Maverick Trading Review

“Are you looking to get a $25,000 funded trading account?” Let us be real here. Who does not want that kind of money to trade, right?

With Maverick Trading, they market themselves with the idea that they will give you money to trade, which we are scrutinizing in this Maverick Trading Review.

But let us also be real that no one on the planet will give you free money that you might lose in a terrible trade.

In this review, we are going to answer what is Maverick Trading, what are the costs to get into it, and the biggest question: Do they really give you a funded account?

Find out the answers in this Maverick Trading Review!

Maverick Trading Review: What is Maverick Trading

Maverick Trading is a proprietary firm promising to back you with substantial trading capital to maximize profits.

It is primarily focused in options trading while their Maverick FX is for foreign exchange, which we have reviewed in our Is Maverick FX Trading A Scam article.

The company has quite a long history starting from 1997 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Before we go into the nitty-gritty of Maverick Trading, we must first understand what is a Proprietary Firm.

Proprietary Trading Firm basically says, if you are really good with trading, you can come and trade our money, but first we have some criteria you need to pass.

The criteria might be that you must have already have an exemplary track record in trading or if not, you will undergo training with them.

The business model of these companies are they are expecting a return in their investment in you with your trading skill.

So why go into a prop firm? The answer is simple. There are advantages in trading with a prop firm as well as disadvantages.

Like we discussed in Maverick FX, these are the pros and cons of a prop firm.

With Maverick Trading, this is the commission scheme:

Say, you earned $10,000 in profits, as an Associate Trader 1, you will get $7,000 for that month.

In order for you to level up for the Associate Trade 2, you must earn above the watermark set by Maverick Trading.

Maverick Trading Review: Who Are The People Behind Maverick Trading

Rob Reinhold was the founder and former CEO of Maverick Trading, but has since stepped down.

The current position is held by Maverick long-time trader, Darren Fischer, who is also handling the sales department.

In our Is Maverick FX A Scam article, we uncovered a disconcerting fact about the current CEO which honestly can color us doubtful about him.

Go read it and decide for yourself.

What Do You Get When You Sign Up With Maverick Trading: The Good

Training

Before letting you handle a live trading account, Maverick Trading will have you go undergo a rigorous training to ensure that you are up to their standards.

You will need to pay $6,000 to for the training they provide and pay additional $199 for Desk Fee.

The training compromises of:

• Structured Educational Database
• Instructors/Coaches/Mentors
• Proficiency Testing
• Real-time trade alerts
• Demo trading account and Trade simulators

Again, we have to say that the training they provide is comprehensive and teaches you the a to z about trading with options.

The trainers, coaches and managers are also approachable and make learning about trading somewhat pleasant as they can help you through it.

Also, one good thing is that they are constantly monitoring your progress to make sure you do not have any problems with the curriculum.

The picture above shows what you see after logging into Maverick Trading.

Risk Limitation, Targets, Management, and Goals

This is also a feature of Maverick we like. They will enforce a strong risk management and limitations in you to make sure you are not only feeding your ego.

Because sometimes we can be so full of ourselves thinking, we can somehow overcome our previous losses by running after the “next big trade”.

Which should not be. You must know what is your risk capital and risk limitations and trade through that code.

Yeah, you may have all the right training in the world, but if you do not have a strong trading psychology, then everything will just go down the drain.

Maverick Trading also places a risk manager in charge of you and your account to discuss what are your plans to be profitable once more.

Maverick Community

In a prop firm, you are not trading alone. You will be required to communicate with you risk manager and other members of Maverick Trading.

We think that this is a positive because, in all honesty, trading can be lonely with you just facing your monitor and looking at charts and the news.

With a like-minded community, you can share your wins or ask other traders about their opinion on certain topics that affect the market.

Since you are a beginner, you are on the receiving end of the community but as you grow more experienced and confident, Maverick will expect you to share your knowledge with others.

Like ants working as a whole for the betterment of their colony, which is not a bad thing at all.

The Bad: The Reality Of Maverick’s “Funded Trading” Program

This is where Maverick Trading’s seemingly well-placed bricks of promises comes tumbling down.

Do Maverick Trading give you $25,000 to trade? The short answer to that is no.

Well, we understand the confusion since according to their table, associate traders get $25,000.

Unfortunately, that is just all marketing.

The reality is that you, as an aspiring Maverick trader will need do cough up another $5,000 to fund your live trading account and Maverick will fund $20,000.

