SurgeTrader Review

SurgeTrader is a well-known prop trading firm from the United States.

But is SurgeTrader a scam?

No, it isn’t!

Update:

SurgeTrader has ceased all operations on 24.05.2024 (following a trading platform termination).

Our review and experience show that SurgeTrader is a safe proprietary trading firm.

You can share your experiences with SurgeTrader within our comment section.

Key Takeaways

• SurgeTrader is a legitimate proprietary trading firm that offers virtual funded accounts up to 1 million and you get to keep up to 90% of the profits
• This prop firm is backed by Valo Holdings, a venture capital group and is also partnered with broker ThinkMarkets to manage trades
• Our review of SurgeTrader will go over the details of this prop firm, the trading conditions, pros and cons, and more

About SurgeTrader

SurgeTrader is a prop trading firm that offers traders the opportunity to trade with virtually funded accounts. It is based in Naples, Florida and was founded in 2021 by Jana Seaman. The company leads a team of 18 employees with expertise in marketing, technology, and operations.

Despite being new, they’ve received two industry awards. In 2022, Traders Union awarded them Best Prop Trading Firm. And in 2023, Benzinga recognized them as Best Overall Prop Trading Firm. They also have positive reviews on Trustpilot and Google.

Safety and Regulation

SurgeTrader is a registered LLC in Florida, which means they follow state and general U.S. regulations. On the safety and regulation front, this prop firm provides full transparency by making all legal documents and trading conditions publicly available on their website.

While SurgeTrader itself might not be directly regulated, their trading is conducted through ThinkMarkets, a broker licensed by reputable financial authorities worldwide. They are also backed by an international venture funding group called Valo Holdings Investments.

Accepted Countries

Due to US regulations, SurgeTrader can’t offer their program to everyone. They follow sanctions lists by the US Treasury Department to ensure compliance.

This means residents of certain countries like Afghanistan, Cuba, Iraq, and China are restricted from participating.

The most important countries are listed below:

• Australia: Yes, registration is possible
• Canada: Yes, registration is possible
• Ghana: Yes, registration is possible
• Hong Kong: No, registration is not possible
• India: Yes, registration is possible
• Ireland: Yes, registration is possible
• Kenya: Yes, registration is possible
• New Zealand: Yes, registration is possible
• Nigeria: Yes, registration is possible
• Pakistan: Yes, registration is possible
• Philippines: Yes, registration is possible
• Singapore: Yes, registration is possible
• South Africa: Yes, registration is possible
• United Kingdom: Yes, registration is possible
• United States: Yes, registration is possible

Evaluation Process

To get a funded trading account, you will need to pass their auditions. There are two main options. The traditional SurgeTrader audition (1 Phase & 2 Phase) gives you more time.

You can trade at your own pace, but you’ll need to make a certain amount of profit while following their rules. The new Lightning Round has a lower entry fee, but you’ll need to hit a profit target even faster. The time limit is just 7 days.

In either case, you get to choose your trading style and what you trade. Learn about the programs below:

• Audition Type Lightning
• Audition Type 1 Phase
• Audition Type 2 Phase

Audition Type Lightning

You only get 7 days to pass this challenge. The goal is to hit a 5% profit target. And you’ll need to be mindful of your risk though, as daily losses are capped at 3%.

On top of that, the total losses in your account value cannot exceed 4% at any one time. The benefit is that the entry fee is low, ranging from just $50 to $300.

Audition Type 1 Phase

The 1 phase audition on SurgeTrader requires you to achieve a 10% profit goal with your virtual trading account. You can trade any instrument you want, but there are rules to follow.

Your daily losses can’t be more than 5% and your total losses can’t go over 8% at any one time. There’s no time limit to complete this, but you can’t hold trades over the weekend.

If you succeed, you can get a funded account up to $1 million and keep up to 90% of your profits. Audition fees range from $250 to $3,500, depending on the size of your account.

