Frequently asked questions

Yes. There is no entry fee and no deposit requirement. You compete on an MT5 demo account with virtual funds, so you never put real money at risk to participate. Free to enter, free to win.

No. The contest runs entirely on demo accounts. All you need is an Axi account — new or one you already have — and the MT5 demo account attached to it is what you trade during the contest week. No deposit is ever required to compete. New to Axi? Follow the step-by-step setup guide.

The investor password is a read-only credential built into MetaTrader. It lets us observe your account — equity, balance, and results — so we can verify your performance and build the rankings. It cannot place trades, close positions, or withdraw anything. Your master password stays private, and you are free to change the investor password after the contest. Not sure where to find it? Follow our 2-minute guide.

Anyone aged 18 or over with an Axi account — new or existing. TradeWars is an independent contest platform, so participation is subject to our contest rules and to your broker's own account eligibility terms.

Three steps: open an account with Axi (or use the Axi account you already have — our referral link is optional), link your MT5 demo account to TradeWars using the read-only investor password, and start trading when the week opens. Once your account is linked, you are automatically in each weekly contest you trade in. Full walkthrough with screenshots: how to set up your Axi MT5 demo.

Linking it is connecting it — there is nothing else to do, and nothing we can do faster from our side. Once you submit it on your dashboard, our collector tries to log in and verify it. That usually takes a few minutes, and "pending" simply means it hasn't run yet.

If it turns to an error instead, we email you the exact reason. In almost every case it is the master password entered instead of the investor password — they are two different passwords on the same account. Here is how to find the investor one.

One thing we will never do: connect an account for you. That would mean sending us a password by email, and we don't want it. Your investor password is stored encrypted and only ever used read-only.

Every week, from Monday 00:00 UTC to Sunday 23:59 UTC. A new contest starts each Monday, so if you miss a week you can simply join the next one.

Rankings are based on your weekly return %. Every Monday 00:00 UTC your account is rebased at its previous week’s closing equity — the new week restarts exactly where the old one ended — and the leaderboard ranks everyone by that return %, so account size gives no advantage and one bad week never follows you. Ties favor the lower drawdown. You can join at any time during the week: in that case your starting point is your equity at the moment you connect, so anything you traded before connecting does not count. One important rule: an account that finishes the week below its starting point cannot win a prize, even if it ranks in the top 3. Any Axi MT5 demo account is eligible — the recommended setup is 10,000 USD, type USD-ROW-PRO, leverage 1:1000.

Why do some trader profiles show equity far above (or below) 10,000? Demo accounts are not reset each week — the same account carries over, so real balances drift apart over time (a trader on a winning streak may hold 40,000, another 3,000). That is exactly why the contest ranks the weekly return %, never the raw balance: whether you start Monday at 40,000 or 3,000, only what you make this week counts. The leaderboard ranks by return %, and shows each account's real equity alongside for transparency. Deposits or withdrawals made to a demo during the week are excluded from the return — topping up an account can never move the leaderboard.

Because the percentage measures what you gain from the moment you connect — not how big your account is. If you have not traded since connecting, your account has not moved, so the figure is 0.00%. It is correct, and your balance is untouched.

This is deliberate. One trader has a $500 demo, another has $100,000. Ranking by euros would mean the biggest account always wins. Ranking by percentage from each person's own starting point is what lets a $500 account and a $100,000 account compete on equal terms — on skill, not size.

Your first trade moves the number immediately.

No — elimination applies to that week only, and is never carried over. Every Monday 00:00 UTC a brand-new contest opens and you start again: active, ranked, and eligible for the prize exactly like everyone else, from a clean 0.00%.

Within the week itself, though, an eliminated account cannot come back — even if you trade it back into profit. The 25% floor sits on the equity you started the week with, and touching it is recorded, so it never un-happens. What you can do immediately is link a fresh demo and be back in the running the same week, within your weekly allowance.

Automation and copy-trading policies are defined in the contest rules, as published on that page at contest start. Check the rules before the week begins — the version in force when the contest opens is the one that applies.

Yes — nothing is excluded. You trade whatever your Axi MT5 demo account offers: gold, indices, crypto, forex, all of it counts the same. There is no eligible-symbol list to check and no instrument that disqualifies you.

The ranking measures one thing — your return % for the week — and it does not care what you traded to get it. XAUUSD is by far the most traded instrument here, on more than fifty accounts in a typical week.

The limit that does apply to everyone is the maximum loss: 25% below the equity you started the week with, a floor that never moves.

Yes. TradeWars operates demo accounts that compete in the weekly contests — they exist to keep the leaderboard alive and competitive from day one, while the community grows. They play by exactly the same rules as everyone else: same weekly return ranking, same Monday reset, same prize conditions.

