What is a funded trading account?

A funded account lets you trade a prop firm's capital and keep a share of the profit — without risking your own money beyond a fee. The catch: you have to survive a strict set of rules, and that is where most traders fail.

Evaluation vs funded

First you pass an evaluation — hit a profit target without breaching the drawdown. Clear it and you move to the funded stage, where the rules often change: the trailing drawdown may switch from intraday to end-of-day, and a consistency rule and payout requirements kick in. Passing the eval is not the finish line; it is the start of the real game.

Profit split and payouts

On the funded account you keep a percentage of profits (commonly 80–100% on the first tranche), paid out once you clear a buffer and a minimum number of trading days. The firm makes money on evaluation fees and on traders who breach.

Why most funded accounts fail

Industry-wide, the large majority of funded accounts are lost to rule violations — a trailing-drawdown floor the trader misjudged, a consistency cap that locked a payout, a news spike that blew the daily loss limit — not to being a bad trader. Knowing your firm's exact mechanics is the edge.

Risk-tracking tool, not financial advice, not affiliated with any prop firm. Verify rules against your firm's current terms.