# Instant Funding vs ROMER

> Instant Funding suits forex and CFD traders who want a funded account without an evaluation and trade by hand or with an EA they wrote. It bans trades held 60 seconds or less, trading from a VPS and public third-party EAs, and it has no live account. ROMER suits HFT and futures or digital-asset algos run next to the exchange.

Last checked: 2026-10-01. Page: https://romertrading.io/compare/instant-funding-vs-romer. Published by ROMER (https://romertrading.io), a funded-trader program for algorithmic and high-frequency traders. ROMER's terms are planned and may change.

## At a glance

| | Instant Funding | ROMER |
|---|---|---|
| Markets | CFDs: forex, indices, commodities, metals, crypto; Evolve is "futures-style" CFD | Futures and digital-asset derivatives |
| Price, about $50K account | $424 one-time for the $50K One-Phase PRO; $1,849 for a $40K instant PRO account | $249 a month for $50K (planned) |
| Activation fee | None; every program is a single one-time payment | None (planned) |
| Funded account | Virtual only: "it does not offer any form of live funded account" | Our own capital on the real exchange, after two stages |
| Profit split | 80%, or 90% with an add-on; One-Phase PRO can reach 90% after 3 months | 80% of real profits |
| Bots and automation | EAs, algos and bots you built yourself; public third-party ones are not allowed | Allowed at every stage, and so is trading by hand |
| High-frequency trading | Banned: trades held 60 seconds or less. Two warnings, then the account is breached | Allowed. Spoofing and other manipulation are not |
| Where your algo runs | Your own computer: no trading "from Servers, VPS, under a VPN or similar" | On our hardware, inside the exchange’s data centre |

## Funded from the first trade, on a simulator

Instant Funding's main product is the one in its name. You pay once and start on a funded account with no evaluation. The Instant Funding PRO and Lite accounts trade CFDs in forex, indices, commodities, metals and crypto on MT5, cTrader or Match-Trader, and US clients get Match-Trader only. PRO sizes run from $625 to $120,000. On 1 October 2026 the [configurator](https://instantfunding.com/) listed a $40K PRO account at $1,849 and an $80K one at $3,699.

The [PRO rules](https://instantfunding.com/help/instant-funding-program/) have no profit target and no daily loss limit. Your maximum loss starts at 10% of the starting balance and tightens to 5% once you're 5% up, and you can't withdraw until that 5% is locked in. The first payout comes 14 days after your first trade and then every 7 days. Each 10% gain doubles the account, up to $1,280,000 ([scaling](https://instantfunding.com/help/scaling/)). Without the Swing add-on, PRO accounts can't trade in the 4 minutes either side of major news or hold positions over the weekend.

Evaluations are on sale too. At $50K, [One-Phase PRO](https://instantfunding.com/help/one-phase/) lists at $424 for a 10% target, an 8% static loss limit, a 3% daily limit and 3 trading days. One-Phase Lite lists at $284, and IF Micro PRO, an instant account with a fixed 6% loss limit, at $399. IF Evolve costs $99 for $50K, and the home page calls it "a new one-phase futures-style product". It trades the same simulated CFDs, with futures-style rules such as an end-of-day trailing drawdown and positions closed every day. Every program is a one-time payment, the standard split is 80%, and one person can hold up to $1,000,000 in combined starting balances.

## EAs, HFT and servers

Instant Funding allows automation you wrote and nothing else. The [prohibited practices](https://instantfunding.com/help/prohibited-trading-practice/) page says "Public third-party expert advisors are restricted. First-party EAs you build yourself are allowed." The [general terms](https://instantfunding.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Instant-Funding-General-Terms-Conditions.pdf) put it more firmly: "Publicly available third-party Expert Advisors (EAs), algorithms, or bots are not permitted." They also allow Instant Funding to end an account over EAs "which take advantage and/or jeopardise the backend systems" of the company or its partners. We found no procedure for proving an EA is yours.

HFT is defined by time. The [trading rules](https://instantfunding.com/trading-rules/) say "HFT involves holding trades for 60 seconds or less", and the [HFT answer](https://instantfunding.com/help/is-high-frequency-trading-hft-allowed/) sets out a ladder of penalties: "1st & 2nd instance: Warning + deduction of net profits from HFT trades", then "3rd instance: Account breach". Only profitable trades held 60 seconds or less count toward a violation. The general terms word it differently: "It is prohibited to High-Frequency trade where a customer places trades within 60 seconds or less of each other. A minimum of 60 seconds is required to hold a trade." Read literally, that also covers opening trades less than a minute apart, which the help centre doesn't mention. Tick scalping, latency and reverse arbitrage, gap trading and toxic order flow are banned as well. Other firms' cut-offs are on our [HFT limits by firm](/help/what-counts-as-hft-at-a-prop-firm) page.

The server rule leaves nothing to interpret: "We do not tolerate trading from Servers, VPS, under a VPN or similar strategies, this included sharing IP(s) between multiple users." An Instant Funding EA runs on your own computer, over your home connection.

## Copy trading: the help pages and the agreement disagree

The [copy trading answer](https://instantfunding.com/help/is-copy-trading-allowed/) is permissive: "Same-owner accounts only: Copy trading is only permitted between accounts owned by the same individual." It even invites copying in from elsewhere: "You are allowed to copy trades from your personal accounts with other prop firms, retail brokers, or external sources to your Instant Funding account." The trading rules page agrees.