Audition Type 2 Phase

In this audition, you need to reach two profit targets. In the first phase, you’ll need to make 8% profit. If you do that, you move to phase two where the target is only 5%. There are rules you need to follow like a daily loss limit of 5% and a maximum drawdown of 8%.

You can trade anytime during the week and choose any instrument you want with leverage up to 50:1 for forex and metals. Audition fees begin at $200 and range up to $2,300, depending on the account size you choose.

Challenge Trading Rules

To make sure your audition goes smoothly, keep these general rules in mind:

• Profit Target
• Profit Split
• Trading Period
• Minimum Trading Days
• Maximum Daily Loss
• Maximum Loss
• Maximum Position Size
• Maximum Capital Allocation and Multiple Accounts
• Trading Types
• Leverage
• Trading Style
• Trading Hours
• News Trading
• Weekend and Overnight Trading
• Expert Advisor
• Copy Trading

Profit Target

SurgeTrader sets profit targets you need to achieve to get a funded account. These vary depending on the program:

• Profit target for 1 Phase: 10%
• Profit target for Lightning: 5%
• Profit target for 2 Phase: 8% on Phase 1 and 5% on Phase 2

If you don’t meet the profit margins, your account will be reset. You will have to repeat the audition process again.

Profit Split

The profit split depends on the type of SurgeTrader account you have and whether you purchase an add-on. By default, you keep 75% (1 Phase & Lightning Round) or 80% (2 Phase) of your profits. You can increase your share to 90% by paying an additional fee for add-ons during the audition process.

Trading Period

For 1 Phase & 2 Phase auditions, there is no strict time limit to pass. However, you must place at least one trade every 30 days. If you don’t, your account might get deleted by the broker.

For Lightning Round, there is a 7-day time limit. You will have to complete your audition in this time frame.

Minimum Trading Days

There is no minimum number of trading days. You can pass the audition on day 1 and get your funded account within 48 hours.

Maximum Daily Loss

The daily loss limit for your SurgeTrader account depends on the type of audition. For 1 Phase and 2 Phase, the daily loss limit is 5%. And it’s 3% for Lightning. This limit is calculated based on your closing balance from the previous day.

Maximum Loss

SurgeTrader has a strict rule to protect your account from excessive losses. Both account types (1 Phase Audition and 2 Phase Audition) have a maximum drawdown of 8%.

This means the total value of your account cannot drop more than 8% from its previous high point. If it does, your account will be disqualified from the program. For lightning round auditions, the maximum drawdown limit is set at 4%.

Maximum Position Size

The maximum position size, or how much you can trade, depends on your account balance and virtual leverage. There’s no hard limit on the number of open lots you can trade, but it needs to fit within those constraints.

Here’s a breakdown of one lot size for each asset class:

• FX: $100,000 notional value
• Index: 10 contracts
• Cryptocurrencies: 1 coin
• Silver: 5,000 ounces
• Gold: 100 ounces
• Oil: 100 barrels

Maximum Capital Allocation and Multiple Accounts

The maximum capital allocation you can manage in SurgeTrader depends on the type of audition you complete. It basically matches the amount you used in your audition. If you want to trade a larger amount, you’ll need to take another audition for a higher tier.

Let’s say you chose the $25,000 audition program in 1 phase. If you pass, you’ll manage a virtual trading account with $25,000 in virtual funds. You also have the option to scale up and increase your virtual capital.

On that note, we don’t see any reason why anyone would want multiple accounts. SurgeTrader doesn’t let you combine accounts, so having multiple ones means managing them separately.

Also, you will have to pay a separate audition fee and pass a new audition for each additional account.

Trading Types

At SurgeTrader, you can trade a variety of assets including:

• Forex currencies
• Stock indices
• Commodities
• Cryptocurrencies
• Precious metals

Leverage

The leverage depends on the audition type and asset class. In Phase 1 and Lightning Rounds, you get 10:1 leverage for most assets, except for crypto (2:1). You can optionally increase FX and metals leverage to 20:1.

