Verdict

BluSky suits patient US futures traders who want daily withdrawals, a 90/10 split and a consistency rule that is genuinely gentler than the norm. It does not suit anyone buying an evaluation on the assumption that passing it puts them on live capital. In BluSky’s own words, the evaluation, the Buffer Zone and Sim Funded are all simulated; Live Brokerage is a fourth stage earned at $10,000 of total profit that the firm says is “Not on Dashboard Yet”. Biggest caveat: no more than $10,000 per account, minus payouts taken, ever crosses into a live account.

Key terms, from BluSky’s own rulebook

• Evaluation cost: a 30-day subscription that auto-renews until cancelled; on 20 August 2026 the pricing widget defaulted to a $100,000 futures account at $497 per 30 days plus a $99 fee at Launch (Subscription Terms, 1 July 2026).
• Account sizes: 50K, 100K, 200K on Launch; 25K to 300K on Propel (Propel rules).
• Profit target: $3,000 on a 50K, $6,000 on a 100K, $20,000 on a 300K.
• Max drawdown: end-of-day trailing on the 25K/50K/100K ($1,200 / $2,000 / $2,500); static on the 150K, 200K and 300K. It rises with your highest 6pm balance and never falls back.
• Daily loss limit: none in the evaluation, and none enforced live outside a Ramp-Up Period or Risk Team decision.
• Consistency rule: 50% on Launch, 34% on Propel and Buffer Zone, 21% on the 300K, none on Orbit (Evaluation Rules).
• Profit split: 90/10, “unless a Risk Team decision changes it”.
• Payouts: $250 minimum, daily Monday to Friday, same-day if requested before 11am ET; rolling seven-day caps of $1,500 to $3,000 by account size (Sim Funded rules).
• Minimum trading days: none stated, but a 34% consistency rule means the target cannot be hit in fewer than three profitable days.

Four stages, and only the last one is real

Most futures firms run two stages. BluSky runs four — Evaluation, Buffer Zone (also branded BluLive), Sim Funded, and Live Brokerage — and is unusually direct about what that means. Its help centre states that Live Brokerage “is the last stage of the BluSky path and the only one where your orders reach the real market. Everything before it — Evaluation, the BluLive/Buffer Zone and Sim Funded — is simulated.”

That disclosure is franker than most of this cluster manages, and it reframes what a buyer is purchasing. The Buffer Zone carries its own profit target — $3,000 on a 50K, $3,500 on a 100K — and its own 34% consistency rule, so a trader who has passed the evaluation still has a second target to clear before withdrawals begin. BluSky’s rationale is defensible: fail the Buffer Zone and you reset that phase alone, at $250 for the first three resets, rather than losing the passed evaluation outright.

The firm’s plans page carries the relevant statistic: “The candidate pass rate of the BluSky evaluation program was 16.9% between April 1, 2023 – Nov 30, 2023.” That measures only traders who cleared the evaluation and entered BluLive — phase two of four. BluSky publishes no figure for Sim Funded and none at all for Live Brokerage, and the number is nearly three years old.

Payouts: what is published, what traders report, what could not be verified

The published mechanics are clear and, on paper, among the more trader-friendly in US futures. Withdrawals start at $250, can be requested every trading day and clear in one to three business days. There is no minimum number of trading days before a first payout, only a requirement to be above your starting balance. Caps run on a rolling seven-day window rather than a calendar week, so each payout frees its own capacity exactly seven days later. Three Sim Funded accounts cap out at $9,000 a week.

The homepage claims “Over $10M Paid Out in Total.” That figure is unaudited, undated and not split between simulated and live payouts. Treat it as marketing, not evidence.

Independent corroboration was harder to obtain than it should be. Trustpilot returned HTTP 403 to automated requests across four regional domains and Reddit’s search endpoints were also blocked, so this review could not verify BluSky’s Trustpilot score, review volume, recency or whether reviews were incentivised, and could not read dated first-hand payout reports. The testimonials on BluSky’s homepage are selected and hosted by BluSky and carry its own disclaimer that they “may not be representative of other clients or customers”. They are not independent evidence.

What can be verified is the ceiling. Under the Live Brokerage rules, once total profit reaches $10,000 — money in the account plus everything already withdrawn — the trader must stop and request a Brokerage Review, and anything earned above $10,000 before that review “is not payable”. On approval, up to $10,000 per account minus payouts taken becomes the live starting balance, capped at $30,000 per trader. On Orbit plans the live account starts at $0.00 and simulated gains go into a Profit Vault paying $1,000 per $10,000 withdrawn live — “permanently forfeited” if the account is breached.

The rules that actually end accounts

Four mechanics do most of the damage here, and none of them is the drawdown.

Trading during a review. BluSky calls this “the single most common way traders lose an account they had already earned”. Reviews can open at any time, take up to five trading days — seven for broader risk reviews — and payouts are held throughout.

The five-day invitation window. A Live Brokerage invitation is valid for five calendar days. Miss the onboarding paperwork and the source Sim Funded account is closed, the earmarked profit is forfeited and the setup is cancelled.

Broker rejection. A live account carries real KYC through Veriff plus the broker’s and clearing firm’s own checks. BluSky states plainly that if a broker declines the application after an invitation has been issued, the result is “immediate account closure, forfeiture of all simulated profits, and no refund”. A trader in a restricted country can pay months of subscription, clear four stages, and end with nothing.

The Launch fee deadline. On Launch and Stocks plans a one-off fee — $99, $149 or $179 for the 50K, 100K and 200K — falls due the moment you pass, with 14 days to pay. Miss it and, per the Launch plan rules, “the account expires immediately and the evaluation you passed is lost. It cannot be reinstated.”

Two further costs are worth pricing in. The subscription renews every 30 days and is non-refundable once processed; the general terms allow a refund request within 48 hours of purchase, less 15% for merchant fees, and otherwise state all sales are final. And market data is free through every simulated stage but becomes the trader’s own cost once live — $156 per exchange per month on Tradovate and Volumetrica, with Rithmic’s first month deducted from the starting balance.

How the numbers compare

All figures below are taken from each firm’s own published documentation, at the 100K tier where possible.

Term	BluSky (100K Propel)	Topstep (100K Combine / XFA)	MyFundedFutures (100K Pro)
Profit target	$6,000	Not published on the parameters page	Not published on this page
Max drawdown	$2,500, EOD trailing, locks at start balance once net profit equals the drawdown	$3,000 MLL, trails on end-of-day balance, locks permanently at $100,000	$3,000 MLL, end-of-day
Daily loss limit	None in evaluation; none live outside Ramp-Up	$2,000, optional in the Combine, automatic on Live Funded	None
Consistency rule	34%, divided by the sum of profitable days	50% in the Combine (best day ÷ total profit); 40% on the XFA consistency path	None on Pro
Profit split	90/10	90/10	80/20
Minimum payout	$250	$125	$1,000
Wait before first payout	None beyond clearing the start balance	5 winning days of $150+ net P&L on the XFA	14 calendar days from first trade, buffer of $3,100 cleared
Route to live capital	$10,000 total profit triggers a review; up to $10,000 per account transfers, $30,000 per trader	Live Funded Account after the Express Funded stage	3 consecutive payouts, or excess above the $100,000 cap, up to $7,500

One BluSky claim survives scrutiny, and it cuts in the trader’s favour. Its consistency rule divides the largest profitable day by the sum of profitable days, discarding losing days. Topstep’s published formula is “Largest Single-Day Net Profit ÷ Total Net Profit” — a smaller denominator, and so a harder rule at the same headline percentage. Our reviews of Traders Launch and Top One Futures found the same denominator trick running the other way.

What BluSky says about itself

In a post headed “Avoid the Payment Police” on the firm’s own blog, author Klaus Pauli Kimere writes: “Most other prop firms have to pay you out of their own pocket because they do not put their funded traders into a real brokerage. In our opinion, this is a conflict of interest and explains why they are trying to create rules that will deny them a payout.”

That is the firm’s central marketing claim, and it sits awkwardly beside its own rulebook. The same post asserts BluSky “have all their funded traders in real brokerage” and promises “No consistency rules for taking out profits” and “No minimum trade days to take out payment”. The help centre, updated far more recently, says the opposite on all three counts: Sim Funded is simulated, consistency “is checked when you request a payout”, and traders need “one meaningful profitable day between payout requests”. The post carries no year in its dateline. Read the help centre, not the blog.

Regulatory posture

The operating entity is BluSky Trading Company LLC, registered at 7901 4th St N Ste 300, St. Petersburg, Florida. The terms are governed by Florida law, disputes go to individual arbitration in Pinellas County, and users waive the right to join a class action. Payment settlement runs through Odeonpay ALE S.R.L, trading as Paysagi, a Romanian company (registration number 43293516) acting as merchant of record — so the counterparty on a card statement is not the firm selling the evaluation.

BluSky is not a regulated financial firm and does not claim to be. Its footer states “Not a broker-dealer”, its terms describe the offering as “Simulated Trading Opportunities with performance-based contests or competitions” that are “for Educational Purposes only”, and the site carries the CFTC Rule 4.41 hypothetical-performance disclaimer. Nothing on the site claims NFA membership or CFTC registration, and this review found none — though NFA’s BASIC register blocks automated queries, so no machine-readable search could confirm the negative. That posture is normal for this model rather than exceptional; see our explainer on where the prop firm regulatory perimeter actually bites. It does mean no regulator to complain to, no client-money segregation and no compensation scheme. Firms structured otherwise exist: Seven Points Capital operates through a FINRA-registered broker-dealer. Note also that BluSky Trading Company is a different business from the similarly named BlueSky Funded.

FAQ

Is a BluSky funded account real money?
Not until Live Brokerage. BluSky states that the Evaluation, the Buffer Zone and Sim Funded are all simulated. Payouts from Sim Funded are real cash paid by the firm, but the orders are not reaching the market. Live Brokerage, where they do, is a separate stage the firm says is not yet on the dashboard.

How much of my profit reaches the live account?
Up to $10,000 per account, minus payouts already taken, and no more than $30,000 across three accounts. Profit earned above $10,000 before a Brokerage Review is not payable. On Orbit plans the live balance starts at $0.00 and simulated gains go into a Profit Vault paid back as bonuses.

Does the evaluation fee recur?
Yes. Launch and Propel evaluations renew every 30 days at whatever you originally paid, including any discount, until you cancel or pass. Cancel at least one day before renewal. Payments are non-refundable once processed, with a narrow 48-hour exception that costs 15%.

What happens if I fail the Buffer Zone?
You reset that phase only and keep the passed evaluation. Resets cost $250 each for the first three, then $300 for the fourth to sixth and $350 for the seventh to ninth. A reset after reaching Sim Funded costs $500 on Propel plans. Platforms are Tradovate, Rithmic and Volumetrica, with live accounts running through Tradovate and Sweet Futures.

This review is independent editorial analysis and is not financial, investment, or trading advice, and is not an endorsement or solicitation. The Industry Spread has no affiliate or referral relationship with the firms covered. Proprietary trading challenges carry a fee that is generally non-refundable, most participants do not reach a funded account, and funded capital is the firm’s capital, not the trader’s. Terms change frequently — always verify current rules directly with the firm before paying any fee.