Vest Markets (Vest Capital) review: the full picture, from a trader who paid for it
Rules, account sizes, fees, payouts, the fine print, and what actually happened when I traded NQ there. Wins and losses both.
Scroll X for five minutes and you'll see payout screenshots from Vest Markets. Some are real and some are big. What you don't see is the other side: the blown accounts behind those wins. This post covers both, so you can decide with the full picture.
What Vest Markets is
Vest Markets is a trading platform for perpetual futures ("perps"). These are contracts that track a price and never expire. You can trade perps on US stocks, ETFs, index futures like NQ and ES, FX, commodities, and crypto, with up to 50x leverage.
Vest Capital is their prop firm program. You pay for an evaluation, trade to a profit goal without breaking the rules, and then you can claim payouts.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Legal company | Vest Exchange Inc., a Panama corporation |
| Founded | 2021, team based in New York |
| Funding | About $5M seed round (Amber Group and others) |
| Markets | Hundreds: US stocks, ETFs, NQ, ES, FX, commodities, crypto |
| Trading hours | 24/5 for everything except crypto (crypto is 24/7) |
| Max leverage | Up to 50x (NQ shows 50x; some markets are capped lower on prop accounts) |
| Payouts | Paid in USDC (a dollar-pegged crypto coin) |
| ID check | None. Sign up with email, Google, or a crypto wallet |
Account sizes and rules
Vest Capital is a one-step evaluation. Hit 10% profit without breaking the drawdown rules, and the account goes Live.
| Account | Profit goal (10%) | Max drawdown (6%, static) | Drawdown floor | Daily loss limit (3% default) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $500 | $300 | $4,700 | ~$150 |
| $10,000 | $1,000 | $600 | $9,400 | ~$300 |
| $25,000 | $2,500 | $1,500 | $23,500 | ~$750 |
- Static drawdown: the floor never moves up. Every dollar of profit you make is extra room. This is better than the "trailing" drawdown many other prop firms use.
- Daily loss limit: 3% of balance by default (you can customize it when you buy), plus 50% of open profit, measured at a daily snapshot at 8 PM ET. Watch this if you hold trades overnight.
- No time limit to pass.
- No reset. Break a rule and the account closes right away. You must buy a new one.
- Overnight and weekend holding are allowed. Positions are not force-closed over the weekend.
- Profit split: 80% to 90% depending on account type. Their homepage and docs showed different numbers, so check the current one before you buy.
Evaluation vs Instant accounts
| Evaluation | Instant | |
|---|---|---|
| Start | Must hit the 10% profit goal first | Payout-eligible from day one |
| Max drawdown | Yes | Yes |
| Daily loss limit | Yes, even after going Live | None, ever |
| Fees, leverage, markets | Same | Same |
| Profit split | Varies by type | Varies by type |
Prices: evaluations started around $60 for a $5K account when I bought, and some small Instant accounts ($500 balance) cost as little as about $10. Prices and promos change often, so check the site.
Trading fees and what they really cost
Per Vest's FAQ, trading fees apply in every session, and they're the same on evaluation, Live, and Instant accounts:
| Market | Fee per side | When |
|---|---|---|
| NQ and ES | 0.0025% | All sessions |
| Stocks, crypto, FX, API trades | 0.01% | All sessions |
| Funding (holding cost) | ~0.0005% per hour | While a position is open (not on weekends) |
Real example from my account: a $489K NQ position (about 1 full NQ contract) cost $12.22 to open and $12.22 to close. That's $24.45 a round trip, or about 1.5 NQ points before you make a cent. A regular US futures broker charges roughly $4 to $6 round trip for the same size.
What fees do to your rules ($10K evaluation)
| Round trips | Fees paid | Same as |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | ~$300 | Your whole daily loss limit (3% default) |
| 40 | ~$1,000 | Your whole profit goal |
Scalping for 1 to 2 points doesn't work here. Aim for 8+ point moves so fees stay under 20% of your win.
