Complete Guide to Vest Markets

What is Vest Markets?

Vest Markets is a platform for trading perpetual contracts linked to indices, crypto, stocks, foreign exchange, and commodities. Vest Capital is its evaluation and instant-account program. A regular Primary Account and a Vest Capital account serve different purposes; opening a platform login does not automatically give you a prop account. Platform overview, Vest Capital overview.

There is an important distinction in Vest’s own documentation: the overview describes funded trading as using real capital, while its October 14, 2026 prop terms define all program accounts, including Instant Funded, as simulated. This guide follows that contractual definition. An account balance is not money deposited for you to withdraw; compensation depends on the program’s rules. Prop terms.

Choose an evaluation or instant account

Vest documents three routes:

One-step pricing changes with the configuration. Two-step has fixed rules and two separate stages; a 10% first target and 5% second target are not permission to treat both phases as one continuous 15% challenge. Vest states that evaluations have no time limit. That statement alone does not establish a waiver of every activity or strategy condition. Account paths and configurations.

Published prices and account sizes

These are documented before-discount purchase prices, not checkout quotes. The one-step columns below use 3% daily loss and an 80% trader share. Changing either setting changes the fee.

Instant accounts have a different price and loss allowance:

The $500 Instant account has a smaller percentage allowance than the other sizes. No daily loss limit does not mean unlimited drawdown. Check the live account selector for current availability and the full one-step price matrix. Account tiers and published fees.

Static drawdown and the daily loss limit

The documented evaluation-path maximum drawdown is 6% of starting balance, with a fixed floor. It does not trail upward with profits. A $25,000 starting account therefore has a $1,500 maximum loss allowance and a $23,500 static floor.

Where a daily limit applies, it resets at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Vest bases it on the reset balance, including reserved collateral but excluding unrealized P&L, with adjustments for net non-trading transfers. Open P&L still matters when equity is checked against the active limits. Falling below either floor permanently closes the account; reaching a daily limit is not simply a pause until tomorrow. Loss-limit definitions.

For example, with a $25,000 reset balance and a 4% daily limit, the daily floor is $24,000. That is higher than the $23,500 static floor, so the daily floor is the immediate constraint. If the next reset balance is $27,000, the new daily floor is $25,920, assuming no transfer adjustment. The static floor remains $23,500.

These examples show why the useful number is current equity minus the higher active floor, not the account’s advertised size. Allow room for fees and execution changes rather than treating the exact boundary as usable risk capital. Loss-limit calculation.

ES and NQ exposure works differently here

Vest’s products are USDC-margined linear perpetuals without an expiry. An ES or NQ symbol here does not mean you are placing an exchange-listed CME futures order. The contract tracks a reference market through Vest’s pricing and margin system. Perpetual contract specifications.

One Vest ES or NQ unit represents $1 per point. For comparison:

These are exposure comparisons, not interchangeable contracts. A 20-point NQ move on two units produces $40 of P&L before costs; on twenty units it produces $400. Confirm the unit count before submitting an order. Quantity and leverage.

Vest uses cross margin, so the account’s equity supports its combined positions. Published funded-account leverage ceilings include 75× for ES, 50× for NQ, RTY and YM, and 15× for BTC and ETH. A leverage ceiling is not a recommended trade size. Changing leverage changes collateral requirements, not the dollar-per-point exposure of an unchanged position. Cross-margin rules.

Trading fees and funding costs

The published maker fee is 0%. Taker fees are 0.0025% of notional per fill for ES, NQ, RTY and YM, and 0.01% for other markets. A limit order that immediately takes liquidity can still incur a taker fee. Market fees.

For illustration, $100,000 of index notional at 0.0025% costs $2.50 on entry. Closing the same notional as a taker adds another $2.50. At 0.01%, the corresponding figures are $10 and $10. These examples exclude funding, spread, slippage, and changes in exit notional.

Perpetual funding is separate from trade fees. Vest settles it hourly between long and short positions: a positive rate means longs pay shorts; a negative rate reverses that flow. Its published normalization windows are not settlement intervals. CME index markets have a zero base-interest component, but that does not eliminate the premium component or guarantee zero funding. Nonzero base interest can continue during market locks. Check the displayed rate when deciding whether to hold a position. Funding mechanism.

