Blue Guardian Futures
Read Rule by Rule
Standard, Reserve, Express and Direct, tested.
Four evaluation routes, one 90% profit split, and a rulebook that does not always agree with itself. We priced every account from the plan selector and traced every rule back to the firm's own documentation.
Strong mechanics, documentation still catching up.
Blue Guardian Futures is a well built product wrapped in documentation that has not kept pace with it. The mechanics are good: end of day trailing drawdown on every model, a flat 90% split with no tiering, one phase evaluations, no monthly or activation fees, and consistency rules positioned on the challenge rather than the funded account on two of the four programs. What costs it the fifth star is not the offer, it is the number of places where the plan selector and the help centre state different things about the same account.
Two brands, two help centres, and why it matters.
Blue Guardian sells two products that share a logo and almost nothing else. One is a CFD proposition documented at help.blueguardian.com, built around Instant, 1 Step, 2 Step and 3 Step models with an 85% default split. The other is Blue Guardian Futures, documented at helpfutures.blueguardian.com, built around Standard, Reserve, Express and Direct, with a 90% split and sizes from $25,000 to $150,000.
This is not a pedantic distinction. Search for a Blue Guardian rule and you will land on the CFD help centre roughly as often as the futures one, and the answers there are wrong for a futures account. The payout add-ons, the fourteen day cycle, the scaling plan running into the millions: none of it applies. If you trade futures with this firm, bookmark the futures help centre and ignore the other one entirely.
The four routes at a glance.
The four programs are not four difficulty levels. They are four different answers to the same question: how do you want to be constrained. Standard constrains you after funding. Reserve and Express constrain you before it. Direct removes the evaluation and constrains you continuously. Every one of them ends at the same 90% split.
Standard
- No eval consistency rule
- Fastest first payout clock (3 days)
- Premium payout caps
- EOD trailing drawdown
- 40% consistency once funded
- DLL from $50K upward
Reserve
- Cheapest seat in the range
- No funded consistency rule
- No buffer balance required
- Optional daily loss limit
- 50% consistency in challenge
- 5 winning days before payouts
Express
- 40% consistency on challenge only
- No funded consistency rule
- Daily payout ceiling, $500 min
- EOD trailing drawdown
- Buffer balance must clear first
- No $25,000 size offered
Direct
- Funded from purchase
- No profit target to pass
- No time limit
- EOD drawdown
- 20% to 30% ratcheting consistency
- Roughly twice the Standard fee
| Detail | Standard | Reserve | Express | Direct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluation | One phase | One phase | One phase | None |
| Profit target | 6% | 6% | 6% | None |
| Time limit | None | None | None | None |
| Consistency | 40% funded | 50% challenge | 40% challenge | 20 to 30% funded |
| Daily loss limit | From $50K | Optional | Yes | Yes |
| Drawdown | EOD trailing | EOD trailing | EOD trailing | EOD |
| Sizes | $25K to $150K | $25K to $150K | $50K to $150K | $25K to $150K |
| Entry price | $154 | $110 | $178 | $307 |
Standard prices, all programs
Prices taken from the plan selector on the official product page in August 2026. These are the standard prices for each account. Prop firm pricing changes frequently, so confirm the figure at checkout before you buy.
| Size | Standard | Reserve | Express | Direct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | $154 | $110 | Not offered | $307 |
| $50,000 | $209 | $154 | $178 | $494 |
| $100,000 | $330 | $248 | $282 | $659 |
| $150,000 | $424 | $398 | $386 | $824 |
Standard: the conservative route.
Standard is the model to pick if you want the evaluation to be easy and are willing to be watched afterwards. The evaluation itself has no consistency requirement, no time limit and no minimum trading days. News trading is permitted throughout. The first payout can be requested three days after your first trade, which is the fastest first payout clock of the four models.
| Standard | $25,000 | $50,000 | $100,000 | $150,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fee | $154 | $209 | $330 | $424 |
| Profit target | $1,500 | $3,000 | $6,000 | $9,000 |
| Max position | 1 / 10 | 4 / 40 | 8 / 80 | 12 / 120 |
| Daily loss limit | None | $1,000 | $2,000 | $3,000 |
| Max drawdown | $1,000 | $2,000 | $3,500 | $5,000 |
| Consistency, funded | 40% | 40% | 40% | 40% |
| 1st payout cap | $1,500 | $2,500 | $3,000 | $4,000 |
| 2nd payout cap | $2,000 | $3,000 | $3,500 | $4,500 |
| Reset | $104 | $141 | $223 | $286 |
| Reactivation | $450 | $750 | $900 | $1,200 |
Position sizes are quoted as minis over micros, and one mini equals ten micros throughout.