Position size: what "size 6" means
Size on Vest is in units, and 1 unit = $1 per NQ point. It is not contracts.
| Vest size | $ per NQ point | Same as on CME |
|---|---|---|
| 2 units | $2 | 1 MNQ (micro) |
| 10 units | $10 | 5 MNQ, or 0.5 NQ |
| 20 units | $20 | 1 full NQ |
Best position size to pass a Vest evaluation
At 50x on NQ, the fee is always about 1.5 points per round trip. What changes with size is how much of your drawdown each trade eats. The percentages below are the same for every account size.
| Balance used (50x NQ) | Fee per round trip, as % of max drawdown | As % of daily limit (3%) | Breakeven trades until fees eat the drawdown | NQ points to hit drawdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25% | 1.04% | 2.08% | 96 | ~148 |
| 50% | 2.08% | 4.17% | 48 | ~74 |
| 75% | 3.13% | 6.25% | 32 | ~49 |
| 100% | 4.17% | 8.33% | 24 | ~37 |
Fee per round trip in dollars
| Account | Max drawdown | 25% | 50% | 75% | 100% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $300 | $3.13 | $6.25 | $9.38 | $12.50 |
| $10,000 | $600 | $6.25 | $12.50 | $18.75 | $25.00 |
| $25,000 | $1,500 | $15.63 | $31.25 | $46.88 | $62.50 |
My sizing plan for a $10K evaluation
Target $1,000, max drawdown $600, daily limit $300. Because the drawdown floor never moves, every dollar of profit gives you more room, so you can size up once you're ahead.
| Phase | Size | $ per point | Stop / target | Risk per trade | Win per trade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0 to +$300 | 50% | ~$8.10 | 15 / 30 pts | ~$134 | ~$231 |
| +$300 to +$1,000 | 75% | ~$12.20 | 15 / 30 pts | ~$202 | ~$346 |
- About 4 to 5 wins to pass. With wins about 1.7x bigger than losses, you only need to win about 40% of trades.
- Max 2 losses a day at 50% size (~$268), so you stay under the $300 daily limit.
- Never jump to 100% to catch up after a loss. Go back to 50% instead.
- With one good trade a day, expect about 4 to 7 trading days to pass.
The biggest risk: Vest's price is not the real NQ price
This is the part nobody talks about. When you trade "NQ" on Vest, you're trading Vest's NQ perp, not the CME futures contract. Most of the time the two move close together. Sometimes they don't.
Vest shows two prices at the top of the screen: the Index Price (the real NQ price) and the Mid Price (the price you actually trade at). One evening in the Asia session I saw this:
Here's what happened during my trade, around 6:10 PM PT:
- When I went long, Vest was about 10 to 15 points off real NQ. Fine.
- Real NQ rallied about 50 points to new session highs. Vest moved up only about 10, then sat still.
- Real NQ pulled back about 30 points. Vest followed that drop in full.
- The gap grew from 10 to 15 points to about 39.
My read on NQ was right. The trade still failed on Vest. The same trade would have passed my evaluation on the real market.
Past pricing incidents
Vest publishes its own incident reports, which is a good sign of openness. In 2026 they listed three:
- April 15: bad prices caused wrong liquidations for about 10% of active accounts.
- June 8: large orders moved the ES price abnormally and triggered liquidations.
- June 30: about 20 accounts got wrong fills on EWY.
Vest compensated users each time.
What the terms of service actually say
Marketing and the terms don't always say the same thing. These are the lines that matter most:
- It's simulated money, funded accounts included. The terms call it a "virtual trading and signal generation platform." Balances are notional. An Instant Funded Account "is a virtual Program designation." Vest may copy your trades with its own money, or may not.
- Payouts are "Program compensation," not profit from a live trade.
- Only the terms count. You can't rely on anything said in marketing, docs, Discord, or social media.
- Rules and fees can change anytime without notice.
- Payouts can be frozen while they investigate a "suspected" rule break.
- Max you can ever recover is what you paid them, or 100 PAB (about $100), whichever is larger.
- Disputes go only to arbitration in Panama, in English. No class actions.
- Refunds only within 28 days, and only if you placed zero trades.
- They admit conflicts of interest and say they may act in their own interest.
What's not allowed
- One account per user in the program.
- No hedging across accounts (long on one, short on another). Their terms ban matched trading and using multiple accounts to get around the rules.