However, you will need to purchase an add-on at checkout for that. In Phase 2, leverage is higher for FX and metals (50:1) but lower for oils and indices (10:1). Crypto remains 2:1, and there’s no option to boost leverage.

Trading Style

SurgeTrader allows a wide range of trading styles as long as you follow their rules. This means you can use discretionary trading, algorithmic trading, hedging, and more. There are no restrictions on your trading approach. Just make sure to stay within their risk management guidelines.

Trading Hours

SurgeTrader trading hours follow US stock exchanges. Note that trading hours are set by their broker, ThinkMarkets and the hours depend on the product you trade.

The Forex market is open 24/7. Crypto CFDs hours may vary and can be closed on weekends. US Stock CFDs hours are slightly shorter than US Stock Market hours.

News Trading

SurgeTrader allows news trading. But you can’t hold stock trades during earnings releases. Otherwise, this will lead to a hard breach of your account. To avoid violating their rules, you’ll need to close any stock CFD positions you have before the earnings report.

Weekend and Overnight Trading

You are allowed to hold trades overnight and over weekends. However, they prohibit any attempts to profit from the market gap between closing and reopening by entering equity CFD trades near the end of the trading day.

Expert Advisor

SurgeTrader lets you use Expert Advisors (EAs) to automate your trading, but with some restrictions. EAs can’t be set to high-frequency trading or take advantage of connection speed differences (latency arbitrage).

You also can’t use the same EA on more than one SurgeTrader account. And finally, all trades placed by an EA must include a stop loss.

Copy Trading

SurgeTrader technically allows copy trading, but they have some restrictions in place. You can analyze other people’s trade, understand their reasoning, and then decide to make a similar trade yourself in your SurgeTrader account. This manual approach is perfectly fine. But you are not allowed to use any bots to copy trades. Also, you are not allowed to use the strategies across multiple accounts.

Trading Platforms

SurgeTrader uses its own platform, Match-Trader, to manage your trades. This means you won’t be able to use any other trading platforms like MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5. However, many users find Match-Trader’s interface easy to learn and use, similar to other popular trading platforms.

Trading Instruments

SurgeTrader offers a variety of instruments to trade, from forex pairs (EUR/USD) to commodities (oil) and even cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin) using virtual funds. Check out this list of trading instruments below:

Forex

• AUDCADX
• AUDJPYX
• AUDNZDX
• AUDCHFX
• AUDUSDX
• CADJPYX
• CADCHFX
• EURAUDX
• EURCADX
• EURGBPX
• EURHUFX
• EURJPYX
• EURNZDX
• EURNOKX
• EURPLNX
• EURCHFX
• EURTRYX
• EURUSDX
• GBPAUDX
• GBPCADX
• GBPJPYX
• GBPNZDX
• GBPCHFX
• GBPUSDX
• NZDCADX
• NZDJPYX
• NZDCHFX
• NZDUSDX
• CHFJPYX
• USDBRLX
• USDCADX
• USDHUFX
• USDJPYX
• USDMXNX
• USDNOKX
• USDSGDX
• USDZARX
• USDSEKX
• USDCHFX
• USDTRYX
• EURSEKX
• EURSGDX
• USDCNHX
• EURZARX
• GBPZARX
• EURCZKX

Commodities

• BRENT
• COPPER HG
• NGAS
• SOYBEANS
• WTI
• WHEAT

Metals

• XAUUSDX
• XAGUSDX
• XPTUSD

Indices

• AUS200
• CHINA50
• ESTX50
• FRA40
• GER40
• HK50
• JPN225
• NAS100
• SPX500
• SPAIN35
• TAIEX
• UK100
• US2000
• US30
• USDINDEX

Crypto

• BTCUSD

Brokers

SurgeTrader recently switched brokers from Eightcap to ThinkMarkets. It is a reputable CFD broker regulated by financial authorities like the FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia), and CySEC (Cyprus).

