Aqua Futures vs Futures Elite

Drawdown, the rule that ends most accounts

Aqua runs a EOD drawdown and FE runs EOD / Trailing Equity.

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 3-4% trail at FE.

What entry really costs

The cheapest entry is Aqua, from $49.00 with the coupon applied at checkout, against $67.20 at FE.

The discount differs too: 40% OFF at Aqua and 30% OFF at FE.

Aqua / FE 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 FE pays 90%.

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

Declared speed: 24 hours at Aqua and Same day / sub-second at FE.

The rules that kill the account

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

FE enforces a consistency rule (Elite: yes / Funded: no), which stops a single day from carrying the whole result.

Minimum trading days: 1 at Aqua and 1 at FE.

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

FE explicitly bans: Account hedging, HFT bots.

Which one fits you

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

Platforms: Aqua runs on Tradovate, DeepCharts, Volumetrica; FE, on Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Quantower, ATAS. 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.