The LSE Directory / Prop firms
City Traders Imperium (CTI) is a proprietary trading firm that gives retail forex and CFD traders access to funded accounts after they demonstrate profitable trading in a simulated evaluation environment. Traders choose between a 1-step challenge, a 2-step challenge, or an Instant Funding option that skips the evaluation phase for an upfront fee; once funded, they trade a demo account backed by CTI capital and are paid a share of the profits they generate, rather than trading real client or firm money directly on-market. CTI differentiates itself within the funded-trader-programme category on funding flexibility and rule permissiveness rather than price. It runs three parallel funding tracks, instant, 1-step and 2-step, on the same account-size ladder, imposes no time limit to hit profit targets, and places no restriction on news trading, scalping or algorithmic expert advisors, areas where many competing prop firms restrict or ban strategies. Funded accounts scale from roughly $2,500 up to $4,000,000, with profit splits the company advertises at 80 to 100 percent. In 2025 CTI moved off broker-provided white-label MT5 (previously via Broctagon, and Mabicon before that) onto its own MetaQuotes-issued MT5 licence, obtained through a newly registered Comoros entity, a route a growing number of prop firms have taken since MetaQuotes restricted direct MT5 licensing to the sector. The firm was co-founded in 2018 in London by Daniel Martin, a trader with over two decades of forex experience who focuses on trader psychology and methodology, and Martin Najat, who built out CTI's payout, risk-control and support operations. As of 2026 its corporate structure spans City Traders Imperium Limited, incorporated in the Union of Comoros (company number 15969) with a Dubai management office, and CTI FZCO, registered in Dubai Silicon Oasis, UAE, which runs the free CTI Academy education content bundled with every funded account. Trade press reporting in 2026 put CTI's reach at over 100,000 retail traders across more than 100 countries. CTI frames the 2025 in-house MT5 licence as removing an intermediary broker layer to improve execution speed and platform uptime. The underlying corporate move to an offshore Comoros entity mirrors a wider pattern among prop firms seeking direct MetaQuotes licensing after the platform tightened access for the sector. The firm operates as a trading-skill evaluator using simulated capital rather than as a broker, dealer or investment adviser, and does not hold conventional financial-services licensing in the UK where it was founded.
