Verdict. Great Point Capital is the rarest thing in this category: a genuine SEC-registered broker-dealer, FINRA-approved since 2001, filing audited financials and holding $85.2m of net capital against a $126,600 requirement. It suits an experienced US equities trader who wants a registered seat and can pass licensing exams, not someone shopping for a conventional evaluation product: it publishes no fee, profit target, drawdown limit or payout schedule. The caveat: 99.2% of members’ equity sits in a non-voting class whose profit share is set by a trading agreement.

Key terms, as the firm publishes them

• Funded capital: up to $25,000 after “passing our evaluation” (Capital & Partnerships, retrieved 31 August 2026).
• Maximum funding: $1M+, on meeting “profit targets and risk rules” — which are not stated.
• Profit split: 50% — “Start at 50% profit share from day one on your funded account.”
• Prop Account capital contribution: $10,000 minimum, margin “up to 25:1”, “SIE and S57 exams required” (Trading Solutions).
• Retail account: $25,000 minimum, margin up to 4:1, SIPC-covered.
• Evaluation fee: not published. The homepage says “No upfront fees”; no price appears anywhere.
• Drawdown, daily loss limit, minimum trading days, payout frequency: not published.
• Net capital at 31 December 2025: $85,214,376 against a $126,600 requirement (audited Form X-17A-5, filed 2 March 2026).

The registration is real, and it is old

Almost every firm in this category is an offshore LLC with a payment processor. Great Point Capital, LLC is a Delaware LLC at 200 West Jackson Blvd, Chicago, registered with the SEC as a broker-dealer under CRD# 114203 and SEC# 8-53402, approved by the SEC and FINRA on 17 December 2001, registered in 52 states and territories — all on the firm’s BrokerCheck record. Maine’s status reads “Conditional Restricted”, effective 5 July 2023. It holds no customer assets, clearing fully disclosed through Clear Street, RQD* Clearing and Wedbush.

What the funded-trader program actually is — and is not

The programme lives on one marketing page promising “We provide the capital, you keep 50% of the profits to start. No personal risk, unlimited upside,” then four steps: apply, take an assessment, pass an evaluation against “profit targets and risk rules”, get funded. Not one rule is quantified there, or in the site’s FAQ, terms or disclosures: no fee, profit target, drawdown size, daily loss limit, minimum trading days, payout cadence or consistency rule, no statement of whether the account is live or simulated, no named counterparty.

The site’s Terms of Service lists the firm’s services as brokerage and trading, direct market access, “capital introduction and professional trader sponsorship”, market data and education — no funded-trader evaluation product. Yet the Trading Solutions page prices a “Prop Account” at a $10,000 minimum capital contribution requiring the SIE and Series 57 exams — a registered-representative seat, not a retail challenge, and plainly not “no personal risk”. The two pages describe two different businesses.

Whose capital is in the account

The audited statement answers what the website avoids. At 31 December 2025 Great Point held $250,576,815 of assets, including $240,224,247 of securities owned, against members’ equity of $127,200,702 — split in two. Class A members “have all the voting rights and the Class B members have no voting rights”, and “a Class B member’s allocated portion of the Company’s net profit or loss is limited to the provisions of their trading agreement”. Ending capital: Class A $977,133; Class B $126,223,569.

So 99.2% of the equity is non-voting capital whose profit allocation is set by a trading agreement — the classic Chicago trader-member structure, consistent with a $10,000 contribution and a Series 57. The statement does not identify the Class B members, so this review cannot state that Class B capital is trader capital. But a trader should establish in writing, before paying, whether they would join as a Class B member funding themselves or receive firm capital as the marketing page implies.

Payouts: what is verifiable, and what is not

Great Point publishes no payout policy, minimum, processing time or audited payout data. The only figures are undated marketing counters — “100+ Funded Traders”, “500+ Active Partners”, “$50M+ Paid to Partners” — the last referring to partners, not traders. No first-hand, dated payout report from a Great Point funded trader could be identified for this review. That is a gap, stated as one.

What is verifiable is that the firm has money, attested by a PCAOB-registered auditor — on a qualified opinion: Ryan & Juraska LLP signed “except for the effects of not valuing the Company’s investments in other private companies at fair value”, $1,507,651 carried at cost. SIPC, cited at $500,000 on the disclosures page, covers custody at a failed brokerage; it guarantees no profits and settles no profit-share dispute.

The disclosure record

BrokerCheck lists 13 regulatory events, all final, none pending (retrieved 31 August 2026). Two entries describe the same 2012 matter, leaving 12 distinct actions. By this publication’s tally of the monetary sanctions in that report, fines total $3,945,000 plus $21,628.45 of disgorgement.

