Futures vs Perps Prop Firms

Futures: Expires on a set date

Each contract expires, so trading moves to the next month.

Across one year, NQ trades as four quarterly contracts, March, June, September and December, each rolled into the next before it expires.

A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a set date. Index futures expire quarterly and energy contracts monthly, and as expiry approaches the price converges with the underlying. Prop traders rarely see expiry, because positions are closed every day, but the contract month still decides which symbol you trade.

Perps: Never expires

One contract all year. Funding keeps its price near spot.

Across the same year, BTC-PERP is a single contract that never expires, with funding settled at regular intervals.

A perpetual future (perp) has no expiry date: the contract never ends, although a firm's rules can still close a position. Without expiry to pull it back to the underlying, a perp uses a funding rate: when it trades above spot, longs pay shorts, and when it trades below, shorts pay longs. That payment is the price of holding a position, and it changes every interval.

Futures: CME contracts

Exchange contracts across asset classes.

Futures prop firms simulate trades against real-time data from regulated exchanges, mostly CME Group: Nasdaq-100 (NQ), S&P 500 (ES), crude oil (CL), gold (GC), Treasury and currency futures. Because every firm reads the same exchange feed, prices and charts match across firms; what differs is the platform and the rules around it.

Perps: Crypto first, plus more

Every firm lists crypto; other markets vary by firm.

Every perps firm we list offers crypto pairs, and each also lists perpetuals on stocks, indices, commodities or currencies, often dozens of markets in all. Prices come from a crypto venue's order books, such as Hyperliquid, or from the firm's own exchange. A Nasdaq or gold perp tracks the asset, but it is the venue's contract rather than the CME future, so quotes can differ between firms. Every perps account we list is simulated, so fills and spreads follow the firm's own feed and terminal.

Futures: Sun–Fri, flat daily

Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, with a break every day.

Futures are open from 6 PM Sunday to 5 PM Friday Eastern Time, closed from 5 to 6 PM each weekday and all of Saturday.

CME Globex is open from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon, with a one-hour maintenance break each day from 5 PM to 6 PM ET. Most futures prop firms add a flat-by deadline shortly before that break, so positions are generally not held overnight or over the weekend; a few firms allow limited overnight holds.

Perps: 24/7 crypto

Every hour of every day, weekends included.

Crypto perps are open every hour of every day of the week.

Crypto venues never close, so perps firms run evaluations through nights, weekends and holidays. The firms we list allow positions to be held overnight and over the weekend on crypto. Non-crypto perps vary by firm: some trade them 24/7, others follow the underlying market's hours or close positions before the weekend.

Futures: Mostly trailing

The floor follows your highest balance up.

Equity rises to $51,800 and pulls back to $50,300. The trailing floor rises with it from $48,000 to $49,800, leaving $500 of room.

On a trailing drawdown, the account's floor moves up whenever the balance makes a new high, measured at the end of the day or, on intraday plans, from the peak of open equity. Most plans stop trailing once the floor reaches a set level, often the starting balance. Until then, profit raises the floor instead of adding room.

Perps: Mostly static

The floor is set on day one and stays there.

Equity rises to $51,800 and pulls back to $50,300. The static floor stays at $48,000, leaving $2,300 of room.

Most of the perps firms we list use only a static max drawdown; the rest offer a static option next to a trailing one. The floor is set at purchase, a fixed percentage below the starting balance, so every dollar of profit is extra room above it.

Futures: Often none, or a pause

Where a plan has one, you lose the day, not the account.

Daily loss limits are optional or absent on many futures plans. Where a firm sets one, it is often a soft limit: positions are closed, trading is locked until the next session, and the account continues. Other firms treat the same label as a hard breach, so the name alone does not tell you which it is.

Perps: Usually ends the account

At most of the firms we list, one touch is final.

Most perps plans we list include a daily loss limit, usually 3 or 4% of the day's starting balance, reset at a fixed time each day. At most of these firms it is a hard limit checked against live equity: a brief touch, even on an open position, closes the account. A few plans offer a version with no daily limit.

Futures: $ per contract

A fixed amount, counted per contract.

Futures commissions are charged per contract and per side, set by the firm or its broker. The fee does not change with the price of the contract or with how long you hold it, and because positions are closed daily there is no holding cost. Live accounts may also pay for market data.

Perps: % of position + funding

A percentage of the full position, plus a holding cost.

Perps fees are a percentage of notional, the full position size rather than the margin behind it, charged on every fill and often lower for maker orders. A $10,000 position at 0.03% costs $3 to open and about $3 to close. While a position is open it also pays or receives funding at the venue's rate, or pays the firm's own swap fee, settled hourly or daily, overnight and over weekends included.

Futures: Whole contracts

Each contract is worth a fixed amount per point.

A futures position is a number of contracts, each with a fixed value per point: an NQ mini is ten times a micro. Plans cap how many contracts you can hold, and the cap often grows with profit. Size is a count, so risk per point is easy to read off the position.

Perps: Notional and leverage

Any dollar size; leverage sets the margin it uses.

A perps position is a notional amount that can be sized to the dollar. Each market has its own maximum leverage, from about 2x on many crypto markets to 75x on some index perps, plus exposure caps, and some firms lower leverage over the weekend. Leverage sets how much margin a position uses, not how much it can lose.