FidelCrest Prop Trading Firm - Funded Account challenge

FidelCrest Review and Analysis

Overview

FidelCrest has the markings of a venture capitalist firm or high-end Wall Street brokerage. The design and feel of the site are sleek and confident. The winged lion logo oozes pride. The phases of the Trading Challenge are immediately presented in a clear comparison table exuding the apparent transparency and trustworthiness of FidelCrest. Does the challenge lose its shine when you get up close? In this review, we have gone under the hood of the FidelCrest Trading Challenge to see whether it lives up to the hype.

FidelCrest: What’s it all about?

• FidelCrest has its inbuilt trading platform. They offer raw spreads starting from 0 pips and 0 commissions.
• Traders can choose between over 175 instruments from forex, stocks, indices, commodities, metals, and more.
• FidelCrest grants leverage of up to 1:100 – regardless of traders’ geolocation.
• Traders can monitor and assess their performance with detailed analytics and account metrics.
• Profit split of up to 90% for the traders – one of the highest of any prop firm.

FidelCrest was awarded Best Proprietary Trading Firm in UK 2022 (and 2021) by the International Business Magazine. The firm refers to its “trust and transparency” and quotes itself as winning “Best Micro Forex in Europe 2021” in the People’s Choice category at the Forex Expo last year. FidelCrest certainly has some impressive strings on its bow, but is it the best prop firm out there?

Funded Accounts

What are proprietary trading firms?

Before we launch into the nitty gritty of this particular funded account challenge – we should check the fundamentals. What exactly does proprietary trading mean? Prop firms are a mutually beneficial agreement between trader and broker, whereby the former seek low-risk leverage from the latter upon passing a series of prerequisite tests or “challenges.” Only high-earning and consistently profitable traders pass the funded account challenge and can then be rewarded for their efforts with up to a quarter of a million dollars funding in which the majority of risk is assumed by the broker, and profits taken home by the trader.

Challenge Overview

FidelCrest Challenge review

The FidelCrest Trading Challenge is one of the oldest in the market. Established in 2018, the challenge is hailed as an opportunity for traders to access leverage of up to two million dollars – which eclipses the maximum funding of most prop firms. The FidelCrest Trading Challenge is described as an evaluation course that sets out to recruit promising traders. The package is alluring indeed: a 5% minimum profit target, minimal trading rules and regulations, and the opportunity to trade with up to $2m with a 90% profit split in the trader’s favor.

Pro Trader vs Micro Trader

Like many prop firms, FidelCrest offers two main avenues to traders: the Pro Trader Program and the Micro Trader Program. Both approaches have inbuilt phases: the trading challenge, the verification stage, and the final funded account as a FidelCrest Trader (to the lucky winners). They have 30 days in which to prove consistent profits, with targets between 5% and 15% and maximum losses of 10% to 20%. The minimum number of trading days is 10 and traders are invited to pursue normal or aggressive trading strategies.

The verification stage continues in the same vein, except that this time traders can begin to keep a share of the profits (between 40% and 50%). Depending on the account size, this could amount to up to $20,000. The traders who make it through the second stage will then be brought onboard FidelCrest with the opportunity of trading the firm's capital and sharing the profits without assuming personal financial risk. In this final phase, the profit margin is up to 90% for the trader. The Pro Trader regulations are the same as the above, except in the second phase (the Verification Stage) traders will have the opportunity of keeping up to $30,000 of the profits.

Pros and Cons

Let’s talk about the good stuff …

• 13 types of accounts
• Leverage of up to 1:100
• +1000 financial assets on offer
• Easy withdrawals
• No recurring fees

• Unregulated (as not a broker)
• 30-day trading period
• Oppressive trading rules
• No telephone customer support

Evaluation Metrics

Overall metrics

To truly evaluate what FidelCrest brings to the trading table, we decided to score each aspect of the FidelCrest 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 FidelCrest is that it does offer a range of account sizes with accompanying challenges of varying difficulty to suit many types of traders.
• Customer support: Not bad: like most prop firms, FidelCrest doesn’t offer telephone support. Nonetheless, the alternative means (live Chat, Messenger, and email) have a response rate of 95% and average wait time of 1 minute. Also, by avoiding call hours they are available 24/7!
• Fee: The broad range of account sizes and tiers is reflected in the fees. These start from €99 to €1,499.
• Payout scheme: FidelCrest doesn’t hold back when it comes to the profit split, with a generous 80% in the trader’s favor. Of course, this is the higher bracket and there have been complaints from disgruntled traders of late payouts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):