Time pressure kills evaluations. You’re three weeks in, 60% of the way to your profit target, and the deadline is approaching. You start forcing trades, taking impulsive setups, oversizing to catch up. Then you breach the drawdown on day 25 of a 30-day eval.
The easiest way to avoid this: pick a firm with no time limit. Here’s every major futures prop firm that lets you take as long as you need.
Firms with no time limit
1. MyFundedFutures
No time limit. No minimum trading days beyond 2. No daily loss limit. One-time payment on most plans (no monthly subscription bleeding money while you wait). This is the most beginner-friendly evaluation structure available — take two months, take six months, take a year. The fee doesn’t increase.
2. Topstep
No time limit on the Trading Combine. Take as long as you need. The catch: you’re paying a monthly subscription ($49-$149/month) the entire time. No time pressure, but ongoing cost pressure. A trader who takes 6 months to pass at $99/month has spent $594 before adding the $149 activation fee.
3. TradeDay
No expiration on evaluations. One-step process with no rush. Reasonable evaluation fees.
4. Take Profit Trader
No time limit. Monthly subscription model. Active as long as you’re paying.
5. Bulenox
Evaluation stays active with subscription. No hard deadline. Monthly cost continues until you pass.
6. Alpha Futures
One-step evaluation with no time limit. Account sizes from $50K to $450K.
7. TickTick Trader
No time limit on evaluations. Also offers instant funding (TTTDirect) to skip the evaluation entirely.
8. Tradeify
No time restrictions on evaluations. Also offers instant/straight-to-sim funding options for traders who want to bypass the eval.
9. Elite Trader Funding
Multiple evaluation types (one-step, two-step, express). No time limit on any of them.
10. Earn2Trade
Gauntlet Mini and Trader Career Path evaluations remain active as long as subscription is maintained.
The one major firm WITH a time limit
Apex Trader Funding: 30 calendar days. Hard deadline. No extensions. No resets (under 4.0). If you don’t pass in 30 days, you buy a new evaluation.
Apex is the only major futures prop firm with a strict time limit. This is a deliberate design choice — it forces failed traders to repurchase evaluations more frequently, generating more revenue. At $13-$40 per eval with discount codes, the cost per attempt is low, but the time pressure is real.
If time pressure affects your trading (and it affects most people’s), Apex’s 30-day deadline is a factor to consider seriously.
One-time payment vs subscription: the real cost of “no time limit”
“No time limit” doesn’t always mean “no additional cost.” The payment model matters:
One-time payment (no ongoing cost):
- MFF Flex: $84-$107 (pay once, trade forever until you pass or breach)
- MFF Rapid: $87-$347
- Tradeify: $103-$215
- Alpha Futures: one-time eval fee
Monthly subscription (ongoing cost):
- Topstep: $49-$149/month
- Take Profit Trader: $102-$360/month (with discounts)
- Bulenox: $175/month
- MFF Core: $77/month
- Earn2Trade: monthly subscription
On a one-time payment model, “no time limit” truly means no additional cost. Take 3 months, take 12 months — you paid once.
On a subscription model, every month you don’t pass costs another payment. “No time limit” means “no deadline, but the meter is running.” A trader paying $99/month for 6 months has spent $594 on an evaluation that would have cost $107 one-time at MFF Flex.
The math on time limit vs no time limit
Scenario: You need 3 months to pass a 50K evaluation
| Firm | Model | Total Cost (3 months) |
|---|---|---|
| MFF Flex | One-time | $107 |
| MFF Rapid | One-time | $157 |
| Apex (3 evals) | One-time × 3 | $39-$120 |
| Topstep | Monthly | $147 + $149 activation = $296 |
| TPT (40% off) | Monthly | $306 + $0 activation = $306 |
| Bulenox | Monthly | $525 + $148 activation = $673 |
Apex’s approach is interesting: they have a time limit, but evaluations are so cheap that buying 3 separate 30-day evals ($39-$120 total) costs less than 3 months of Topstep’s subscription. The time limit is a non-issue if the cost per attempt is negligible.
MFF one-time payment + no time limit is the mathematically optimal combination for traders who need time to develop. Pay once, take as long as you need, no additional cost.
Who needs no time limit
New traders still refining their strategy. You need the freedom to practice, adjust, and learn without a countdown clock creating urgency.
Part-time traders. If you can only trade 2-3 days per week, a 30-day deadline gives you 8-12 trading sessions. That might not be enough to hit $3,000 on a 50K account at conservative sizes.
Traders who struggled with time pressure before. If you’ve failed evaluations specifically because the deadline caused you to force trades, remove the variable. Pick a no-time-limit firm and see if your results improve when the pressure is gone.
Who doesn’t need it
Experienced traders with proven strategies. If you can consistently hit 6% in under 30 days on sim, the time limit is irrelevant. Take the cheapest option (Apex at $13) and pass in 2 weeks.
Traders who procrastinate. Some people actually perform worse with unlimited time. No deadline = no urgency = trading gets pushed to “next week” indefinitely. If that’s you, Apex’s 30-day deadline might be the structure you need.
The best evaluation for YOU depends on your personality as much as your trading. Time pressure motivates some traders and destroys others. Know which one you are before choosing a firm.
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