A working futures trader’s read on the Trader Career Path and the Gauntlet Mini, with the numbers that actually move the needle.
If you trade the CME for a living, or you want to, you have probably seen the Earn2Trade name kicking around for years. That longevity is the first thing worth saying out loud. A lot of funded-account shops appear, run a flashy promo and vanish. Earn2Trade has been doing the same thing, an evaluation that leads to a futures funding offer, for long enough that it published a real pass rate. In 2025 that figure was 8.89 percent of candidates. That number is not a marketing line; it is a reality check. These exams are built to be hard, and walking in expecting an easy pass is the wrong mindset.
Here is the cleanest way to think about it from the trader’s seat. You are not buying capital. You are buying an exam, and if you pass it you get a guaranteed funding offer from one of Earn2Trade’s prop partners, which are Helios, Appius and Kronos. The account you trade is futures only, across CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX, micros included. No forex, no stocks, no crypto. If you are a futures person, that focus is exactly what you want.
Two products, pick your lane
There are two ways in. The Gauntlet Mini is the straight shot: choose your size, pass the exam, and your funded account matches that size. The Trader Career Path is the build-up route: start smaller, hit profit goals, withdraw, and scale the account up over time. Same core rules on both, same ten-day minimum. The one billing detail that separates them in your wallet is the reset. Active Trader Career Path subscribers get a free reset after each monthly rebill. The Gauntlet Mini does not include that, so a blown run costs you the reset fee for that size.
Trader Career Path | TCP25 | TCP50 | TCP100 |
|---|---|---|---|
Virtual starting capital | $25,000 | $50,000 | $100,000 |
Profit goal | $1,750 | $3,000 | $6,000 |
EOD drawdown | $1,500 | $2,000 | $3,500 |
Daily loss limit | $550 | $1,100 | $2,200 |
Max contracts (ladder) | 3 | 6 | 12 |
Minimum trading days | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Reset price | $65 | $85 | $100 |
Monthly price | $75 | $95 | $175 |
Max funded size | $200,000 | $400,000 | $400,000 |
The Trader Career Path is where the real scaling lives. The TCP25 tops out at a 200,000 dollar funded account, while the TCP50 and TCP100 can take you all the way to 400,000 dollars by clearing profit goals and withdrawing at each rung. If you are the type who likes to prove the smaller account first and let the size grow with your results, this is your product.
Gauntlet Mini | GAU50 | GAU100 | GAU150 | GAU200 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Virtual starting capital | $50,000 | $100,000 | $150,000 | $200,000 |
Profit goal | $3,000 | $6,000 | $9,000 | $11,000 |
EOD drawdown | $2,000 | $3,500 | $4,500 | $6,000 |
Daily loss limit | $1,100 | $2,200 | $3,300 | $4,400 |
Max contracts (ladder) | 6 | 12 | 15 | 16 |
Minimum trading days | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Reset price | $75 | $100 | $130 | $155 |
Monthly price | $85 | $157.50 | $187.50 | $275 |
The Gauntlet Mini runs from a 50,000 dollar account up to 200,000 dollars. Profit goals scale sensibly with size, and the drawdown and daily loss limits move with them. If you already know the size you want to trade and you do not care about scaling up gradually, this is the simpler product to wrap your head around.
The Rules That Actually Trip People Up
Plenty of traders fail these exams not because they cannot trade but because they ignore a rule. Three breaches kill the account on the spot: trading outside approved hours, touching the daily loss limit, or touching the drawdown. The progression ladder is the soft one. Open too many contracts for your balance and it just locks you out for the rest of the day, then you are back the next session. Copy trading is off the table.
Then there is the consistency rule, and this is the one that catches good traders off guard. No single day can be thirty percent or more of your total profit during the exam. Translation: you cannot hit your whole target in one monster session and call it done. If your goal is 3,000 dollars and you bank 1,200 in a day, that is forty percent, so you keep trading until that day is back under the thirty percent line. Good news is it only applies during the exam. Once you are funded on LiveSim or Live, the consistency rule is gone.
Drawdown, the Part You Have to Internalize
Drawdown changes shape depending on where you are. During the exam and on funded LiveSim accounts it is an end-of-day drawdown, settled on closed balances at the close. On a Live funded account it trails your peak through the day on open and closed equity. And at the very top of the Trader Career Path it goes fixed: grow a TCP25 to 200,000 dollars and your floor locks at 194,000 dollars; reach 400,000 on a TCP50 or TCP100 and it locks at 388,000 dollars. Know which one is live before you size up a position.
