Same 5% and 10%, different midnight, different tape
Alpha Pro 2-Step (8%/5% or 10%/5%) uses 5% daily and 10% static maximum, $5,000 and $10,000 on a $100,000 account. Daily loss is the higher of day-start balance or floating equity at 00:00 ACG Markets time (GMT+2/GMT+3). FTMO uses day-start balance plus floating PnL at 00:00 CE(S)T and a static 10% on 2-Step. Alpha One, the 1-step, is 4% daily with a 6% end-of-day trail. Compare Alpha Pro with FTMO 2-Step. Compare Alpha One with FTMO 1-Step, not across those diagonals.
Alpha Pro minimum days are three; FTMO is four. Fees sit $43 apart ($497 vs $540). Alpha's Phase 1 can be 8% or 10% depending which Pro you bought. If you bought 8%/5% Pro, the hurdle is identical to FundingPips and cheaper than FTMO's 10%/5%. The raw spread is the reason to pay London instead of Prague. The lot cap and the two-minute minimum duration culture are the reasons not to.
Lot caps, 2,000 messages, and the two-minute scalp problem
Alpha funded accounts enforce a maximum open lot cap. Opening 25 lots on a $100,000 book is the example the desk itself treats as a breach pattern. Alpha also runs a 2,000 server-message day cap and a minimum trade duration rule: a majority of profit cannot come from sub-60-second (and in practice sub-2-minute) tickets. Martingale, grid stacking, and 1-2 minute tick scalping are prohibited. FTMO flags gambling in risk review but does not publish a 25-lot or sub-60-second majority rule in the same way.
News on Alpha Pro funded is a 2-minute window; Alpha Swing relaxes it, which is the closest cousin to FTMO Swing. Weekend holding is permitted on Alpha Pro and Alpha Swing. Payouts are bi-weekly every 14 calendar days, or on-demand with a 40% consistency score. FTMO stays on a fixed bi-weekly 80% to 90% path without that 40% on-demand fork. If you need on-demand cash and you can keep best-day contribution under 40%, Alpha's fork is the feature. If your best day is half the month, stay on Alpha bi-weekly or stay at FTMO.
Who belongs on ACG Markets, and who belongs in Prague
Pick Alpha Capital Group if you want raw ACG spreads on MT5, cTrader, or DXtrade, you size well inside the funded lot cap, your average hold is minutes to hours (not seconds), and you like a London desk with an on-demand option. Pick FTMO if you need four platforms including MT4, you take 90-second gold scalps as a real share of PnL, you want Swing news without buying a separate Alpha Swing SKU, or you want the longer payout file. Both allow systematic EAs for trade management. Alpha is stricter on tick scalps and grids.
Do not pick Alpha because "London" sounds more regulated than a Czech prop brand. ACG Markets is the execution venue; the evaluation is still a prop contract. Do not pick FTMO because you heard Alpha "bans scalping." Alpha bans a majority of profit from ultra-short tickets and caps lots. A 12-minute London open scalp is not that rule. Read the duration clause. Then size the lot cap in dollars before you click 8.00 lots on gold.
Lot-cap Guard plus daily Guard on two London/Prague clocks
ACG midnight and Prague midnight will disagree on a held winner. Alpha's higher-of-equity rule makes that disagreement expensive. In Venasri Equity Guard flatten Alpha at 4.25% of the higher of balance or equity and cap gross lots per Alpha login so you cannot open the funded 25-lot pattern. Flatten FTMO at 4.25% of Prague day-start. If you use Alpha on-demand, add a 38% best-day warning so the 40% consistency score is not a surprise on payout day.
Venasri's free prop firm risk guard closes both accounts before either 5% daily is spent. Manual Trade Guard's minimum-hold logic keeps a burst of 20-second clicks from becoming a majority of Alpha profit, while still protecting FTMO entries that have no duration rule. Prefer Alpha for the tape. Prefer FTMO for Swing and for short-hold gold. Run the guard so the tape you wanted cannot be the lot cap you ignored.
