Prop Firm Passing Services, and What Each Firm Does If You Use One

Key takeaways

We read the current terms and help pages of 19 prop firms on October 3, 2026 for one question: can someone else trade, pass or copy trades into your account?

Read the full summary

We read the current terms and help pages of 19 prop firms on October 3, 2026 for one question: can someone else trade, pass or copy trades into your account? None of the 19 allows it. 18 ban it outright, and 7 of those (City Traders Imperium, Funded Trading Plus, FundedNext, FundingPips, Hantec Trader, Take Profit Trader and The5ers) name passing services outright; Bulenox leaves only an approval route for outside algorithms, with no published criteria. In 12 of 19 the written penalty can reach every account you hold with the firm, not just the one that was passed. Hantec Trader can also recover payouts it already approved, and several firms keep the fee. Funding Traders is the only firm that publishes an exact test: the same instrument traded in the same direction within one minute across different verified profiles. MyFundedFutures allows copier software only across your own accounts, and Lucid Trading issues bans using wording that appears in neither its Terms nor its FAQ. Every one of these penalties lands on the buyer, not on the service that traded the account.

Freshness: checked October 3, 2026 (Funding Traders on October 2, 2026). Firms change terms without notice; re-read the clause before you buy. Each Trustpilot figure carries the date we read it.

Is a prop firm passing service allowed? The quick answer

No. Using a passing service breaks the account sharing rules of every prop firm we checked. Of the 19 firms, 18 ban anyone else trading your account outright and Bulenox allows outside algorithms only with management approval it never defines. Not one allows a stranger to pass your challenge, and none is silent on the point.

The consequence is not a slap on the wrist. Depending on the firm, you lose the account and its profits, every other account you hold with the firm (12 of 19 say the penalty can reach them), payouts already approved (Hantec Trader), your fee (FTMO, FundingPips, City Traders Imperium, The5ers, Lucid Trading) and any future access. The seller who traded your account is not the one who carries any of it.

• Only published timing test: Funding Traders, the same instrument in the same direction within one minute across different verified profiles.
• Heaviest written penalty: Hantec Trader, every linked account including future ones, plus payouts it already approved.
• Only fee refund on a breach: E8 Markets refunds the fee on the breaching account, but accrued profits are lost.
• Most misread rule: MyFundedFutures allows copier software, but only across your own accounts.
• Rule vs enforcement gap: Lucid Trading bans with wording its own Terms and FAQ never use.

What a prop firm passing service is

A prop firm passing service is a paid third party that gets your evaluation passed for you. It either logs in to your account (with your password, or through remote access to your computer) or copies trades into your account from an account it controls, usually for an upfront fee, a share of your future profits, or both. You keep the funded account on paper; someone else produced the result. Every firm in this guide treats that as a breach by you, the account holder, because the account is personal and the evaluation is meant to test your own trading.

The same mechanics cover related arrangements the firms also ban: an account manager who trades a funded account for a profit split, buying or renting someone else’s funded account, and a signal group whose members all copy one leader into their prop accounts.

Account sharing vs copying your own accounts under prop firm rules

Most of the firms here allow some form of trade copying, which is where buyers get confused. Copying between accounts that you own and trade yourself is a separate permission, and it is how traders run several funded accounts at once. Our guide to the best trade copiers for prop firms covers that legitimate use. What no firm allows is copying from, or trading by, another person.

Three firms show how narrow the copying permission is. FundingPips allows copying out of a FundingPips master account to your own external account, but bans copying into a FundingPips account from a signal provider or copier service. City Traders Imperium requires the CTI account to be the master. Alpha Futures and Alpha Capital Group allow copying only from your own external account into theirs. A passing service always copies in, from an account it controls, so it fails all three.

MyFundedFutures is the firm most often described as allowing copy trading. Its copier article does, for your own accounts; its article titled “Can someone else trade my account?” says only the account owner may trade. Copy limits also exist on own-account copying (FTMO’s $400,000 per trader or strategy, FundedNext’s $300,000 on Challenge accounts, Hantec Trader’s $400,000), and our prop firm trade copier rules page lists them by firm.

How prop firms detect account sharing and passing services

13 of the 19 firms describe at least part of how they check; the other 6 (Apex Trader Funding, Bulenox, Lucid Trading, MyFundedFutures, Topstep and Alpha Futures) publish identity controls or banned behaviours but no method. What the firms disclose falls into five groups:

• Trade matching: Funding Traders uses one minute, same instrument, same direction across different verified profiles. Funded Trading Plus flags trades in the same market and direction that overlap in time across different traders, with no need for matching open and close times. FundedNext compares entry and exit prices, lots, symbols and timing. Take Profit Trader lists trade timing correlation, strategy similarity, risk and sizing patterns and execution clustering. E8 Markets watches for multiple users running the same trades or strategy.
• Devices and networks: City Traders Imperium allows at most two devices and one trader per household IP. Hantec Trader names shared or masked device IDs, IP addresses, VPNs, proxies and virtual machines. FundingPips reviews device information and IP activity and requires a consistent IP region. Blue Guardian monitors device activity, login behaviour and account associations. Alpha Capital Group flags shared IPs and IP changes between countries that are not geographically feasible. Apex Trader Funding bans sharing MAC addresses, computers, IPs and cards.
• Identity and money: FTMO requires you to disclose any card, wallet or device you share with another FTMO user. Alpha Futures matches the card name to the KYC profile. Topstep, Tradeify, Take Profit Trader and Funded Trading Plus pay out only to your own name.
• Interviews: Tradeify’s Know Your Trader interview asks questions generated from your own trading history. The5ers can require a video interview within five business days. City Traders Imperium can interview you at any time.
• Review at payout: Bulenox verifies a passed account before funding it, Take Profit Trader may act before, during or after a payout review, and Lucid Trading checks identity at payout, which is where most reported bans land.

Two firms publish limits on their own evidence: FundingPips says access from different IP addresses “does not, by itself, establish account sharing,” and Take Profit Trader says no single signal is a violation on its own. Hantec Trader goes the other way and puts the burden on you to show your trading was independent.

Prop firm account sharing rules compared in one table

The table shows what each firm’s own current pages say about someone else trading your account, grouped by rule. Groups with no members: no firm allows it, and no firm is silent. Copy limits and quotes follow in the firm sections below.

Notes on this table: This is not a ranking. Rows are grouped by what each firm’s own pages say about someone else trading your account, then listed alphabetically inside each group. ^* Apex Trader Funding: the stricter sentences (“closure of all associated user accounts” and a request to submit software for approval) sit only on its Legacy Performance Account compliance page; the cell uses the current prohibited activities page. ^† Topstep: its help page lists responses from a warning to permanent closure, while its Terms of Use say a prohibited conduct finding forfeits and closes every other Topstep account; the cell shows both, and the stricter Terms reading is the one to plan around. ^‡ Lucid Trading: its FAQ says third party trade copiers are permitted, its Terms ban trading in concert with third parties and trading on behalf of others, and its bans cite “cross-user coordinated trading,” wording found in neither document. ^§ Bulenox: its Terms require outside algorithms to be approved by management, but no criteria or approved list are published and its FAQ bans commercial, shared or rented tools, so a paid passing service has no practical route.

What happens if a prop firm catches a passing service

This is the side of account sharing rules a passing service never mentions. The penalty attaches to the account holder, so the buyer carries it all. 12 of the 19 firms say in writing that it can reach accounts beyond the one involved.

Notes on this table: Each cell is the firm’s written outcome for this kind of breach; “Not published” means the pages we read name no outcome for that column, not that none applies. ^† Funded Trading Plus: its Terms terminate “your Account,” and the Account is defined as the login it creates when you first buy. Read that way, termination reaches every program on the login; read narrowly, only the program involved. Plan for the wider reading.

Why it costs more than it saves: a passing service is paid to get you past the fee you would otherwise risk on your own attempts. If it is found, you lose the account it passed, the profits on it, often your other accounts with the firm, and at some firms the fee and payouts already approved, and you may be barred from buying again. The seller’s fee is not refunded either.

Prop firm account sharing rules, firm by firm

Each section quotes the firm’s rule, its stated consequence and what it says about detection, with the source page and the date we read it. Firms appear in the same order as the tables: the 7 that name passing services first, then the 11 that ban the practice in other words, then Bulenox.

City Traders Imperium names pass services in its terms and three help articles

City Traders Imperium is the most repetitive about it. Passing services are named in its Terms (“traders using any prop firm passing services, or account management services”), in its prohibited methods article, in its copy trading policy and in its sign-up rules. Its prohibited methods article describes the usual business model in one line: “Using a funded account pass service to trade on your behalf in exchange for a profit split.”

The device rules are strict: at most two devices per trader, the same devices across every phase, VPNs banned, KYC with a live selfie, and “Only one account per household may use a single IP address.” Its Terms let it end “any and all Client’s accounts” and accounts of related customers, with no refund of the fee. One firm reply from February 5, 2026 closed an account for “near-identical entry and exit timestamps” with another user’s account. The firm’s own blog still says VPS and VPN use is allowed, while the live help centre bans VPNs; follow the help centre.

• If you are caught: “Permanent ban from all future CTI programs. Legal action, if necessary.”
• Copying allowed: Copying out of a CTI master account only; copying into CTI from any source is banned.
• Source: City Traders Imperium prohibited trading methods, read October 3, 2026.
• Trustpilot: 4.2/5 on 1,627 reviews, read October 2, 2026. City Traders Imperium profile.

Funded Trading Plus flags overlapping trades even without matching entry times

Funded Trading Plus bans the practice twice, once in its Terms (no trading through “services which exist in order to pass a user’s challenge on their behalf”) and once in a help article written in plain terms. Its detection rule is the broadest timing test here: trades do not need the same open and close times to be flagged. The help article reads: “We do not permit any kind of account management, or any evaluation passing services. This means the person purchasing the account must be the person trading the account.”

