Skilled Funded Traders SHUTDOWN: What Happened to SKILLED FUNDED TRADER (SFT)?

On March 28th 2024. Skill Funded Trader announced they are ceasing operations. All SFT-related services have been terminated effective immediately,

This doesn’t come as a shock to many people in the industry. Many forex prop firms have been shutting down for various reasons. So, what happened to SFT?

Riz Iqbal, the host of Word of Rizdom and the partner of SFT, took to YouTube to explain the situation In a 40-minute-long video providing the timeline of the events that led to the shutdown of Skills funded trader prop firm.

Here is the breakdown of what he said

Joining Skills Funded Trader, April 27th, 2023

On the 27th, Paladin, another influencer in the industry, contacted Riz about a possible partnership to launch a prop firm. He said he and Omar, another influencer in the FX prop firm scene, partnered with a “Technology Provider” with experience running multiple firms, including a top 10 firm.

Riz was invited to partner, so they jumped on a call with the Board of Directors. On the call , they were assured that the Board of directors knew what they were doing and had massive experience in the industry. They were presented with case studies of many other successful firms that they were running operations for.

Launch of Skills Funded Trader, June 2023

On launch, which was delayed a few times until June. There were issues with the servers and the websites, which is expected for a day-one operation. However, the communication was poor. Riz claims

Writings on the Wall, June – October 2023

Between June and October, many of the firms previously managed by this team started to drop out.

Riz talks about how this was one of the first red flags because these firms were shown as the track record of the Board of Directors. They were used to pitch the idea that they were competent. Now, the firms are dropping one by one.

Some of these firms came out to the public to complain about the lack of communication and the poor treatment by the ” Board of Directors”. Rizz could resonate with these complaints already. He later called them and was warned that he should also leave.

So why didn’t he?

He claims that if they left at the time, they would leave their traders in a mess.

Whenever these issues were raised to the board of directors, they would answer, ” We are a start-up company; we are still learning,” Riz claims.

This is an entirely different tone from the pitch, in which the Board of Directors said they were ” experienced and the best ” in the industry.

Riz goes on to talk about how incompetent the marketing team was. Not knowing the basics of creating content raised a red flag. Later, Riz had to escalate the situation, and he sourced a better team to be put in place.

Meeting with BOD- November 2023

In November, they met with the Board of Directors in New York. They discussed the issues they had and were promised things would get better.

Technical issues – December to January 2024

Things improved slightly, but communication remained extremely poor. It was also discovered that the support staff had received no training from the start of the operations.

During this time, the board of directors wanted to start charging SFT for their services like adding premiums to their staff and risk services

comes off as odd because the board of directors are equity shareholders, and they own 40%. While Omar, Rizz, and Paladin each own 20%. Riz says the lack of transparency when it came to bills and invoices was one of the reasons other firms were leaving.

In late December, the board of directors claimed the tech they were using was not monitoring daily drawdowns and had issues catching people cheating the system.

Riz later said he called the Tech providers and found out they had no involvement and that these services were billed six figures a month with no transparency. This inexperience and incompetence made Riz question whether the board of directors’ earlier success was just a stroke of luck.

MetaQuotes leaving Propfirm

MetaQuotes rumors to leave the space were already rising. Riz claims that he and Omar were very vocal about voicing their concern about finding a replacement and having a back plan, but it was all met with silence

Riz continues to explain all the incompetence shown by the board of directors and the services they provided. he said that many times the prop firm support would mix up their logos with other prop firms which would come out very unprofessional.

Fast forward to when MetaQuotes left the industry. That’s where everything fell apart. Rizz says that they waited until the last hours before they had to pull out of meta quotes to just switch to DX trade

The DX TRADE migrations came with a lot of issues. The servers suffered major outages, which caused customer frustration. Riz says this was all avoidable and that it was known that the servers had issues, but the board of directors took no action

These raised concerns about refunding some of the losses traders took because of these outages. but the board said that these are DX issues and not their issues which Riz claims that its false.

Pause Operations? – March 2024

Due to the mess of migrations, Riz and Omar suggested pausing operations temporarily. Other firms were doing this to ensure smooth migration to the new dx trade servers

This was met with a condescending reply from the board of directors.

“This opened my eyes to who we were dealing with, ‘ Riz says. After three weeks of no communication and being ignored by the Board of Directors, the board finally agreed to the plan of moving to C trader but executed it poorly, leaving Riz and the traders with no communication or updates on what’s happening.

After all these events. Riz decided to give up his shares in the company and stepped away.

Riz leaves Skills Funded Trader – 17th March.

On March 17th, Riz Iqbal left Skilled Funded Traders (SFT) and claims he received no compensation for his time there.

He stayed quiet on his departure from SFT because there was acquisition talk that he didn’t want to sabotage. he claims

Board of Directors Own everything -28th March.

Acquisition talks are still being held; Omar, Paladin, and Riz are a part of that even though they gave up their equity. Riz says he is doing it for the traders who joined because of him.

However, after reaching out to the few people whom the board of directors claimed were interested in the acquisition. These people denied any information about SFT being sold to them or having the intent to

Apology to traders- Riz Iqbal

Riz took a minute to apologise to the traders and to take responsibility for what happened; he also mentioned he has no interest in taking up any prop firm venture in the future. he says its a business that requires experience and competence at the highest levels.

Find the rest of his video here

Personal Thoughts:

It’s a loaded story for sure; it does seem like Riz is throwing all the blame on the board of directors. He does seem like he had clean intentions, but unfortunately, whatever happened has happened. But is an apology enough? That’s for the traders who were victims of SFT to decide.

Influencers with massive audiences need to be more vigilant when it comes to promoting or creating such services. Many people fall victim while their wallet gets fatter

in the FX industry, which, in general, is as shady as it gets in financial markets. FX prop firms are no different. I write about why I prefer the futures scene more in Futures Prop Firms. [2024]

So what’s your thoughts? comment below