TradeDay

One clock is published for TradeDay’s side and none for the rail, and the firm publishes that clock twice in wordings that disagree on both the timezone and the unit. One help-centre article, and a second passage inside the Quick Pay payout policy, says “Payout requests received before 5:30 pm CT are processed within 24 hours (business days only)”, while the headline of that Quick Pay policy says “We aim to process payout requests submitted before 5:30 pm ET by the next business day”. The 24-hour CT wording is the one repeated across articles. Nothing is published for the time from TradeDay’s authorisation to money landing: processing ends with “a confirmation email instructing you to log into your Riseworks account to withdraw the funds”, after which settlement is between the trader and Riseworks. Route differs by stage: “Funded Sim trader request payouts through the dashboard inside the member’s area” and “Funded Live traders email fundedtrader@tradeday.com to submit your payout request”. Minimum request is $250 on every plan, and “If you have a pending payout request and you submit another one, the new request will override the previous one”. All four run through one rail: “We make payments via our payment processor, Riseworks. Riseworks has 2 options for payouts: Bank wire and Crypto”. Onboarding is by invitation after passing (“Please do not attempt to onboard with Riseworks until you receive an invitation”), and Rise may add country- and bank-specific charges TradeDay says it “cannot work around or alter”. Existing Ukrainian users are crypto-only: they “may still use their Riseworks accounts, but may only withdraw in crypto”.

At funding, not at purchase, and run by third parties rather than by TradeDay: “Our broker, clearing firm, and Contractor management platform will run a KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti Money Laundering) background checks when you are funded” — the contractor platform being Riseworks.IO. Documents are “a bank statement or utility bill as proof of address, and a government-issued ID”, which must match the name and email address held at TradeDay or the check fails. Older eligibility articles describe failed funding as partly refundable: “If you cannot provide these documents, or fail these background checks (for example, if you are a convicted felon), we will not be able to proceed with opening the funded account. We will refund any setup and activation fees, as well as the fee paid for the passed evaluation. However, we will not refund failed evaluations or subscriptions used prior to passing the evaluation”. KYC sits inside a four-step onboarding (activation fee, Riseworks onboarding, rules-and-regulations course, select Funded Sim) with a deadline: “You have 30 days to complete this onboarding; failure to do so within this permitted time will result in the offer being withdrawn”. Entity rules are published with it: “US-based single-person LLCs are permitted, multiple-member LLCs are not allowed. We cannot open accounts for S-corps or C-corps”, and “We cannot accept applications for international businesses or make payouts to international businesses”. US traders withdrawing over $600 in a tax year receive a 1099-NEC; funded traders are “considered as an Independent Contractor”, not employees. As checked September 5, 2026, the prohibited-countries article updated September 3 says a failed KYC check or missing required documents prevents funding and is not eligible for any refund. The eligibility, guaranteed-funding and Rise-onboarding articles still promise return of setup/activation fees and the passed-evaluation fee, excluding failed evaluations and earlier subscriptions. This is a current conflict; a KYC refund must not be promised as certain.

“Exit all positions 10 minutes before the close. No holding positions when the market closes”. The rule is relative to each product's own close, and TradeDay's own auto-liquidation fires at 3:50 pm CT only. The session, not the calendar day, is the unit: “For CME products, a trading session is defined from the opening of the market at 5 pm CT through to the close the next day. Any trading taking place during this session is considered a day”, and “All Evaluation Challenge metrics are based on this trading day session”. Most permitted products run “from 5 pm CT, (the market open) until 4 pm CT (the market close) the next day”. The flat-by rule is relative to each product’s own close, while the firm’s automation is not: “TradeDay can liquidate open positions at 3:50 pm CT only, so please note that if you are trading a product that has a different closing time, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are flat and have no working orders before the close of that product” — agricultural products are named as closing earlier. Breaching the times is a warning, not an automatic fail (“We do not fail traders for accidental breaches of these guidelines”; “Any trader holding a position during this time will be issued a warning”), but the firm disclaims the automation entirely: “Do not rely on TradeDay to manage your orders. If you breach a drawdown limit because the software did not liquidate your position or prevent orders from being filled, TradeDay will not reset the account”. Two further windows close the market: 2 minutes either side of each tier-1 release, and a price-limit exclusion zone — “At TradeDay, Funded Traders are not permitted to trade within 2% of a price limit. Traders in breach of this policy will lose their funded account”. Traders may also set their own Tradovate daily/weekly loss and profit lockouts, which “cannot be overridden or adjusted by our team” once set.

