TL;DR: SFX Funded is a forex and CFD prop firm run by SFX International FZCO in Dubai, which says it has sold simulated funded accounts since 2023. On October 11, 2026 it sold four programs on Match-Trader or Platform 5: a 2-Step Challenge (8% then 5% targets, 4% daily loss, 8% static maximum loss, from $39), a 1-Step Pro (9% target, no daily loss limit, 6% maximum loss, from $59), a Rapid Challenge (3% target, 3% daily, 4% trailing, from $79) and Instant Plans (no evaluation, 3% daily, 6% trailing, from $54 for $5,000 up to $1,499 for $400,000). Those prices already include a 50% discount that the checkout applied automatically with the code LEVELUP. The headline split is 85%, rising to 100% through scaling. The rules that decide most outcomes sit in the help centre rather than on the price cards: a 2% floating-loss limit (“SFX Protect”) that ends Instant and Rapid funded accounts on the first breach, a consistency cap called the SFX Stability Index, trading days that only count when you make 0.5% or more, and bans on VPNs, VPS hosting, hedging and copy trading. Trustpilot has withheld SFX Funded’s rating for a breach of its guidelines, and Prop Firm Match does not list the firm. Every account is simulated.
Research status: Checked against the SFX Funded home page, the four plan pages and their plan builders (every size on both platforms), the compare page, the checkout order summary (no purchase was made), the About page, the Terms of Service, the Refund Policy, the firm’s llms.txt summary and 96 trading, payment and account articles in the SFX Funded help centre on October 11, 2026. Trustpilot, Prop Firm Match, PropFirmMap, WikiFX and Reddit were read the same day. Prices were read from the firm’s public pages and checkout and were not verified by purchase. Where the firm’s own pages disagree, this review says so and names the source.
SFX Funded review verdict
SFX Funded is cheap to start and has a wide menu. A $7,500 2-Step Challenge was $39 on October 11, 2026, a $5,000 Instant account was $54, none of the programs has a time limit, overnight and weekend holding is allowed everywhere, and the 1-Step Pro is one of the few evaluations with no daily loss limit at all. The firm advertises payouts on demand, an average reward time under 8 hours and a $1,000 bonus if an approved reward takes longer than 48 hours to send.
The plan pages tell only part of the story. The help centre adds a floating-loss limit of 2% (1% on the 1-Step Pro and on $300,000 and $400,000 Instant accounts) that is separate from the daily loss shown on the dashboard, a consistency cap on every funded account, minimum trading days that count only profitable days of 0.5% or more, and a long list of prohibited styles, from opening an opposite trade within 10 minutes of a loss to using a VPN. The plan pages also say “100% Refundable” while the Refund Policy says the fee comes back with your fifth payout.
Public feedback is mixed and hard to read. Trustpilot has withheld the firm’s rating after removing fake reviews, and 48% of the 135 reviews still shown were one-star, most of them about payouts refused on consistency or risk grounds. The firm’s own review page shows 4.85 from 4,150 reviews. BestProps does not give SFX Funded a numeric score. If you buy, read the help centre articles for your program first, size trades for the floating-loss limit rather than the daily limit, and keep screenshots of the rules on the day you buy.
Is SFX Funded legit? Company, terms and simulated model
SFX Funded is an operating business with a registered free-zone company, published terms, a help centre of nearly 100 articles, a working checkout and payouts reported by some traders on Trustpilot and Prop Firm Match. It is not a broker and holds no trading deposits. Whether it suits you depends on the rules and the payout review covered below. Here is who you deal with, as the firm describes it.