Other Products

SurgeTrader is a proprietary trading that offers more than just funded accounts. Like most prop trading firms, they also have a blog and a resource corner for traders looking to improve their trading skills and gain more trading experience.

Their blog section has more than 270 articles covering various topics like technical analysis, fundamental analysis, and general market outlooks. Basically, it’s a one-stop shop for traders to get tips, information, and insights from the world of trading.

Trader Resources dives deeper than the Trader’s Corner Blog. This section of their website is focused more on downloadable contents that you can reference to maximize your trading. You can find eBooks, templates, or cheat sheets that provide more in-depth information on trading strategies.

Prices and Challenge Fees

To continue with the auditions, you will have to pay a one-time fee. The audition fee is based on the account type and size. Check out this list below:

Audition Type 1 Phase

• $25,000 Starter: $250
• $50,000 Intermediate: $400
• $100,000 Seasoned: $700
• $250,000 Advanced: $1,800
• $500,000 Expert: $3,500
• $1,000,000 Master: $6,500

Audition Type 2 Phase

• $25,000 Starter: $200
• $50,000 Intermediate: $300
• $100,000 Seasoned: $500
• $250,000 Advanced: $1,200
• $500,000 Expert: $2,300

Audition Type Lightning

• $10,000 Novice: $50
• $25,000 Starter: $100
• $50,000 Intermediate: $180
• $100,000 Seasoned: $300

Payment Methods and Payout System

You can make payments using all major credit cards like Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. They also accept direct wire transfers, but you will need to contact their support team for instructions.

As for withdrawals, SurgeTrader uses RiseWorks to process all their payouts for your funded account. You can get your money via ACH, bank wire, or crypto (USDC).

It typically takes 1-2 business days for SurgeTrader to process the withdrawal. The transfer times vary depending on the method and location. Our team found that you can get near-instant transfers if you set up a EUR or GBP account on RiseWorks.

Registration and KYC

Follow these steps below to register for a SurgeTrader account:

1. Go to the SurgeTrader website and click on the “Start Trading” button.
2. Select your audition type. There are three tiers with varying account sizes. Then click on the account size you want to trade with.
3. This will take you to the purchase page. At this point, you can select add-ons like increased profit split and no stop loss. Selecting add-ons will increase the final purchase amount.
4. Now click the “Purchase Now” button and you will be taken to the registration page.
5. Fill out your personal details and agree to the terms and conditions on the left.
6. On the right, enter your credit card information and pay the challenge fee.
7. After your payment, you’ll receive access to your evaluation account.

After passing their audition, you’ll get login info for your simulated account. But it’s disabled until you send them your KYC documents and sign a contract.

KYC verification typically takes 2-3 business days. Once they verify your KYC info and you sign the contract, they’ll enable your account, and you’ll get another email with the confirmation.

Discount and Promo Code

We’ve seen that SurgeTrader almost always offers discounts on their funded accounts. You might even get a discount automatically depending on your chosen plan. They also provide promo codes for retries.

While reviewing their platform, we have found that there is a general 20% discount code (20offonetimexyc) valid for 90 days after your first try. They also offer 20% discount on any future retries you might attempt.

Free Trial and Demo Account

SurgeTrader provides a free trial account to experience their trading platform. You can sign up for the trial if you’re new or use the dedicated free trial link if you already have an account. There’s only one trial allowed per person. The trial lasts until you pass a qualification test, break the rules, or don’t trade for 30 days.

Mobile App

There is no SurgeTrader mobile app available to download from app stores. Drawing from our experience in using their website, we have found that their trader portal is responsive and mobile friendly.

You can easily manage your account and trade directly through your mobile browser, just like you would on a computer.

Customer Service and Support

If you have any questions about SurgeTrader or their funded accounts, the FAQ section is a great place to start. We have found that they have covered a wide range of common queries related to account setup, trading rules, profit sharing, and more.

If you have more questions, you can reach their support team via live chat, email, contact form or phone. The live chat option is available during business hours. They have a toll-free number (866-998-7652) you can call for assistance.

