In July 2026, Take Profit Trader announced it had cut the time between a payout approval and the money landing in a trader's wallet from more than 12 business hours, to under five seconds. This may seem like a small engineering milestone, but it perfectly represents the guiding philosophy CEO James Sixsmith founded the firm on in December 2021. To design a program that puts traders first, and rewards responsible trading practices.
"We built the TPT payout policy around day-one eligibility with no payout caps because we know that’s what traders care about the most, and I believe they should have real access to their profits, fast," Sixsmith says.
Nearly five years in, his philosophy has positioned Take Profit Trader as a top leader in the prop firm industry, funding thousands of futures traders. Sixsmith says the platform now has over 90,000 active traders. This growth was achieved entirely without outside investment.
A Founder Who Was a Frustrated Customer First
Sixsmith's path into the industry ran through a decade as a professional hockey player, while he taught himself to trade in the mornings before practice. He lost well into six figures to the market learning how to trade. "Me being naive, not knowing what I didn't know, and thinking, ‘this is gonna be easy,’" is how he describes those years. "I lost a lot of money, to be frank."
He eventually became profitable, and launched a trading education company in 2015. While speaking at trading seminars for years, Sixsmith kept hearing his own story repeated back to him by thousands of traders. His conclusion was that the biggest obstacle for retail traders isn't talent. It's that they're trading scared, with money they can't afford to lose, at firms that were structured around slow payouts, rules hidden in fine print meant to trip them up, and support that made them feel like an afterthought.
James launched Take Profit Trader with the mission to give skilled traders access to real capital through a simpler, more transparent model where they don’t have to jump through hoops to take their profits. “I’ve always said “if you make it, you should be able to take it,”” Sixsmith emphasizes.
Saying What Other Operators Won't
Sixsmith speaks openly about how the funded trading model actually works, and is direct about the odds. Saying plainly that most traders fail because they are under capitalized and run out of money before they turn the corner. In a space that sells optimism, he leads with the part nobody
wants to hear, because he genuinely believes that’s the best approach for the industry as a whole.
“Trading is hard, and people stand to lose a lot if they don’t put in the work to learn and practice. That’s bad for them, and it’s bad for us because we also win when our traders win. We want them to succeed in the live market because we earn together,” says Sixsmith.
That candor has teeth. Take Profit Trader scaled back its own affiliate program after auditing influencers who were pitching unsustainable strategies to their audiences, keeping only the creators who are honest about their losses. Narrowing a proven acquisition channel because the message wasn’t right, is not a common move in the industry. Sixsmith's view is that traders can see through pretenders, and that losing trust isn't worth the sales.
You can see the same approach when it comes to compliance. The firm engages actively with the CME on rule enforcement, including the unpopular work of holding traders to exchange-level standards. TPT and Sixsmith are operating as legitimate market participants which is quickly cementing their spot as an industry leading firm, with influence.
Building a Program That Puts Traders First
When you look closely at the TPT program, it’s clear that James has engineered the entire system to meet his vision of supporting real traders. First they get to show their skills in a test account which can be passed in as little as three days, then all monthly fees stop. In funded PRO accounts, trading is still simulated but the profits are real, which means TPT pays traders even when they aren’t getting any fees from the trader, or profits from the live market. Traders can take 80% profit withdrawals from day one, daily, with no caps, and trade up to five accounts.
PRO+ is where TPT invites traders into the live market. The split moves further in the trader's favor at 90% of profits which, just like in PRO, is compounded by the ability to copy trade up to five accounts.
Traders have access to more than 15 supported platforms including Tradovate, NinjaTrader, and TradingView. With the recently launched Trader Performance Tracking Scorecard they have access to a dashboard which includes P&L, win rate, expectancy, and more, giving traders access to detailed insights into their own trading behavior. Sixsmith publishes training videos using the scorecard to help teach traders how to learn from their own trading behavior.
The scorecard isn’t even the most recent example of how TPT is building their infrastructure around traders. The most recent enhancements include reducing the account to wallet transfer time from over 12 hours, to just seconds, and cutting tests from 5 days, to 3 days.
Sixsmith's phrase for the strategy is that “legitimacy compounds.” Every program improvement and fulfilled promise builds credibility that makes the next step easier, and is proof that Take Profit Trader is committed to constant innovation.
Bootstrapped on Purpose
Take Profit Trader wasn’t financed with venture capital. Self-funding was a deliberate choice by a founder who only wants to answer to traders and his own standards, not investors. Sixsmith points out that this funding constraint is a key part of his strategy, and directly supports his trader first philosophy. When you’re self funded, growth only happens when TPT stays close to its traders and builds a program around what they actually need and want.
It also forces honest sequencing. Early on leadership had to pull back on developing new trader education, which had been personally important to Sixsmith, because the platform demanded his full attention first. It was only after the foundation was stable that the firm started shifting attention back to education, and has big plans to rapidly expand this important category in the near future.
What the Vision Looks Like Now
Sixsmith's stated mission hasn't waivered. Close the gap between trader talent and trader capital, so skilled people without institutional connections or a large bankroll, can compete and find success. Five years in with a large base of loyal and disciplined traders, TPT is setting the industry standard for Futures Trading Prop Firms.
If you’re interested in learning more about Futures trading, Sixsmith recommends checking out TPT’s free Learn To Trade Futures Video Mini Course. Then once you feel you’re ready to get started, to go ahead sign up for a test account on takeprofittrader.com.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor. Past performance of any trader or strategy does not indicate future results.