You are unable to touch that $20,000 and the only money that you will trade is your $5,000.

It means that your $5,000 is the risk capital.

For Maverick Trading that is. For you who have to pay that amount, you would not think of it as “only” risk capital right?

Aside from the $5,000, you will also pay need to pay them the monthly desk fee, whether you made profits in that month or not.

Do you see what is happening here?

Maverick Trading will not take risk in you but also profit of off you from the split in the $5,000 and the desk fee.

The $20,000 is just there to give you a higher buying power.

That is all. And if you somehow lost all the $5,000, they will then cast you aside with the pretense of having you move on to other opportunities.

What People Say About Maverick Trading

These are the reviews we found in Reddit:

Lifepro tip. If someone is telling you they earn lots of money doing something simple but presents this information with a stock microphone and default template PowerPoint presentation you’re about to get scammed.

Anonymoys 7 years ago

I had several talks with one of their recruiters, watched all their orientation material, and then came back with my questions, comments and concerns before moving forward (just as the recruiter asked). I wrote a fairly long, neutral-but-professionally-assertive email that questioned the lack of apparent professionalism and community shown on their website and forum. (Their website is SUPER low-quality… Like entry-level high school student web design, grammar errors, all that. Their forum was DEVOID of interaction or any meaningful discussion… In fact, most of the posters were Maverick recruiters or the like with generic nonsense.)

In response to my letter, the recruiter TOOK OFFENSE to my concerns (HUGE RED FLAG) and proceeded to claim that I “probably wouldn’t be a good fit” for some nebulous reason he pulled out of his ass.

tl;dr – They are unprofessional con artists looking for bottom-barrel noobies who don’t know better. Have since moved far beyond to bigger and better things.

Anonymous 5 years ago

It’s a scam, don’t do it.

watersign 5 years ago

This is the issue with advertising the existence of prop trading firms on a place like here.

It’s hard to get recruited for a real trading firm, or find one without digging deep or having an inside connection. Basically, get good grades, and apply every where you can through your OCR if you’re at a good school, or cold email different prop firms you can find.

No true prop firm will have you pay them any money to start. If they don’t make you, you’ve found a decent one. If they pay you a salary, you found a good one.

The ActuallyMan 5 years ago

Read the fine print, every bit of it. You may not have to put money up, but you might be liable for some losses. If so, you can refuse to pay them and then they send you to collections (because you most likely signed a contract) and now your credit is shit. I am not saying the place is bad, but read the fine print of everything you sign. Just FYI, especially in the USA, nothing is ever free. They are getting their time and money spent on you back out of you some way shape or form. Its not a charity, its a business.

Not everyone has the capital to start trading in a retail account for a living. In fact, most don’t. You can say that someone could start with a $500 account, and after years of compounding you can quit your job and make millions. This is just unrealistic. For most it takes two years to become profitable and by that time they’d probably be on the street. Those that do become profitable will probably never reach the point in which they’re able to trade long enough to compound an account to a large enough size. If someone is able to find an opportunity at a legitimate firm, then I’d say that is DEFINITELY the route to go. By legitimate firm, I mean good payout, no capital contribution, base salary, and training program. For someone like OP, I think it would be best to just find another job and trade in a retail account on the side until he starts to accumulate more capital.

marcusrider 5 years ago

“The initial minimum risk deposit is $5,000.00. This amount is held by Maverick Trading and can be withdrawn upon any time from the firm.”

Basically they bend you over and stick a dildo up your ass.

FinanceGI 4 years ago

Uh. A rule of thumb. Any “trading firm” offering free online classes is complete dogshit.

In fact, a pretty good rule of thumb is that any fund that has to advertise in order to recruit employees is probably a shitty fund. Truly good funds have applicants dying to work there. They don’t need to advertise to try to get ppl.

chingwang 4 years ago

Pretty sure this is a bullshit company/position. From what I remember reading, they require an initial investment and promise potential 6 figure salaries quickly by trading. That sounds very much like a scam to me.

dcirrilla 1 year ago

I don’t think it’s a scam in the sense that you’ll wake up in a bathtub full of ice.