The [Account Agreement](https://instantfunding.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/INSTANT-FUNDING-ACCOUNT-AGREEMENT.pdf), a PDF from October 2025 that is still on Instant Funding's site, lists "COPYING BETWEEN INTERNAL ACCOUNTS" among its prohibited strategies. Its clause 7.14.7 says "The Customer shall not, alone or in conjunction with others, including between connected accounts, perform the same trading strategy, i.e., perform the same trades at the same time, on multiple Instant Funding Accounts while performing simulated trading with us." The help pages read as the current policy. Even so, with the agreement saying the opposite, get written confirmation before you run the same trades across two Instant Funding accounts.

## Virtual accounts only

Instant Funding is unusually blunt about this. The trading rules say "we only offer virtual demo accounts where live market conditions are simulated and any reference to "funded" used on our website or in any of our terms and conditions is a reference to virtual funding only." The agreement says "Instant Funding ONLY offers a Virtual Account; it does not offer any form of live funded account". Clause 8.4 of the agreement adds that the firm may copy customers' simulated trades into its own accounts and trade them with its own live money. Your rewards are paid in real money, while the account itself stays virtual.

## How ROMER compares

Instant Funding lets you skip the evaluation, and ROMER doesn't. An algo here passes two simulated stages first. The Evaluation lasts at least 3 trading days and Verification at least 10 new ones after it, and the algo has to reach the target inside the loss limits in each, so a lucky week doesn't count as a track record. The algos that do best after that are given our own capital to trade on the real exchange, with 80% of the real profit paid to the trader. Passing doesn't guarantee funding.

What Instant Funding forbids, we're built for. High-frequency trading is allowed from Stage 1 onward, funded account included, and the algo runs on our hardware inside the exchange's data centre, which settles the VPS question. Trading by hand is allowed too. The lines we draw are at spoofing and other manipulation, and at the exchange's message limits. The markets are futures and digital-asset derivatives.

All of this is planned, along with the price: $149 a month for a $25K account, $249 for $50K and $399 for $100K, with no activation fee. The fee is what keeps your algo running on our servers at the exchange. You'd trade to a 6% profit target with a 2% daily loss limit and a 4% trailing maximum loss.

## Which to choose

Instant Funding suits a trader who wants to skip the evaluation, pay once and trade forex or CFDs by hand or with an EA they wrote, at a pace where trades last well over a minute. The scaling, which doubles the account at each 10% gain, rewards steady growth.

If your trades last seconds, or your system needs a server, Instant Funding's rules count it as a violation. ROMER is designed for that kind of algo in futures and digital-asset derivatives.

## Quick answers

**Does Instant Funding allow EAs?**
Yes, if you built the EA yourself. The help centre says "First-party EAs you build yourself are allowed", and the general terms say publicly available third-party EAs, algorithms and bots are not permitted. Because the terms also ban trading from a VPS, the EA has to run on your own computer.

**What counts as HFT at Instant Funding?**
Trades held for 60 seconds or less. The first two violations bring a warning and the loss of net profit from those trades, and the third breaches the account. The general terms also describe HFT as placing trades within 60 seconds of each other, which could catch a bot that opens positions in quick succession.

**Can I copy trades between my own Instant Funding accounts?**
The help centre says yes, between accounts owned by the same person, including your own accounts at other firms and brokers. The Account Agreement lists "COPYING BETWEEN INTERNAL ACCOUNTS" as a prohibited strategy. Ask Instant Funding to confirm in writing before you copy between its accounts.

**Is an Instant Funding account live?**
No. Its Account Agreement says "Instant Funding ONLY offers a Virtual Account; it does not offer any form of live funded account". Rewards are paid in real money from simulated profit.

## Sources

1. [Instant Funding home page and program configurator](https://instantfunding.com/)
2. [Instant Funding trading rules](https://instantfunding.com/trading-rules/)
3. [Instant Funding General Terms and Conditions (June 2026 PDF)](https://instantfunding.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Instant-Funding-General-Terms-Conditions.pdf)
4. [Instant Funding Account Agreement (October 2025 PDF)](https://instantfunding.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/INSTANT-FUNDING-ACCOUNT-AGREEMENT.pdf)
5. [Instant Funding help: Prohibited trading practices](https://instantfunding.com/help/prohibited-trading-practice/)
6. [Instant Funding help: Is high-frequency trading allowed?](https://instantfunding.com/help/is-high-frequency-trading-hft-allowed/)
7. [Instant Funding help: Is copy trading allowed?](https://instantfunding.com/help/is-copy-trading-allowed/)
8. [Instant Funding help: Instant Funding Pro rules](https://instantfunding.com/help/instant-funding-program/)
9. [Instant Funding help: One-Phase Pro rules](https://instantfunding.com/help/one-phase/)
10. [Instant Funding help: IF Evolve rules](https://instantfunding.com/help/instant-funding-evolve/)
11. [Instant Funding help: Is news trading allowed?](https://instantfunding.com/help/is-news-trading-allowed/)
12. [Instant Funding help: Scaling](https://instantfunding.com/help/scaling/)
13. [Instant Funding help: How many accounts can I have?](https://instantfunding.com/help/how-many-accounts-can-i-have/)