Premier Trading League — Full Competition Guide

Tradeify's flagship trading competition. Free to enter, $1.3 million on the line — eight matches, two leagues, and a live Grand Final in Fort Lauderdale on December 11. This article walks you through what PTL is, how it works, how to take part, and what is waiting at the end of the season.
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The Premier Trading League is Tradeify's free-to-enter simulated trading competition, played from your Tradeify dashboard. Every match puts you head to head against one other trader for a full session. You score points from the profit you make and from beating your opponent, and those points move you up the league ladder.
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Two leagues run back to back: Open 1 in September and October, and Open 2 in October and November. Each runs four weeks and eight matches, with $300,000 in prizes apiece. You can play one or both.

Finish in the top four of either league and you fly to Fort Lauderdale for the live Grand Final on December 11, where $400,000 is settled on stage — $180,000 of it to the champion. That is the whole path: a free signup in September, eight matches from your own desk, and a seat on a main stage in December.

PTL is not a knockout. A bad match does not end your run — it costs you points, and you go again on the next matchup. And because all trading is simulated, no real funds are ever deposited or at risk.
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All times are ET. US daylight saving ends on 1 November, part-way through Open 2.

Entry is free and open to anyone eligible. You do not need a paid Tradeify account, an evaluation, or a funded account — nothing to buy at any point. It is one entry per person and one per household, and every participant must be KYC verified.

Tradeify's standard restricted countries list applies, and there is no additional tournament-specific restriction list for PTL. If your country does not appear on that list, you are eligible: Rules — Restricted Countries

Already trading a live account? Reach out to your Risk manager before entering the tournament.

Registration is free and takes a couple of minutes. For Open 1 it opens Tuesday 8 September at 12:00 PM ET and closes Sunday 20 September at 11:59 PM ET — the night before trading opens. Open 2 registration opens Thursday 1 October at 12:00 AM ET, while Open 1 is still being played, and closes Sunday 25 October at 11:59 PM ET.

Registration now closes before each league starts, so there is no mid-league entry window.

The two leagues are separate sign-ups, and you can play one or both. Missing Open 1 does not lock you out of Open 2, and neither does being relegated in Open 1.

After you register, you land in the Waiting Room on your Tradeify dashboard. It shows a countdown to the league start and is where you set your display username. Choose carefully — once set, your username is locked for the competition. You compete under that name, and your real name is never shown on the leaderboard.

The day before the league starts, team selection opens in the Waiting Room. Picking a team is how you leave the Waiting Room and enter the competition, and you cannot place a trade until you have.

If you ever want to withdraw, contact Tradeify support and they will take care of it. Withdrawing from Open 1 does not affect Open 2 — you are still free to register and compete in the second league.

Every trader competes under the banner of a team — one of 16 creators or affiliates. Picking one is mandatory before your first trade, but your matches, your points, and your prize money stay entirely your own. Your creator is also competing in their own league across the season, and 8 of the 16 will qualify for the live final in December.

Team selection opens in the Waiting Room the day before the league starts — 20 September for Open 1, 25 October for Open 2. There is no deadline to choose, but you cannot trade until you have. Once you start trading you are with that team for all eight matches. Between leagues you can switch: Open 1 and Open 2 are separate sign-ups, registering again reopens your team choice, and creators recruit during the window between the two leagues.

If you do switch, the points you earned in Open 1 stay with your Open 1 team, and you start contributing to your new team from Open 2.
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Teams are scored on their average points per active player. A player counts as active once they have placed a single trade, so members who sign up and never trade do not affect the average. There is no minimum or maximum team size — a small team needs fewer points to unlock a reward, a large team needs more, and the bar always matches the roster. Points are never taken away: if you are relegated at the cut, the profit you made still counts toward your team.

At the end of each league, packs drop to teams that clear their threshold. Open 1 and Open 2 are scored separately, so every team starts the second league from zero. Play both leagues and you are in line for both drops; switch teams in between and you collect with your Open 1 team for the first and your Open 2 team for the second. Your cash prize is separate — it depends only on where you finish on the ladder, and your team cannot add to it or take from it.

One thing your team does not affect: who you trade against. Pairings are random across the whole field, so you will be matched against your own teammates as often as anyone else. Joining a team changes nothing about how you trade, what your account looks like, or what you can win as an individual.
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Each match pairs you against one other trader, drawn at random from the whole field, for a full trading session. You both start on a fresh $50,000 simulated account, and whoever finishes with the higher P&L wins the head-to-head.

A match runs one full futures session on Tradovate. It opens at 6:00 PM ET the evening before and closes at 4:45 PM ET on the match day — so Match 1, listed as Tuesday 22 September, actually opens Monday 21 September at 6:00 PM ET. At the close, the system flattens you automatically: whatever is open is closed at market price and counts toward your result. You cannot hold a position past the close, and you never need to flatten yourself.

The products are ES, NQ, GC and CL or their micro equivalents (MES, MNQ, MGC, MCL), and simulated market data is provided free to all participants. Position size is capped at one mini or ten micros across your whole account. That is a total, not a per-product allowance — you can hold one position at a time in one product, so you cannot hold 1 NQ and 1 GC together, and you cannot combine a mini with micros. Tradovate enforces the limit and simply rejects any order that would breach it.

There is no drawdown limit, and you cannot fail an account by losing money. You lose what you lose, and the next match starts on a fresh $50,000 account — nothing carries over between matches, not balance and not losses.

Your opponent's P&L is shown during the match, but it refreshes twice a day rather than in real time. Treat it as a checkpoint, not a live feed — the figure you are looking at may be several hours old.
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Every match scores you on two things: the result against your opponent, and the profit you make.

You earn profit points whether you win or lose the head-to-head. Take two traders in the same match: Trader A finishes +$1,500, which is +3 for winning and +3 for the profit — 6 points. Trader B finishes +$1,120, loses the head-to-head for 0, but the profit is worth +2. Trader B made real money and lost the matchup, and without profit points they would walk away with nothing.
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The flip side is that losses have no floor. Every $500 lost is −1 with no cap, so a bad session can put your score below zero.

The ladder is ranked by total points. Ties break on matchup wins first, then total P&L, then the biggest single match. The leaderboard updates twice a day, at 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM ET, and your opponent's P&L updates on the same schedule — between refreshes the figures you see are a snapshot, not a live position.

Halfway through the league, half the field goes home. After Match 4 the bottom 50% is relegated in a single event, and the survivors play Matches 5 to 8 racing for the four seats at the Grand Final. Cut Day is Thursday 1 October in Open 1 and Thursday 5 November in Open 2 — the two biggest sessions of each league. Everything before them is positioning.

If you are relegated, your league ends after Match 4 and you do not play Matches 5 to 8. It is not a total loss: you are still on your team, every point you earned in the first four matches stays on the team total, and if the team clears its threshold you receive the pack drop along with everyone else. Being cut in Open 1 also does not stop you entering Open 2 fresh.

Cash prizes go to the top 500 of each league, so those are decided among the traders who survive the cut. And the route to the Grand Final is simple: finish in the top 4 of either league.

A reset undoes damage to your leaderboard score, and there are two kinds. A single-match reset removes one match from your record, so the points you lost that day come back — it costs $25. A full reset takes your leaderboard score back to zero — useful because losses have no cap, and a run of bad sessions can leave you well into negative territory. It costs $50.

You get one reset per league, of either type. If you play both Open 1 and Open 2, you get one in each. One means one: using the $25 single-match reset means you cannot then use the $50 full reset in that league.

Resets are available in two windows — Matches 1 to 3, and Matches 5 to 7. They are never available for Match 4, the cut, or for Match 8, and the full back-to-zero reset only exists in the first window.

There is also a catch: if you use a reset, you must score points in Match 4 to survive the cut.

Reset fees are non-refundable, including if you later withdraw from the competition.

Matches run twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday. Each session opens at 6:00 PM ET the evening before.

Grand Final: Friday 11 December, Fort Lauderdale.

The total prize pool is $1,300,000 across the season.

Each league pays the top 500, on an identical structure.

Positions 1 to 4 are missing on purpose. The top four are not playing for a league prize any more — they are on their way to Fort Lauderdale to play for the $400,000 pool instead, where the lowest prize on the table is $13,000, more than 5th place earns here.

Cash prizes are paid through Rise, the same payout method used across all Tradeify competitions. You will need a Rise account and must be KYC verified with Rise to receive any prize. If you do not already have a Rise account, we will send you an invite to set one up — open the email, accept the invite, and complete KYC with Riseworks. Once your account is verified, your payout is processed. If you cannot find the invite, check your spam folder first, and if you still need help, contact Rise support directly at [email protected]

Important Note: Payouts are sent out once the final placement on leaderboard are confirmed.

Prizes may be subject to tax depending on where you live. We recommend speaking to a tax professional.

