In order to qualify for the ATA, your track record MUST meet ALL of the following 5 criteria: (1) your track record must be built in a regulated environment AND (2) not be a demo account AND (3) run for at least 6 completed months AND (4) have a positive return AND (5) score higher than the lowest scored ATA trader.

No. We only accept real-money or simulated track records. Real-money accounts must be traded at a regulated broker. Sim accounts must be traded on a regulated platform.

Typically one day or less if you have donated, and up to one month otherwise. The delay may also depend on my current workload. The ATA is a one-person initiative and I actually trade for a living. So, please be patient. Additionally, the ATA intends to maintain a maximum of 5-to-1 sim-to-live trader quota in its repository. Should you apply as a sim trader and the current quota be above that threshold, your application will be put on a waitlist for publishing until after said quota drops below 5 again. Note that you may bypass this quota by making a donation and you will be listed anyway.

I am a retired institutional trader and portfolio manager with over 2 decades of hands-on experience. I know what solid performance looks like, and especially how to decipher a genuine trader from a fraud. I further have currently 6 running third-party audited track records to back up my credentials, both real and sim. The real account is a 7-figure account with nearly $3mil in trading profit as of mid-2025, ranked as high as the top 0.1% in the FundSeeder/RQSI database. My sim accounts are among the oldest surviving trading systems in the industry, with some ranking as high as the top 1% in their respective platforms. All of my credentials can readily be verified from my website: www.fxphysics.com, with direct links to their third-party audits.

No. Prop firm payouts oppose too many issues that do not stand the test of trustless scrutiny, namely when it comes to not offering contiguous and uniform historical trade data, the risk of collusion between trader and management, or the fact that they do not reflect neither real nor realistic trading conditions since those are effectively mere demo accounts. Likewise, trading cups and tournaments typically offer no insight as to the risk-adjusted performance of the trader. Therefore, neither type of credentials is fit to meet the industry-standard of a credible third-party audited track record.

Multiple options are available either for free or a small annual fee. Myfxbook can audit all track records built on MT4 or MT5. MarketLog will typically support most brokers offering equities, futures and options trading.

Real-money accounts can be ranked at FundSeeder/RQSI, provided that they are traded at IBKR (expanded broker compatibility is planned). Sim accounts are generally ranked by the platform that they are built on, such as Collective2 or Darwinex Zero.

At this time, only those accredited services listed on the home page in the 'Verification' section. Track records built on any other platform will be ignored.

No. It will still be considered. The entire purpose of the ATA is to help legit traders get recognized, as well as to sanitize the retail trading space as a whole to support new comers looking for valid trading content. So, every new application potentially contributes to the cause and is therefore valuable.

Incorrect. Demo and simulated are NOT the same. Demo is a toy account traded in a vacuum with unregulated broker-dependent data. Sims are public accounts traded in a standardized environment as a potential investment vehicle. That is why demo is unregulated, and sims are, even if indirectly. For example, Collective2 is regulated by the CFTC, and Darwinex is regulated by the FCA/CNMV/FSA. Unlike demo, a sim must adhere to strict standards as relates to liquidity assumptions, trading commissions, spreads or latency. All of which mimic real trading conditions from regulated servers feeding real price data. In short, demo accounts cannot be taken seriously. Sims can to a much greater degree.

For capital to qualify as 'Skin in the Game', it must be traded DIRECTLY by the trader either manually, or on a delegated basis by their algorithm where execution and replication quality are DIRECTLY supervised by the trader. Therefore, said capital cannot be traded by proxy as a pass-through intermediation, whereby a third-party stands between the trader and the funding parties, essentially shielding the trader in every aspect. So, why has this criteria been designed this way? For three reasons: (1) to reward mastery over the many technical complications that come with scaling, namely as relates to execution & liquidity management, (2) to value the trader's capacity to manage the capital owners' expectations and protect the integrity of the strategy under outside influence during tough market conditions, and (3) to prove the trader's ability to regulate their own stress under high stakes and remain disciplined at all times. None of these points can be rewarded whenever a proxy is involved as is the case for sim accounts.

It depends on the platform. Ranking platforms such as FundSeeder and Darwinex keep a record of your highest ever ranking, while Collective2 does not. Therefore, it is your responsibility to keep track of it on a daily basis and alert the ATA anytime an updated rank would favorably benefit your ATA score.

Darwinex has a 2-tier ranking system: Silver & Gold. As of mid-2025, Silver had roughly 8,600 traders and Gold 334. That is a total of 8,934. Assuming a rank of 10th in Silver, then your % rank would be calculated as 344th over 8,934 traders, NOT as 10th over 8,600.

That is because only those asset classes that account for at least 10% of your trade volume will count towards the 'Asset Versatility' score. Also, asset classes are exactly that: asset classes, not instruments. Meaning that if you trade the same asset class with 3 different instruments (say ETFs, CFDs and options), it would still count as one single asset class and add only 1 point to your 'Asset Versatility' score. Lastly, assuming that you trade 4 asset classes, the first one representing an overwhelming 87% of your volume, and the other three 4%, 6% and 3%, then, each being less than 10% but over 10% as a whole, they would be added up together to make up 'one' extra virtual asset class, making your total count a 2.

Whenever 2 or more traders are tied by ATA Score: the tie breaker criteria becomes, in the following order: Skin in the Game, Assets Traded, Tenure, Peak Rank, Total Trades, and MAR Ratio. The reason why the MAR Ratio is the least important in separating tied traders is because, however crucial it is to assess performance, it has been proven that it is an inverse log function of time in the market. Therefore, prioritizing it as a separating factor would wrongly favor new traders on the basis of luck rather than skills.

Yes. Credentials are reviewed on a regular basis. Should your score drop below 10 for any reason, you would drop off and no longer appear in the ATA repository. In this case, you would have to restart the application process from scratch when ready. Likewise, the regular review and revision of your score will cause your profile to potentially be promoted/demoted.

Absolutely! And you would never be banned for doing so. Traders evolve, and so do their skillset. Your ATA score would simply be reset back down to zero and you would have to restart the application process from scratch when ready with your new track record.