Not only is it possible to trade Futures Markets using our platform offering's instruments as “proxies” but we also believe GFN offers a significantly more realistic prospect to getting funded compared to a Futures Funding Firm.
Let us tackle each point in turn:
1. Trading futures markets using our platform offering's instruments as “proxies”:
You may be using a futures platform such as Sierra Chart or NinjaTrader. This is absolutely fine. You would continue to do your trading analysis there. Nothing needs to change.
However, when you are ready to execute you simply find the equivalent underlying instrument on our platform offerings and buy or sell that instead of the Futures Contract (see below example). Very straightforward!
The Futures Market and it’s equivalent underlying on our platform offerings typically move tick for tick*. In fact the underlying instrument spreads on our partner broker are consistently better than the Futures all in spread we see from the CME!
Let us take an example:
Option A) ES S&P 500 Futures
You trade ES S&P 500 Futures, typically this has a 0.25 point spread and 0.5 point commissions so 0.75 points all in is your actual cost (even more if you trade Micros).
Option B) SPX 500 (via platform offerings with GFN)
You would analyse the Futures Market using your platform (eg Sierra Chart or NinjaTrader or similar) however once you are ready to execute instead of executing the Futures Contract you would simply buy or sell the underlying equivalent on our platform offerings, in this case the SPX 500.
As mentioned they typically move tick for tick together. The advantage is the equivalent SPX 500 spread is typically much lower at around 0.4 points (all in). That is almost half the spread of the equivalent CME contract and more if you trade Micros!
You will find a similar outcome if you trade Crude Oil Futures. You would carry out your analysis on your futures platform (eg Sierra Chart or NinjaTrader or similar) however you would trade WTI on our platform offerings and you will find the spread to typically be less than the all in CME equivalent!
Wait! There are even more compelling reasons to use GFN over a Futures funding Firm:
2. Futures Funding Firm Challenge Comparison
Max Drawdown
If we look at some of the most popular Futures Funding Firm’s $100k challenges it is quite shocking; they typically have a Max Trailing Drawdown of just 3% ($3k)!
At Get Funded Now our equivalent Max Drawdown is as high as 8% ($8k)!
Again, compare that to a 3% fixed trailing drawdown on a typical Futures Funding Firm.
The two are simply not comparable, why would you want to take a Futures Challenge with a 3% Max Trail that is fixed forever compared to up to 8% with GFN!
Minimum Trading Days / Recurring Fees
In addition, they all typically have minimum trading days that you need to complete. We have ZERO such restrictions on our evaluations!
We also charge you a ONE OFF fee on all evaluations so you will never pay again for that evaluation (unless breached) and you can take as long as you need. Futures funding Firms charge you a MONTHLY fee which can rack up quickly!
There are many other benefits, the only one positive Futures Funding Firms have is they provide you a live futures data feed (albeit Level 1 only) however this is something you will likely already have anyway or can easily obtain yourself.
We have many Futures traders using our platform offering's underlying equivalents to trade as the metrics clearly make it a much more compelling way to get funded over the futures funding firm equivalents.
* Whilst they typically move tick for tick The Futures Market and it's underlying equivalent on our platform offerings will have a basis. For example ES S&P 500 Futures may be trading at 4429 and SPX 500 at 4423 giving a basis of 6 points (as one is Futures and one is Cash). However this basis tends to stay fixed throughout the day therefore it can be ignored, as long as they move up and down by the same amount (ie tick for tick) it will not make any difference to the outcome ultimately if you execute in Futures or the underlying equivalent.