This is my review of Traders Central Fund. It's going to be long.
First of all, they paid me once (4 digits low).
Second, their customer service is horrendous.
Credentials and Challenges
I purchased a challenge but, for some reason, it didn’t show up in the dashboard. This was my first contact with them and it’s difficult to describe how bad is it.
He kept asking the same information over and over again and didn’t bother in checking on their side what’s going on. I even had to send him print screens of my dashboard, which is ridiculous.
He said I was going to be contacted when things were sorted out, which never happened. After some days I found in the dashboard, accidentally, that the challenge has been created.
A note: they demand 10 trading days for each phase. If we achieve the target before 10 days, we can’t trade 0.01 like in others.
The rule: “This only applies to the 100k and 200k account size only. You can reduce your lot size by up to 75% of the average lot size used on all of your challenge trades until now. You can’t use 0.01 lot sizes or any amount lower than one-fourth of the average lot size used till now on your challenge. You will also be expected to trade normally on the reduced lot size to not by pass the minim day rule.”
Another note: only one challenge or one funded account is allowed (at least in the challenge mode)
Also worth to mention that when we purchase the challenge we have to activate an option inside: 50% positive days or 5% daily loss limit (I chose the former).
After phase 2
I received automatic email as soon as the target was met, informing that account was in review.
Two days after I received a email with a link to submit the trader agreement and ID documents, which I did immediately.
Ten days after nothing had happened. To be honest I was not expecting anything from these guys, so I didn’t press.
Fourteen days after I contacted the support through chat. It was even worse than the first time. Completely useless, could not check my account, could not check that I passed challenge (had to send print screens), didn’t know what happened. Said he had to report and that I would receive a response.
Some more days went on without any response. I was about to open a dispute in Paypal to get the fee back when I found, again accidentally, that the funded live account had been created. Not even an email, no contact at all. It’s unbelievable how bad is it.
Consistency - Martingale
They have a rule to prevent Martingale. Basically, if the positions is losing we can only add lower or equal lots.
The rule: “Martingale trading is the only prohibited strategy. Martingale to us is defined as opening a position while first position opened is in drawdown, and following positions added in the same direction and same symbol are opened in multipliers of first position size. E.g. For a 1 lot sell position, a multiplier in this case starts from 1.01, so 1 and below is not classified as martingale.”
Payouts
The payout is bi-monthly (this is something good) and has to be requested on 14th and 28th.
The cut off hour for requesting it's 17:00 PST (pacific time).
Payouts can be requested in crypto (USDT, USDC, BTC and ETH) or bank wire. I have chosen to receive in crypto.
Request is pretty simple. Just pressing a button in the dashboard, saying how much we want to withdraw, clicking on which crypto we want to be paid and inserting the password. No need to invoice or such. Pretty efficient.
After requesting there is a message in the dashboard saying that withdraw is pending. And also an email confirming the request and that payout was pending approval.
That same day I received another email informing that payout was approved. Payout was deducted from the account and we can go on trading normally. This is also good. Not all companies work like this.
After three business days I was asked for the crypto address of a different crypto I requested, which shows again how disorganized they are. I didn’t care in correcting them. I just provided the address of an alternative crypto. The only thing I wanted was to go on with the payout process and see if I was going to get anything.
That same day I received the payout in crypto so not bad after all the past terrible experience.
However, the payout was not the 85% that they promised. It was something around 77%. I can’t say how much they took for gas fees but definitely it doesn’t justify all the difference.
I’m not going to chase this. They don’t reply to emails anyway. For me it’s not a trustworthy company and I don’t want to waste much time with them. I will let them to pay what they want and I’m happy with that.
Also worth noting that in the banking section of dashboard, where we enter the crypto addresses, they don't specify which networks are used for each cryptos. This can be dangerous because a wrong network can cause the permanent loss of crypto. We need to pay attention to this in the payout request.
Fee refund
Like in all props we are supposed to receive the challenge fee when we get the first payout.
Nothing received after several days. As expected, very shady compared with other props. I have sent an email but so far no response as usual. I may try to contact them in chat if I find the time.
Commissions and spreads
Commission on forex is 3.5/lot which is pretty good.
Spreads are about the same than The Funded Trader (worse than MFF and True Forex). I didn’t notice any slippage even in the live account.
These are aprox spreads of european session:
GBPUSD 0.6
EURUSD 0.5
AUDUSD 0.5
“Forex pairs - $3.5 per lot
Metals - $7 per lot
Crypto - 0.5%
Indices - 0.0004%
Stocks - 0.1%”
Customer Service and Dashboard
Regarding customer service anything I can add will not be sufficient to describe how horrible is it so let’s move on.
In what concerns the dashboard I have mixed feelings. Compared with other props it’s quite confusing. They have a myriad of things I have no idea what are for. I see that we may win points for something I don’t know and enter in lotteries, bets and so on. It’s extremely confusing and there’s no explanation anywhere so I just ignored it. However it makes the dashboard a complete mess until we are able to navigate through it.
On the essential, though, it says if we are OK with daily max loss, how much profit we already achieved, if we made any martingale, etc. And the profit is chart updated almost in real time which is something nice.
Conclusion
Overall, although they paid, it’s the kind of company that doesn’t seem reliable, both because customer service is useless and because they don’t have the best reputation. I would not build a long term relation with these guys, at all. Challenges are cheap but trust is more important than cost.
If you are interested you can read my other reviews:
The Funded Trader
True Forex
The Prop Trading
Disclaimer: I have no connection or affiliation with any firm. I try to describe the props as clear as possible, highlighting what is important for me, reporting the good and the bad.