Reserve: cheapest seat, strictest gate.
The selector's own tagline for this program is that it is the easiest to pass, and on the raw numbers that is defensible: the same 6% target as Standard, a larger contract allowance at $25,000, no buffer balance to clear, and no funded consistency rule at all. Reserve is the cheapest way in. It is not the fastest way out.
| Reserve | $25,000 | $50,000 | $100,000 | $150,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fee | $110 | $154 | $248 | $398 |
| Profit target | $1,500 | $3,000 | $6,000 | $9,000 |
| Max position | 2 / 20 | 4 / 40 | 8 / 80 | 12 / 120 |
| Consistency, challenge | 50% | 50% | 50% | 50% |
| Consistency, funded | None | None | None | None |
| Daily loss limit | Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional |
| Optional DLL level | $600 | $1,200 | $1,700 | $3,000 |
| Max drawdown | $1,000 | $2,000 | $3,500 | $5,000 |
| Buffer balance | Not required | Not required | Not required | Not required |
| Payout cap | $1,000 | $2,000 | $2,500 | $3,000 |
| Payout eligibility | $100 | $150 | $200 | $250 |
| Reset | $75 | $104 | $167 | $312 |
| Reactivation | $300 | $600 | $750 | $900 |
Express: the middle path.
Express takes the 40% consistency rule and puts it on the challenge rather than the funded account, which is the single most valuable thing about it. It keeps a daily loss limit as a soft breach at every size. Its payout mechanic is a daily ceiling rather than a per request cap, and the selector pairs that with a $500 daily minimum cadence, so a trader who withdraws often is less constrained here than on Reserve. Express is the model for traders who want the constraint over with before the money is real.
| Express | $50,000 | $100,000 | $150,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee | $178 | $282 | $386 |
| Profit target | $3,000 | $6,000 | $9,000 |
| Max position | 4 / 40 | 8 / 80 | 12 / 120 |
| Consistency, challenge | 40% | 40% | 40% |
| Consistency, funded | None | None | None |
| Daily loss limit | $1,000 | $2,000 | $3,000 |
| Max drawdown | $2,000 | $3,500 | $5,000 |
| Buffer balance | $52,100 | $103,600 | $155,100 |
| Max daily payout | $1,100 | $2,200 | $3,300 |
| Min payout cadence | $500 daily | $500 daily | $500 daily |
| Reset | $121 | $191 | $261 |
| Reactivation | $649 | $999 | $1,499 |
Direct: instant funding, priced accordingly.
Direct removes the evaluation and replaces it with a first payout goal identical to the profit target you would otherwise have had to hit. You are paying roughly twice the Standard fee to skip a step you effectively still have to complete, the difference being that you complete it on a funded account under live scoring rather than on a challenge, and that a breach costs you the whole fee rather than a reset. Direct buys you time, not ease. The goal is the same, the surveillance is heavier.
| Direct | $25,000 | $50,000 | $100,000 | $150,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fee | $307 | $494 | $659 | $824 |
| Max position | 1 / 10 | 4 / 40 | 8 / 80 | 12 / 120 |
| Daily loss limit | $1,000 | $1,250 | $2,500 | $3,000 |
| Max drawdown | $1,500 | $2,000 | $3,500 | $4,500 |
| 1st payout consistency | 20% | 20% | 20% | 20% |
| 2nd payout consistency | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
| 3rd+ payout consistency | 30% | 30% | 30% | 30% |
| 1st payout profit goal | $1,500 | $3,000 | $6,000 | $9,000 |
| 2nd+ payout profit goal | $1,000 | $2,000 | $3,500 | $4,500 |
How the drawdown actually moves.