Our answer to fairness is total transparency: every ranked account — ours included — has a public trader profile showing its live open positions and every closed trade of the week. Click any name in the rankings and audit exactly how the result was achieved.

TW Points measure your real activity in the contest. You earn them automatically by trading full weeks (participation), ranking high on the weekly leaderboard, winning prizes, keeping multi-week streaks, and referring traders who become active. They are awarded at each Sunday close, appear on your public trader profile, and rank you in seasonal leaderboards.

Points cannot be bought — only real participation earns them — and they have no monetary value. They are recorded permanently, and early activity will matter.

Nothing, financially — it is virtual money. You can remove the dead account and link a fresh demo to restart the same week, within your weekly allowance (5 accounts per week, and 2 from the week of 7 September 2026), or simply come back the following Monday. That is the point of running the contest on demo accounts: real competition, zero financial risk.

5 per contest week today, and 2 from the week of 7 September 2026, one active at a time. If a demo blows up, remove it (dashboard → Connect account → Remove) and link a fresh one to keep competing. Removing an account does not give the slot back — the allowance counts every account you entered that week, withdrawn or eliminated. The counter resets every Monday.

Why it is dropping to two: a return earned across five discarded attempts is not the same achievement as one earned on a single account, and the prize should go to the second. Two still leaves room for the accident a restart exists for — an expired demo, a wrong password, the wrong server.

Each calendar month, the best trader wins a €25,000 evaluation account. The first month awarded is August 2026 — July is excluded because the platform opened mid-month.

Only the weekly contests entirely inside the month count (August 2026 = the 4 weeks of 3–30 August); a week straddling two months counts for neither, and keeps its own weekly prize. Your score is the sum of your weekly returns % — so consistency wins: a losing week subtracts from your total, and one lucky week is not enough.

Every account you trade counts. Use several demos in the same week and each result is added to your total; a week you were eliminated in (25% drawdown), or an account you removed mid-week, still counts — you cannot erase a bad run by dropping the account. You need to have actually traded in at least 2 of the month's weeks (a demo left connected without trading is not competing) and finish with a positive total. The champion is decided automatically at the close of the month's last full week — and yes, you can win weekly prizes in the same month.

From the week of 17 August 2026, to stay in the running an account must not fall more than 25% below the equity it started the week with. Open Monday at 10,000 and your floor is 7,500 — and it never moves, so every gain widens your margin rather than dragging the floor up behind you. Deposits are excluded, exactly as they are from your return. Breach it and the entry is eliminated from that week's ranking and prizes, finally for that week.

This replaced a harsher version on 17 August. Weeks 32 and 33 measured the 25% from the account's highest equity of the week. That removed the wrong people: 25 of week 33's 111 eliminations hit accounts that were in profit — one went 10,000 to 15,269 and back to 11,312, and was eliminated while up 13% on the week — while an account at −20% that never had a good day kept competing. A limit meant to catch blow-ups was punishing traders for winning and then giving some back. Weeks 32 and 33 keep their original results: a week that has been played is not rewritten afterwards.

What happens next: we email you straight away, and your entry stays listed at the bottom of the leaderboard with an OUT badge. You can then either keep trading that account for practice (it simply can't win this week), or remove it and link a fresh demo to get back in the running immediately — up to 5 accounts per week. The OUT badge disappears with the account. That week's result still counts toward your monthly champion total.

Each week, the top 3 traders receive a €5,000 evaluation account at Crypto Fund Trader (CFT). The best trader of the month receives a €25,000 CFT evaluation account. We buy that account for you — it costs you nothing, ever.

To be precise about what that is: it is an evaluation account, not an already-funded one. You trade it under CFT's rules, and you become funded — earning real payouts on your capital for real payouts — once you pass their two phases. So the sequence is: win the evaluation → pass phase 1 → pass phase 2 → get funded and take payouts. We pay for the account; passing it is yours to do.

They are two different things, and the difference is the whole point.

WINNER ×N means the trader finished in a weekly top 3 (or won the month) and received a CFT evaluation account — N times. It is awarded automatically the moment a contest closes. It says: this person beat the field.

FUNDED means something rarer: that trader passed both CFT phases and now earns real payouts on their results. It is not automatic and it is not given out with the prize — it is granted only once the phases are actually cleared.

We used to show a single "FUNDED" badge to every winner. That was wrong: winning gets you the evaluation, not the funding. Keeping the two separate means that when you do see FUNDED next to a name, it is proof that someone went from a free demo account to earning real payouts — which is the entire promise of this contest, and it should be earned rather than assumed.

It is a 2-phase evaluation. We say this plainly because the difference matters: an evaluation is the right to prove yourself on the firm's terms, and most traders across the industry do not pass one. We would rather you know that before you compete than discover it after you win.