Resolved	Forum and case number	Monetary sanction	Substance
06/04/2026	IEX, 2019064531502	$250,000, censure	Surveillance not reasonably designed for potentially non-bona-fide orders
06/04/2026	FINRA, 2019064531501	$150,000, censure	Same failures; also failed to supervise a representative’s 1,000+ retail emails containing “misleading, unwarranted, exaggerated, or promissory statements”
14/08/2024	SEC, 3-21992 (Rel. 34-100696)	$2,000,000, censure, cease-and-desist	Off-channel communications; wilful breach of Exchange Act §17(a) and Rule 17a-4(b)(4). Firm admitted the facts
17/07/2019	Massachusetts, R-2019-0083	None; conditions on registration	Imposed “based on the firm’s disclosure history”
04/03/2019	FINRA, 2016051933501	$20,000, censure	Inaccurate or untimely OATS reporting
18/12/2015	FINRA, 2013038630101	$150,000, censure	OATS reporting; let as many as 49 registered persons trade equities unqualified
17/12/2015	FINRA, 2008014822702	$1,100,000, censure, trading prohibition	Consented, without admitting or denying, to wilful §10(b)/Rule 10b-5 findings and failure “to supervise the trading activities of the firm’s proprietary traders”; c.1,100 potential layering instances via a DMA account
02/09/2015	Nevada, CI15-010	$25,000 plus costs	False statement on transacting business; unlicensed branches
09/04/2012	FINRA, 2006005157102	$50,000, censure	Wash-trade and outside-account supervision
10/06/2011	FINRA, 2009018158401	$10,000, censure	OATS reporting
30/03/2009	FINRA, 2006005053101	$15,000, censure	Short-sale locate failures, SEC Rule 203(b)(1)
26/02/2008	FINRA, 2005000174101	$175,000 plus $21,628.45 disgorgement, censure	Pre-opening quoting and trading supervision

Release No. 100696 found that from at least August 2019 personnel used personal devices for text messages that were required records, and that the firm “did not maintain or preserve the substantial majority of these written communications”. The $2,000,000 is payable in four instalments. Unusually for a settled order, Great Point admitted the facts and acknowledged the conduct violated the federal securities laws; it was one of 26 firms in a sweep paying $392.75m.

“As today’s enforcement actions against more than two dozen firms reflect, we remain committed to ensuring compliance with the books and records requirements of the federal securities laws, which are essential to investor protection and well-functioning markets,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in the announcement of the sweep.

The audited statement separately discloses 15 FINRA arbitration claims filed between August 2025 and February 2026, most alleging a registered representative sold unsuitable investments. The firm denies them; no liability is assessed. These concern retail brokerage, not the funded-trader offer.

How it compares

	Great Point Capital	FTMO
US-registered broker-dealer	Yes — CRD 114203, since 2001	No
Capital described as	Real; $240.2m securities owned	“Initial Simulated Capital”
Published profit target	None	10% (1-step); 10% then 5% (2-step)
Published max daily loss	None	3% (1-step); 5% (2-step)
Published max loss	None	10%
Minimum trading days	None	0 (1-step); 4 (2-step)
Trader’s own money required	$10,000 on the Prop Account	$0 beyond the challenge fee
Licensing exams required	SIE and Series 57	None

FTMO’s figures come from its published trading objectives. Topstep likewise evaluates on simulated capital and advertises “Keep 90% of your profits”, but publishes no targets or loss limits, so it is omitted rather than padded with blanks. The pattern holds: the unregulated firms publish precise rules over simulated capital; the registered one has real capital and no published rules.

The rules that would fail traders

There are none to analyse, and that is the finding. With no published drawdown mechanic, daily loss limit or consistency rule, a trader cannot model the risk of the account closing, compare it with firms that price consistency rules explicitly, or cite a document in a dispute. Everything defers to an unpublished evaluation and trading agreement.

The site also looks far newer than the business: the footer carries a placeholder telephone link, tel:+1234567890, beside “Contact for Phone”; the copyright reads 2025; and the FAQ prices an “Elite Trader” tier absent from the account table. The firm advertises an affiliate programme paying “$100+ per qualified referral” and IB rebates of “up to 70% revenue share” — context for any enthusiastic review elsewhere.

Regulatory posture

Great Point Capital, LLC is majority-owned by Great Point Trading LLC; accounts are real and cleared through third parties, not simulated. A very different profile from a regulated broker paired with an offshore prop entity or a firm that simply stopped trading. The counterparty is unlikely to vanish; the open question is contractual.

FAQ

Is Great Point Capital regulated? Yes — an SEC-registered broker-dealer under CRD 114203 and SEC number 8-53402, approved 17 December 2001, and a FINRA and SIPC member. Registration is not an endorsement of the funded-trader offer, and no regulator has reviewed its terms.

Did the SEC fine Great Point Capital? Yes. On 14 August 2024, in Administrative Proceeding File No. 3-21992, the SEC censured the firm, ordered it to cease and desist and imposed a $2,000,000 civil penalty for failing to preserve off-channel communications. Great Point admitted the facts and acknowledged the conduct violated the federal securities laws.

What does the funded-trader programme cost? The firm publishes no price. Its homepage says “No upfront fees”, but the Prop Account requires a $10,000 minimum capital contribution and the SIE and Series 57 exams. Establish in writing which structure any offer falls under before paying.

Is the funded account real money or simulated? The firm does not say. It trades real securities for its own account — $240.2m at the last audit — but never states whether an evaluation- or funded-stage account is live, nor names the counterparty.

How often does it pay out? Unknown. Great Point publishes no payout frequency, minimum or processing time, and no dated first-hand payout report from one of its funded traders could be identified for this review — weaker even than firms whose published terms are merely incomplete.

Featured image: “Jackson Boulevard, Chicago Loop, Chicago, Illinois” by Ken Lund, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. It shows the street of the registered office, not the premises.

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.