Everything in the season points here. Sixteen competitors, one stage, $400,000 decided live in a single day — Friday 11 December 2026, at the Fort Lauderdale War Memorial in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in front of a crowd of more than a thousand.

The sixteen are the eight traders who qualified through Open 1 and Open 2, and eight creators who qualified through their own league. The two groups compete for separate prize pools, and the creators cannot take anything from the $400,000 trader pool.

Every seat at the Grand Final is worth more than any league position. Eighth place at the final pays $13,000 — more than the $10,000 that goes to 5th in a league of tens of thousands of traders. Simply getting there is the best-paid outcome in the competition, before a single trade is placed on stage. And the champion takes $180,000.

It is a full event day, not just a broadcast: main stage finals, an open Mini Grand Cup that fans can enter on the day, creator and partner booths across the floor, and a party to close out the season. The eight trader finalists receive all-expenses-paid travel and accommodation — you qualify, we get you there.

Live event is only one day and it's based on the highest P/L across all competitors.

One important note for traders outside the US: the Grand Final is held in the United States, and travelling there is your responsibility.

Tradeify does not provide visa sponsorship of any kind — we cannot apply on your behalf, expedite an application, or issue sponsorship letters. When you register you accept that if you finish in the top 4 but do not hold valid travel authorization for the United States, you are assigned 5th place instead and paid the 5th place prize of $10,000, and your place at the final passes to the next eligible trader.

If you think you may finish near the top, start your travel arrangements early — the gap between the end of Open 2 and the final on 11 December is not enough time to obtain travel authorization from a standing start.

Match announcements, results and league chat all run in the Tradeify Discord. Schedule changes are posted there first.

Yes. Entry is free, with no purchase and no subscription. You do not need a paid Tradeify account, an evaluation, or a funded account. It is one entry per person and one per household, and every participant must be KYC verified.

No. PTL is separate from Tradeify's evaluation and funded account products. Nothing needs to be bought at any point.

No. All trading is simulated. No real funds are ever deposited or at risk, and you cannot fail an account by losing money.

The most likely reason is that you have not picked a team. Team selection is required before your first trade — go to the Waiting Room on your dashboard and choose one of the 16 creator teams.

The most likely reason is position size. The limit is one mini or ten micros across your whole account — a total, not a per-product allowance — and Tradovate rejects any order that would breach it. Check whether you already have a position open in another product.

No. Registration closes the night before trading opens, so there is no mid-league entry window. Open 1 closes Sunday 20 September at 11:59 PM ET; Open 2 closes Sunday 25 October at 11:59 PM ET.

Yes. The two leagues are separate sign-ups and you can play one or both. Missing Open 1 does not lock you out of Open 2, and neither does being relegated in Open 1. Registering again reopens your team choice, so you can switch teams between leagues.

Twice a day, at 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM ET. Your opponent's P&L updates on the same schedule, so treat the figure you see as a checkpoint rather than a live feed.

There are three possible reasons. Resets are not available for Match 4 or Match 8. The full back-to-zero reset only exists during Matches 1 to 3. And each trader gets one reset per league — if you have used yours, no further resets can be issued.

No. Reset fees are non-refundable, including if you later withdraw from the competition.

Your league ends after Match 4 and you do not play Matches 5 to 8. Every point you earned in the first four matches stays on your team total, and if the team clears its threshold you receive the pack drop along with everyone else. Being cut in Open 1 does not stop you entering Open 2.

Cash prizes are paid through Rise, the same payout method used across all Tradeify competitions. You need a Rise account and must be KYC verified with Rise. If you do not have one, we send an invite — open the email, accept it, and complete KYC with Riseworks. Payouts are sent once final leaderboard placements are confirmed. If you cannot find the invite, check your spam folder, then contact Rise support at [email protected].

The Grand Final is held in the US and travelling there is your responsibility. Tradeify does not provide visa sponsorship of any kind. If you finish in the top 4 without valid US travel authorization, you are assigned 5th place instead and paid the 5th place prize of $10,000, and your seat passes to the next eligible trader. If you think you may finish near the top, start your travel arrangements early.

Tradeify's standard restricted countries list applies and there is no additional tournament-specific restriction list for PTL. If your country does not appear on that list, you are eligible: Rules — Restricted Countries. If you are unsure, contact Tradeify support.

Contact Tradeify support and they will take care of it. Withdrawing from Open 1 does not affect Open 2 — you are still free to register and compete in the second league. Reset fees already paid are not refunded.