Verdict
Quant Tekel’s QT Funded suits traders who want a low-cost, low-target evaluation with genuine platform choice — MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradeLocker are all supported, profit targets start at 6%, and the firm publishes a cumulative payout figure most competitors will not. It does not suit anyone who reads the FSCA licence on the brokerage website as regulatory protection for the funded programme. The single biggest caveat: the regulated entity and the entity that owns your challenge are not the same company, and only the first one is supervised.
Key terms
- Account sizes: $2,500, $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $200,000 (QT Funded plans page, accessed August 6, 2026)
- Challenge fee: from $5 at the smallest size, before the discount codes the firm runs almost continuously
- Profit split: 80% on QT Instant, QT 1 Step and QT Power; up to 90% on the remaining plans
- Profit target: 6% on QT 1 Step and QT Power; 7% on QT 2 Step Phase 1 and QT 2 Step Elite; none on QT Instant Funded
- Max drawdown: varies by plan — 10% static on QT 2 Step, 6% trailing on QT 1 Step and QT Instant, 8% on QT Power
- Daily loss limit: 4% on QT 2 Step and QT Power; 3% on QT 1 Step (trailing) and QT Instant (fixed)
- Consistency rule: 25% on QT Instant, 35% on QT Power; not applied to the 2 Step plans
- Payouts: bi-weekly cycle, processed within 24 business hours; minimum $100 or 1% of profit, whichever is higher (5% on QT Instant)
- Minimum trading days: none on QT 1 Step; five on QT Instant
The entity split is the finding
Most prop-firm reviews treat “regulated broker behind it” as a tick in the safety column. Quant Tekel is a case study in why that shorthand fails. Quant Tekel (Pty) Ltd is an authorised financial services provider in South Africa, FSP number 53227, registration number 2021/321922/07, according to the brokerage’s own disclosures, and it runs a conventional CFD brokerage with $200 minimum deposits and leverage to 1:500 on the Elite tier. That entity is real and it is supervised by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority.
The funded programme is not that entity. QT Funded’s own service terms name Quant Tekel SVG, in St Vincent and the Grenadines, as the provider of the evaluation product, with a separate Quant Tekel Ltd in London handling payment processing. St Vincent and the Grenadines does not license or supervise proprietary trading firms, and the FSCA’s authorisation of the South African brokerage extends no protection to a trader whose challenge account is contracted through the Caribbean entity.
This is the same structural pattern we flagged in the Fintokei review, where a Japan-first retail proposition sat on a Seychelles broker, and in the ThinkCapital review, where ThinkMarkets backing did not extend to the evaluation entity. The difference here is that Quant Tekel’s brokerage licence is genuinely more substantial than most — which makes the mismatch easier to miss, not harder.
What the payout record actually shows
QT Funded publishes a cumulative payout figure: $16 million distributed to roughly 105,000 traders across 180 countries since the October 2023 launch. That is more disclosure than most of the firms in this cluster offer, and it is worth crediting. It is also, on its own, close to meaningless as a per-trader statistic — $16 million across 105,000 accounts averages roughly $152 each, which tells you the distribution is heavily skewed rather than that the typical participant profits.
Independent verification is mixed. FXEmpire’s review, checked April 22, 2026, recorded a 4.2 out of 5 Trustpilot rating across more than 12,000 reviews and reported a personal payout processed within 24 hours during the second quarter of 2026. Its reviewer monitored the firm’s Discord through April 2026 and concluded there were “no verified pay-out disputes by members of the community”, while noting that some traders reported payment delays after reaching the funded stage.
Set against that, multiple 2026 trader reports describe delays of two to three weeks against the advertised 14-day cycle, concentrated from May 2026, with one account of a 23-day wait for payout approval in April 2026 while funded accounts were frozen. What we could not verify: the firm does not publish an audited payout ratio, a denial rate, or a breakdown of how many funded accounts reach a first withdrawal. Nor does it publish the size distribution behind the $16 million headline. Absent those, the cumulative figure establishes that the firm pays — not how often, or to whom.
The rules that actually void accounts
Three mechanics deserve attention before a trader picks a plan, and they are not the ones the marketing leads with.