Up to 10 accounts total, including at most 10 evaluations, 5 active Funded Sim and 5 Funded Live accounts. Additional passed evaluations queue for a Funded Sim slot. Use one broker, one username and one user per household. Live accounts cannot hold positions simultaneously with evaluations or Funded Sim, and no new accounts can be purchased while in Funded Live.

As checked September 5, 2026, the prohibited-countries article updated September 3 says a failed KYC check or missing required documents prevents funding and is not eligible for any refund. The eligibility, guaranteed-funding and Rise-onboarding articles still promise return of setup/activation fees and the passed-evaluation fee, excluding failed evaluations and earlier subscriptions. This is a current conflict; a KYC refund must not be promised as certain. Strictly no refunds in the contract, with two narrow published exceptions in the help centre that the contract does not acknowledge — both are recorded here rather than reconciled. The Terms and Conditions are absolute: “User is not entitled to any refund of any fees or costs, and all fees are final, non-cancelable, and non-refundable”, and “You are not entitled to a refund of the fee, for example, if you cancel your Account or request the cancellation by e-mail, if you terminate the use of the Services prematurely (for example, fails to complete the Evaluation Challenge), you fail to meet the conditions of the Evaluation Challenge, or if you violate the Terms in any manner”. The help-centre Refund Policy (article 103000008910) agrees in principle — “TradeDay works with a number of third-party service providers that require immediate commitment from TradeDay when an account is opened, as such we are unable to offer a refund after purchase”, “All membership fees are considered used in full”, and no refund for technical issues — but then publishes a forgotten-membership window the Terms do not contain: a refund of the LAST payment only, provided “We are contacted within 72 hours of the payment being processed”, “No new trading activity or connection to third-party suppliers took place since the payment”, and with “a 20% deduction in the refund”. A second exception is published in three separate articles: if the broker/clearing KYC and AML check is failed or a trader cannot comply with the IP-masking security check, “We will refund any setup and activation fees, as well as the fee paid for the passed evaluation. However, we will not refund failed evaluations or subscriptions used prior to passing the evaluation”. Cancelling is self-service and forward-only — “Billing stops as soon as you cancel”, with no pro-rata — and passing on a billing day is expressly not refundable (“if you pass your evaluation on the same day as your monthly billing renewal day, there will be no refund if the payment is made before the End of Day”). Two further points to flag: the site footer promises a document that does not exist — “Refund Policy: All subscription fees are non-refundable except where required by law. Please review our full Refund Policy on our website”, yet no /refund-policy page is linked in the footer or navigation and none was discoverable, so the operative terms live only inside the Terms and Conditions and this help-centre article — and a chargeback is grounds for permanent termination: “If you lodge an unjustifiable complaint regarding the paid fee or dispute the paid fee with your bank or payment service TradeDay ... TradeDay is entitled, at its own discretion, to stop providing to you any Services and refuse any future provision of any Services”.

TradeDay itself imposes nothing — “No, we do not charge inactivity fees or have minimum trading requirements” — but the platform does, and the consequence is a failed account: “Tradovate has its own account inactivity system. If a user does not log into their Tradovate account for more than one calendar month, Tradovate will automatically archive the account. When this happens, the account is removed from the trading platform and cannot be recovered by us or reactivated. At this time the account will be considered failed and a user will need to purchase a reset or buy a new account if they wish to continue trading”. The trigger is logging in, not trading, and the period is a calendar month rather than a fixed number of days.