| Point | What the firm publishes | Where it is stated |
|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | SFX International FZCO, trading as SFX Funded, company number DSO-FZCO-21983. | Terms of Service; site footer |
| Address | 23691-001, A2 Building, IFZA Business Park, Dubai Digital Park, Dubai Silicon Oasis, United Arab Emirates. | Terms of Service; site footer |
| Founded and leadership | “A leading proprietary trading firm since 2023”; co-founder and CEO Husam Samy. One third-party review gives 2024 as the founding year. | About page; llms.txt |
| Size claims | 32,000+ traders in 130+ countries, $3.5M+ in rewards paid, an average reward of $1,132 and a highest-paid trader at $89,164.12. These are firm-published figures that BestProps could not check. | Home and About pages |
| Broker and liquidity | “SFX Funded is not a broker”; prices come from its “own in-house liquidity provider”. Funded accounts are “demo accounts with virtual funds”, and the firm “may use the collected data to execute select trades in the live market”. | Help centre |
| Regulation | No regulator or licence is claimed. The firm describes its fee as a payment for access to a simulated, educational service. | Terms of Service; Refund Policy |
| Disputes | Exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the United Arab Emirates. | Terms of Service, section 19 |
Points worth knowing before you pay, from the terms and the help centre:
- The terms say “all payouts are fully at the discretion of the Company”, that payout requests go through “a detailed review process”, and that the firm can ask you to explain your strategy on a video call. An unsatisfactory explanation can end the account.
- If you breach a rule, open trades are closed, pending orders are cancelled and the account becomes view-only. On a funded account you cannot withdraw.
- The prohibited-strategy rules allow sanctions at the risk team’s discretion, including deducting all profit, resetting the account, cutting your split to 20% to 25% or cutting leverage to 1:10.
- Thirty days without a trade suspends the account (the terms say the agreement ends).
- You must be 18 or over and trade as an individual; companies cannot sign up.
Watch the look-alike. A WikiFX page titled “SFX” ranks for SFX Funded searches, but it is about SFX Markets (sfx-markets.com), a Vanuatu broker whose VFSC licence WikiFX lists as revoked. It is a different company. SFX Funded’s site is sfxfunded.com.
Is SFX Funded real or a scam? It is a real, registered business that sells simulated challenges and pays some traders, with rules that are long and strictly enforced and payouts that depend on a discretionary review. That combination explains most of the angry reviews. Treat it as a simulated challenge provider, not a regulated broker, and read the reputation section before you buy.
How SFX Funded works, step by step
- Pick a program and size on the plan page or compare page: 2-Step Challenge, 1-Step Pro, Rapid Challenge or Instant Plans. Choose Match-Trader or Platform 5; the price is the same on both.
- Pay at checkout. On October 11, 2026 the code LEVELUP was applied automatically for 50% off. Optional add-ons (90% split, evaluation reset, funded reset) each add 20%.
- Trade the evaluation on the credentials emailed to you. Hit the target without touching the daily or maximum loss, and meet the minimum trading days where the program has them. Instant Plans skip this step.
- Review and KYC: after you pass, the risk team reviews the evaluation (up to 48 business hours) and you verify your identity before the funded account is issued. Instant traders complete KYC before their first payout.
- Trade the funded account within the daily loss, maximum loss, SFX Protect and news rules, with no time limit.
- Request a reward once you meet your program’s trading days, minimum profit and Stability Index. The risk team approves it, then it is paid by bank transfer or USDT on the Tron network.
You can buy as many evaluations as you like, but total funded capital per person is capped at $500,000, and each account must be traded separately: copying trades between your own accounts is banned.
SFX Funded programs compared
The table combines the plan builders on each program page with the help centre’s “How it works” articles, read October 11, 2026. The help centre calls the 2-Step Challenge “Ascend”. Where the two disagree, the help centre’s wording is shown and the conflict is listed in source conflicts.