First of all, they paid me once (4 digits low).
Second, their customer service is horrendous.
Credentials and Challenges
I purchased a challenge but, for some reason, it didn’t show up in the dashboard. This was my first contact with them and it’s difficult to describe how bad is it.
He kept asking the same information over and over again and didn’t bother in checking on their side what’s going on. I even had to send him print screens of my dashboard, which is ridiculous.
He said I was going to be contacted when things were sorted out, which never happened. After some days I found in the dashboard, accidentally, that the challenge has been created.
A note: they demand 10 trading days for each phase. If we achieve the target before 10 days, we can’t trade 0.01 like in others.
The rule: “This only applies to the 100k and 200k account size only. You can reduce your lot size by up to 75% of the average lot size used on all of your challenge trades until now. You can’t use 0.01 lot sizes or any amount lower than one-fourth of the average lot size used till now on your challenge. You will also be expected to trade normally on the reduced lot size to not by pass the minim day rule.”
Another note: only one challenge or one funded account is allowed (at least in the challenge mode)
Also worth to mention that when we purchase the challenge we have to activate an option inside: 50% positive days or 5% daily loss limit (I chose the former).
After phase 2
I received automatic email as soon as the target was met, informing that account was in review.
Two days after I received a email with a link to submit the trader agreement and ID documents, which I did immediately.
Ten days after nothing had happened. To be honest I was not expecting anything from these guys, so I didn’t press.
Fourteen days after I contacted the support through chat. It was even worse than the first time. Completely useless, could not check my account, could not check that I passed challenge (had to send print screens), didn’t know what happened. Said he had to report and that I would receive a response.
Some more days went on without any response. I was about to open a dispute in Paypal to get the fee back when I found, again accidentally, that the funded live account had been created. Not even an email, no contact at all. It’s unbelievable how bad is it.
Consistency - Martingale
They have a rule to prevent Martingale. Basically, if the positions is losing we can only add lower or equal lots.
The rule: “Martingale trading is the only prohibited strategy. Martingale to us is defined as opening a position while first position opened is in drawdown, and following positions added in the same direction and same symbol are opened in multipliers of first position size. E.g. For a 1 lot sell position, a multiplier in this case starts from 1.01, so 1 and below is not classified as martingale.”
Payouts
The payout is bi-monthly (this is something good) and has to be requested on 14th and 28th.
The cut off hour for requesting it's 17:00 PST (pacific time).
Payouts can be requested in crypto (USDT, USDC, BTC and ETH) or bank wire. I have chosen to receive in crypto.
Request is pretty simple. Just pressing a button in the dashboard, saying how much we want to withdraw, clicking on which crypto we want to be paid and inserting the password. No need to invoice or such. Pretty efficient.
After requesting there is a message in the dashboard saying that withdraw is pending. And also an email confirming the request and that payout was pending approval.
That same day I received another email informing that payout was approved. Payout was deducted from the account and we can go on trading normally. This is also good. Not all companies work like this.
After three business days I was asked for the crypto address of a different crypto I requested, which shows again how disorganized they are. I didn’t care in correcting them. I just provided the address of an alternative crypto. The only thing I wanted was to go on with the payout process and see if I was going to get anything.
That same day I received the payout in crypto so not bad after all the past terrible experience.
However, the payout was not the 85% that they promised. It was something around 77%. I can’t say how much they took for gas fees but definitely it doesn’t justify all the difference.
I’m not going to chase this. They don’t reply to emails anyway. For me it’s not a trustworthy company and I don’t want to waste much time with them. I will let them to pay what they want and I’m happy with that.
Also worth noting that in the banking section of dashboard, where we enter the crypto addresses, they don't specify which networks are used for each cryptos. This can be dangerous because a wrong network can cause the permanent loss of crypto. We need to pay attention to this in the payout request.
Fee refund
Like in all props we are supposed to receive the challenge fee when we get the first payout.
Nothing received after several days. As expected, very shady compared with other props. I have sent an email but so far no response as usual. I may try to contact them in chat if I find the time.
Commissions and spreads
Commission on forex is 3.5/lot which is pretty good.
Spreads are about the same than The Funded Trader (worse than MFF and True Forex). I didn’t notice any slippage even in the live account.
These are aprox spreads of european session:
GBPUSD 0.6
EURUSD 0.5
AUDUSD 0.5
“Forex pairs - $3.5 per lot
Metals - $7 per lot
Crypto - 0.5%
Indices - 0.0004%
Stocks - 0.1%”
Customer Service and Dashboard
Regarding customer service anything I can add will not be sufficient to describe how horrible is it so let’s move on.
In what concerns the dashboard I have mixed feelings. Compared with other props it’s quite confusing. They have a myriad of things I have no idea what are for. I see that we may win points for something I don’t know and enter in lotteries, bets and so on. It’s extremely confusing and there’s no explanation anywhere so I just ignored it. However it makes the dashboard a complete mess until we are able to navigate through it.
On the essential, though, it says if we are OK with daily max loss, how much profit we already achieved, if we made any martingale, etc. And the profit is chart updated almost in real time which is something nice.
Conclusion
Overall, although they paid, it’s the kind of company that doesn’t seem reliable, both because customer service is useless and because they don’t have the best reputation. I would not build a long term relation with these guys, at all. Challenges are cheap but trust is more important than cost.
If you are interested you can read my other reviews:
The Funded Trader
True Forex
The Prop Trading
Disclaimer: I have no connection or affiliation with any firm. I try to describe the props as clear as possible, highlighting what is important for me, reporting the good and the bad.
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