Every passing trader lands in Funded Sim first and reaches real capital by a route that differs by plan, and TradeDay treats the move as discretionary in both. Quick Pay is threshold-based: each Funded Sim account is reviewed at $10,000 gross profit, trading must stop, the account is paused at the 4:30 pm CT end-of-day run and reviewed overnight, and “The trading account will be reviewed, and the trader will in most cases be moved to Funded Live”, with an extension in Funded Sim offered “On rare occasions”. Fast Pass is payout-count based: “Upon a trader’s 5th payout request, the Funded Sim account will transition to a Funded Live account”, and “If a trader is demonstrating consistency in the funded sim account, TradeDay may move the trader to funded Live before the 5th payout request”. Funded Live is real money on a sub-account of TradeDay’s master account, pays 90/10 in the trader’s favour, reclassifies the trader as a market professional, and adds a slippage rule and a professional data fee that Funded Sim does not carry. TradeDay also reserves a direct route: “TradeDay reserves the right to move a trader directly to a Funded Live account on passing the evaluation”.

TradeDay’s “What are the permitted products guidelines?” article (updated 2026-02-11) names 41 CME Group contracts by asset class. The universe is closed and futures-only: “TradeDay only allows its traders to trade the CME Group futures products, specifically those listed on the CME, CBOT, COMEX, and NYMEX” and “Trading of Stocks, Options, Forex, Cryptocurrency, and CFDs are not permitted nor available in our program or platforms” — the firm adds that it does “not trade high-margin products or very illiquid products which are difficult to trade and risk manage”. A temporary metals restriction has been in force since 11 February 2026 and applies to evaluation, Funded Sim and Funded Live alike: Gold (GC), Silver (SI), Copper (HG) and Platinum (PL) are listed as “Restricted products (on all account types)” while remaining in the permitted table, and Micro Gold (MGC) and Micro Silver (SIL) are capped at “4 lots” on every tier, and “These changes apply to both Sim (evaluation and funded sim) and live accounts until further notice”. The firm’s table publishes a dollar tick value per contract, not a price increment (ES $12.50, MES $1.25, NQ $5.00, MNQ $0.50, RTY $5.00, M2K $0.50, NKD $25.00, YM $5.00, MYM $0.50, 6A $5.00, 6B/6C/6E $6.25, M6E $1.25, 6J $6.25, 6S $12.50, 6N $5.00, ZT/ZF $7.81, ZN $15.63, ZB/UB $31.25, TN $15.63, CL $10.00, MCL $1.00, QM/QG $12.50, NG $10.00, PL $5.00, HG $12.50, GC $10.00, MGC $1.00, SI $25.00, SIL $5.00, HE/LE $10.00, ZS $12.50, ZC $12.50, ZL $6.00, ZM $10.00, ZW $12.50). Commissions are published per contract PER SIDE and are the broker’s, not a TradeDay markup: “TradeDay does not charge any additional commission on top of the commission charged by its broker”; “Prices are per lot traded (per side), and include brokerage fee, NFA fee, Clearing fee and Exchange fee” — $2.88 on ES/NQ/RTY/YM, $0.95 on MES/MNQ/M2K/MYM, $3.15 NKD, $3.10 on all FX minis and on PL/HG/GC/SI/NG, $0.84 M6E, $2.15 ZT/ZF, $2.30 ZN/TN, $2.37 ZB, $2.45 UB, $3.00 CL, $1.10 MCL, $2.70 QM, $2.00 QG, $1.20 MGC, $1.46 SIL and $3.60 on all seven agricultural contracts. The same rates apply to evaluation, Funded Sim and Funded Live, charged as simulated commission inside PnL on the two sim stages, though “If you move to a Funded Live account, the commission may differ slightly”. Micro equivalency is 1:10 with an absolute cap: “if your maximum position limit is 5 lots contracts, you will be able to trade up to 50 lots Micro” and “we limit the maximum Micro position to 50 lots”. No margin is charged to the trader; sizing is governed by the position limit alone.