Editorial Policy

Our Mission

Prop Firm Secret exists to give retail traders unbiased, data-driven information about proprietary trading firms. We do not accept payments from firms for better placement, do not run affiliate programmes, and do not allow advertising to influence editorial decisions. Every firm is analysed using the same methodology and scored by the same algorithm.

How We Review Firms

All analysis focuses exclusively on funded-stage (live account) rules. Challenge or evaluation phase terms are collected for context only and are never used to compute drawdown limits, daily loss caps, profit split ratios, or minimum trading-day requirements shown on firm cards.

For each firm we collect and verify:

• Drawdown mechanics — maximum total drawdown type (static balance vs. trailing equity), percentage limit, and whether a floating open-loss rule applies before daily close.
• Daily loss limit — funded-stage daily loss cap as a percentage of balance or equity.
• Profit split & scaling — initial payout percentage, scaling plan thresholds if any, and whether profit split percentages are stated in binding terms or only in marketing material.
• Consistency & qualifying rules — minimum trading-day requirements, best-day rules (percentage caps on single-session profit contribution), and maximum consecutive losing-day restrictions.
• Trading restrictions — overnight/weekend holding policies, news-event trading policies, prohibited strategies (e.g. EA grid/martingale bans), copy-trading restrictions, and geographic exclusion lists.
• Hidden rule categories — open-PnL auto-close layers (equity protection, soft/hard breach thresholds), qualifying-day profit percentage minimums, and best-day rules ≤ 15 % (flagged as critical).

Marketing claims, promotional copy, and testimonials are never treated as the source of truth. Every data point is traced to a verifiable page — the firm's website, help center, FAQ, legal terms, or payout policy — and the source URL is stored with the record.

Sources & Evidence Standards

Primary sources in order of preference:

1. Firm's official terms and conditions / client agreement
2. Firm's help center or FAQ pages
3. Firm's dedicated rules / trading-rules page
4. Firm's payout or scaling policy page
5. Firm's about / legal / imprint page (for registration and legal entity data)
6. Archived snapshots via the Wayback Machine when live pages have changed

Source URLs and direct quoted text snippets are stored alongside each analysis record. When a rule is ambiguous or contradicted across pages, the more restrictive interpretation is used and a transparency note is added.

Independence & Conflicts of Interest

Prop Firm Secret has no commercial relationships with any of the firms listed. We do not:

• Accept payment or free challenge accounts in exchange for review access or score adjustments.
• Participate in affiliate or referral programmes for any listed firm.
• Accept sponsored content, paid placements, or "featured firm" arrangements.
• Allow firm representatives to edit or veto published data.

The site may display Google AdSense advertisements. Ad presence does not imply endorsement of any advertised product or firm, and advertisers have no influence over editorial content or AI Rating scores.

The AI Rating System — Full Methodology

Every firm on this site carries an AI Rating — a single score from 1 to 100 that reflects trust, execution quality, and observable risk signals. The score is computed deterministically by a fixed algorithm with no human override or manual adjustment. Below is the complete scoring model.

Score Bands

Weighting Formula

The final score is a weighted average of four independent factors:

Formula: Score = (Broker & Liquidity × 0.40) + (People's Trust × 0.30) + (Firm Behaviors × 0.20) + (Red Flags × 0.10)

Factor 1 — Broker & Liquidity (40 %)

This factor scores the quality and regulation level of the firm's execution environment.

Tier 1 regulators include: FCA (UK), ASIC (AU), MAS (SG), CFTC/NFA/FINRA (US), BaFin (DE), FINMA (CH), AMF (FR), JFSA (JP), DFSA (Dubai), SFC (HK), IIROC/CIRO (CA), FMA (NZ), AFM (NL).

Tier 2 regulators include: CySEC (CY), FSCA (ZA), FSC (Mauritius), FSA (Seychelles), VFSC (Vanuatu), CIMA (Cayman Islands), IFSC (Belize).

Important: SVG FSA is a company registry, not a financial regulator. A firm registered in St. Vincent & the Grenadines with no additional trading licence is classified as unregulated and is capped at LP-only scoring.

Factor 2 — People's Trust (30 %)

This factor uses independent Trustpilot review data sourced via Wayback Machine snapshots (direct Trustpilot access is blocked by AWS WAF; all data is retrieved from archived pages).

When eligible: Score = min(100, round(rating × 14) + volume bonus)

Volume bonus: ≥ 1,000 reviews = +10 pts  |  ≥ 5,000 reviews = +20 pts  |  ≥ 10,000 reviews = +30 pts

Example: a firm with TrustScore 4.5 and 3,200 reviews scores min(100, round(4.5 × 14) + 10) = min(100, 63 + 10) = 73 points.

Factor 3 — Firm Behaviors (20 %)

This factor rewards verifiable evidence of legitimate business conduct. It has four sub-components (all capped at 100 combined):

Factor 4 — Red Flags (10 %)

This factor starts at 100 and deducts 15 points for each of up to six observable risk signals:

1. Support quality issue — documented evidence of unresponsive or problematic customer support.
2. Open-loss auto-close rule — an equity-protection rule that closes positions automatically when floating drawdown hits a threshold before end of day (e.g. "Guardian Shield", "soft breach", "open position loss").
3. Minimum trading-day requirement — funded accounts require a minimum number of active trading days before payout eligibility.
4. No trading restriction data disclosed — the firm has not disclosed any overnight, news, weekend, or strategy restrictions, suggesting either an unusually permissive model or missing documentation.
5. No prohibited strategies disclosed — when other restrictions are present but prohibited strategies are listed as "None" or equivalent, indicating potential hidden rule ambiguity.
6. No restricted countries listed — no geographic exclusion list is publicly documented.

Score = max(0, 100 − flagCount × 15). A firm with 0 flags scores 100; a firm with 6 flags scores 10.

Ranking and Match Logic

The homepage rankings, filter matches, and leaderboard positions are derived from AI Rating scores and the specific data fields surfaced by each filter (drawdown type, trading rules, payout split, etc.). A match or top-rank result is a data-driven output, not an endorsement. Firms can rank highly on one dimension while scoring poorly on another — always check the full firm profile before making a decision.

Filters reflect the funded-stage rules extracted at the time of last analysis. Rules change — verify directly with the firm before purchasing any challenge.

Auto-Update Policy

Firm records are refreshed automatically on a rolling schedule. The system attempts to update Trustpilot data and Facebook managing-country information for each firm at regular intervals using archived and lookup sources. Where automated retrieval is blocked (e.g. Trustpilot direct access), updates rely on Wayback Machine snapshots. Snapshot dates are stored with each Trustpilot record so readers can assess data freshness.

Corrections & Disputes

If a firm changes a funded-stage rule, or if a displayed data point appears inaccurate, email hello@propfirmsecret.com with the specific field, the correct value, and a link to the official source page. Corrections are verified against primary sources before any change is made. We do not accept score adjustment requests from firms — the algorithm is fixed and applied uniformly.

Stored analyses can lag behind real-time site changes. The Last updated timestamp on each firm card indicates when that firm's record was last written, not necessarily when the underlying rules were last verified.

What This Site Is Not

Prop Firm Secret is an independent data and research platform. It is not a broker, a prop firm, a financial adviser, or a signal provider. Nothing on this site constitutes financial advice, a trading recommendation, or a solicitation to purchase any challenge or account product. All prop firm challenges and funded accounts involve significant risk. Conduct your own due diligence and read each firm's full Terms & Conditions before committing funds.