The LSE Directory / Prop firms
Blue Guardian is a proprietary trading firm that sells evaluation challenges to retail traders; traders who pass are moved onto a funded account and split the profits they generate with the firm. Its core product line covers CFDs on forex, indices, metals, energy and crypto through Instant (no evaluation), 1-Step, 2-Step (Standard and Pro) and 3-Step challenge formats, with account sizes from $5,000 to $400,000, executed through MetaTrader 5, TradeLocker, Match-Trader, DeepCharts or TradingView. The firm states explicitly that the challenge phase is a simulated, demo environment for skills assessment, that it is not a broker, and that it does not hold client deposits or provide financial advice. Blue Guardian's main point of differentiation within the funded-trader category is payout generosity and platform breadth: profit splits run up to 90% (with some plans allowing 100% retention on an initial profit slice), a 24-hour payout guarantee, and permission for expert advisors, hedging, and overnight and weekend position holding, rules that are more permissive than many evaluation-challenge competitors. In February 2024 it acquired an ASIC-licensed Australian broker so it could deal with clients directly instead of through a third-party introducing-broker arrangement, a move CEO Sean Bainton described as reducing the shutdown risk other prop firms faced after MetaQuotes pulled prop-firm access from its MT4/5 marketplace and some brokers began restricting US client onboarding; it added the DXtrade platform for US clients around the same time. The company was founded in 2021 by Sean Bainton, who began trading in his teens and built Blue Guardian into a firm reporting, across multiple corroborating industry sources as of early 2026, more than 83,000 traders served across 160-plus countries and over $20 million paid out in trader profits; these figures are self-reported by the company and not independently audited. Corporate structure spans multiple jurisdictions: a UK-registered entity, Blue Guardian Limited registered in Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia, and Iconic Exchange FZCO operating out of the IFZA Business Park in Dubai. The firm has sponsorship ties including an official FX partnership with Birmingham City F.C. and an endorsement arrangement with boxer Chris Eubank Jr. In November 2024, Blue Guardian launched a standalone futures division, Blue Guardian Futures, as a second major product line alongside the original CFD challenges. It offers evaluation tiers (including Standard, Express, Reserve and Direct-instant formats) on CME, CBOT, COMEX and NYMEX-listed futures contracts, executed through NinjaTrader, Tradovate and TradingView rather than MetaTrader. Unlike the CFD side, the futures program restricts trading to semi-automated strategies with active trader monitoring and prohibits fully automated bots or algorithmic systems.
