Helix Trading

Challenge

Helix Trading was about to enter the educational prop firm market, a niche where competition uses official MetaTrader integration and expensive third-party platforms (tens of thousands EUR/year just for licensing). Client requirement: own custom platform, no external dependencies on MT5, capable of running competition with specific rules (max daily drawdown, max overall drawdown, profit target, minimum trading periods), with isolated demo account per user and affiliate system for promotion. Plus a checkout experience for challenges with prices between 50 and 1500 EUR, secure payment processing, and an administrator dashboard where the Helix team can audit any trade and systemic decisions.

Solution

Stack chosen: Next.js 16 with Prisma 7 and PostgreSQL for backend, NextAuth 4 for authentication, Tailwind 4 for UI. Integration with payment providers for secure checkout. For the trading core we built a proprietary simulator processing synthetic ticks with volatility calibrated on real markets (forex major pairs, indices), respecting realistic spreads, slippage, and overnight gaps. The engine calculates key metrics in real-time (drawdown, profit, risk per trade) and automatically applies challenge rules (suspends account on max drawdown breach, marks success at profit target). For the affiliate system we implemented unique tracking per referral code, automatic commission calculation (8% on net sales), and a cashout system with skin-in-the-game (affiliate must personally pass a challenge phase with minimum profit to be eligible). Admin dashboard offers complete visibility: any user, any trade, any payment, with history and override possibility in exceptional cases.

Process

1. 01Discovery 3 sessions with founder on challenge rules and user flow
2. 02Competitor audit (FTMO, MyForexFunds, MFF) for functional baseline
3. 03Complete wireframes in Figma for all user and admin routes
4. 04Next.js + Prisma + NextAuth technical setup with role-based access
5. 05Simulator engine implementation with testing on 10,000 synthetic trades
6. 06Payment processing integration with sandbox + real testing
7. 07Affiliate system with tracking and cashout eligibility logic
8. 08Admin dashboard with audit log per systemic action