Four prop firms ended their affiliate partnerships with a large prop firm comparison site on 30 October 2026. A trader had shown that code on the site opened firm websites through its own affiliate links, in a tab the visitor never asked for. Apex Trader Funding, Goat Funded Trader, Tradeify and the chief executive of FundingPips' parent company each announced the split on X within 13 hours. A fifth firm, Topstep, said it was dropping a paid listing on the same site.
The site admitted the behaviour in a statement on 31 October. It said the practice "should not have happened" and that it takes "full responsibility". The code had been running since at least 30 November 2025, according to archived copies of the site's JavaScript reviewed by Prop Weekly, and was switched off within four hours of the trader's video going up.
What did the code on the comparison site do?
The behaviour sat in a routine attached to the site's internal controls. According to the trader who raised it, those were a firm's profile link and the "copy code" button. When a visitor clicked one, two things happened at once:
- The page the visitor wanted, such as the firm's profile on the comparison site, opened in a new tab.
- The original tab, now sitting behind it, was sent to the firm's own website through the site's affiliate link.
The visitor saw the page they had asked for. Out of sight, the firm's site loaded in the background tab with the comparison site's referral tracking attached. The visitor had clicked an internal link, and nothing on that link said it led to the firm.
The routine did not fire on every click. It kept a record in the browser's local storage, under a key named affiliate_redirects, listing which firms had already been opened that day. Each firm was redirected once per calendar day per browser. A second click on the same firm the same day behaved normally, which is why a quick retest could look clean.
By September a later version added an option to open the affiliate link in a new tab instead, and passed a checkout session ID to partner links. The default path in every capture Prop Weekly reviewed still sent the original tab to the firm.
Timeline: from first capture to the site's statement
All times are UTC. Code dates come from Internet Archive captures of the site's JavaScript files. The other times are taken from the posts themselves.
| Date and time (UTC) | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 30 Nov 2025, 02:54 | Earliest archived copy of the routine. The original tab is sent to the firm's affiliate link, the requested page opens in a new tab, once per firm per day | Archived site code |
| Aug 2026 | FundingPips' chief executive later says the firm "caught the cookies practices in August" and acted on it. Not independently confirmed | His X post, 30 Oct |
| 3 Sep 2026, 13:19 | Same routine, now with a tab-keeping option and a session ID passed to partner links as sub7 | Archived site code |
| 24 Oct 2026, 01:32 | Routine still live in the site's code | Archived site code |
| 29 Oct 2026, 20:33 | A trader, Kane, posts a video on X walking through the redirect | His X post |
| 30 Oct 2026, 00:23 | Routine disabled. The function now returns false and the storage logic is gone | Archived site code |
| 30 Oct 2026, 03:14 | The site says it is looking into the questions raised and will publish a full statement within 24 hours | The site's X post |
| 30 Oct 2026, 03:15 | Apex Trader Funding terminates its affiliate relationship, effective immediately | Apex's X post |
| 30 Oct 2026, 13:43 | FundingPips' chief executive announces the partnership is terminated and the month's commissions forfeited | His X post |
| 30 Oct 2026, 14:42 | Goat Funded Trader terminates its affiliate partnership | Goat Funded Trader's X post |
| 30 Oct 2026, 16:13 | Tradeify says the referrals broke its affiliate terms and ends the site's league sponsorship | Tradeify's X post |
| 30 Oct 2026, 16:41 | Topstep's chief executive says the firm is dropping its $10,000-a-month paid listing | His X post |
| 31 Oct 2026, 02:10 | The site publishes its full statement and admits the behaviour | The site's X post |
The code was disabled 3 hours 50 minutes after the video went up, and almost three hours before the site's first public reply. Apex's termination followed that reply by one minute. The full statement came 22 hours 56 minutes later, inside the promised 24 hours.
What did the comparison site say?
In its statement on X on 31 October, the site said that until the day before, clicking a firm or a code on its site would open the firm's website in a new tab through its affiliate link. It said: "This should not have happened. We take full responsibility for it." It said it had contacted each of its partner firms to review the matter together and to "reconcile any inaccuracies", and that it respected whatever decisions firms had made.
The rest of the statement set out the site's record and said it would learn from the episode. It did not call the routine a bug or explain why it was built, and it did not dispute the trader's account. One detail differs from the code: the statement describes the firm's site opening in a new tab, which matches the optional September path. In the default path, the visitor's original tab went to the firm.
