The past reviews I’ve written have been based only on objective elements of the prop firm and how they compare with other similar firms. Going forward, I’m going to write about my personal experience with each firm and provide some tools and guidance on how best to navigate each firms rules.
I’m going to be providing my honest opinion on each firm and include the good aspects as well as areas I feel could be improved.
This first review is going to be about my first couple of weeks trading with the instant funding firm, OFP Funding. This firm stood out due to their low cost instant funding accounts which can be customized to suit a traders style and budget.
Overview of OFP Funding
OFP Funding offer a unique funding model which is basically an instant funding account with a twist. In order to receive a payout, traders must work to and maintain an inconsistency score.
The score requirement varies from 15% to 25% based on the account and prevents a trader from making huge gains on any single day (unless he can replicate these gains consistently).
There are a few other rules which must also be followed, including rules around trading news, hedging and trading strategies. They also have quite an extensive gambling policy, which in my opinion, could be improved and made clearer.
On the plus side, their dashboard is quite advanced and tracks any rule violations and keeps a running score of the inconsistency rule.
The prices of the accounts are substantially lower than other instant funding of the same capital. Therefore there seems to be a tradeoff in that you can get an account at a much lower price in exchange for following extra rules. I believe this is a fair offering, but you should spend extra time studying the rules and restrictions before taking an account.
Here are a few key rules to note:
- Daily drawdown varies by account
- Overall drawdown is static
- Martingale is not allowed
- Hedging is not allowed
- Expert advisors are not allowed
- You cannot open positions that used more than 50% of your margin
- You cannot open trades which vary by more than 3.5x of your average
- They have a somewhat ambiguous rule regarding losing trades being open for substantially longer than winning trades. However I couldn’t find any exact figure for this.
The Inconsistency Rule – Is It Fair?
The very thought of a consistency rule is often met with great skepticism and worry amongst prop traders. Many firms have vague and ambiguous consistency rules which often allow the firm to close your account based on their own opinion of consistency.
OFP’s rule however, is very straightforward and objective. Every OFP trader is assigned an inconsistency score which is calculated by simply dividing the best days profits over the total profits (expressed as a percentage).
This score is conveniently displayed in the dashboard so you can keep track of it easily.
I have found that overall, this rule benefits trading as it restricts various psychological traps trading often lays. For example, at times I can find myself getting greedy in trading, with this account getting that “one big trade” causes more harm then good as it will dramatically increase the consistency score. Instead it gives you focus on achieving modest but consistent daily gains.
So to answer the question, is it fair? I would say yes.
My Trading Week 1 and 2 – Current Balance $26,062 (4.25% Profit)
For this account I plan on taking as few trades as possible to achieve roughly 1% gain per trading day. I will be sticking exclusively to USD/JPY and USOIL.
I am going to follow a simple momentum based strategy while incorporating elements of SMC. I will be primarily looking for short term scalp trades as they have a rule around positions closing during news events, and I don’t want to risk a SL/TP being triggered at a news release.
The first week, to keep it simple I have maintained a lot size of 3. There is a rule that the lot size cannot deviate from the average by more than 3.5x. For example, you cannot place 1 lot trades one day and 5 lots another day. There are also rules around the use of martingale. Therefore, until I have more experience with this firm, I’m going to stick to a static lot size to avoid any doubt.
Now that my inconsistency score is in the permitted range for payout, I am going to be slightly more selective with my trades, perhaps reducing this down to just 2-3 trades per week, depending what the markets offer, of course.
My Thoughts on OFP Funding so Far
Overall, I believe OFP has a fair offering which would suit a variety of traders. Their rules promote good risk management and help guide the trader to become more consistent.
Their prices are great value and range from under $20 to thousands, again suiting a wide range of traders and budgets. The capital provided is good value and you will not find this level of instant funding anywhere else at this price.
The trading conditions have been average to above-average in comparison with other prop firms. The spreads have been relatively tight and the commission rate is $5/lot which is reasonable.
Where I feel OFP could improve is transparency regarding their rules. On their “Trading Rules” page they state “OFP has just 3 simple rules that need to be followed to get a payout:” but in reality, there are quite a few more than just three rules and they are not all quite so simple. See diagram below.
For example, one of the three rules is prohibited trading strategies which inside has 9 separate elements, one of which is a gambling policy which also has a number of individual elements. This can cause unnecessary confusion and I feel it obfuscates the rules. It would be nice to see all rules clearly displayed on one page (ideally the “Trading Rules” page), with defined parameters.
In closing, I am pleased with OFP so far and I have good hopes for trading with them going forward. I haven’t yet reached my payout date so can’t comment on that yet, but I will review this process in part 2 of the review.
Free Account Planner – Increase your Chances of Reaching Payout
When planning a strategy for this account, I felt it was important to factor in the inconsistency rule and form a solid plan to stay within the set parameters. To do this, I created a google sheet document which I can use to work out my current and forecasted inconsistency rating.
You can get a copy of this sheet on the link below. After opening, just hit the “Create Copy” option where you can then save and edit it with your details.
At the very least, this tool will help to understand the inconsistency rule.
Click here to save a copy of the account planner.
More Information, Discounts and Promotions for OFP Funding
You can find more information of OFP here:
Prop Firm Explorer – OFP Funding
You can also check for active promotions below:
