Contributor, Benzinga
March 1, 2024
BluSky
Overall Rating:
securely through BluSky's website

With BluSky, you can earn a funded futures brokerage account in as little as two days, depending on which plan you choose to start with. You can trade with a larger position size and let the prop firm take most of the risk.

BluSky Trading Co. is what is commonly known as a prop firm. It is a company that provides traders with the capital and resources they need to start trading. The trader trades with the prop firm’s capital and shares the profit when withdrawing funds from the account. 

Say you are a trader who has found your trading edge and learned proper risk management, but you need more capital to be able to make a living from trading. In this case, BluSky can provide you with the capital you need to trade in the futures market.

Unlike many other prop firms, BluSky is committed to helping you excel as a trader because it will put you into a live brokerage account after you have passed your evaluation. Because it does a profit split from your real profits in the market, it is in BluSky’s best interest that you are successful and have consistent payouts, so it wants you to succeed, contrary to some other prop firms. 

Many prop firms tell you that anyone can qualify to trade with their money without risking any of your own capital. Every step of their path has been designed to keep you in an endless loop, leaving you feeling lost and trapped in an inevitable hamster wheel. They make a living on resets of accounts and you buying multiple evals, but when they fund you, they tighten their rules and impose many restrictions causing you to fail and start all over again. 

In addition, they entice novice traders by offering cheap evals, but if you pass, you are charged a hefty funded setup fee. BluSky does not have a funded setup fee. While the evaluation may cost more than other companies, it is usually cheaper because you do not pay the company again once you pass.

BluSky has a better model. It has the shortest path to a real brokerage account, where you can trade with real money with the least restrictions and the best payout structure.

BluSky’s profit sharing gives you an incentive to earn more. It increases your profit split the more you withdraw. 

BluSky chart

BluSky processes withdrawals daily with no minimum trading day or consistency requirements to get a payout. 

Is BluSky the ideal futures prop firm for you to consider? Check out Benzinga’s comprehensive platform review, including core product offerings, pros and cons, pricing and info on customer support.

Pros
  • Generous profit share of up to more than 90%, depending on your account's lifetime profit withdrawal
  • Flexible funding sizes
  • Simple single-phase evaluations with modest rules
  • Transparent and upfront evaluation pricing — no hidden fees
  • With consistent withdrawals, the ability to scale up the allowable contract sizes is possible regardless of account (determined during the coaching process)
  • Free 1-on-1 funded coaching by one of the company's futures trading experts
  • No consistency- and minimum-day payout rules when funded
  • Daily withdrawal requests (no minimum trading days)
  • Multiple cutting-edge trading platforms (Tradovate and Rithmic) to suit the needs of all futures traders
  • Supports more than 80 futures contracts across major asset categories and futures exchanges, including CME, CBOT, COMEX, NYMEX and EUREX
  • Option to set up a daily loss limit on a funded trading account to protect your account from permanent termination — stops you from trading that day
  • Free community-oriented and interactive discord chat room
  • Can choose to trade the news and opening of the cash markets
  • Free live trading room with a professional trader from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST daily — mic streams in the live trading room
  • Same-day account activation upon passing the evaluation
  • Free license of NinjaTrader/Tradovate/TradingView or bring your Rithmic-compatible platform
  • Trading with automated robots is allowed
  • Learning and wrap-up session on YouTube called “Beyond the Bell with Matt” covering current-day price action and next-day prep
Cons
  • Cannot hold positions through the close of the exchange
  • Strictly for futures traders

BluSky Ratings at a Glance

Customer Support
Security
Minimum Investment and Pricing
User Experience
Overall

Evaluation Process and Account Sizes

The path to a funded account is simple. You must pass the evaluation without breaking the rules. There are two types of accounts: standard and static. 

These are as follows:

Static Growth 150K/Static Growth+ 200K - Static Evals

  • Your profit target is $2,000/$4,000.
  • You have a static drawdown at $800/$2,000. This means you are not allowed to have a balance of less than $149,200/$148,000.
  • No consistency rules.
  • No daily loss limit — just keep your balance above $149,200/$148,000.
  • No minimum trading days.
  • In evaluation you have five micro/10 micro contracts.

Your account will be suspended if you break the rules. You can pay for a manual reset right away or wait for your eval account subscription to renew. If your account fails, a renewal will reset it.

If you reach your profit target without breaking these rules, you move to BluLive and start earning.

Static Growth 150K / Static Growth+ 200K BluLive

Until you reach $2,000/$3,000, you'll be in a simulated account called BluLive. The simulated profits accrued in BluLive will be matched in your funded balance. When in BluLive, your position size has been adjusted. You can now trade with 10 micros or 1 mini contract.

This is not an evaluation step but rather a way to help traders transition forward with less stress and delay increased data costs. There are no data fees in BluLive. When you reach $2,000/$3,000, you are moved into a real brokerage account.

Static Growth 150K / Static Growth+ 200K Brokerage account

You start with 10 micros/1 mini - 20 micro/2 minis, and as you consistently withdraw your maximum size will increase, as determined in the 1-on-1 coaching sessions, up to 20 minis/30 minis, but it is possible to go beyond this. 

Advanced 25K/Premium 50K/Premium+ 100K - Standard Evals

  • Your profit target is $1,500/$3,000/$6,000. 
  • You have a daily loss limit of $600/$1,000/$2,000. If you hit these limits your eval is blown.
  • 30% consistency rule — your max profit in a day should not exceed 30% of the profit target. Keep your profit under $450/$900/$1,800. Breaking this rule will not fail your evaluation, but your profit target will be recalculated to keep you under the consistency limit.
  • Eight minimum trading days.
  • Trailing drawdown is $1,200/$2,000/$3,500.

The trailing drawdown can be hard to understand, so it’s explained here. For example, the 50K evaluation starts with a 48K minimum balance (trailing by $2,000).

If any trade reached $51,250 at any point, your new minimum balance would be $49,250, meaning your balance bottom has moved up from where it started. If the following trade closed at $50,040, your minimum balance would still be $49,250.

If at any point your balance falls to your minimum balance, the evaluation has failed.

BluSky provides tools to follow this closely so that you can monitor your minimum trailing balance in real time.

If you want to know more about the trailing drawdown, click here.

Advanced 25K/Premium 50K/Premium+ 100K – BluLive

Rules disappear and you get prepared for a brokerage account. This means that there are:

  • No more daily loss limits
  • No consistency rules
  • No minimum days to trade

Until you reach your static drawdown ($1,200/$2,000/$2.500), you'll be in a simulated account. Simulated profits accrued in BluLive will be matched in your funded balance. ($1,200/$2,000/$3.500)

This is not an evaluation step. This is a way to help traders transition forward with less stress and delay increased data costs. BluSky covers your cost on data feed when in BluLive.

Advanced 25K/Premium 50K/Premium+ 100K - Standard Brokerage

TIn this account, your trailing drawdown has now become static. Your simulated BluLive balance moved to brokerage. You can now withdraw funds freely. There is a minimum balance for each account. However, you will need this as a buffer to continue trading the account. When you are in the brokerage, you will need to pay for your data feeds.

IMG_4109

Funded Brokerage Accounts (Live Account)

Once you have reached the static drawdown in the BluLive account, BluSky will deposit your risk capital into an account with one of its premium brokerage firms after you have signed the Funded Trader Account Agreement. The Funded Trader Account Agreement will be sent to you for signature by a member of the company's accounting team. You'll also be asked to provide your government-issued ID, such as a passport, for know-your-customer (KYC) purposes in accordance with anti-fraud regulations. Shortly after that, the brokerage firm will send you the details of your newly funded trading account. 

This is a real account with real money and a real execution of trades. At Tradovate, your new or funded account will appear under your existing login and password.

