Prop-firm guides & tutorials
Complete methods for firm rules, risk, plan cost, payouts and the daily close — formulas, worked examples and the exact tool that applies each one to a real desk.
- Guides
- 27
- Topics
- 4
- Last updated
- 26 Aug 2026
The true cost of getting funded: resets, fees and activation included
A $145 evaluation costs $489 by the time the account is funded in the worked ledger below, two resets, one firm fee and one activation sit between the checkout page and the day the firm issues the account. If you cannot list those middle charges for your own attempt, you do not know what it cost.
Every method here is public — no email wall and no hidden formula. Account-only references cost nothing; applying a method to your own private desk is Pro.
Costs
7 more guidesReset, repurchase or walk away: price the next dollar and the drag behind it
Reset or buy a new prop firm evaluation? Price the retry against a fresh entry, total reset drag vs the entry price, and read the walk-away thresholds.
Your bank balance is not your net profit
Prop firm payout vs profit: the two formulas, net profit and bank cash position, and where top-ups, withdrawals and a linked bank feed each belong.
Are prop firm sales worth it? Price the full path first
Are prop firm sales worth it? Compare the sale price with the total path cost (renewals, resets, activation) and learn to read a firm's real promo history.
Reconcile prop-firm bank charges without double-counting
Reconcile prop firm bank charges with your cost log: why identified spend is a floor, how to resolve each difference, and how refunds are handled.
How much should you spend on evals? Set the limit before the first checkout
How much should you spend on prop firm evals? Price the full path (entry, resets, activation) then write a spend ceiling and stopping rule before checkout.
Activation fees: the cost between passing and your first funded trade
What a futures prop-firm activation fee buys, when it is charged, and how to price it into cost to funded, with each firm's own published cell.
Monthly-subscription evals: the billing cycle is the multiplier
How auto-renewing evaluation subscriptions price cycles instead of attempts, the crossover math against a one-time entry, and the renewal-date trap.
Risk
7 guidesTrailing drawdown explained: end-of-day vs intraday, by plan and phase
Trailing drawdown explained: how end-of-day, intraday and static rules compute the loss line, when a breach is tested, and which plans switch at funding.
How many contracts? Price the stop in dollars first
How many contracts to trade: futures position sizing from stop distance and risk budget, with MES, ES, MNQ, NQ, MYM, YM and metals tick math.
The same copied stop lands on four different drawdown floors
Copy trading across prop firm accounts: sum gross stop risk per seat and check each trailing drawdown's remaining room before one stop ends a funded seat.
Every open stop across your funded accounts draws on one risk budget
How to budget risk across multiple funded accounts: sum every open stop's dollar risk into one desk total and count unknown drawdown room as zero.
When does a trailing drawdown stop trailing? The floor-lock rules, firm by firm
Does trailing drawdown ever stop? The three published floor-lock behaviors (trails forever, locks at start, locks $100 above) firm by firm, with worked math.
Can an intraday dip breach an end-of-day drawdown? On most desks, yes
An end-of-day drawdown floor can still be breached hours before the close. Why floor movement and floor enforcement are two different published facts.
Soft pause, hard cap or none: read what your daily loss limit does
Soft pause, hard breach or none: what each published daily-loss-limit shape does to the same losing session, and why a checkout choice can decide it.
Rules
8 guidesProp firms for scalpers: the three tests behind “scalping allowed”
Minimum-hold, profit-share and simulated-fill rules for futures scalpers: published windows from 5 seconds to 2 minutes, and what to check before you pay.
Consistency rules: evaluation gate or payout gate?
Prop firms with no consistency rule: why it is a per-phase question, the biggest-day profit floor formula, and worked evaluation and payout math.
What actually happens when you cross a consistency percentage
A consistency breach usually defers a payout rather than failing the account. The deferral arithmetic, the denominators plans divide by, and the ladders.
Payout minimums, caps and buffers: why the withdrawal button is greyed out
Minimum request, per-request cap and the balance floor: the three published numbers that decide whether a funded account can withdraw, worked in dollars.
Can you pass a futures eval in one day? The two floors that decide
What minimum-trading-day rules gate, what counts as a trading day, and the consistency math that turns a day-one target hit into a bigger target.
Account caps: read the scope before you read the number
How prop-firm account caps count: per-trader versus per-household scope, separate evaluation and funded caps, and the published wording by firm.
News trading rules: a two-minute window, and a different answer per plan
How futures prop-firm news clauses compute (flat windows, listed events, plan splits and phase asymmetry) with each firm's own published cell.
Passing swaps the rule set: what changes the day you get funded
Which published rules differ between the evaluation and the funded account, drawdown model, consistency, daily loss limit and the fee in between.
Desk discipline
4 guidesProp firms for steady income: how consistent payouts actually work
How prop-firm payout eligibility, buffers, minimum requests, cadence and splits compute, and how to measure the cash you actually received.
How to pass a prop firm evaluation: a five-day plan without a trade quota
How to pass a prop firm evaluation in five days without a trade quota: sourced minimum trading days run 0, 3, plan a daily loss budget and valid no-trade days.
The daily close recomputes your account. The closeout writes it down
Prop firm daily closeout: recompute the end-of-day drawdown floor, check the consistency ratio, and log P&L, payouts and process notes in separate lanes.
Your year is three lists, and the dates decide which year
How to keep a funded trader's money record: payouts by received date, every firm charge beyond the entry fee, and what a year-end export refuses to guess.
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Which platform works with which prop firm?
Connection tutorials and a firm compatibility table for Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Project X, Rithmic and more.