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

PathTradeDayAlpha FuturesCheaper
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.

The detail, item by item

The TradeDay guide · The Alpha Futures guide