A reading of the terms of 2 prop firms on the same twelve-clause grid, recorded on 17 September 2026. None reserves the right to deny or reduce a payout at its discretion, 1 to change its rules, none imposes arbitration, and 1 rules out any refund of evaluation fees.
Each cell leads to the clause quoted on the firm's page. "Not addressed" means the documents read do not mention it, never that the firm commits not to do it.
| Prop firm | Rule changes | Payout denial | Account closure | Open-ended prohibitions | Simulated accounts | Refunds | Governing law | Arbitration | Liability cap | Time limit to claim | Local legality | Payment disputes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha Futures | Not addressed | Not addressed | ||||||||||
| Phidias Propfirm | Yes | Unclear | Unclear | Yes | Yes | No | GI | No | Yes | Not addressed | Yes | Yes |
An account is bought on the strength of specific rules: profit target, drawdown, payout conditions. If the firm can change them along the way, what you bought is not fixed. The useful question is not only whether the firm can amend its terms, since almost all of them can, but whether the change also reaches accounts already open, and with what notice.
Across 1 firm read: Yes 1.
This is the clause that decides whether a displayed profit becomes a transfer. A firm can tie a denial to specific grounds, such as a broken rule, or keep a broad power of assessment, worded for instance as "in its sole discretion". The difference only shows at the moment of the payout request.
Across 1 firm read: Ambiguous wording 1.
Closing a funded account means losing the account and, often, profits not yet paid. Contracts range from closure for a defined breach to termination "for any reason or no reason". What happens to the fees paid on closure is a separate point, rarely found in the same place.
Across 1 firm read: Ambiguous wording 1.
A list of prohibited practices protects the trader when it is exhaustive: whatever is not on it is allowed. Wording such as "any other practice we deem abusive" reverses that logic, since the firm can label after the fact a strategy that no written rule prohibited.
Across 1 firm read: Yes 1.
Marketing talks about a "funded account"; contracts mostly say that every account is simulated and that a payout is compensation paid by the firm. The distinction matters for understanding what you buy, and US and UK regulators now require it to be shown.
Across 1 firm read: Yes 1.
An evaluation is paid for before trading. Some firms refund an unused account within a short window, others declare every sale final. The sales page and the terms do not always say the same thing: the contractual text is what is quoted here.
Across 1 firm read: No 1.
The law chosen by the contract decides the rules that will settle a dispute, and often where you will have to bring it. For a European trader, a contract governed by the law of a US state or of Hong Kong makes any challenge more remote, whatever protections their own country otherwise offers.
Across 1 firm read: Specified 1.
An arbitration clause sets the courts aside in favour of an arbitrator appointed under the contract. It often comes with a class action waiver, which makes each trader act alone, and that matters when the amount at stake is the price of an evaluation or a payout.
Across 1 firm read: No 1.
The cap sets what a trader can claim if the firm is at fault: a platform outage, an unpaid payout, an account closed by mistake. It is often equal to the amounts paid over a short period, and sometimes excluded altogether.
Across 1 firm read: Yes 1.
Some contracts require any claim to be brought within a set period, often one year. After that, the firm treats the claim as extinguished. A trader who discovers a payout problem several months later needs to know.
Across 2 firms read: Not addressed 2.
Firms rarely publish a complete list of the countries they accept, and their contracts often leave it to the trader to check their own regulations. This clause complements the site's country pages, which only record positions written down by the firms.
Across 1 firm read: Yes 1.
Disputing a payment with your bank is often the first reflex in a disagreement. Several contracts sanction it by closing every account, forfeiting profits or a permanent ban, which can cost more than the disputed amount.
Across 2 firms read: Yes 1 and Not addressed 1.
We read the terms and conditions, trading rules and disclosures that each firm publishes on its own website, and only there. Every document goes through the same twelve-question grid. An answer is only published once the sentence it rests on has been found word for word in the page our watcher recorded itself, and then reviewed. We quote the text as written, without paraphrasing it, so that anyone can check it. When a document does not address a question, we say so, without inferring a yes or a no.
This page describes what documents say at a given date. It is not legal advice, it does not say whether a clause is valid under your national law, and it does not replace reading the full contract before a purchase.