TradeDay: a vendor template left in place on the affiliate portal
The usual discrepancy looks like this: the landing page promises one thing, the agreement gives another. The TradeDay case is built differently. Here the main affiliate page and the firm’s own portal, deployed on an affiliate software platform, diverge, and the portal shows better terms than the main page while carrying several signs of unedited default vendor text.
Disclosure: propcases.com is owned by the prop firm Hash Hedge.
What the main page says
The main affiliate page describes five tiers tied to sales volume per month (the firm’s own page, checked 2026-07-28):
| Tier | Sales per month | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 0-2500 dollars | 15% |
| Silver | 2501-5000 dollars | 15% |
| Gold | 5001-10,000 dollars | 20% |
| Platinum | 10,001-25,000 dollars | 22.5% |
| Diamond | over 25,000 dollars | 22.5% |
The grid itself is built in a non-standard way: Bronze and Silver give the same rate of 15 percent, Platinum and Diamond give the same rate of 22.5 percent (the firm’s own page, checked 2026-07-28). In terms of rates there are three steps rather than five, and moving from Bronze to Silver, like moving from Platinum to Diamond, does not change the payout.
Other terms on the main page (the firm’s own page, checked 2026-07-28):
- a cookie lifetime of 365 days;
- personal promo codes;
- giveaways for the audience: 0, 1, 2, 3 and 5 by tier respectively;
- a free 50 thousand account and custom graphics on the upper tiers;
- quarterly meetings with affiliates.
A 365 day window is among the longest in the niche and makes the program suitable for content traffic with delayed conversion. How to calculate that effect is covered in the piece on the attribution window.
What the firm’s own portal says
TradeDay has an affiliate portal on the subdomain tradeday.postaffiliatepro.com (the firm’s own page, checked 2026-07-28). The faq.php page on that portal describes the program differently (the firm’s own page, checked 2026-07-28):
- “you will receive 30 percent of the sale amount”;
- payouts through PayPal;
- a minimum payout of 100 dollars;
- payouts once a month, on the 15th;
- tracking by a combination of cookies and IP address;
- the answer to the question about paid search advertising is “YES”.
Let us compare line by line.
| Parameter | The main page | The portal on the subdomain |
|---|---|---|
| Rate | 15-22.5% by tier | 30% on every sale |
| Attribution | 365 day cookies | cookies plus IP address |
| Threshold | not stated | 100 dollars |
| Payment term | not stated | once a month, on the 15th |
| Paid search | not described | permitted |
Data from the firm’s own pages, checked 2026-07-28.
The discrepancy on the rate runs from 7.5 to 15 percentage points in the portal’s favour. The discrepancy on paid search is fundamental: the main page does not address the question, the portal answers in the affirmative (the firm’s own page, checked 2026-07-28).
Signs of a default template
The same faq.php page contains elements that are hard to explain as the firm’s own editing (the firm’s own page, checked 2026-07-28):
- a link to a book on affiliate marketing on Amazon;
- a link to Google AdWords help;
- the generic wording “30 percent on every sale”, not tied to the TradeDay product.
Post Affiliate Pro is an affiliate software platform, and its installation ships with a ready set of FAQ pages filled with examples. Links to a third party book and to the help pages of an ad system under its old name, together with an abstract rate not tied to the account line-up, match that set.
Taken together, the signs point to an uncleaned default vendor template rather than separately configured program terms.
Why it matters anyway
Formally this is a TradeDay page. It is hosted on the firm’s subdomain, it opens to the affiliate after registration, and it is not marked as a draft or an example (the firm’s own page, checked 2026-07-28).
An affiliate who logs into the dashboard and opens the FAQ reads in good faith what the firm has shown him. He has no way to tell a default template from the terms in force: both pages belong to the same brand, both are available, and neither carries a note about priority.
The difference between 22.5 and 30 percent changes the profitability calculation for a traffic source by roughly a third. Permission for paid search changes not the calculation but the list of available channels: an affiliate who has read “YES” may launch a campaign on the basis of a page belonging to the firm.
The practical rule here is the same as in all other discrepancy cases: if the terms in one source are better than in another, this is not luck but a reason to get written confirmation. Similar situations at other firms are collected in the breakdown of four programs with mismatching tier grids and in the general piece on the landing page against the agreement.
What is absent from every source
Recurring commission on renewals of the monthly subscription is not described anywhere: neither on the main affiliate page nor on the portal (the firm’s own page, checked 2026-07-28).
This is a significant gap. TradeDay sells a subscription product, the tiers on the main page are counted by sales volume per month, but the question of whether commission is credited on the second and third month of the same client is not closed by any wording. The answer to it determines income more than the difference between tiers.
We also checked TradeDay’s general Terms and Conditions in full. The document does not contain a single clause about the affiliate program (the agreement text, checked 2026-07-28). That is, there is no publicly available signed document that would resolve the contradiction between the main page and the portal.
On the “10 million paid out” figure
The stated 10 million dollars of payouts refers to payouts to traders, not to affiliates (the firm’s own page, checked 2026-07-28). It is a correct figure in its own context, but it says nothing about the size of the affiliate program and should not be used when assessing how much the program pays affiliates.
What to do
Calculate the economics from the main page, not from the portal. The 30 percent rate and the permission for paid search are not confirmed by any document other than a page that by all signs is a vendor template.
Request written confirmation of the rate in force. The direct question: does the calculation use the 15-22.5 percent grid or the 30 percent value from the faq.php page.
Request written confirmation on paid search separately. The “YES” answer on the portal is the only mention of the subject, and launching paid traffic on that basis alone is risky.
Ask a direct question about recurring commission. Is commission credited on renewals of the monthly subscription, and if so at what rate. None of the sources checked answers this question.
Clarify the threshold and payment term for the main program. The figures of 100 dollars and the 15th of the month appear only on the portal and may belong to the software’s default configuration.
Check how monthly sales volume is counted for moving between tiers: by payments, by first-time sales or by all transactions. The tiers are tied to a money volume, and the definition here matters more than the boundaries themselves.
Do not use the 10 million payout figure when assessing the affiliate program. It refers to traders.
Save both pages with the date they were saved. The portal can be edited at any moment, and without a saved copy there will be nothing to point to.
Company response
A request for comment was sent to TradeDay. We asked the company to state which terms are in force, to explain the status of the faq.php page on the tradeday.postaffiliatepro.com subdomain, and to say whether commission is credited on renewals of the monthly subscription. The response will be published in this piece in full as soon as it arrives.