This account gives you free one-on-one coaching from the BluSky team. You can contact support to scale up or increase your account size, regardless of the size you started with.

Trading Platforms

BluSky supports two state-of-the-art trading connections. Tradovate is fast and reliable and allows you to connect to its trading software. It also has support for NinjaTrader and TraderView. The Rithmic platform has trading software (R|Trader Pro), but it also supports a wider range of more advanced trading software such as Quantower, Jigsaw, Sierra Chart, Bookmap, ATAS, WealthCharts, NinjaTrader and many more. One drawback with Rithmic is that you can only use Ninjatrader in evaluation and BluLive because Tradovate is now owned by NinjaTrader, and it only wants its own brokerage live.

BluSky provides free licensing on three of the most popular trading platforms. 

Tradovate

This platform is available on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. It also has a fast web-based version you can use. Tradovate supports everything from depth of market to group trading and includes a detailed performance center where you can monitor your account performance.

TradingView

There is a large community around the TradingView platform. It is also available on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Linux. The platform has more than 50 million users. You can use Pine Script to create algos that can also trade on BluSky accounts.

NinjaTrader

This award-winning futures platform is designed for active futures traders who want a toolbox that includes everything you need as a professional trader. NinjaTrader has a large community where free indicators are available for download and is a platform that is used for driving automated robot trading.

BluSky Futures Market (Tradeable Instruments)

BluSky lets you trade diverse futures contracts across multiple asset classes and exchanges. You can access and trade various popular futures contracts ranging from standard to low-cost Micros to standard E-minis. This enables you to trade the S&P500, Nasdaq100, Russell2000, Crude Oil, Corn and many others. You can also get access to the EUREX where you can trade the German DAX and UK FTSE100. You can see all the tradable products here: BluSky | Markets & Commissions 

Customer Support

BluSky offers a flexible way to connect with the support team to ask questions or file a formal complaint. Available customer support channels are phone, email, Discord and live chat on the bottom right of the site. The phone and live chat channels are the go-to channels for getting immediate assistance from the company. However, the company promises to respond promptly if you choose to email it directly from the Support Page. BluSky's Discord channel provides a community-oriented interactive channel where you can share ideas, ask questions and learn from other traders. 

In addition, you will be able to get relevant answers to any questions you may have by visiting the Answers section of the main menu. It is a repository of easily accessible, comprehensive information about BluSky. You can also search for specific topics by entering a keyword in the Help Centre. This is located within the Live Chat portal. Just click to start a conversation on the support page, but instead of sending a message, click on the help button on the side and type in the keywords you are looking for. 

BluSky has an excellent 4.6/5 Trustpilot rating from over 98 reviewers. Comments have been overwhelmingly positive, a reflection of the overall effectiveness of the customer support experience.

Security

BluSky is a proprietary futures trading firm. It is not a brokerage platform and is not subject to regulatory licensing requirements. The trading platforms available on the futures exchange are provided by major financial technology companies, each with clear rules and regulations governing the protection of user data and funds. BluSky follows strict KYC procedures to verify the identity of customers before funding and mitigate the risk of identity fraud and illegal activity on the platform.

The company uses robust encryption protocols to prevent unauthorized access to customer data in transit or at rest on its network. Like all online platforms, BluSky collects personally identifiable information (PII) and other data, including cookies, during registration or account setup and website usage. This information is used solely for improved service delivery and marketing. BluSky will not share or sell your information to third parties without your consent or in answer to a court order. You can carefully review the legal notices and privacy policies at the bottom of the website to clarify how the company handles your information.

Minimum Investment and Pricing

BluSky offers transparent pricing — everything is upfront and clear. There are no setup fees for the transition to brokerage, and the monthly pricing is competitive for account sizes. You can take advantage of the current promo to get a significantly lower or discounted offer. (See the first table for details.) There's no activation fee. If you fail an evaluation, an $85 reset fee applies to all account sizes if you want to try again.