Every Blue Guardian Futures account uses end of day trailing, and getting this right is the difference between passing and being confused about why you failed. The maximum loss level is recalculated once per day, after the close, based on the highest end of day balance the account has reached. It does not follow your unrealised profit during the session. An account up $800 intraday that closes flat has not moved its floor.
The practical consequence is that intraday give back does not compound against you the way it does under an intraday trailing model. You are judged on where you finish, not where you peaked. That is meaningfully more forgiving than the intraday trailing drawdown still used across much of this segment, and it is the strongest structural feature of the product.
Consistency rules translated into dollars.
A percentage is abstract. Here is what each rule means as a hard ceiling on your single best day, expressed against the relevant profit figure for that account.
| Model | $25,000 | $50,000 | $100,000 | $150,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard, 40% | $600 | $1,200 | $2,400 | $3,600 |
| Reserve, 51% | $765 | $1,530 | $3,060 | $4,590 |
| Express, 40% | Not offered | $1,200 | $2,400 | $3,600 |
| Direct, 20% | $300 | $600 | $1,200 | $1,800 |
The Reserve row is taken directly from the firm's own worked example and reflects the 50% rule plus the one percent cushion. The other three rows are the stated percentage applied to the profit target or first payout goal for that size.
Contract limits and the funded scaling question.
The plan selector states one maximum position per account and applies it to both the challenge and the funded account. On a $150,000 Reserve or Express that is twelve minis or a hundred and twenty micros throughout, with no reduction on funding.
The help centre articles for those two programs describe something different: a reduced allocation at the start of the funded account, one to three minis by size, with a scaling ladder that restores the full allowance as profit accumulates. On Standard and Direct there is no such tension, because both documents describe a flat allowance from day one.
Getting paid.
The profit split is 90% on every funded model. There is no scaling of the split, no tiered improvement and no reduced rate for early payouts. That is above the segment median and is the strongest single number on the offer.
| Payout Mechanic | How It Works |
|---|---|
| Standard | Per request cap, rising from the first payout to the second. First request available three days after the first trade. |
| Reserve | Per request cap, plus five qualifying winning days at the eligibility amount for that size, non consecutive, counter resets after each payout. |
| Express | Daily ceiling rather than per request cap, with a $500 daily minimum, and a buffer balance that must be cleared first. |
| Direct | Profit goal before each payout, high for the first and lower thereafter, with a consistency percentage that tightens at each of the first three requests. |
The Live account.
The Live account is the part of this product that is genuinely uncommon, and it cannot be bought. Traders enter a Live Review Pool by reaching a fifth payout, by accumulating significant lifetime payouts, by exceptional performance, or by prior Live history, and promotion is at the discretion of the risk team. This is the clearest published route from simulated to real execution in the futures prop segment. It is also entirely discretionary.
| Live Account | $25,000 | $50,000 | $100,000 | $150,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live drawdown | $1,000 | $2,000 | $3,000 | $4,500 |
| Max position | 2 / 20 | 4 / 40 | 6 / 60 | 10 / 100 |
| Transition bonus | $1,000 | $2,000 | $3,000 | $4,500 |
Legacy accounts and the July 2026 changeover.
Blue Guardian Futures replaced its previous product line in July 2026. The old models were Standard, Rapid, Pro and Instant Standard, and accounts bought under them keep their original rules. If you hold one, the current documentation does not describe your account.
The differences are not cosmetic. Legacy accounts pay a 100% profit split on the first $15,000 earned and 90% thereafter, which is more generous than the current flat 90%. Legacy maximum drawdowns are larger at several sizes, with the Rapid and Pro 150K carrying $6,000 against the current $5,000. Legacy Pro carried no consistency rule at all during evaluation. Legacy payouts ran through RiseWorks only, on a request window closing at 3pm CST, with a $500 minimum.
Costs that are not the evaluation fee.
The payout fee
2% of every withdrawal, on top of the 10% the firm keeps as its share. A $1,000 gross request nets roughly $882 after both deductions.
Market data
CME level one is included. Level one for CBOT, COMEX and NYMEX costs $5 for all three together. Level two runs $12.10 per exchange or $36.50 for the full CME Group set. Small numbers, but recurring, and easy to forget when comparing entry prices across firms.