- No exploiting price feeds, latency, or technical errors.
- No VPNs to get around restrictions.
- No wash trading, spoofing, or other manipulation.
How Vest makes money
- Evaluation fees. The biggest piece. Every blown account is real money kept.
- Copying winners. The terms let Vest choose which trades to copy with real money. Copy the good traders, skip the rest.
- Exchange fees and the liquidity pool on Vest Exchange.
- Third-party rebates, which the terms say they keep.
Vest's CEO posted on X that "all of your trades hit a real exchange" and "we don't profit off your losses." The terms, updated a week later, say users don't execute live trades and that Vest earns from program fees. Your losses on the evaluation are fake, but the evaluation fee you paid is real.
Why you see so many payout posts
Vest has an affiliate program. People posting payouts often have a referral code, and they get paid when you buy, not when you pass. Some reports describe two levels: the affiliate and the person who recruited them both get a cut. Vest doesn't publish its rates. Payout posts are real proof that Vest pays, but they're also ads. Full disclosure: this post has my referral link too, and I've shared my losses alongside it so you can judge for yourself.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Static drawdown: the floor never moves
- One-step evaluation with no time limit
- Overnight and weekend holding allowed
- Instant accounts have no daily loss limit
- Cheap entry, from about $10 to $60
- Hundreds of markets, 24/5, up to 50x
- Real public payouts, some large
- Publishes its own incident reports
Cons
- Vest's price can drift 30 to 40 points from real NQ
- NQ fees about 5x a US futures broker
- All accounts are simulated, funded included
- Fee pages and docs don't always match
- Terms let them change rules anytime
- Disputes only in Panama; liability capped
- No ID check, no tax forms; payouts in USDC
- New firm with almost no independent reviews
Vest vs regular futures prop firms
| Vest Markets | Regular futures prop firms | |
|---|---|---|
| Price you trade | Vest's own perp price | Real CME NQ |
| Fee for 1 NQ-size round trip | ~$31 (~1.5 pts) | ~$4–6 (~0.25 pts) |
| Drawdown | Static | Often trailing |
| Eval cost | One-time | Often monthly |
| Overnight and weekend | Allowed | Usually must be flat by close |
| Track record | New | Years of public payouts |
Taxes (US traders)
Vest doesn't collect your SSN, so you won't get a 1099. You still owe tax. Payouts are "Program compensation," which many tax preparers treat as self-employment income. Keep screenshots of every payout and wallet transaction. Talk to your own tax preparer.
If you trade there: my checklist before every entry
- Check Index minus Mid. If the gap is over 10 points, skip the trade.
- Trade US hours when you can. Night and Asia sessions drift the most.
- Set a target of at least 8 points, well above the ~1.5-point fee.
- Set your stop and target on the order before you click buy.
- Keep size the same after a loss. Size up only after a win.
- Screenshot every trade, fee page, and rule page.
- Withdraw every payout the moment you're eligible.
- Set a monthly limit for eval purchases and stop when it's gone.
My verdict
Vest Markets is a real company that does pay out. The static drawdown, no time limit, and weekend holding are better than many prop firms.
But for day trading NQ, the price drift and higher fees work against you. You can call the market right and still lose. That's what happened to me.
Treat it as a paid game with prize money: a small, fixed budget, never more than you're fine losing. If you want your chart to match your fills, a regular futures prop firm fits NQ day trading better.
Still want to try Vest Markets?
If you've read all of this and still want to try it, you can use my referral link or code. Start small and set a budget first.
Referral code: FKMYBLOGSTORY
I may earn a commission if you sign up. It costs you nothing extra.
Your turn: how much have you spent on Vest evaluations, and how much have you been paid? Share your numbers in the comments. Real numbers help the next trader more than another payout screenshot.
This post is my personal experience and research as of October 2026. It is not financial, legal, or tax advice. Rules, fees, prices, and terms change often, so check Vest Markets' current terms and FAQ before buying. Quotes from the terms are from the Vest prop terms of service updated September 28, 2026. Disclosure: this post contains my Vest Markets referral link and code. If you sign up with them, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It doesn't change anything I've written here, including my losses.