They also have a direct line (239-944-5317) in case the toll-free number is unavailable. You can send them an email with your inquiries at [email protected].

Taxes

Based on our own experience, SurgeTrader lets you trade with a virtual sum of money, and you get to keep a share of the profits if you’re successful. Remember, SurgeTrader is a funded account provider, not a tax advisor. You are solely responsible for reporting and paying taxes on those earnings.

Depending on your location, these profits might be taxed as capital gains. It’s important to consult with a tax advisor to understand the specifics of your situation. Learn more in our dedicated guide about “Prop Trading Taxes“.

Alternatives to SurgeTrader

Here are some competitors in the prop trading business that can be considered as alternative to SurgeTrader:

Apex Trader Funding

Apex Trader Funding targets efficiency for aspiring funded traders. Their one-step evaluation cuts through lengthy processes. This streamlined approach might be ideal if getting funded quickly is your main focus.

FTUK

FTUK focuses on flexibility for traders. They have a wider range of account choices and more diverse withdrawal options. This allows you to choose an account that aligns with your comfort level. And having multiple profit payout options is always a plus in our book.

Audacity Capital

Audacity Capital offers prop trading accounts up to $2 million. This makes them a great option for experienced traders looking for a bigger challenge. If you have a proven track record and want to trade in the big leagues, Audacity Capital could be the right prop firm for you.

Conclusion

Finally, after giving this prop firm a shot, we have found that SurgeTrader is a safe prop trading firm that values regulation and transparency. Even though they are fairly new in the prop trading industry, they have already achieved multiple awards.

They are partnered with ThinkMarkets, and the funding is handled by Valo Holdings Investments Group. Unlike other prop firms, their trading rules are reasonable and give you a good amount of freedom as a trader.

They have plans with low entry costs to get you started, and also plans with higher costs for professional traders. And you can withdraw your profits whenever you want.

So, stop wasting time now. Apply for a SurgeTrader funded account, and join the future of prop trading today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here, we’ve answered the most common questions about the prop firm on the internet.

Is SurgeTrader legit or a scam?

We tested and reviewed SurgeTrader thoroughly and believe it’s a legit prop trading firm. Check out the “Safety and Regulation” section for more info.

Is SurgeTrader regulated?

SurgeTrader itself is not directly regulated. To learn more, click on “Safety and Regulation”.

What is SurgeTrader?

SurgeTrader is a virtual prop trading firm. Check the “About SurgeTrader” section for more information.

Which broker does SurgeTrader work with?

SurgeTrader is partnered with ThinkMarkets for brokerage services. See “Brokers” for more info.

How many SurgeTrader accounts can I have?

SurgeTrader lets you have multiple accounts, but only one per account size. Check out the “Challenge Trading Rules” section for more information.

Where is SurgeTrader based?

SurgeTrader is headquartered in Naples, Florida, USA. More information can be found under “About SurgeTrader”.

Does SurgeTrader allow the use of an Expert Advisor or Copy Trading?

SurgeTrader allows the use of EA and also copy trading, but with some restrictions in place. Learn more about this in the “Expert Advisor” and “Copy Trading” part.

Is SurgeTrader legal in the US?

Yes, SurgeTrader has been operating legally in the US. You can read more about it in the “About SurgeTrader” section.

How long has SurgeTrader been around?

SurgeTrader is a relatively new company and has been around since 2021. Check the “About SurgeTrader” section for more information.

How much does SurgeTrader cost?

Their audition fee starts at $50 and can reach $6500, depending on the account size. For more information, see “Prices and Challenge Fees”.

How often does SurgeTrader pay out?

SurgeTrader allows withdrawals once every 30 days. See “Payment Methods and Payout System” for more information.

Liam Matthews

Having more than eight years of trading experience, I know how hard it is to find a good and reliable Prop Trading Firm and not to choose the wrong one. With PropTradingScam.com I want to help you to pick the right one, stay safe, and share your experience.