manifesto
Writen by Christoph Radecker
The prop trading industry today is broken.
It’s full of flashy marketing, hidden rules, and firms that earn when you lose. They sell you the dream, but behind the curtain their business model is built on your failure.
No wonder so many talented traders end up trapped in the same cycle — paying endless fees, hitting moving targets, and watching payouts slip away because of rules that were never clear from the start.
I know. Because I was there too.
I joined prop firm after prop firm, hoping for a real chance to scale. But instead of opportunity, I found shifting rulebooks, sudden disqualifications, and business models that profited more from my resets than from my results. At some point the truth became obvious: the problem wasn’t trading — it was the system itself.
That’s when the real question became impossible to ignore:
That’s how IQ Capital was born.
Here’s where the partnership begins: you bring skill and discipline; we bring real capital, up to $1,000,000.
Our upside is tied to your results. That’s why the framework is strict. It protects both sides so performance decides the outcome.
We’re building a high-caliber community that shares playbooks, pressure-tests ideas, and holds standards.
If you’re good, we’ll help you get bigger, step by step, without drama (no changing rules, actual payouts).
And we’re open about our ambition: to develop 10,000 top traders who can operate at institutional size with professional risk discipline. That’s the mission. That’s the bar.
We’re not another prop firm copy-pasting the same broken model. We’re building a trader-first community where we support the best traders to perform at their highest level, scale with real capital, and finally trade in an environment that rewards skill instead of punishing it.
Welcome to IQ Capital.
This is our Manifesto.
— The Founder of IQ Capital
Somewhere along the way, prop trading lost its way.
It stopped being about funding real talent.
It became about selling accounts.
Other firms rely on hidden rules, unrealistic profit targets, and payout structures that are designed for you to fail.
We believe this is more than a flaw. It’s a systemic failure. Because while traders dream of scaling their accounts, most prop firms dream of exploiting that dream.
IQ Capital was created to change that dynamic. We operate as a true partnership: you bring skill, discipline, and respect for clear risk limits, we provide capital and the structure to scale responsibly.
When you succeed, you trade at the real market. And we profit only when you do. Because the only sustainable model in prop trading is one where developing successful traders is in everyone’s best interest.
Every trader sooner or later asks themselves the same thing:
Is there any way to scale a trading account predictably without gambling and without burning through savings?
For most, the answer has always been no. Retail trading is a cycle of starting small, blowing up, and starting over. Prop firms promised a way out and wanted to be the bridge between retail talent and institutional scale. But most firms turned it into a casino.
You bring discipline and a repeatable process. We bring a transparent framework and the capital to scale it.
At IQ Capital, we only profit once you’ve proven you can trade sustainably.
The challenge exists for one reason: to verify consistency, risk control, and discipline.
That’s also why the entry is priced so low.
Starting at just $1 removes the financial barrier and keeps the focus where it belongs: execution. The challenge is not a revenue model for us, it’s a filter.
If you pass, we move forward together.
You trade real market conditions, side by side with us, using our capital. From that point on, our incentives are fully aligned: we profit only when you profit.
And that’s why our rules are strict. Firm limits protect both sides. They keep risk bounded, performance measurable, and growth scalable — for you as a trader and for us as a firm.
IQ Capital was built on a single, powerful principle: we trade fair — and expect fairness in return. Everything we do is guided by this law.
Our rules are simple and measurable.
Respect those limits, and every opportunity remains open — because disciplined risk is the only way to grow sustainably. No hidden conditions, no moving targets. The same rules apply to everyone, every time. For the first time, ambitious traders can trade with up to $1,000,000 in real capital — without putting their own savings on the line.
Christoph, our founder, has spent his entire career in trading managing capital, leading teams, and living the reality of professional trading day after day. He knows exactly where most prop firms go wrong. They see their traders as opponents.
IQ Capital is a community of traders who push each other forward, share experience, and grow together. Here, your success fuels ours: you keep the majority of your profits, and we only win when you win. That alignment makes us partners. We were traders long before we became a prop firm and that, ultimately, is what makes all the difference.
We believe prop trading can once again mean opportunity, not exploitation.
We believe talented traders deserve a fair shot at scaling.
IQ Capital exists for one reason: to prove that prop trading can finally work with traders, not against them.
It’s not for everyone.
It’s for those who are ready to trade fair, grow with discipline, and partner with us to reach the next level.
Welcome to the future of prop trading.
Welcome to IQ Capital.
Let’s partner up you bring the skills, we bring the capital.
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