It’s more that once entry level prop trading salaries are below Big 4 salaries, I stop worrying that I’m discouraging someone from pursuing their interest and start worrying that I’m encouraging someone to go down a path of likely failure. My personal cut off is probably more like BB salary…

I’m sure that there’s someone who’s doing all right there, but if this is your best option for prop trading then you have to wonder if it’s better to pursue a different career at least for the time being. If the salary is small, zero, or negative then it means that even they’re not super confident that you’ll do well. It’s a pretty bad signal.

ninepointcircle 1 year ago

Scam

pbfweddit 1 year ago

Never heard of Maverick Trading before BUT…If you use their money it’s a scam. ( This isn’t a hedge fund/ or a legit prop firm/ etc ). The name “Maverick Trading” just sounds like a scam name.

organicpastaa 4 years ago

I have a buddy who tried this out.

Basically, the idea was he had to put up his own money to enter their complete program. I don’t remember but I believe it was 5k. At this point, you have to hit a metric on their success table through I believe it was 5 weeks. If you are able to do that then you move on to trade theirs.

The problem is if you don’t succeed the first time you have to pay the entry again to do the program again. Thus, they have now made $XX.XX off you.

I am sure this would be really good for a few but for most, I personally think you are better trading your own account.

Hope this helps.

RhinoMethod 4 years ago

Never trust a trading firm that asks you to put your own money in upfront as capital (except if you’re a partner etc)

I’m familiar with the model, and I’ve seen the firm before. The choice is yours, but they have no vested interest in seeing you succeed after they receive your upfront money.

hisdeadparrot 5 months ago

No. Just, no. I realize a lot of prop firms have you pay for training, etc, but this sounds scammy.

Starting small is good for you. It helps you make good decisions about position sizing and to not burn through your capital too quickly. Do that.

floydfan 5 months ago

I would be cautious. Why not self teach yourself options trading. CBOE website offers FREE training once you learn this you can use leverage in a margin account to trade options strategies for enhanced returns and use as insurance against your existing capital.

Great course with 3 levels.

I guess they use the money for trading to then give you company money to trade with on top of your own 🤣. Pyramid system in there to no doubt. All the while they pull 30% of your profits.

I guess working for any firm they pull the profit and you get crumbs.

Always look behind the curtain.

MunsonMungada 23 days ago

In Glassdoor:

“Complete and Utter SCAM!!! STAY AWAT FROM THESE CRIMINALS!”

I worked at Maverick Trading for less than a year

Pros

Zero! All the money you are forced to put up, you can learn the same trading ideas on Options on Youtube

Cons

This place should be shut down by the Feds immediately! I’m not sure how they get away with this BS! They make you deposit 20% of your own capital, while they charge you commissions on trades and then if you happen to make a profit, they take a huge piece of that as well. Your better off trading and doing research on your own!

Advice to Management

Stop posting job postings on valid job sites like Careerbuilder, LinkedIn, Craig’s List, etc. This isn’t a real job, it’s a contractor job where you have to put up your own money and they take it from you. Again, complete and utter scam. I have never heard 1 GOOD thing about this company. STAY AWAY!

May 1, 2018

“Need for Improvement”

I worked at Maverick Trading full-time for more than a year

Pros

There are good people working, and there are useful things learned from training.

Cons

The vast opportunity to improve and learn is hindered by the system implemented. You don’t get what you are promised from when you signed up and join them. They are a bunch of liars and are good at taking advantage of incoming employees.

Advice to Management

Be transparent with the incoming employees and stop taking advantage of them.

April 21, 2020

“I love it at Maverick, give it a try.”

I worked at Maverick Trading part-time for less than a year

Pros

I learned how to trade, so much knowledge.

Cons

The cost of the program didn’t know about it.

Advice to Management

Keep up the good fight.

April 3, 2020

“They Blame You For Their Frauds”

I worked at Maverick Trading full-time for more than a year

Pros

The information shared can be valuable for some people.

Cons

They hide the fact that the program is quite expensive. If you question them, they will blame you for not being aware enough. It’s stupid and so unethical!

Advice to Management

Stop lying to people about the money you charge eventually!

February 13, 2020

“Best Prop firm out there right now”

I have been working at Maverick Trading full-time for more than 3 years

Pros

I’ve been in and out of the prop industry for over 15 years now and most of the firms I used to know have either closed or merged with the others. I chose Maverick as they have basically run as an independent firm and taken care of their traders for the long term. They are very upfront with the costs of trading and are very available when you need them. Fast payout on profits only take 1 day.

Cons

TWS software isn’t my favorite platform I’ve traded on but the costs of data feeds are 10% of what I paid on sterling and laser

Advice to Management

None

March 16, 2017

“The payment could be a problem”

I worked at Maverick Trading full-time

Pros

I like their impromptu webinars.