Getting Paid
The split is eighty-twenty in your favor, and it holds on both LiveSim and Live. Withdrawals run weekly on Wednesdays; get your request in by 2:00 PM Central the previous Friday or you roll to the next week. Minimum is 100 dollars net, after the twenty percent share and the withdrawal fee. You can cash out through Rise, Deel, Bayzat or direct crypto. Two things to bank: a one-time 139 dollar activation on non-professional LiveSim accounts comes out of your first withdrawal, not your wallet upfront, and Rise payouts are not live yet in Iowa, Minnesota, South Carolina, Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
How the Scaling Actually Plays Out
If you take the Trader Career Path, here is what the climb looks like in practice. A TCP25 starts on a 25,000 dollar evaluation with a 1,750 dollar goal, then carries to a 25,000 dollar LiveSim or Live account, then steps to 50,000 dollars with a 3,000 dollar goal, then 100,000 with a 6,000 goal, and finally 200,000 with an 11,000 goal where the floor fixes at 194,000 dollars. The TCP50 and TCP100 run the same idea further, stepping through 100,000 and 200,000 dollars up to a 400,000 dollar account that needs a 40,000 dollar goal and fixes the floor at 388,000 dollars. Reach the top rung and the partner firm extends a custom offer. Every step is the same handshake: hit the goal, withdraw, move up.
LiveSim or Live, and Why Most Pick LiveSim
When you pass, you choose how to be funded: a Live account on real exchange capital, or a LiveSim account that runs real market data with simulated capital. The company’s own 2025 disclosure is telling here. Of the candidates who passed or progressed, only 5.23 percent traded a Live account while 94.77 percent traded LiveSim. That lopsided split makes sense from the desk: LiveSim lets you bank the eighty-twenty split and prove longevity without exchange-level capital exposure, and the payout terms are the same either way. If you want true live fills you can take them, but most traders here build on LiveSim first.
Practical Notes From the Desk
A few things that do not fit a spec table but matter day to day. You trade only during approved hours during the evaluation, and stepping outside them is a hard fail, so know the window before the session. Market data is on you monthly once funded, unless you already run your own feed, which is easy to forget when budgeting. And the daily loss limit is not forever: on a funded account you can request its removal once the lower edge of your drawdown has climbed back to the starting balance, which gives a seasoned funded trader more room to operate.
What Is Bundled While You Train
One thing that softens the subscription cost is what comes included during the evaluation. Platform access is free, so you are not paying separately for the terminal you route through, and the program ships with a free video library and study guides for traders sharpening their approach. There is no upfront activation fee on the evaluation either; the only activation charge in the whole journey is the one-time 139 dollar fee on non-professional LiveSim accounts, and even that is pulled from your first withdrawal rather than your card. For a trader weighing monthly cost against what is in the box, that bundle is worth counting.
What works, what to watch
What works
- Track record and a published pass rate instead of empty hype.
- Pure futures focus across all four major US exchanges, micros included.
- Real scaling to 400,000 dollars on the bigger Trader Career Path plans.
- Free reset on rebill keeps Trader Career Path retries cheap.
- Eighty-twenty split that carries over to LiveSim funding.
- Wide platform support, from Tradovate to NinjaTrader to Rithmic.
What to watch
- Consistency rule means no one-day hero runs during the exam.
- Monthly subscription plus data fees, not a single payment.
- Gauntlet Mini retries are paid, with no free reset.
- Funded accounts are serviced by the prop partner, not E2T.
- Miss five trading days in a row on a funded account and it closes.
- A handful of US regions are excluded from Rise payouts.
Bottom line for futures traders
Earn2Trade is a serious option if you trade futures and you respect process. The pass rate tells you it is not a giveaway, and the consistency rule tells you they want repeatable traders, not gamblers. If that is how you already trade, the path from a small evaluation to six-figure funding is genuinely available here, and the payout terms are fair. If you want a one-time fee or the freedom to swing your whole target in a single day, look elsewhere. For the disciplined futures crowd, it belongs on the list.
Frequently asked questions
One of Earn2Trade's prop partners: Helios Trading Partners, Appius Trading Limited or Kronos Proprietary Trading. The offer matches your evaluation size.
No. The program is futures only across CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX, micros included. No forex, equities, options, crypto or CFDs.
At least ten trading days, your profit goal met, and every rule respected, including the consistency rule during the exam.
Weekly, on Wednesdays, with requests due by 2:00 PM Central the prior Friday. Minimum is 100 dollars net.
Gauntlet Mini if you want your funded size right away; Trader Career Path if you want to scale up and keep the free reset on rebill.
