Market Size Estimates
Modeled estimates of trader participation, funded accounts, payout flows and industry economic scale.
Each measure below is a separate model output with its own eligible cohort and observation date. They describe different dimensions of industry scale and must not be added together into a single market-size figure.
Market size at a glance
Payout flows are payments from firms and programs to traders. They are not firm revenue, and no figure on this page should be read as a combined industry total.
What "market size" means here
Estimated active traders participating across the modelled firm cohort of the tracked industry.
Estimated traders currently at funded status according to the applicable PTC model.
Estimated trader payout run-rate — money moving from firms and programs to traders.
Estimated income to prop firms. Published only where supported by the PTC Revenue Model™.
These measures describe different dimensions of industry scale. They should not be added together. PTC does not publish a single combined market-size figure.
Participation scale
207 firms in the modelled cohort · 207 with a publishable firm-level estimate
207 firms in the modelled cohort · 207 with a publishable firm-level estimate
The ratio between two estimates in the same published snapshot: estimated funded traders ÷ estimated active traders. It is a structural relationship between two model outputs, not an observed trader pass rate or funding success rate.
Market size by segment
| Segment | Tracked firms | Firms modelled | Est. active traders | Est. funded traders | Est. monthly payouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forex | 298 | — | — | — | — |
| Futures | 85 | — | — | — | — |
| Crypto | 30 | Not currently modelled | |||
Tracked-firm classification and estimate-model coverage are different datasets. A segment can have tracked firms without having a modelled estimate universe, and the tracked-firm counts are not inputs to the segment estimates.
Crypto firms are tracked and classified but carry no published estimate universe in 2026-M10. No crypto value is inferred from firm counts and no industry total is allocated proportionally across segments. Published segment estimates cover 0 of the tracked segments and are not intended to sum to a whole-market total.
The payout economy
The annualised figure is the current monthly modelled run-rate multiplied by 12. It is a scale indicator, not a forecast of the next twelve months, and it does not account for entries, exits or program changes.
Payout volume is money paid to traders. It is not industry revenue.
Industry revenue
Industry revenue is modelled separately from trader payout flows. A public revenue estimate is not included here until the applicable PTC model meets publication requirements.
Revenue represents estimated income to prop firms. Payouts represent estimated payments from firms and programs to traders. They measure different economic flows in opposite directions and are never combined on PTC surfaces.
Coverage and model scope
| Model | Firms modelled | Publishable firm estimates | Withheld | Tracked universe |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Trader Model™ v2.0 | 207 | 207 | 0 | 418 |
| Funded Trader Model™ v2.0 | 207 | 207 | 0 | 418 |
| Monthly Payout Model™ v2.0 | 207 | 207 | 0 | 418 |
The observed firm universe and the modelled estimate cohort are different denominators. An estimate built on 207 firms does not directly observe all 418 tracked firms; firms outside the cohort are excluded rather than imputed. Each model additionally withholds firm-level values that do not meet publication requirements, so the number of publishable firm estimates is smaller than the cohort.
How the estimates fit together
- 01Tracked industry418 active tracked firms — observed firm universe.
- 02Active Trader Model™Estimates the active trader population of the modelled cohort.
- 03Funded Trader Model™Estimates the funded trader population within that participation base.
- 04Monthly Payout Model™Estimates the payout run-rate flowing to traders.
Revenue Model™ is not a downstream step of this chain. It measures firm income rather than trader participation or payout flows and is published separately when it meets publication requirements.
Segment estimates follow the same chain within each modelled universe. No step converts one measure into another, and no step is reconstructed from the tracked firm count.
PTC analyst view
Participation is the largest measure of scale on this page: 2.15M estimated active traders across 207 firms. The funded population is materially smaller — 193.0K estimated funded traders — so participation and funded participation are not interchangeable measures of industry size.
Forex and Futures carry the entire modelled estimate universe. Futures accounts for the larger share of both estimated funded traders and estimated payout flows despite a smaller tracked firm count, while Forex contributes the larger tracked firm population. Segment structure therefore looks different depending on whether firms, traders or payouts are the unit of measurement.
Payout flows are the only monetary measure currently published at industry level, and their publishable firm-level basis is the narrowest of the three models. Crypto firms remain tracked but unmodelled, so segment coverage is incomplete by construction and the published segment values are not a whole-market total.
This synthesis interprets the published estimates above. It introduces no new model, no growth rate and no projection.
Data limitations
- These are modelled estimates, not audited industry totals or company-reported figures.
- Model coverage is smaller than the full tracked-firm universe; firms outside the cohort are excluded, not imputed.
- Each model has its own eligible cohort and publication gate, so denominators differ between measures.
- Trader payouts are payments to traders and are not firm revenue; the two are never combined.
- The annualised payout run-rate is the current monthly run-rate × 12 — a scale indicator, not a forecast.
- Crypto currently has no estimate coverage; tracked-firm classification does not imply a modelled estimate.
- All figures inherit the assumptions and limitations documented in PTC Estimate Methodology.
Provenance key
- Observed
- Directly measured or recorded data.
- PTC Estimate
- Modelled values based on a disclosed PTC methodology.
- Derived
- Calculated from PTC datasets, rankings or published snapshots.