What each phase asks of you:

• Phase 1 — 8% profit target. On a €5,000 account, reach €5,400.
• Phase 2 — 5% profit target. A fresh €5,000 account, reach €5,250.
• Minimum 5 trading days per phase, and they need not be consecutive.
• No time limit. Neither phase expires, so there is never a reason to force a trade.

CFT's limits on the 2-phase programme:

• Daily drawdown: 5%, reset from your balance at 00:05 UTC.
• Overall drawdown: 10%, fixed on the initial balance (not trailing).
• Both measured on equity — open floating losses count, not just closed trades.
• First payout after 15 trading days, then every 30 calendar days.

Put those two lists side by side and one number should stop you: in phase 2, the profit target and the daily loss limit are the same €250. A single bad day costs exactly what you need to make in total — and with no deadline to beat, patience is not a virtue here, it is the strategy.

On a €5,000 account that is roughly €250 of daily loss and €500 overall. These limits are set by CFT, not by TradeWars — check their own terms when you receive the account, as their conditions are the ones that govern.

Worth comparing: our contest allows a 25% weekly loss from your starting equity, CFT allows 5% in a day and 10% overall. Both are measured the same way — a fixed floor on the balance you began with, which never trails upward. The contest is deliberately the forgiving version of the same shape: it is where the habit is cheap to build.

Winners sign a short profit-share agreement before prize delivery. You keep 75% of net payouts from the funded account; the remaining 25% goes to TradeWars, which funds the platform and the prize pool. That is how the contest stays free to enter.

What that means in actual money, because « 75% » on its own is not precise enough. There are two splits in the chain, not one: Crypto Fund Trader takes theirs first, then ours applies to what reaches you. On €1,000 of profit made on a funded account:

So 60% of the profit ends up yours, not 75%. Our 25% is calculated on the payout you receive, never on the profit before CFT's cut — you are never asked for money on something you were not paid. We would rather you read this here than work it out on your first withdrawal. CFT's own split is set by them and can change; ours cannot without your agreement.

To administer that split fairly, winners connect their funded account to TradeWars with its investor (read-only) password and keep it connected while the agreement runs. It lets us see balance, equity and trades — it can never place or close an order, nor withdraw, and we never ask for your master password. Showing those results publicly is a separate and entirely optional choice, yours to make or undo at any time, with no effect on your prize.

It is a demo account, and that is normal — not a mistake. Crypto Fund Trader, like essentially every prop firm, runs all its accounts in a simulated environment. Their own terms state it: "All trading takes place in a simulated environment. Rewards are based on simulated performance and do not represent actual market profits, investment returns, or real financial exposure."

This stays true after you pass both phases — what you get is what CFT calls a "simulated funded account" with virtual capital. No prop firm hands you a live brokerage account holding their own cash.

What is real is the money you get paid. Once you pass, trade at least 15 days and complete KYC, CFT pays you real money by bank transfer or crypto, based on your simulated performance. The rules are real too: breach the drawdown and the account ends, simulated or not.

In short: the account is a simulator, the discipline is real, and the payout is real.

Static. On CFT's 2-phase programme the overall drawdown is 10% fixed on the initial balance — on a €5,000 account the floor sits at €4,500 and never moves. Every euro you make widens your buffer instead of dragging the floor up behind you.

(On a trailing account the floor climbs with your balance, so profits buy you no extra room. That is CFT's 1-phase programme — not the one you receive.)

The limit that actually ends accounts is the daily 5%, which resets from your balance at 00:05 UTC each day — roughly €250 on a €5,000 account. Watch that one.

No — you receive the MT5 trading credentials, which is all you need to trade the account. The evaluation account is registered in your name, using the identity and address from your prize claim, but TradeWars keeps the email address it was registered with. That is why password resets and platform notifications don't reach you.

In exchange, we handle the prop firm's admin: when you pass the two phases we accompany you through the payout process with CFT, so you never have to deal with their platform, forms or support. You keep 75% of the payout.

The prize is a CFT evaluation account, not a cash transfer. Pass its two phases and you become funded — and the payouts you then earn by trading it profitably are real, paid under CFT's payout terms — and you keep 75% of those net payouts under the profit-share agreement.

Rules on repeat wins and prize frequency are published on the contest rules page. The version published there at contest start is authoritative for that week.

TradeWars is an independent contest platform. We are not a broker, and we are not affiliated with Axi or Crypto Fund Trader — we use Axi demo accounts as the contest venue and CFT funded accounts as prizes. We never take deposits and never have trading access to your account: the investor password we ask for is read-only.

Yes — winners verify their identity and sign the profit-share agreement before the funded account is delivered. The funded account itself is then operated under CFT's rules, like any other account at that prop firm.