| Rule | 2-Step Challenge | 1-Step Pro | Rapid Challenge | Instant Plans |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluation phases | 2 | 1 | 1 | None |
| Profit target | 8%, then 5% | 9% | 3% | None |
| Daily loss limit | 4% (all stages) | None (all stages) | 3% (all stages) | 3% |
| Maximum loss | 8% static | 6% trailing (help centre) | 4% trailing | 6% trailing |
| Minimum trading days | 5 per phase; 5 per payout | 4 in evaluation; 7 per payout | None in evaluation; 10 per payout (3 for a 40% on-demand payout) | 10 per payout |
| Floating-loss limit | 2% (funded): warning, then 50% split, then breach | 1% (stage not specified): split cut to 40%, then breach | 2% (funded): breach on first hit | 2% (1% on $300K and $400K): breach on first hit |
| Stability Index cap (funded) | 25% | 20% | 15% | 15% |
| Minimum profit for a standard payout | 2% (first payout after 14 calendar days) | 3% | 3% | 4% |
| Headline reward split | 85%, scaling to 100% | 85%, scaling to 100% | 85%, scaling to 100% | 85%, scaling to 100% |
| Sizes | $7.5K to $180K | $10K to $200K | $15K to $250K | $5K to $400K |
| Time limit | None | None | None | None |
| Overnight and weekend holding | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed |
How they differ in practice:
- 2-Step Challenge is the cheapest per dollar at the larger sizes and has the most room: an 8% static floor against an 8% first target, and the gentlest SFX Protect treatment (one free warning). It is also the only program with a 25% consistency cap. The cost is time: 5 profitable trading days in each phase and 14 calendar days before a standard first payout.
- 1-Step Pro removes the daily loss limit entirely, so one bad session cannot end an account that is otherwise inside its limits. In exchange the target is 9%, the 6% floor trails your highest value, and the floating-loss limit is the tightest in the catalogue at 1% of balance.
- Rapid Challenge needs only 3% to pass and has no minimum days, so it can be passed in a day. The 4% trailing floor and 3% daily limit leave little room, and on the funded account a single 2% floating loss ends it.
- Instant Plans skip the evaluation and reach the largest sizes, but cost the most per dollar, need 10 profitable trading days and 4% profit per payout, and end on the first 2% floating loss. See Instant Funding.
SFX Funded pricing by account size
Prices are one-time fees read from each plan builder on October 11, 2026, clicking every size on both platforms. The “list” price is the struck-through figure; the displayed price is 50% lower and matched the checkout total with LEVELUP applied. BestProps did not complete a purchase.
| 2-Step Challenge | Price | List price | Cost per $10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $7,500 | $39 | $79 | $52.00 |
| $15,000 | $64 | $129 | $42.67 |
| $30,000 | $99 | $199 | $33.00 |
| $60,000 | $149 | $299 | $24.83 |
| $120,000 | $249 | $499 | $20.75 |
| $180,000 | $374 | $749 | $20.78 |
| 1-Step Pro | Price | List price | Cost per $10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $59 | $119 | $59.00 |
| $25,000 | $119 | $239 | $47.60 |
| $50,000 | $189 | $379 | $37.80 |
| $100,000 | $349 | $699 | $34.90 |
| $200,000 | $649 | $1,299 | $32.45 |
| Rapid Challenge | Price | List price | Cost per $10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $15,000 | $79 | $158 | $52.67 |
| $30,000 | $119 | $238 | $39.67 |
| $60,000 | $169 | $338 | $28.17 |
| $120,000 | $259 | $518 | $21.58 |
| $180,000 | $369 | $738 | $20.50 |
| $250,000 | $639 | $1,279 | $25.56 |
| Instant Plans | Price | List price | Cost per $10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $54 | $109 | $108.00 |
| $10,000 | $74 | $149 | $74.00 |
| $20,000 | $137 | $275 | $68.50 |
| $40,000 | $206 | $413 | $51.50 |
| $80,000 | $344 | $689 | $43.00 |
| $150,000 | $474 | $949 | $31.60 |
| $200,000 | $615 | $1,230 | $30.75 |
| $250,000 | $760 | $1,520 | $30.40 |
| $300,000 | $1,149 | $2,298 | $38.30 |
| $400,000 | $1,499 | $2,998 | $37.48 |
What the numbers show:
- The 2-Step, Rapid and 1-Step Pro all fall to roughly $20 to $35 per $10,000 at the larger sizes. Instant Plans start at $108 per $10,000 on the $5,000 account and never fall below $30.40.
- The $300,000 and $400,000 Instant accounts cost more per dollar than the $250,000 one and carry a stricter 1% floating-loss limit. Two $200,000 Instant accounts cost $1,230 together against $1,499 for one $400,000 account, keep the 2% limit on each, and still fit inside the $500,000 per-person cap. Instant accounts cannot be merged later.
