OneUp Trader Review: The Day Trading Futures Prop Firm For You To One Up

Are you a futures day trader and would like to ‘one up’ for a recognized prop firm? Enter the aptly-named OneUp Trader, a brand from America looking for the most confident day traders to have access to accounts ranging from $25,000 to $250,000.

There is only one step evaluation standing between a trader and the opportunity to trade accounts ranging from $25,000 to $250,000 with a generous 50 to 80% profit split. Fortunately, this proposition exists with OneUp Trader. The American-based recognized futures proprietary firm linked with many funding partners. 

Interested daytraders who feel confident in their abilities can apply for the privilege of being selected as a prop-funded trader through their network. 

To help in the decision-making, this article will be a deep dive into what exactly OneUp Trader has to offer, whether the testing parameters are fair, what’s good and bad about the program overall, and a final verdict on whether traders should consider them.

What does OneUp Trader have to offer?

OneUp prides itself on providing a simple-to-understand and clearly-defined evaluation course. They offer mainly five accounts, each with different corresponding balances; Novice ($25,000), Beginner ($50,000), Advanced ($100,000), Professional ($150,000) and Expert ($250,000).

Clients pay a monthly subscription for each of these packages. Alternatively, traders can choose a slightly cheaper option for each account where there is a 50-50 split after the first $5,000 in profits. 

The subscription fee is valid for as long as a trader has not yet met the profit target and violated any rules. Should the latter occur, at an extra cost of $100, traders have the option to reset their account balances to where they were previously.

• Novice ($125/$105 monthly)

• (Beginner ($150/$120 monthly)

• Advanced ($300/$240 monthly)

• Professional ($350/$300 monthly)

• Expert ($650/$500 monthly)

OneUp affords traders the luxury of trading on 21 different trading platforms such as NinjaTrader, RTrader, Sierra Chart, etc.

Targets

• The minimum number of trading days is 15 (excluding weekends and public holidays).

• Maximum lot size for one position (see the first image at the beginning of the section – 3, 6, 12, 15, and 25 contracts or lots corresponding to each respective account).

• 6% profit target (across all accounts).

• Drawdown ranges between 6 and 2.5% (drawdown figure progressively declines as the account size increases at each package). Furthermore, it is a trailing drawdown, which differs from a fixed one. 

A trailing drawdown ‘trails’ along proportionally with the growth of an account up until a certain point. Let’s use the $25,000 option as an example. The drawdown here is $1,500. If the account gained $1,000 (meaning a new balance of $26,000), the drawdown now becomes $2,500. 

If the equity went up to $27,000 (another $1,000 increase), the new drawdown is $3,500. If the balance decreased back to its initial starting balance of $25,000, the drawdown would remain at $3,500 and not fall back to the original $1,500.

• The daily loss limit ranges between 2 and 2.67% of the account, depending on the package.

• Profit split: There are two structures with the profit split on OneUp. The most common is an 80-20 share (80% going towards the trader) after the first $8,000 in profits for all accounts, meaning traders keep 100% of the earnings up to this figure. After that, it reverts to 80-20.

In the second instance, it still remains at 100% of the profits up to $8,000 but reverts to 50-50 split after that.

• Positions can never run beyond 3:15 PM CST every day (i.e., holding trades overnight and over the weekend is not allowed).

Upon successfully meeting these objectives, OneUp claims guaranteed placement of the official live account, which is worth the same as in the evaluation phase.

Pros & cons

Below are the pros and cons from an objective perspective.

Pros

• The programming and trading parameters are simple-to-understand.

• OneUp offers a unique range of futures products in forex, commodities, energy, indices, etc.

• There are 21 different trading platforms that traders can choose to use.

• No time limit exists on completing the program.

Cons

• As with any funding program, there is always a risk of failure without compensation of the joining fees. Therefore, joining any firm must be a very carefully-considered choice considering the affordability and confidence of a trader to meet the objectives.

• Furthermore, OneUp operates on a monthly subscription rather than a one-time fee model. It is difficult to say if their packages are more expensive using this model or not unless one makes a thorough like-for-like comparison. Most people generally prefer one-time payments as they perceive them to be cheaper and less of a long-term commitment.

• The program does not cater to swing traders.

• OneUp does not offer MetaTrader 4 (MT4) as one of its trade execution platforms, which is a disadvantage since this is one of the most popular options for many traders.

• The drawdown for each account decreases as it gets bigger, meaning fewer funds for traders to utilize.

Conclusion

Overall, OneUp Trader does provide mostly favorable trading conditions for day traders looking to join a prop firm; no time limit on meeting the parameters and ultimate profit target, clearly-defined and straightforward program, etc. 

It should be clear OneUp strictly favors daytraders if we look at the objectives, inevitably excluding a large section of non-day traders. Perhaps the two notable drawbacks are the monthly fee model and the drawdown decreasing as the account size increases. 

Assuming a trader can afford the program and fully understands the risk of violating the rules, OneUp Trader is a worthwhile futures prop firm.