The short answer: a copier that takes trades from a signal channel or from anyone else's account is prohibited, or treated as third-party management, at all ten firms. FXIFY allows copying in only from an account in your own name with an approved 30-day statement, which does not cover a signal channel. Placing a signal by hand on your own account is a separate question, and the rules split three ways: Alpha Capital's help centre says trading based on signals is group trading and prohibited; FundedNext's restricted-strategies page lists "Signal Services" as strictly prohibited; the other eight firms' published rules neither permit nor prohibit it in those words, and absence of a named ban is not permission. So before buying any evaluation to follow signals on, the step is a written answer from the firm to the exact workflow you intend, and the rest of this page is about whether a gold or forex signal is even placeable under each firm's news window, drawdown type, metal leverage and consistency rule.
Everything below is from the firms' own rules pages, help centres and terms on 21 Oct 2026. Prices behind JavaScript widgets did not render and are marked as not readable rather than guessed. Rules change often; read the clause on the firm's own page before you buy an evaluation.
The copying rule, firm by firm
This is the one that ends accounts. We quote the gist; the full wording is on each firm's page.
| Firm | Copying between your own accounts | Copying from another person or a signal service |
|---|---|---|
| FTMO | no explicit copier rule published | third-party access to the account and trading "in concert" with others forbidden |
| FundedNext | own Challenge accounts only, via a VPS copier, not cloud copiers, not on funded accounts | never between different people; "Signal Services" listed as strictly prohibited on the restricted-strategies page |
| The5ers | not stated as allowed | "copy trading with other traders or accounts" prohibited; third-party EAs prohibited |
| Funding Pips | own accounts allowed; copying out to an external account allowed | copying in "from any source" terminates the account |
| E8 Markets | allowed across all own accounts, any copier tool | no signal services; no team copying |
| Alpha Capital | own accounts allowed, Alpha as master allowed; another firm or broker as master with proof of ownership; MT5 only | copying others prohibited; "Trading based on signals is considered group trading, which is prohibited" |
| FXIFY | own FXIFY accounts allowed; FXIFY to an external account allowed; not on Instant or Lightning | inbound copying only from an account in your own name with an approved 30-day statement; copying from a third party breaks the terms |
| Blue Guardian | third-party copiers only between accounts you legally own | not from other traders |
| Maven Trading | own trades only, copied manually | "cannot copy trade from another individual"; EAs prohibited |
| Goat Funded Trader | own accounts via the in-dashboard copier only; copier EAs banned | external accounts and signals not permitted |
What that means in practice. A Telegram-to-MT5 copier fed by a signal channel is out at every one of the ten; our own copier terms exclude prop and challenge accounts for exactly this reason, and we will not help you connect one. Trading a signal by hand on your own account is explicitly prohibited at Alpha Capital ("trading based on signals is considered group trading") and at FundedNext ("Signal Services" on its restricted-strategies page). At the other eight it is not established by the cited rules either way: FTMO's "in concert" clause, The5ers' ban on copying "other traders", and the account-management and group-trading language elsewhere are written against passing with someone else's calls, and a firm can read a popular signal with a published entry that way. Changing your entry, stop or size does not create permission, so we no longer suggest it. If you intend to trade signals on a funded account, send the firm the workflow in writing and keep the answer. Our guide to signals on a funded account has the wording to use.
The rules that decide whether a signal is placeable
News windows. Most of our gold signals and many forex signals are open across US data releases. A firm that forbids execution for five minutes either side of high-impact news on funded accounts does not stop a running trade, but it stops you entering, moving a stop or closing inside the window, and several firms remove the profit from any trade that does.
| Firm | Evaluation | Funded |
|---|---|---|
| FTMO | free | Standard: no execution 2 minutes before and after selected news; Swing account exempt |
| FundedNext | free | allowed; profit made inside the news window counts at 40% |
| The5ers | no trades 2 minutes before and after high-impact (High Stakes); bracketing banned | same |
| Funding Pips | free | Master: 5-minute window, soft breach; Zero model: 10 minutes, hard breach |
| E8 Markets | One: free | One: 5-minute window, profit deducted; Pro and Signature unrestricted |
| Alpha Capital | free | Qualified: 5-minute window; Swing account allowed with a 2-minute hold rule |
| FXIFY | same rules as funded | Instant: 5-minute window; terms cut leverage to 10:1 around events |
| Blue Guardian | allowed | 5-minute window, profits removed |
| Maven Trading | 2-minute window, hard breach | window profits excluded |
| Goat Funded Trader | allowed | allowed; profit inside the window capped at 1% per trade |
If you follow signals that run through New York data, the firms that leave the funded account free are FundedNext (with the 40% rule), Goat (with the 1% cap), E8 Pro and Signature, and the Swing accounts at FTMO and Alpha Capital. Everywhere else, plan to be hands-off for five minutes around the calendar's red events; our sessions and news guide lists which ones.
Drawdown type. A static maximum loss (measured from the starting balance) and a trailing one (measured from your highest balance) are different products for a signal follower, because a gold signal with a 200-pip stop at 1% risk a trade can run four stops in a week and a trailing drawdown that has locked in gains gives you less room each time. Static: FTMO 2-Step, FundedNext, Funding Pips, Alpha Capital, FXIFY 2 Phase Pro, Blue Guardian, Maven, Goat. Trailing or dynamic: FTMO 1-Step (end of day, on balance), FXIFY's standard plans (on closed balance, locking at the starting balance after 6% profit), E8 One (dynamic on closed balance). The5ers does not state the type on the page we read.