The copy trading article says “If trades on the same market, in the same direction, overlap in time across accounts belonging to different traders, this may be flagged.” Payouts go only to the KYC-verified name on the contract. The Terms’ list of actions includes a ban on further purchases “with FTP and any sister or subsidiary firms.” Whether termination reaches every program you hold depends on how its definition of “Account” is read, so treat it as possible.

• If you are caught: “we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your Account and you will not be entitled any payment if we suspend or terminate.”
• Copying allowed: Own accounts only; copying another trader, or letting one copy you, is banned.
• Source: Funded Trading Plus help on account passing services, read October 3, 2026.
• Trustpilot: rating hidden behind Trustpilot’s “breach of our guidelines” banner, 2,668 reviews, read October 3, 2026. Funded Trading Plus profile.

FundedNext names pass-your-challenge schemes and ends the account at once

FundedNext keeps two cases apart that buyers often blur. Copying between your own Challenge accounts is allowed, up to $300,000 of combined capital with one account set as the master, and it does not extend to funded accounts. A stranger running your account is a different matter: its help page names the “Pass Your Challenge” scheme alongside account management, and the stated outcome is that the account is “terminated immediately.” Its Terms of Service, clause 6.5, say: “The User may not allow third parties to operate the Account on their behalf”.

FundedNext says automated systems and manual reviews compare identical entry and exit prices, lot sizes, symbols and timing across owners, and its Terms add “device, IP and account linkage analysis”. It does not say the penalty reaches your other accounts, and it publishes no fixed time window for a match.

• If you are caught: “Performance Reward or Refund may be adjusted or denied based on the severity of the violation.”
• Copying allowed: Own Challenge accounts only, up to $300,000 combined; not funded accounts.
• Source: FundedNext copy trading rule, read October 3, 2026.
• Trustpilot: 4.5/5 on 80,702 reviews, read October 2, 2026. FundedNext profile.

FundingPips bans challenge-passing services by name and any copying into your account

FundingPips writes the ban the way a buyer would search for it. Its Terms list, among the things traders must not do, “Use challenge-passing services or third-party account management services,” next to sharing, selling or renting access to an account. Its copier rule then closes the side door: you may copy outward from a FundingPips master account, but copying into a FundingPips account from a signal provider or copier service is banned, which is how most passing services deliver trades. The same list also rules out the simplest version, where traders “Allow another person or service to trade or manage an account on their behalf.”

Its Terms describe the review in one sentence and add a useful limit in the next: “The Company may review account access, device information, IP activity, and trading patterns to investigate potential violations. Access from different IP addresses does not, by itself, establish account sharing.” Section 9 of the Terms lets it act “on a specific Customer account or on any Customer’s accounts,” and says fees paid are not refunded. Some reviewers say they were closed for copying between their own two accounts, which the firm called copy trading with another registered user.

• If you are caught: “Account management by any third-party vendor; this will result in immediate account termination.”
• Copying allowed: Outbound from your own FundingPips master only; inbound copying into the account is banned.
• Source: FundingPips Terms and Conditions, read October 3, 2026.
• Trustpilot: 4.5/5 on 69,779 reviews, read October 3, 2026. FundingPips profile.

Hantec Trader can claw back payouts it already approved

Hantec Trader carries the heaviest written penalty in this check. Its help article lists what counts as banned copying (friends or family members, third-party traders, account management services and “Challenge passing” services), and its Terms separately ban “use of third party or marketed strategies to pass the Challenge” and having an account bought for you by someone else. The help article opens that list with: “Copy trading between different individuals is strictly prohibited.”

The Terms name shared or masked device identifiers, IP addresses, VPNs, proxies and virtual machines as signs of common control, plus trades that “substantially align in timing, pricing, direction, or strategy” with another account. No threshold is published, and the Terms add: “The Customer bears the responsibility of demonstrating that their trading activity was legitimate, compliant, and independent.” Section 7.3 lets it apply measures to “all accounts controlled by or linked to the Customer”, including future ones, “without prior notice, explanation, or evidence.” Hantec Trader does not offer its services to US residents.

• If you are caught: “Withholding, cancellation, reduction, or recovery of simulated profits, revenue share, or payouts (whether pending or previously approved) attributable to Prohibited Trading”
• Copying allowed: Own Hantec Trader accounts only, up to $400,000 combined.
• Source: Hantec Trader Terms and Conditions, read October 3, 2026.
• Trustpilot: 4.3/5 on 825 reviews, read October 2, 2026. Hantec Trader profile.

Take Profit Trader lists six surveillance signals and names pass services

Take Profit Trader permits trade copiers “solely for managing accounts owned and controlled by you,” from a list of approved tools, and then lists what a copier may never be used for. One item on that list is the whole subject of this guide: “Participate in pass services, payout services, or coordinated trading schemes”.

It publishes the signals it watches: trade timing correlation, strategy similarity, risk and position sizing patterns, execution clustering, account relationship indicators, and device or infrastructure clustering. It also says “No single signal (such as shared IP address or device) constitutes a violation in isolation.” Its universal trading policies separately ban “third-party account management,” and actions “may occur be