- The cheapest route to a funded account by fee alone is the $7,500 2-Step at $39. The cheapest route to a large account is the $120,000 2-Step at $249.
- There is no monthly fee. Failing an evaluation closes it; you buy a new one or use a paid reset add-on.
Current discount code, add-ons and refunds
Current code. The site banner on October 11, 2026 read “50% OFF + BOGO + 200% Refund | Code: LEVELUP”, and the firm’s llms.txt summary also names LEVELUP as “the current promotion code”. At checkout the coupon was already applied: a $60,000 2-Step Challenge went from $299 to $149.50. BestProps found no published expiry date for LEVELUP and no written terms for its “BOGO” and “200% Refund” parts. The closest published rules are for an earlier code, LUCKY (March 2026): the free second account unlocked only after your first payout, could not be combined with reset add-ons or free-reset offers, and was forfeited if you used a prohibited trading style. Ask support in writing how LEVELUP’s free account and 200% refund work before relying on them. Coupon sites list other SFX Funded codes that BestProps could not confirm with the firm, so none are reprinted here.
Add-ons at checkout. Each adds 20% to the price (shown as $29.90 on a $149.50 order):
| Add-on | What the help centre says |
|---|---|
| 90% Profit Split | Raises the split to 90% (the help article still describes it as “from 80% to 90%”, while the plan pages now show 85% as standard). |
| Reset Evaluation Phase (2-Step) | One reset during Phase 1 or Phase 2, activated by email within 10 calendar days of your first trade. Restarts from Phase 1. |
| Reset Funded Phase | Resets a breached funded account without a new evaluation, but your split becomes 50/50 afterwards, and it must be activated within 10 days of your first funded trade. |
| 5 Day Payouts | Listed in the help centre (“every 5 business days since the last payout”); not offered on the $60,000 2-Step checkout BestProps viewed. |
Refunds. Every plan card says “One-time fee · 100% Refundable”. The Refund Policy says the evaluation fee is refunded “alongside the fifth successful profit split payment” and “is contingent upon reaching the fifth profit split”. A help article dated May 28, 2026 agrees (“upon the 5th payout”) unless a promotion offers different terms. Otherwise the fee is non-refundable once credentials are issued, a change of platform, size or account type before trading costs a $75 administrative fee, and if you fail KYC the fee is refunded minus 15%. Instant Plans are not part of the evaluation-fee refund wording. For how this compares, see prop firms with refundable fees.
Worked example: a $60,000 2-Step bought for $149.50 with the reset-evaluation and 90% split add-ons costs about $209.30. If you pass and are paid five times, the evaluation fee comes back with payout five. If the account breaches after payout two, you get nothing back.
Daily loss, maximum loss and trading day rules
Daily loss. SFX Funded sets each day’s floor from the higher of your balance or equity at the daily snapshot, then subtracts the percentage. On the Rapid and Instant accounts the snapshot is at 00:00 UTC (UTC+0, the dashboard’s time zone) and the help centre’s examples subtract 3% of that higher value. On the 2-Step the snapshot is at 9:00 PM UTC and the limit is 4% of the higher value. Because the floor is set from equity as well as balance, a large open profit at the snapshot raises the next day’s floor, and giving it back the next morning can breach the daily limit even if your balance never dropped. One Trustpilot reviewer in August 2026 disputed a daily-loss breach on a $10,000 account that followed a $70 losing trade; the firm replied that the limits are applied automatically. A floor set from the previous snapshot’s equity is one way that can happen, so check the day’s floor on the dashboard before you trade.
Maximum loss. The 2-Step’s 8% is static: it is measured from the starting balance and never moves, so a $120,000 account fails only below $110,400. The other three programs trail. The help centre says the floor sits a fixed percentage below “your highest recorded account value” and never moves down once raised. On the 1-Step Pro example, a $100,000 account that reaches $104,000 has a floor of $97,760 (6% below the peak). The Rapid example instead subtracts 4% of the starting size from the peak ($103,000 minus $4,000 = $99,000). On a Rapid account the two methods differ only slightly, but plan for the stricter one.
