Aqua Futures vs Alpha Futures

Drawdown, the rule that ends most accounts

Aqua runs a EOD drawdown and Alpha runs Trailing Max DD.

Trailing means the limit rises with your equity peak, open positions included: giving profit back can end the account even without a real loss. EOD only recalculates at the session close, which forgives intraday swings.

In practice that is $1K-$3.5K trail of room at Aqua and $2000 at Alpha.

What entry really costs

The cheapest entry is Alpha, from $47.40 with the coupon applied at checkout, against $49.00 at Aqua.

Aqua / Alpha charges no activation fee, so the price you see is the full cost up to the funded account.

When the money leaves

On the split, Aqua pays 100% up to $15K / 90% and Alpha pays 90%.

Aqua allows a payout from the first profitable day, which shortens the path between passing and getting paid.

Declared speed: 24 hours at Aqua and ~5hr avg at Alpha.

The rules that kill the account

Aqua has no consistency requirement, so one strong day counts in full.

Alpha has no consistency requirement, so one strong day counts in full.

Minimum trading days: 1 at Aqua and 2 at Alpha.

Aqua explicitly bans: Gambling behavior, Account exploitation, HFT scalping bots.

Alpha explicitly bans: Account hedging, HFT bots.

Which one fits you

If the goal is testing the model on the smallest possible budget, Alpha has the cheaper entry.

If reputation matters more than price, Alpha is rated 4.5 on Trustpilot.

Platforms: Aqua runs on Tradovate, DeepCharts, Volumetrica; Alpha, on Alpha Trader, Tradovate, NinjaTrader. A strategy tied to one platform decides this on its own.

There is no better firm in the abstract: there is the one that matches your drawdown, your trading hours and how fast you need to withdraw.