Trailing drawdown on the cheapest-looking plans. QT 1 Step advertises a 3% daily and 6% maximum drawdown. Both trail. A trailing 6% maximum measured against peak equity means the loss buffer contracts every time the account makes a new high, so a trader who runs a $10,000 account to $10,600 and then gives it all back is not flat — they are approaching a breach. QT 2 Step, by contrast, uses a 10% static maximum, which is a materially more forgiving structure despite the higher headline profit target. The plan that looks tighter on paper is often looser in practice.
The consistency rule on QT Instant. A 25% consistency requirement means no single trading day may account for more than a quarter of total profit at the point of withdrawal. A trader who makes most of their return on one strong session — which is how a great deal of discretionary trading actually works — will find the payout blocked until they grind out enough additional days to dilute it. QT Power’s 35% threshold is looser but the same trap. This is the mechanism we described in the Maven Trading review, where a 20% rule was the firm’s most consequential term.
News trading on QT Instant. A five-minute restriction window applies. That is narrower than several competitors impose, but it is a hard rule and it applies to the instant-funding product where the drawdown is also trailing.
How it compares
| Term | QT Funded (1 Step) | Funding Pips | Maven Trading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profit target | 6% | 8% (Phase 1) | 8% (Phase 1) |
| Max drawdown | 6% trailing | 6% static | 10% static |
| Daily loss limit | 3% trailing | 3% | 5% |
| Consistency rule | None on 1 Step | 15% | 20% |
| Profit split | 80%, to 90% | 80%, to 100% | 80% |
| Payout cycle | Bi-weekly | Every 5 days | Bi-weekly |
| Minimum trading days | None (1 Step) | None | 3 |
Read across the row rather than down a column. QT’s 6% target is the lowest of the three, but it is the only one of the three paired with a trailing maximum drawdown on that plan — the target is easier to hit and the account is easier to lose while hitting it. Funding Pips inverts that trade: a harder target on a static buffer, with a 15% consistency rule attached. There is no free plan here, only a choice about which constraint binds first.
Regulatory posture
QT Funded is not a regulated financial firm and does not claim to be. Accounts are simulated during evaluation, and the firm’s own materials do not represent funded capital as the trader’s own money. The FSCA authorisation belongs to Quant Tekel (Pty) Ltd, the South African brokerage — a separate entity from Quant Tekel SVG, which contracts the evaluation. Traders should also note that the brokerage explicitly does not serve the United Kingdom, European Union, United States, Cyprus, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria or Russia, and that QT Funded separately restricts United States and Canadian residents.
The wider supervisory picture is still forming. As we set out in our analysis of prop-trading regulation diverging as the CFTC acts and ESMA waits, no European or South African regime currently licenses the evaluation product itself. That is not a criticism specific to Quant Tekel — it is the condition of the entire sector, and it is why the entity a trader actually contracts with matters more than the licence displayed on a sister company’s homepage.
FAQ
Is Quant Tekel regulated? The brokerage arm, Quant Tekel (Pty) Ltd, is authorised by South Africa’s FSCA under FSP 53227. The QT Funded evaluation programme is provided by Quant Tekel SVG in St Vincent and the Grenadines, which is not supervised for proprietary trading. Do not treat the first as covering the second.
How fast does QT Funded pay? The published cycle is bi-weekly with processing inside 24 business hours. Independent reports from 2026 are split: some traders confirm same-day processing, others describe two-to-three-week waits from May 2026 onward. The firm publishes no audited payout-time data.
What is the cheapest way in? Evaluations start at $5 on the $2,500 account, before the firm’s rolling discount codes. Fee level should not drive the decision — the drawdown structure attached to each plan matters far more than the entry price.
Which plan has the friendliest rules? On the published terms, QT 2 Step: a 10% static maximum drawdown, a 4% daily limit and no consistency rule, in exchange for a 7% Phase 1 target and a second phase. The one-step and instant products trade that static buffer for a trailing one.
Can I trade the news? On most plans, yes. QT Instant Funded applies a five-minute restriction window around news events. Verify the current event list with the firm before relying on it — prop-firm news schedules change without notice.
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.
Abdelaziz Fathi
Abdelaziz Fathi covers the intersection of forex/CFD brokerage, regulation, liquidity, fintech, and digital assets. With a B.A. in Finance and hands-on industry exposure, Aziz blends analytical rigor with clear storytelling to make complex market structure understandable for traders, brokers, and fintech professionals.