What counts as a trading day. This is the rule most likely to surprise you. “Active Trading Days” are “days when your account generates a profit of 0.5% or more of the starting balance”. Losing days and small winning days do not count. On a $60,000 2-Step, each of the 5 days you need in each phase must close at least $300 up. On a $40,000 Instant account, each of the 10 days you need before a payout must close at least $200 up.
Other rules that apply everywhere:
- Margin level must stay above 150%. Falling to 150% or lower counts as over-leveraging and can lead to a payout denial, a reset to Phase 1 or a hard breach.
- Hedging is not allowed on any account.
- Accounts with no trade for 30 days are suspended.
- After passing, the evaluation is reviewed by the risk team before the funded account is issued, usually within 48 business hours.
For background on fixed versus trailing floors, see static vs trailing drawdown. The BestProps daily loss limit calculator can model your own sizes.
Worked examples by program
These apply the published percentages to one account size per program. They show the arithmetic only; the platform’s own figures decide a breach.
| Account (price) | Profit target | Daily loss at the start | Starting floor | Floating-loss limit once funded | Profitable day needed to count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-Step $60,000 ($149) | $4,800, then $3,000 | $2,400 | $55,200 (static) | $1,200 | $300 |
| 1-Step Pro $50,000 ($189) | $4,500 | None | $47,000 (trails) | $500 | $250 |
| Rapid $60,000 ($169) | $1,800 | $1,800 | $57,600 (trails) | $1,200 | $300 |
| Instant $40,000 ($206) | None | $1,200 | $37,600 (trails) | $800 | $200 |
Three things stand out:
- The floating-loss limit binds before the daily limit. On the $40,000 Instant account, an open loss of $800 across all positions ends the account, while the daily limit is $1,200. Size every trade for $800, not $1,200.
- Rapid’s trailing floor tightens fast. If the $60,000 Rapid account reaches $61,800 (the 3% target), the floor rises to about $59,330 by the “4% below the peak” wording. Once funded you can only lose about $2,470 from the peak before the account fails, and a single $1,200 open loss ends it.
- The 1-Step Pro has no daily limit but a $500 open-loss line on $50,000. The first time open losses reach 1% your split falls to 40%; the second time the account closes. “No daily loss” does not mean wide room per trade.
Position-size example: at 1:30 leverage on forex, one standard lot of EUR/USD is $100,000 of exposure. A 10-pip move against one lot is about $100, so the $800 Instant floating-loss limit is roughly 80 pips on one lot or 8 pips on ten lots. Gold and indices use 1:10 leverage and move faster, so the same limit arrives sooner.
SFX Protect: the 1% and 2% floating-loss limits
SFX Protect watches the combined open loss across all your trades. If it reaches the limit, every position is closed. The SFX Protect article says it applies only to funded 2-Step, Rapid and Instant accounts. The 1-Step Pro has its own 1% “Maximum Floating Loss” rule, listed as an account violation without saying it is limited to the funded stage, so treat it as applying in the evaluation too. The firm says it introduced it because “over 76% of account breaches occur due to violating Maximum Daily loss limits”.
| Account | Limit (of balance) | First hit | Second hit | Third hit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2-Step funded | 2% | Trades closed, no penalty | Split cut to 50% | Account breached |
| 1-Step Pro | 1% | Warning, split cut to 40% | Account closed | – |
| Rapid funded | 2% | Account breached | – | – |
| Instant $5K to $250K | 2% | Account closed permanently | – | – |
| Instant $300K and $400K | 1% | Account closed permanently | – | – |
A Trustpilot reviewer in July 2026 said the SFX Protect limit was not displayed alongside the daily and maximum drawdown figures on the dashboard, so track open loss yourself. A practical habit: put a stop on every trade and add up the distance to every stop before opening a new position. If the total could exceed the limit, the new trade is too big.
