City Traders Imperium Prop Trading Firm - Funded Account challenge

City Traders Imperium Review and Analysis

Overview

In this review, we will be placing City Traders’ Imperium under the critical spotlight. A London-based prop firm founded by two traders, City Traders’ Imperium has some unusual features that set it apart from its competitors. City Traders’ Imperium is a particularly meaty prop firm – in that there are a bunch of courses, training materials, account sizes, and different challenges on offer. In order to make sure we review them fairly we will take a snapshot of their platform by rating each metric individually. A type of “aerial view,” as it were.

City Traders Imperium: What’s it all about?

In 2014, Daniel Martin and Martin Najat decided to establish their own prop firm. Martin was a veteran trader with over a decade’s worth of experience in financial institutions. One of the professional strings to his bow was being a senior mentor at Switzerland’s top prop firm. It was here that he met Najat – and soon after City Traders’ Imperium was born. The idea behind CTI was to offer traders an alternate avenue to funded accounts, one whereby the emphasis was on accessing the funding over training courses or mentorship programs. City Traders’ Imperium offers tiered plans to contestants, whereby traders’ accounts are doubled every time they hit a 10% target. The firm, which is based in Shoreditch, London, is growing to be one of the fastest scaling prop firms in the industry. Does it live up to the hype?

Funded Accounts

What are proprietary trading firms?

With ever more prop firms jostling for attention in the funded accounts industry, it can be difficult for traders to discern which platform would be best for them. Proprietary trading firms or “prop firms” are a unique source of revenue for traders with profitable strategies but lacking leverage. Through a series of internal trading tests or “challenges,” prop firms are able to source consistently profitable traders to join their ventures. The fortunate few can access accounts funded by the firm in question – sometimes with up to $2 million to trade, with profits split between broker and trader in the latter’s favor.

Challenge Overview

City Traders Imperium Challenge review

City Traders’ Imperium offers three types of funded programs: standard, classic, and day trading. The Standard FTP has the fewest rules and maintains the promise that traders’ accounts will double every time they hit the 10% target. With up to $4 million in funded capital on the trading table, the Standard FTP has an evaluation time limit of up to 6 months and a base of 30 active trading days. The maximum loss is 5% absolute drawdown, and the stop loss risk s 1.5% per position. There is a range of evaluation plans with account sizes beginning at $2,500 for £115 and up to $17,500 for £659.

Next up, the Classic Funded Trader Program is targeted at more experienced prop traders and offers similar metrics and rules to the above. Finally, the Day Trading Funded Program is the top choice for high-risk traders. The 10% max Drawdown and promise of up to 100% profit target suits a variety of trading styles.

The challenge is split into stages: the assessment phase and the qualification phase both have a maximum time limit of 45 days and call for a minimum of 10 active trading days. The profit target is 10% for the assessment phase and 5% for the qualification stage. The maximum daily drawdown is 4% and the absolute drawdown is 10%.

The Day Trading Funded Program has layered profit shares and growth plans, with the profit split beginning at 70% to the trader on the first 10% net profit. The Day Trader Funded Program is divided into three challenges: $50K, $25K, and $10K. For each one, there is a one-time entry fee of £289.

Pros and Cons

Let’s talk about the good stuff …

We take our hat off to City Traders’ Imperium: they have put a slick offering on the prop firm table. Their funded challenge offers traders up to 100% profits with minimal rules. They have multiple account options, one-to-one mentoring, and a host of excellent training courses. On their homepage, CTI states with confidence they are “the world's best forex prop firm & Funded Trader Programs.” We believe they mean they have the world’s best prop firm and funded trader programs. Let’s hope their funded account challenge is better than their grammar!

... and the bad

Mind your Ps and Qs…and Read your Ts & Cs

Certain disgruntled traders have complained about being tagged out of positions for too small pip stops. There have been technical glitches both with the trading software and the training courses which have impeded traders looking for funding. Bear in mind that the CTI is neither authorized nor regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (although it shares this in common with most prop firms).

There is also no refund on the sign-up fee once the trader has entered the funded account challenge. Like many funded account challenges, the “funding” is virtual money in demo accounts, and traders should look at the pass/fail rate and make an informed decision as to their best chances of securing the supposed CTI dream.

Evaluation Metrics

Overall metrics

To truly evaluate what City Traders Imperium brings to the trading table, we decided to score each aspect of the City Traders Imperium Challenge individually.
• Challenge difficulty: The idea behind funded account challenges is essentially to headhunt profitable traders, so contestants need to know the basics of trading. What we like about City Traders Imperium is that it does offer a range of account sizes with accompanying challenges of varying difficulty to suit many types of traders.
• Customer support: CTI is friendly and responsive. They may not have a direct phone line to contact, but the email support is swift and informative. The complaints about poor support are dwarfed by the happy customers whose issues were fast resolved.
• Fee: Certain of the CTI challenges are entirely free of charge, while others will set the trader back by as much as £659.
• Payout scheme: Traders on the CTI payroll can choose to be paid through PayPal. The full withdrawal conditions can be read on their site.

Meet the CEO

City Traders Imperium's CEO is Daniel Martin. Daniel Martin and Martin Najat are also the co-founders of City Traders Imperium. Together, Daniel Martin and Martin Najat have established City Traders Imperium, a platform aimed at providing traders with the knowledge and support they need to excel in the world of trading. Daniel Martin brings over 20 years of trading experience to the table, specializing in assisting traders in achieving consistent profitability by emphasizing the development of their trading psychology and methodology.

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