Cons

The payment system wasn’t disclosed properly when I joined them. Things got so bad that I was in debt when the program got over. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who can’t afford it.

Advice to Management

Be clearer regarding the payment terms to avoid disheartened members in your trading program and increase overall satisfaction.

In Indeed:

Good learning experience. Very comprehensive training program. Helpful and knowledgeable mentors. Weekly Updates and trading room activities. New trade ideas and regular market updates.

August 3, 2019

The job is interesting but it’s not for everyone. Training is really difficult and you won’t be able to take everything in once you get on the floor like they expect you to. Once you’re done with training, you have to start working in your quota which is extremely stressful to think about. Most people don’t last a month or two in the company.

April 12, 2020

It’s hard to work for a place that goes against your values. I’m leaving this place soon because they are scamming people. I know for a fact that they overcharge fees and they do things which are unethical just to get more clients. I can’t stomach these things that’s why I’m actively seeking a better job now – one where my values won’t be compromised.

March 8, 2020

Great company to trade with.

February 24, 2020

Best prop firm out there.

February 22, 2020

Filled with scammers, stay away.

January 9, 2020

What Are Maverick Trading Main Competitors

One competitor of Maverick Trading is T3 Trading Group.

The difference is that T3 only requires $2,500 in the minimum deposit but will require you a Series 57 Securities Trader license.

Another competitor is Axiselect. The good thing with Axiselect is that they do not require an initial payment but you will need to open an account with AxiTrade for $1, 000 AUD.

The main issue here is that the profit split is quite bad. By bad we mean, 20% for you and 80% for them.

Maverick Trading Cost

Maverick Trading costs $6,000 to access the educational training. You will also need to pay a $199/month Desk Fee.

This starts from the second month of your membership until they deem you ready for a live account, which could probably mean 3-4 months depending on you skills.

After that, you will need another $5,000 to fund your live trading account. By then you are out nearly $14,000 chasing after an account that you might not even get.

Darren M. Fischer: The Membership Fee for the Stock/Options Division is $6,000. This is a one-time fee and provides lifetime membership.

We routinely have traders take a break from trading (major life event, extended vacation, health issues, etc.). They are welcome to return and pick up where they left off whenever they like.

Starting the second month of membership, there is a $199 per month Desk Fee.

This covers the electronic infrastructure we need to run the firm, as well as continuing education, ongoing coaching, mentoring, supervision, support, etc.

Once the trader is approved to trade the firm’s capital, the trader posts $5,000 in Risk Capital and we start them off with a $25,000 account.

There is no lock-up to the Risk Capital and traders are paid out monthly. Level advancement requires two consecutive months above the previous high-water mark.

Any losses beyond a trader’s Risk Capital deposit are non-recourse to the trader.

Additionally, Maverick offers its traders a Performance Bonus.

When the profit splits the trader generates that go to the firm equal $6,000, the firm issues the trader a check for $6,000 as a Performance Bonus to reimburse their Membership Fee.

At this point, the trader has demonstrated that he’s able to trade consistently with increasing amounts of capital and we’re just happy to have him trade our capital at that point.

Fischer’s interview in dayztrading.com

Maverick Trading Refund Policy

Maverick Trading does not have a money-back guarantee.

PROS and CONS

Maverick Trading Review: Should You Join Maverick Trading?

After learning the reality of this so-called proprietary firm, we can say in this Maverick Trading Review, it is NOT worth it to join this company.

You are not really trading Mavericks money and the whole “funded trading account” is just a marketing scheme to get unwitting people to sign up with them.

If you lose then you have lost your deposit investment, on top of that you pay them $199 per month, which is a brilliant business model in Mavericks point of view.

Just not for you. They never lose as they will never stomach any risk with your trading.

The education and support they provide are good but are not groundbreaking so think about it, if they are not taking any losses for you and are only taking profits, why do you need them?

There are tons of educational resources online. One good example is our How To Trade Options | The Ultimate Step By Step Guide.

The question of having higher leverage can also be solved directly from your brokerage if you want that buying power, but it is better to start small and build your account from there.

One untrustworthy individual named Andrew Keene of The 1450 Club is another snake oil vendor who is conning people with his S.C.A.N. system.

Find out about this scam in our The 1450 Club Review!

Click Here to Read My # 1 Top Scam: 1450 Club Review