SFX Stability Index (consistency rule)
The SFX Stability Index (SSI) appears on the dashboard as “Consistency”. It is your biggest winning day divided by total profit in the payout period. To request a payout it must be at or below:
| Funded account | Maximum SSI for a payout |
|---|---|
| Rapid | 15% |
| Instant Funding | 15% |
| 1-Step Pro | 20% |
| 2-Step (Ascend) | 25% |
A high SSI is not a breach. You keep trading until the ratio falls, then request the payout.
Consistency calculator, worked:
- The firm’s own example: a $15,000 Rapid account with seven winning days of $410, $385, $420, $395, $430, $440 and $405 has $2,965 of profit. The best day, $440, is 14.84% of the total, so it qualifies under 15%.
- A less even month: $2,000 of profit with a best day of $400 is 20%. On Rapid or Instant you must raise total profit to at least $2,667 (400 / 0.15) without a bigger day before you can withdraw. On the 2-Step (25%) the same record already qualifies.
- Quick formula: the minimum total profit you need = best day / cap. A $1,000 best day needs $6,667 of total profit on a 15% account, $5,000 on 20% and $4,000 on 25%.
The firm says it built the index from more than 10,000 accounts and that traders with low SSI scores were paid more often; those statistics are firm-published. The BestProps consistency rule calculator runs the same arithmetic.
News, EAs, VPNs and prohibited strategies
News trading. Allowed during evaluations. On funded accounts, you cannot open or close market orders, have pending orders fill or have stops and targets trigger from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after any red-folder event on Forex Factory (“All Day” events excluded). On Rapid and 2-Step funded accounts you get two warnings, each deducting the profit from trades in the window, and the third violation breaches the account. On Instant accounts you get one warning. News straddling and bracketing are banned in every phase.
| Practice | SFX Funded rule |
|---|---|
| Expert Advisors | Trade and risk managers are allowed; your own EAs are allowed if you can supply the source code. Third-party EAs, rollover-scalping and news-scalping EAs are banned. |
| Copy trading | Banned, including copying between your own accounts. |
| Hedging | Banned on all accounts. |
| VPN and VPS | Both “strictly prohibited across all SFX Funded accounts”. Your IP region must stay consistent; tell support before travelling. |
| Opposite-direction recovery | Opening a trade in the opposite direction within 10 minutes of closing a losing one may be flagged, and the risk team can flag repeated patterns outside that window too. |
| Order layering | More than four orders on the same trade idea is treated as prohibited. |
| Gamble to pass | Risking more than the “industry norm of 1-2% per trade idea” or maxing the daily drawdown in one idea. |
| Other banned styles | Martingale, grid trading, high-frequency trading, ultra-fast and tick scalping, latency and hedge arbitrage, one-sided bets held to target without management, account churning, group hedging, emulators and exploiting price glitches. |
Several of these rules are judgement calls (“overtrading”, “inconsistent trading patterns”, “one-sided bets”), which is where most denied-payout complaints come from. If your style is fast, layered or high-risk per trade, SFX Funded is a poor fit. For other firms’ news rules, see prop firm news trading rules.
Payouts, profit split and payout on demand
| Payout term | What the firm publishes |
|---|---|
| Split | 85% standard on all four programs, rising toward 100% through the scaling plan; 90% with the paid add-on. |
| 2-Step standard payout | First after 14 calendar days, with 5 trading days, 2% profit and SSI of 25% or less; then every 14 calendar days. |
| 1-Step Pro | 7 trading days, 3% profit and SSI of 20% or less, then repeat with no calendar wait. |
| Rapid | 10 trading days, 3% profit and SSI of 15% or less; after the first payout, no calendar wait. |
| Instant | 10 trading days, 4% profit and SSI of 15% or less, then repeat with no calendar wait. |
| Payout on demand | 2-Step and Rapid only: after 3 trading days with 3% profit and SSI met, at a 40% split. Later withdrawals every 14 business days. |
| Cap on early payouts | The first two rewards are capped at $10,000 each; the rest rolls into later payouts. |
| Partial withdrawals | Allowed above a 2% minimum; the next payout then follows the normal schedule. |
| Methods | Bank transfer (account name must match yours) or USDT on T |