If your evaluation subscription is renewed, but your account has already failed, your account will be reset for free within one hour of completing your renewal payment. A reset creates a new account within your evaluation but doesn't change or extend your subscription billing cycle. There's no reset fee for BluLive and a funded account. In addition, BluSky will cancel your recurring subscription payments when funded. During evaluation using the Rithmic platform, a commission of $2 per page applies for minis and 50 cents for micros. The exchange sets the pricing or commission for live or funded accounts.

For the Tradovate platform, the prices and commissions for both evaluating and funding accounts are set by the exchange. Each account size offers a 50% discount on Tradervue Gold for six months. That's a savings of $147 off the regular price. There are no data fees for the evaluation account on any platform. However, as soon as you get funded, you'll be considered a professional and the data fees will be applicable. Tradovate charges $135 per month, while Rithmic's clearinghouse deducts live trading data directly from your brokerage account. BluSky covers the first month's bill.

BluSky's innovative payout approach uses lifetime account profits instead of fixed percentage payouts to incentivize traders to earn more. With this model, you can earn more than 90% — the more you earn, the more you keep.

IMG_4108

There is no minimum number of trading days before requesting a withdrawal from your funded account. The minimum withdrawal is $250 and there's no maximum.

BluSky processes payments through Gusto, a fast payment service that supports automated clearing house (ACH) and international payments. Withdrawal requests received before noon EST on weekdays (excluding holidays) will be processed on the same day. Typically, the processing time for ACH transfers is one to three business days.

You can also start earning by becoming a BluSky Affiliate, regardless of whether you have a trading account with them or not.

User Experience

Unlike most futures prop firms, BluSky offers you a real and straightforward path to a live brokerage or funded account. The user experience is enhanced by multiple state-of-the-art trading platforms, a diverse range of futures markets and competitive and transparent pricing. Customer support is easily accessible through a variety of channels. If you don't want to use the available channels, you can quickly get the answers you need at the Help Desk or by visiting the Answers section of the main menu.

This access to information enhances the user experience, especially for beginners. Signing up is hassle-free, and you can quickly get funded within eight days (two days on static plans) by progressing through the one-step evaluation to the BluLive account. BluLive offers similar features to the live trading account, which is understandable because its purpose is to prepare you for the live funded account.

Your accrued profit on the BluLive account will be transferred to the funded account and paid to you. The funded account is real money — not simulated. The lucrative payout or profit split is perhaps the best aspect of BluSky next to the few rules and restrictions in the brokerage compared to other prop firms. You can earn over 90% through the company's innovative model. Regardless of your trading style, goals, risk management strategies and financial situation, BluSky could be a fantastic choice for your futures prop trading. Benzinga rates BluSky as highly recommended.

BluSky vs. Competitors

BluSky is driven by the desire to help its traders succeed. It does not have unnecessary rules in the brokerage that make it difficult for traders to keep their funded accounts. It does everything in its power to help its traders make more money. 

The more you withdraw, the better the shared profits get. 

You can trade with automated robots and algos. You can trade news and the opening of the cash market. 

There are no consistency rules, so if you have a good day and you make maybe five or 10 times your normal average, there is no problem with taking it out the next day. It is a real brokerage account backed by real money.

And no matter what account size you start with, once you have proven that you are consistently making profits, you can ask them to increase your allowed position size.

Overall

You must consider BluSky if you are truly committed to long-term success as a funded futures trader. The company's funding program is designed to speed up the funding process and set up successful traders for long-term success. 

The evaluation rules are modest and disappear from BluLive to the live brokerage account. 

You get to keep over 90% of your profits, which beats the competition. Unlike many prop companies, BluSky has designed its payout to allow you to keep more of what you earn. The company offers transparent pricing with no setup fees when moving to brokerage. On top of that, its support team is rumored to be one of the best of any brokerage firm, which Trustpilot.com shows clear evidence of.

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