In July 2026, Take Profit Trader announced it had cut the time between a payout approval and the money landing in a trader's wallet from more than 12 business hours, to under five seconds. This may seem like a small engineering milestone, but it perfectly represents the guiding philosophy CEO James Sixsmith founded the firm on in December 2021. To design a program that puts traders first, and rewards responsible trading practices.
"We built the TPT payout policy around day-one eligibility with no payout caps because we know that’s what traders care about the most, and I believe they should have real access to their profits, fast," Sixsmith says.
Nearly five years in, his philosophy has positioned Take Profit Trader as a top leader in the prop firm industry, funding thousands of futures traders. Sixsmith says the platform now has over 90,000 active traders. This growth was achieved entirely without outside investment.
A Founder Who Was a Frustrated Customer First
Sixsmith's path into the industry ran through a decade as a professional hockey player, while he taught himself to trade in the mornings before practice. He lost well into six figures to the market learning how to trade. "Me being naive, not knowing what I didn't know, and thinking, ‘this is gonna be easy,’" is how he describes those years. "I lost a lot of money, to be frank."
He eventually became profitable, and launched a trading education company in 2015. While speaking at trading seminars for years, Sixsmith kept hearing his own story repeated back to him by thousands of traders. His conclusion was that the biggest obstacle for retail traders isn't talent. It's that they're trading scared, with money they can't afford to lose, at firms that were structured around slow payouts, rules hidden in fine print meant to trip them up, and support that made them feel like an afterthought.
James launched Take Profit Trader with the mission to give skilled traders access to real capital through a simpler, more transparent model where they don’t have to jump through hoops to take their profits. “I’ve always said “if you make it, you should be able to take it,”” Sixsmith emphasizes.
Saying What Other Operators Won't
Sixsmith speaks openly about how the funded trading model actually works, and is direct about the odds. Saying plainly that most traders fail because they are under capitalized and run out of money before they turn the corner. In a space that sells optimism, he leads with the part nobody
wants to hear, because he genuinely believes that’s the best approach for the industry as a whole.
“Trading is hard, and people stand to lose a lot if they don’t put in the work to learn and practice. That’s bad for them, and it’s bad for us because we also win when our traders win. We want them to succeed in the live market because we earn together,” says Sixsmith.
That candor has teeth. Take Profit Trader scaled back its own affiliate program after auditing influencers who were pitching unsustainable strategies to their audiences, keeping only the creators who are honest about their losses. Narrowing a proven acquisition channel because the message wasn’t right, is not a common move in the industry. Sixsmith's view is that traders can see through pretenders, and that losing trust isn't worth the sales.
You can see the same approach when it comes to compliance. The firm engages actively with the CME on rule enforcement, including the unpopular work of holding traders to exchange-level standards. TPT and Sixsmith are operating as legitimate market participants which is quickly cementing their spot as an industry leading firm, with influence.
Building a Program That Puts Traders First
When you look closely at the TPT program, it’s clear that James has engineered the entire system to meet his vision of supporting real traders. First they get to show their skills in a test account which can be passed in as little as three days, then all monthly fees stop. In funded PRO accounts, trading is still simulated but the profits are real, which means TPT pays traders even when they aren’t getting any fees from the trader, or profits from the live market. Traders can take 80% profit withdrawals from day one, daily, with no caps, and trade up to five accounts.
PRO+ is where TPT invites traders into the live market. The split moves further in the trader's favor at 90% of profits which, just like in PRO, is compounded by the ability to copy trade up to five accounts.
Traders have access to more than 15 supported platforms including Tradovate, NinjaTrader, and TradingView. With the recently launched Trader Performance Tracking Scorecard they have access to a dashboard which includes P&L, win rate, expectancy, and more, giving traders access to detailed insights into their own trading behavior. Sixsmith publishes training videos using the scorecard to help teach traders how to learn from their own trading behavior.
The scorecard isn’t even the most recent example of how TPT is building their infrastructure around traders. The most recent enhancements include reducing the account to wallet transfer time from over 12 hours, to just seconds, and cutting tests from 5 days, to 3 days.
Sixsmith's phrase for the strategy is that “legitimacy compounds.” Every program improvement and fulfilled promise builds credibility that makes the next step easier, and is proof that Take Profit Trader is committed to constant innovation.
Bootstrapped on Purpose
Take Profit Trader wasn’t financed with venture capital. Self-funding was a deliberate choice by a founder who only wants to answer to traders and his own standards, not investors. Sixsmith points out that this funding constraint is a key part of his strategy, and directly supports his trader first philosophy. When you’re self funded, growth only happens when TPT stays close to its traders and builds a program around what they actually need and want.
It also forces honest sequencing. Early on leadership had to pull back on developing new trader education, which had been personally important to Sixsmith, because the platform demanded his full attention first. It was only after the foundation was stable that the firm started shifting attention back to education, and has big plans to rapidly expand this important category in the near future.
What the Vision Looks Like Now
Sixsmith's stated mission hasn't waivered. Close the gap between trader talent and trader capital, so skilled people without institutional connections or a large bankroll, can compete and find success. Five years in with a large base of loyal and disciplined traders, TPT is setting the industry standard for Futures Trading Prop Firms.
If you’re interested in learning more about Futures trading, Sixsmith recommends checking out TPT’s free Learn To Trade Futures Video Mini Course. Then once you feel you’re ready to get started, to go ahead sign up for a test account on takeprofittrader.com.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor. Past performance of any trader or strategy does not indicate future results.