Orders, market hours, and account restrictions

Vest supports market, limit, and scale orders, alongside reduce-only and take-profit/stop-loss controls. A market order seeks available liquidity; a limit order controls price but may remain unfilled. A stop trigger is not a guaranteed exit price. The funded order form shows a Fail Price, while the Primary Account shows a liquidation price. Check the account selector and the displayed failure information before entering a trade. Order types.

Market access also differs:

• Crypto markets trade around the clock.
• Stock markets lock from Friday at 8 p.m. to Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern.
• Indices and commodities lock from Friday at 5 p.m. to Sunday at 6 p.m. Eastern.
• Forex markets also have weekend locks; confirm the selected market’s schedule.

Positions can remain open during a lock, but cannot be adjusted or closed. Vest says its index and commodity trading remains available during the usual weekday CME 5–6 p.m. maintenance break. Do not apply a broker’s futures schedule to this platform without checking. API trading is unavailable for funded accounts, including evaluations; XRP and HYPE are excluded from those accounts. Market schedules and restrictions.

Liquidation and program failure are separate controls. Vest uses Mark Price for liquidation, while Mid Price is used for unrealized P&L and account balances. Vest also applies threshold bands to Mark Price and Index Price. A position looking safe against one displayed number does not establish that every constraint is satisfied. Contract pricing and margin.

How profit claims work

Claiming program profit and withdrawing it to a wallet are two separate steps. In a funded account, use the Portfolio’s Claim Profit control. Vest says you may need to close positions or cancel orders first. The eligible trader portion is credited in USDC to the Primary Account within the stated 24-hour processing window. Claims are irreversible. Claiming profit.

An illustrative $1,000 of eligible profit produces an $800 share at 80%, $900 at 90%, or $950 at 95%. These are split calculations, not earnings forecasts or confirmation that a specific balance is claimable. Use the claim screen’s eligible amount and inspect the remaining account cushion afterward.

The claim guide states no frequency or amount cap. Before relying on that, check the rules attached to the purchased plan and its current eligibility screen. A profitable open position is not the same thing as approved, withdrawable compensation. Profit-claim process.

Withdrawing USDC to a wallet

After credit reaches the Primary Account, an external withdrawal is a separate request. The documented minimum is 1 USDC. Email and Google logins use Base or Arbitrum One; wallet logins use the chains available in their withdrawal interface. Check that the receiving address supports the exact token and network. Withdrawals.

Vest requires the destination address to be entered manually; do not assume it will reuse the deposit address. Withdrawals are irreversible. Its current page banner says all withdrawals have 24-hour processing, although a later paragraph retains threshold-based wording for withdrawals over $50,000 in a rolling day. Allow for the broader posted window instead of assuming a smaller withdrawal is instant. Confirm any network or withdrawal charge in the interface; this guide does not establish zero-fee withdrawals. Withdrawal timing and address requirements.

Eligibility, account limits, and refunds

Prop terms require traders to be at least 18 and of legal majority where they live, and allow identity, residence, and payment verification. Restricted countries and sanctions rules apply; this is not a blanket no-KYC service. The prop terms and general exchange terms have different country lists, with the latter restricting the US and UK. Obtain confirmation for both the program and the Primary Account withdrawal flow before purchasing if eligibility is unclear. Prop eligibility, exchange eligibility.

The prop terms specify one profile, up to ten Instant Funded accounts and one hundred active evaluations. The overview describes a broader ten-funded-account limit; confirm the combined allowance before buying multiple paths. Refund requests generally require written notice within three days and no service commencement, not merely no completed trade. Starting an evaluation can matter. Manipulation, collusion, and exploitation of pricing or system errors are prohibited. Account limits, conduct and refund terms, overview account limits.

Getting started through my Vest link

1. Use Explore Vest Markets above to open my referral link.
2. Create or access your account and open Get Funded / Vest Capital. Vest supports email, Google, and wallet sign-in.
3. Choose the path, size, target, daily limit, and split. Match the complete configuration, not just the starting balance.
4. Review the current fee, failure floors, eligibility, and purchased-plan terms before payment. Save that confirmation.
5. Before trading, check the selected account, quantity units, market hours, and failure level. Review the claim and wallet-withdrawal steps before expecting a payout.

This is a referral link; no Vest promo code or discount percentage is listed here. The final offer is whatever Vest shows for the selected purchase. Registration and funding options are described in its getting-started guide.

If you are comparing this with a conventional futures evaluation, read the Complete Guide to Tradeify and Complete Guide to Alpha Futures too. Compare loss allowance, product structure, fees, and payout conditions together; the starting balance alone leaves out most of what matters.