Resets and reactivations
Resets run from $75 to $312 depending on program and size. Reactivation, available only on a funded account breached before its first payout, runs from $300 to $1,499 and is capped at two uses within thirty days. On every account in the range, reactivation costs more than double the original evaluation fee.
Commissions
Charged per side on every contract. They are modest in absolute terms but disproportionate on micros, which matters because the smaller accounts here are effectively micro accounts. On a $25,000 Standard with a one mini allowance, commission is a meaningful fraction of a typical winning day.
What gets an account closed.
The prohibited list is conventional for the segment and worth reading before you trade rather than after: hedging between accounts or between traders, copy trading and account sharing, group trading and the household rule (which treats accounts at one address as connected), high frequency and latency arbitrage, exploiting platform or pricing errors, and microscalping as defined in the legacy section above.
Where the documentation contradicts itself.
None of these is evidence of bad faith. Taken together they are evidence of a product that moved faster than its documentation, which is common at this stage of a futures division's life and is nonetheless a reason to confirm anything that matters to you in writing before you buy.
| Point | One Source Says | Another Says |
|---|---|---|
| Funded position size, Reserve and Express | Same as the challenge, on the plan selector | Reduced at funding with a scaling ladder, in the help articles |
| Express 150K buffer balance | $155,100 on the plan selector | $156,100 in the help centre |
| Minimum withdrawal | $100 crypto and $500 Rise, in the model articles | $500 flat in the Payout Policy, $1,000 for Direct |
| Express $25,000 | Not offered on the selector or in the Express rules | Listed with figures in the Payout Policy |
| 24 hour guarantee | $200 bonus, in the help article | An additional 10% profit split, on the product page |
| Microscalping | Under 10 seconds, measured by profit | Over 30 seconds, measured by trade count, on legacy |
| Maximum funding | Up to $400,000 on the homepage | $150,000 is the largest account on the selector |
| Legacy cutoff date | Prior to 6 July | Before 15 July, in the same paragraph |
Is Blue Guardian Futures worth it in 2026?
What is genuinely good
End of day trailing across every model, with no intraday floor movement to manage. A 90% split with no tiering and no conditions. One phase evaluations with no verification stage, no time limit and no minimum trading days. No monthly, renewal or activation fees. A documented progression to real execution that is earned rather than sold. Reset fees that are genuinely low, from $75. Consistency rules positioned on the challenge rather than the funded account on two of the four models.
What we would want fixed
The disagreement between the plan selector and the help centre on funded position sizes, which is the sort of thing that decides whether a program suits you. The three different statements of the minimum withdrawal. The $150,000 Reserve pricing. And the general problem that the futures help centre is harder to find than the CFD one, which sends new traders to the wrong rulebook.
Who it suits
Traders who want an evaluation with no clock and no minimum days, who are comfortable with a consistency rule, and who value end of day trailing enough to accept a firm whose paperwork needs a second pass. Reserve at $50,000 or $100,000 is the sharpest entry in the range. Express is the choice if you would rather clear the consistency requirement before the money is real. Direct is defensible only if you understand that its 20% first payout ceiling is a harder constraint than anything on the other three programs.
Blue Guardian Futures FAQs.
1. Is Blue Guardian Futures the same company as Blue Guardian?
2. What is the cheapest way to start?
3. Is there a time limit on the evaluation?
4. Can I trade the news?
5. How does the drawdown work?
6. What is the consistency rule?
7. How long does a payout take?
8. What is deducted from a payout?
9. Can I fail and get the account back?
10. How many accounts can I run?
11. What is the Live account?
12. What should I confirm before buying?
Four routes. One split. Read the rules first.
Blue Guardian Futures runs EOD trailing drawdown on every model, a flat 90% split, one-phase evaluations with no time limits, and a documented Live account path. Confirm the details that matter to you before you buy.
Related comparisons and reviews.
Deciding between firms? These guides break down the key differences.
Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss. Evaluation and funded accounts described here are simulated unless and until a trader is promoted to a Live account. Figures were checked in August 2026 and may change without notice. This review is independent and is not affiliated with Blue Guardian.
