1.5% risk per trade guideline while retiring the Rapid Challenge.

• Goat Funded Futures updated EOD plans with a 6% profit target, 30% consistency rule, and launched a new points based reward system for completing trader tasks.

• My Funded Futures confirmed payouts can start from day one, removing the previous 14 day buffer period.

• Lucid Trading reiterated that hedging across accounts is prohibited and introduced stricter penalties for violations.

• InstantFunding lowered IF Micro withdrawal minimum from 5% to 3% and reduced payout thresholds on IF1 accounts.

• FundedNext, FXIFY, and ThinkCapital all adjusted trading server time from GMT+2 to GMT+3 due to U.S. daylight saving changes.

• FundingTraders introduced a Phase 2 restart option, allowing traders to resume challenges without repeating Phase 1.

• PipFarm launched a new challenge add on allowing traders to increase their daily loss limit up to 5%.

• Finotive Funding announced the rollout of local payment methods across Southeast Asia and confirmed work underway on Finotive Futures.

• Crypto Fund Trader closed its Ascend account initiative after raising funds for education programs supporting children in Senegal.

To create announcement alerts for your favorite firms, and check real-time discounts, head over to promojunction.io.

From Payout Junction, here are the firms who 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. A quiet week on the calendar, however inflation numbers on Wednesday take on a new level of importance with oil prices spiking due to events in Iran. A hot inflation number here could really spook the markets.

📈 Markets

How does the market perform during wars?

A mixed bag, although the trend for wars in the gulf is usually up. (S&P500)

7 interesting Iran facts

An interesting slide from Deutsche Bank.

Stocks bottom mid-March

Been tracking this the past few weeks. Historically in March, the stock market sweeps the low of the year and breaks out. Given the current market conditions, we might look back at this moment as the decisive point in the year.

Typical S&P500 Drawdown

Typically in the 5% range. Currently we are -3.5% from all time highs, which is pretty crazy considering what is going on right now.

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

Kieran

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