How we rank prop firms
The full calculation methodology. We publish it in its entirety, because a ranking that judges companies is obliged to explain how it counts — otherwise it is no different from the ones it criticises.
Verified payouts only
Only payouts confirmed by a certificate and passed through QR validation are counted. Nothing taken on trust.
No reviews, no stars
Reviews get gamed. We do not use them in any form — neither our own nor anyone else’s.
Placement cannot be bought
There are no paid positions, sponsored slots or affiliate bonuses to the score.
The formula is open
Every weight and threshold is on this page. Any number in the ranking can be recalculated by hand.
What the Score is made of
Three blocks with fixed weights. Every metric is mapped onto a 0–100 scale — a firm's position among the others, not an absolute value
- Repeat payout rate—
- Regularity—
- Recency—
- Dispute-free rate—
- Payout volume in period—
- Number of payouts—
- Unique traders paid—
- Firm age (capped)—
- Lifetime track record, log scale—
What each metric means
Full disclosure for anyone who wants to verify the maths
| Metric | How it is calculated | Why it is in the formula |
|---|---|---|
| Repeat payout rate | share of the firm's traders who received 2 or more payouts | Answers the trader's main question: does it pay systematically, or once for the shop window |
| Regularity | 1 − coefficient of variation of weekly payout counts over the past year | Shows whether a firm pays steadily or in bursts with gaps |
| Recency | certificates we would expect from the firm since its last one, given its share of everyone's uploads — lower is better | Whether the firm is alive today. Measured against the platform’s own flow, so a quiet month in uploads counts against nobody |
| Dispute-free rate | 1 − share of confirmed non-payment reports relative to payouts | Accounts for confirmed cases where the firm failed to pay |
| Activity | volume, count and number of traders within the selected window | The scale of the firm's work right now, not across its whole history |
| Track record | logarithm of total lifetime payout volume | History counts, but does not grant an unlimited head start |
Firm age hits a ceiling
Past the fifth year, extra years add no points — seniority must not turn into a permanent head start over younger firms
Four periods, four different questions
| Tab | How it is calculated | Why it is in the formula |
|---|---|---|
| All time · default | full history | Hall of fame. Volume accumulated over years cannot be caught up with — read it as track record, not as today’s form |
| Yearly | last 12 months | Who can be trusted right now |
| Quarterly | last 90 days | Who is paying at this very moment — the fastest signal |
| Monthly | last 30 days | The freshest window. Small firms may have no data here yet |
Statuses and labels
| Label | When it appears | Who assigns it |
|---|---|---|
| Active | The firm pays at its usual rhythm | automatically |
| Checking | No new certificate from the firm while the rest of the platform uploaded enough that its share would be 3 or more. A quiet month for everyone flags nobody | automatically, cleared by the first new payout |
| Not paying | Confirmed that the firm is not paying out. Removed from the ranking | by a human only, after reviewing reports |
| New | The firm has been on the market for less than 12 months | automatically |
| Limited data | Fewer than 20 verified payouts. Score is provisional and marked with an asterisk | automatically |
Why the formula cannot be gamed
We publish the formula openly, so we close the obvious ways to game it up front
| Attempt | What stops it |
|---|---|
| Split one payout into ten small ones to inflate the count | Payout count is normalised by unique traders: a hundred payouts to one person are not the same as a hundred to different people |
| Pay one loyal trader many times to inflate Repeat rate | A payout counts as repeat only if it is at least the firm’s median size and separated from the previous one by the required interval |
| Report payouts that never happened | Every payout is confirmed by a certificate and passes QR validation. Unverified ones are not counted |
| Negotiate a place in the ranking | Paid positions do not exist. The weights are the same for everyone and published on this page |
Methodology changelog
If the formula changes, we write it down here. A ranking that changes its rules silently is worth nothing
| Date | Version | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| … | … | … |