Daily loss. From 3% (Funding Pips' lower option, Alpha Capital's lower option, FTMO 1-Step, E8 One, Maven's Instant) to 5% (FTMO 2-Step, FundedNext, The5ers, Goat). Two gold stops at 1% each on a bad morning is 2%; at 1.5% risk a trade it is 3%, and a 3% daily limit is gone before lunch. Size from the daily limit, not the account: our risk per trade guide shows the arithmetic.
Gold leverage. Where firms state it: Funding Pips 1:30 (1:10 on swing), Alpha Capital 1:30 on metals, FXIFY 30:1, E8 1:15, Blue Guardian 1:10 to 1:20, Maven 1:20 (1:100 on its Omo model). FTMO, FundedNext, The5ers and Goat do not state a per-asset figure on the pages we read. At 1:10, a 0.10-lot gold position at today's price needs about $4,000 of margin on a $100,000 account, which is fine; at the same leverage on a $10,000 account it is 40% of the balance in margin for one trade. Check the metal leverage before buying a small account for gold signals.
Consistency rules. FTMO 1-Step 50% (no day above half of total profit), FTMO Instant 30%, E8 One 40%, Blue Guardian Instant 20%, Maven Instant 20%, Goat caps news-window profit at 1% a trade. A rule like this punishes exactly what a good gold signal does, which is make most of the week on one day. Two-step accounts at FTMO, FundedNext, Funding Pips, Blue Guardian, Maven and Goat carry no consistency rule.
Price, split and refund, as published
| Firm | $100k two-step list price | Targets | Split stated | Fee refund |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTMO | not readable (2-Step "from €89") | 10% then 5% | 80% default on 2-Step, 90% with scaling; 90% on 1-Step and Instant | yes, 2-Step, with first payout |
| FundedNext | $549.99 | 8% then 5% | 80% on the 21-day cycle, 60% on the 3-day option, 90% on demand | yes, 2-Step, with first payout |
| The5ers | not readable ($19 smallest size shown) | 10% then 5% | 80% rising to 100% | 70% of the fee with the first payout, conditions apply |
| Funding Pips | $529 | 8% then 5% | 60% weekly, 80% bi-weekly, 100% on demand (the home page lists different figures) | yes, 2 Step Standard only, at the 4th payout |
| E8 Markets | no two-step; E8 One $488 ($342 on promotion) | 6%, single phase | 80% | none, all fees non-refundable |
| Alpha Capital | not readable ("from $27") | 6% then 6%, 8% then 5%, or 10% then 5% | 80%, 90% add-on | none; 0.25% bonus at the 4th payout |
| FXIFY | not readable | 10% then 5% | up to 90% with add-on | yes, with first payout, 1, 2 and 3 Phase |
| Blue Guardian | $467 or $623 (columns unlabelled) | 8% then 4% | 85% default, 90% add-on | none, all sales final |
| Maven Trading | $440 | 8% then 5% | 80%, 90% add-on | yes, after the 3rd payout |
| Goat Funded Trader | $438 (also $263 shown) | 10% then 5% | 80%, 100% add-on | yes, at the 4th payout |
Four firms would not show us a price without a login or a script, which is a fact about them worth knowing before anything else. The individual reviews linked below carry what each firm does publish on payouts, platforms, brokers and excluded countries.
Reading the table as a signal follower
- If your signals are gold and run through US data: the funded accounts that leave news trading unrestricted are Goat (with the 1% cap), E8 Pro and Signature, and FTMO's Swing account. FundedNext's news rule is also open, but its signal-services ban takes it off this list, as Alpha Capital's clause does for Alpha. Everywhere else you will manage trades around a two- to five-minute wall.
- If your signals come several a day with 1% risk each: a 5% daily limit and a static maximum loss give the most room: FTMO 2-Step, The5ers, Goat. Five stops at 1% reach a 5% limit exactly, before spreads, commission and floating losses, so the usable number is lower than five. Avoid 3% daily limits and trailing drawdowns on an active signal day.
- If you want MT4 specifically: FTMO and FundedNext are the only two listing it, and FundedNext's signal-services ban applies. The rest are MT5, cTrader, Match-Trader, TradeLocker or DXtrade. Our signals are placed the same way on any of them; our MT5 placement guide covers the one most firms use.
- If you were going to use a copier: do not, on any of these. Keep the copier on a personal account and, if the firm confirms in writing that manual signal trading is allowed on your plan, trade the funded account by hand.
Every rule above was read on 21 Oct 2026. The firm-by-firm reviews, FTMO, FundedNext, The5ers, Funding Pips, E8 Markets, Alpha Capital, FXIFY, Blue Guardian, Maven Trading and Goat Funded Trader, carry the page names and the full wording of each clause, and we refresh them when a firm changes its rules.
Sources
The copying and signal rules quoted above, read on 21 Oct 2026. Each firm's review carries the rest of its pages.
- FTMO, forbidden trading practices
- FundedNext, restricted and prohibited trading strategies and the copy trading rule
- The5ers, prohibited trading practices
- Funding Pips, trading conduct and security standards
- E8 Markets, can I copy trades or trade as a team
- Alpha Capital Group, is copy trading allowed and can I pass using someone's signals
- FXIFY, is copy trading allowed
- Blue Guardian, prohibited trading practices
- Maven Trading, FAQs
- Goat Funded Trader, trading rules
Every closed signal is on the record
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