The Elite Sim-Funded Account

An Elite Sim-Funded account is the funded tier you reach after passing any ETF evaluation, or by buying Direct to Funded. You trade a simulated funded account, and ETF pays you real money from those sim gains: up to 100% of profits, capped at $25,000 in total sim payouts per trader (the threshold that moves you to LIVE ELITE), with a $150,000 lifetime cap across re-entries.

But Elite is not the finish line. It is a proving ground. The moment you pass, the goal quietly changes. You are no longer chasing a pass target. You are being watched to see whether you can do the much harder thing: stay consistent, protect what you have made, and grow an account the way a professional would. The rules on this page are built around that one question.

Almost every trader is surprised by how different the Elite stage feels. In an evaluation you are loose, because there is nothing real on the line yet, so you trade freely. The instant you are funded and a payout is within reach, the pressure flips. You start protecting profit instead of pursuing it, hesitating on good setups, and feeling losses you would have shrugged off a week earlier.

That shift is the point. The skills that pass an evaluation are not the same skills that hold up in live markets, where it is ETF's real capital at risk. The Elite stage exists to surface that gap while the money is still simulated, so the lesson costs you a sim account, not a live one. Use it that way: treat the sim balance like it is real, because soon it will be.

Three ways to keep your funded account live. Pick the one that fits how you trade. Even an account you won for free still needs to be activated.

Pricing changes with promotions. See the full breakdown of Elite account fees for the one-time activation table by size and plan.

Two numbers govern when an Elite account breaches. Your minimum balance is the lowest equity allowed before a breach. Your safety net is your drawdown amount + $100 in profit. Reach it and your minimum balance locks at that higher level, with your original drawdown removed for payout eligibility. Hitting the safety net early is the single best thing you can do to make an account durable.

A representative set of standard sizes is shown above. Static, End of Day, and Diamond Hands variants have their own figures. See the safety net requirements help article for the complete table.

Take a 50K account with a $2,000 drawdown. Your minimum balance is $50,100 and your safety net is $52,100. While you build, the drawdown trails behind your equity. The moment your account value touches $52,100, the floor locks at $50,100 and the original drawdown is gone.

The drawdown style depends on the plan you passed. This example uses a trailing drawdown. The takeaway is the same on every plan: earn the drawdown + $100 and the floor stops moving against you.

This is the rule that catches the most Elite traders off guard. Until you are up 20%, your normal drawdown applies. Once you cross 20% profit, the loss limit takes over as your primary risk parameter: give back more than 35% of your accumulated profit from that point and ETF can remove the account from the Elite Sim program. It is assessed when you request a payout and during routine risk audits, and triggering it costs you LIVE ELITE eligibility.

The core rules of the Elite stage in one place. Each one is also a consistency test: they reward the habits ETF wants to see before handing over real capital.

You can hold several Elite Sim-Funded accounts at once, up to 5 for newer purchases. That is not just more lottery tickets. It is a deliberate test of scale: can you stay consistent across an array of accounts at the same time, when each one tugs at your attention and your emotions in a different direction?

Managing one account well is a skill. Managing five with the same discipline (not over-trading the ones that are down, not getting reckless with the ones that are up) is a different skill entirely, and it is exactly the kind of evenness ETF looks for in a trader who is ready for live markets. Treat extra accounts as a way to prove you scale calmly, not as a way to gamble for one big hit.

Elite Sim-Funded is the proving ground. LIVE ELITE is the destination: real capital, in real markets, where ETF makes money only when you do.

ETF monitors traders across every account type to find the ones ready for live markets. You may be selected after 5 payouts, 50 active trading days, or $25,000 in total payouts, and ETF reserves the right to move you up at any time.

The single most important thing to understand about the Elite stage: it is a means, not an end. ETF is not built for traders who want to collect sim payouts forever, because paying real money out of simulated gains is not sustainable for any business, and they say so plainly.

Use the Elite account the way it is meant to be used. Push yourself to be consistent. Protect your profits. Manage your accounts like a professional under pressure. Do that, and you stop being someone who got lucky in a simulator and become someone ETF wants to back with real money in live markets, which is the entire point.