Head to head
TradeDay or Alpha Futures: which one actually costs less
On a 50K account, the order between TradeDay and Alpha Futures changes with the path you take. A page that announces “the cheapest” without saying which path it assumed has picked that path for you.
This comparison is written neither by TradeDay nor by Alpha Futures. No link on this page is paid for — the methodology explains how to check, and links to the firms’ sites go through a page that says so.
Total cost across three paths
| Path | TradeDay | Alpha Futures | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passed first time | $262 | $258 | Alpha Futures $4 apart |
| Three resets before passing | $439 | $519 | TradeDay $80 apart |
| A year of funded account | $262 | $258 | Alpha Futures $4 apart |
A total marked “≥” is a minimum: an amount is missing — sometimes because the firm does not publish it, sometimes because we have not recorded it. Each firm's guide says which. A minimum cannot be ranked against a firm price, and the column says “undetermined” rather than pick one.
The answer depends on the scenario, and that is the point
The three rows above are the same calculation along three paths. Where both totals are firm, the column names the cheaper of TradeDay and Alpha Futures; where one is a floor, it answers “undetermined” rather than compare a minimum against a price.
What actually separates TradeDay from Alpha Futures
The table above compares what you pay to get in. This one compares what decides the rest — the funded-account rules, and the 50K evaluation rules.
| Rule | TradeDay | Alpha Futures |
|---|---|---|
| Profit target (50K) | $3,000 | $3,000 |
| Maximum drawdown (50K) | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Funded-account drawdown | intraday trailing | end-of-day |
| Profit split | 50/50 below $4,000 of running profit, 80/20 above, 90/10 on Funded Live | 90/10 |
| Consistency at payout | none | 40% |
| Daily loss limit (50K) | none | none |
| Minimum trading days (50K) | 5 | 2 |
| Maximum contracts (50K) | 5 contracts (50 micros) | 3 mini / 30 micro |
| Trading through news | no | no |
Platforms. 2 shared (Quantower, Wealthcharts) · only on TradeDay: ATAS, NinjaTrader, Rithmic, Sierra Chart, TradingView, Tradovate · only on Alpha Futures: AlphaTrader, DeepCharts.
Drawdown is the difference that decides most often. TradeDay’s is intraday trailing, Alpha Futures’s is end-of-day. An intraday trailing drawdown follows your unrealised high: a winning trade you have not closed pulls the threshold up behind you, and an ordinary pullback is enough to take you out. An end-of-day drawdown only moves on the closing balance, which lets the session breathe. A static drawdown never moves. At equal price this choice weighs more than the entry gap in the three scenarios above.
Alpha Futures enforces a 40% consistency rule at payout; TradeDay publishes none. A consistency rule caps how much of total profit a single day is allowed to represent. On an event-driven strategy — one big day on a report — it is the rule, not the split, that decides whether the withdrawal goes through.
The profit split differs: TradeDay states 50/50 below $4,000 of running profit, 80/20 above, 90/10 on Funded Live, Alpha Futures states 90/10. It is the only line in this table you pay on every withdrawal rather than once.