Key Insights
- FTMO has officially opened access to traders in India, reversing its earlier restriction shown in a company map two months ago.
- The expansion targets one of the world’s largest retail trading markets, where prop trading demand — especially among 18–30-year-olds — continues to grow.
- Indian traders can now participate in FTMO’s two-step evaluation system using simulated accounts, despite ongoing regulatory considerations involving SEBI and RBI.
PRAGUE (MarketsXplora)— FTMO, the global proprietary trading firm, announced on Thursday that it is now available to traders in India, marking a significant shift from its previous position of restricting access to one of the world’s fastest-growing retail trading markets. The update was released on the social media platform X and quickly circulated across the prop trading community.
The move contrasts with a Reddit post shared by FTMO roughly two months ago, in which the firm displayed a country-availability map that excluded India. The company had then stated that the map “delineates service availability” and is subject to internal business decisions and evolving regulatory standards.
A Market Too Large to Ignore
FTMO’s expansion comes at a time when India has become a major traffic source for the prop trading industry. Several firms — including FundingPips, The5ers, FundedNext and Maven — receive around 40% of their organic web traffic from India, according to data covering the top 50 prop firms globally. Interest in proprietary trading surged from 2023 onward, particularly among Indians aged 18–30.
This demand has pushed firms to tailor their approach to the Indian market. Low-cost evaluation programs, extensive content marketing and culturally localised campaigns have become standard. Advertising language is also tightly managed, avoiding terms such as “CFD” in response to regulatory sensitivities. Ongoing uncertainty from both the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continues to shape how prop firms position themselves in the country.
Prop Firm Match, an industry tracker, confirmed FTMO’s expansion on its own social platforms, describing India as “one of the world’s largest retail trading markets” and noting that demand for prop trading “continues to rise”.
Evaluation Structure for Indian Clients
Founded in Prague in 2014, FTMO offers traders access to simulated trading environments rather than live-money accounts. Indian traders will be able to participate in its evaluation structure, which includes demo accounts with fictitious balances from $10,000 to $200,000.
The company’s well-known two-step model — the FTMO Challenge followed by Verification — remains unchanged. The Challenge phase enforces strict trading objectives including maximum daily loss limits and predefined profit targets. Traders who succeed advance to the Verification phase, conducted under modified conditions to confirm consistency. Both stages require a minimum of four trading days and impose no maximum time limit.
Successful participants may earn up to 90% of simulated trading profits. Trading can be executed across FTMO’s four supported platforms: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader and DXtrade.
FTMO’s earlier decision to restrict Indian clients was rooted in concerns about India’s financial regulations, particularly regarding forex trading and offshore platforms. While the firm has not publicly detailed what resolved those issues, Thursday’s announcement signals a new internal assessment of the market and its legal landscape.