Beware of prop trading scam

Let’s talk about one of the hottest trends in the trading world right now - prop trading (short for proprietary trading, sometimes called funded trading). Sounds fancy, right? And honestly, the idea behind it is pretty appealing.

Here’s how it works: you, the trader, get an account from a company (often a broker). You trade it, and if you meet their requirements - boom - you get a reward. Maybe a payout, maybe a “real” funded account. Usually, it all starts with a challenge or a contest. Sometimes it’s free to join, sometimes there’s a fee. Either way, people are hyped.

And why wouldn’t they be? The idea of trading “someone else’s money” and keeping a share of the profit sounds like a dream - especially for traders who don’t want to risk their own funds.

But here’s the thing - not all prop trading offers are what they seem.

Great question. Prop trading might look like a generous offer - “here, take our money and trade synthetics!” - but trust me, it’s far from charity.

Here’s what brokers actually get out of it:

And what do you get in return?

A demo account - often opened with us!

Think about it: it’s way cheaper for a “prop firm” to open a demo account with a reputable broker (like us) that already offers synthetic products than to build their own trading infrastructure. Buying a full trading platform can cost 6 digit numbers and developing synthetic instruments requires a lot of resources too - so of course, they take shortcuts.

We’ve seen this with our own synthetic indices. Scammers open demo accounts on our platform - or worse, steal our data feed - and then sell access to it as if they’re running a funded challenge in partnership with us.

Let us be 100% clear:

- We are not in partnership with any prop trading firms.

- We do not provide our synthetic indices feed to anyone.

- The only place you can access our synthetics is on our official trading platforms.

So if someone claims to offer “funded accounts” with our products and they’re not us - they’re lying. You might be paying real money for something that is simply stolen.

And if that’s the case… are you sure you’re okay with it?

If you come across a so-called “prop trading firm” offering synthetic indices - please, let us know. Our products are easy to recognize, and we’ll take care of it.

If you're into trading synthetics, you're more than welcome to trade directly with us. It’s true - we don’t offer prop trading. But we do run demo contests with real prizes from time to time. And honestly, that’s not too different from trading a demo account for a chance to win something real.

The best part? We won’t charge you to participate.

Prop trading can be fun, motivating, and even profitable - if it is not a part of a theft. Just don’t get fooled by copycats trying to flip a demo account into a business. If it sounds shady or too good to be true, it probably is.