How did Apex, Goat Funded Trader, Tradeify, FundingPips and Topstep respond?
Apex Trader Funding was first, at 03:15 UTC on 30 October. It said it had terminated its affiliate relationship with the site, effective immediately, and disabled all associated tracking codes. The decision, it said, followed "a review of referral tracking practices and compliance with our Affiliate Marketing" agreement. It did not say what the review found.
FundingPips spoke through Khaled, who lists himself on X as chairman and chief executive of its parent group. His post said the partnership was terminated, that "All their commissions for the month are forfeited", and that "financial claims are going to be pursued." The post does not name FundingPips; the link comes from his profile.
Goat Funded Trader followed at 14:42 UTC in near-identical terms: partnership terminated, tracking codes disabled, after "a review of referral tracking practices."
Tradeify went furthest. "After looking closely at how referrals to our site were being generated, we found they broke our affiliate terms," it said. It also said the site would no longer sponsor the Premier Trading League, a sponsorship announced around 5 October. Tradeify is the only one of the four to state that its terms were broken.
Topstep is a different case. Its chief executive, Michael Patak, said Topstep had no affiliate code with the site and paid it $10,000 a month to be listed. The site's transparency page, archived on 30 June 2026, says listings "cannot be purchased", and the site has not publicly addressed the difference. With no code, Topstep's exit concerns paid placement. Referral credit was never in play for it.
All five announcements were posted publicly on X on 30 October.
What we know and what we don't
| Question | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Did the site send visitors to firms through affiliate links they had not clicked? | Known | The site's own statement, 31 Oct; archived code |
| How long did it run? | At least 30 Nov 2025 to 24 Oct 2026; off by 00:23 UTC on 30 Oct | Archived code. Earlier start dates are not established |
| How often did it fire? | Once per firm per calendar day per browser | Archived code |
| Which firms ended affiliate deals? | Apex, Goat Funded Trader, Tradeify, FundingPips | Each firm's or its chief executive's X post |
| Did any firm say its terms were breached? | Tradeify, explicitly | Tradeify's X post |
| How much commission did the redirects produce? | Unknown | No firm or the site has published a figure |
| How many visitors were affected? | Unknown | The code shows the mechanism, not the traffic |
| Was any other affiliate's referral credit overwritten? | Unknown | Possible in principle under last-click rules; not shown in this case |
| Did FundingPips detect it in August? | Claimed, not confirmed | Its chief executive's X post |
| Have other firms left? | Not confirmed | Lists on X name more firms; Prop Weekly found no statement from any of them |
The overwrite question matters most to other affiliates. FundedNext credits the last link clicked within 60 days. Tradeify gives its link cookie 60 days but lets another affiliate's typed discount code take priority. On rules like these, a redirect could replace an earlier genuine referral unless a code was entered at checkout. Nobody has shown that it happened here. Any figures would come out of the reconciliation the site has offered its partners.
What can traders do now?
None of the firms' statements mention traders' accounts, purchases or discounts. Their issue is who gets credited for a referral. For traders, it comes down to knowing which tab is doing what.
- Watch the tab behind. If an internal link opens a new tab and the tab you were on changes to a firm's website, that is the pattern described above.
- Test in a private window. This routine fired once per firm per day, so a second click looks normal. A fresh private window resets that.
- Use Chrome's DevTools. On the Network panel, tick "Preserve log" and click the link. Look for a request to the firm's domain carrying parameters such as
ref,afforsub1tosub7. Under Application, then Local Storage, look for keys that log redirects per firm. The DevTools network reference explains each panel. - Use the code of the creator you mean to support. Where a firm ranks a typed code above a link cookie, as Tradeify does, the code at checkout decides who is credited.
A clean affiliate link says it goes to the firm, opens one tab, and only then loads the tracking URL. Prop Weekly will update this report if the site or any firm named here publishes more.
Sources
- The site's holding post (30 Oct 2026, 03:14 UTC) and full statement (31 Oct 2026, 02:10 UTC) on X. Not linked.
- Posts on X on 30 Oct 2026 by Apex Trader Funding, Goat Funded Trader, Tradeify, FundingPips' chief executive and Topstep's chief executive, and the trader's video post of 29 Oct 2026. Not linked.
- Internet Archive captures of the site's JavaScript (30 Nov 2025, 3 Sep, 24 Oct and 30 Oct 2026), read 1 Nov 2026. Not linked.
- FundedNext partner programme
- Tradeify affiliate programme
- Chrome DevTools network features reference
