Learn prop trading: the guide library
7 guides, built on our records of 90 prop firms and 2,213 challenges. Medians, prices and worked examples update whenever those records change, and outside figures are linked to their source.
Prop firms, explained from zero
The funded-trading model in plain words, checked against every firm in our database.
How prop firms earn their revenue
Fees, funded accounts and payouts: follow the money from your purchase to your withdrawal.
Seven steps to a funded account
From picking a market to the first withdrawal, priced with current challenge fees.
Passing your challenge: the risk method
Position sizing, losing-streak maths and the rules behind most breached accounts.
Consistency rule and best-day calculator
Work out your best-day share, see the usual caps and test your own numbers.
Static versus trailing loss floors
One equity curve run through every drawdown model so you can see the difference.
Checking a prop firm before buying
Warning signs, a pre-purchase checklist and track-record data across firms.
Key terms, in plain words
- Challenge / evaluation
- The test you pay for. Reach its profit goal while staying inside its loss caps and the firm hands you a funded account.
- One-step / two-step
- How many phases the test has. A two-step version breaks the goal into two smaller targets.
- Instant funding
- You buy the funded account directly and skip the test. Expect to pay more for it.
- Daily loss limit
- Your loss ceiling for a single session, set as a percent of the opening balance or of the start-of-day balance or equity.
- Maximum loss
- A hard equity floor. Touch it once and the account closes. It can be fixed or moving.
- Trailing drawdown
- A moving floor that climbs as your peak balance or equity climbs. See how it moves.
- Consistency rule
- Limits how much of your overall profit one strong day may supply. Try the calculator.
- PT:DD ratio
- The profit goal of all phases added together, divided by the maximum loss. A lower number means less to earn for the room you get.
- Profit split
- The part of funded-account profit that goes to you. The top split is most often 80%, and 39 of 90 firms go to 90% or more.
- Payout cycle
- How often a withdrawal can be requested, for example every day, every week or every two weeks.
- Activation fee
- A single charge, common at futures firms, paid after you pass and before trading the funded account.
- Scaling plan
- The conditions under which a firm raises your account size once you hit profit and payout milestones.