Trading with Prop Firms
Complete guide to succeed in challenges and manage funded accounts. Transform your talent into income without risking your capital.
🎯 Training Objective
Give you all the keys to succeed with prop firms: understand the rules, avoid pitfalls, optimize your chances of success and generate recurring income.
What is a Prop Firm
Understanding the prop firm model and their advantages.
📚 Definition and Model
A prop firm (proprietary trading firm) provides capital to traders to trade the financial markets
Trader takes a challenge to prove their skills
If successful, access to an account with firm capital
Profit sharing (typically 70-90% for the trader)
Firm assumes losses (within limits)
✅ Advantages
- • No personal capital at risk
- • Accounts from 10k to 400k+ available
- • High leverage
- • Scaling possible with success
- • Training and support
⚠️ Disadvantages
- • Challenge cost (100-1000$+)
- • Strict rules to follow
- • Psychological pressure
- • Not all trading styles accepted
- • Monthly fees sometimes
Types of Evaluations
The different challenge models and their specifics.
Classic Challenge (2 steps)
Phase 1
objective: 8-10% profit
maxLoss: 10% max drawdown
dailyLoss: 5% daily loss
duration: 30 days minimum
minDays: 10 trading days
Phase 2
objective: 5% profit
maxLoss: 10% max drawdown
dailyLoss: 5% daily loss
duration: 60 days minimum
minDays: 10 trading days
Instant Funding
- • No challenge
- • Immediate funded account
- • Stricter drawdown (6-8%)
- • Higher cost
- • Lower profit split (50-70%)
One Step Challenge
Objective: 8-10% profit
- • Single phase
- • Rules similar to classic
- • Faster but more expensive
- • Growing popularity
📊 Comparison
Rules to Master
Understanding and respecting rules to avoid failure.
📉 Drawdown Rules
maximum
definition: Maximum loss from initial capital
calculation: Initial capital - Lowest equity
example: 100k account, 10% = never go below 90k
type: Static or Trailing
daily
definition: Maximum loss in one day
calculation: Beginning of day balance - 5%
reset: Resets at 00:00 GMT or EST
trap: Includes floating P&L
trailing
definition: The drawdown follows profits
example: Profit +5k, drawdown moves to 95k
danger: More difficult to manage
strategy: Lock profits quickly
📊 Trading Rules
minDays
Minimum 3-10 trading days
consistency
No more than 30-50% profit in one day
newsTrading
Forbidden 2min before/after major news
weekend
Positions closed or hedged
instruments
Only authorized ones
lotSize
Limits on maximum position size
💰 Profit Rules
target
Target to reach (8-10%)
noPressure
No time limit (except few firms)
verification
Phase 2 ou verification obligatoire
withdrawal
Specific withdrawal rules
Challenge Strategies
Optimal approaches to succeed in the evaluation.
conservative
principle: Safety before speed
risk: 0.5-1% per trade max
objective: Target 0.5-1% per day
duration: Use all available time
advantages: Less stress, more margin for error
aggressive
principle: Finish fast with more risk
risk: 2-3% per trade
objective: 2-3% per day
duration: Finish in 5-10 days
danger: One bad day = failure
mixed
principle: Start safe, accelerate with cushion
phase1: 0.5% risk until +3%
phase2: Increase to 1-2% with buffer
advantages: Balance safety/speed
🎯 Tactics by Phase
beginning
- • Start small (0.25-0.5%)
- • Test the platform
- • Build confidence
- • Create positive momentum
middle
- • Increase if in profit
- • Maintain consistency
- • Avoid overtrading
- • Protect gains
end
- • Reduce risk
- • Secure passage
- • Avoid stupid mistakes
- • Maximum patience
Funded Account Management
Optimize management once the account is obtained.
🚀 Beginning
mindset: Real trading starts now
approach:
- • Start very conservative (0.25-0.5%)
- • Build a profit cushion
- • Establish positive track record
- • Request scaling after 3-4 months
📈 Scaling
conditions:
- • Generally 10% profit on funded
- • 3-4 months of profitable trading
- • No rule violations
- • Consistency in approach
evolution: 100k → 200k → 400k → 600k+ possible
strategy: Stay consistent, don't change style
💰 Withdrawals
frequency: Bi-weekly or monthly per firm
amount: 80-90% of profits
strategy:
- • Withdraw regularly
- • Keep buffer on account
- • Reinvest in more accounts
- • Diversify firms
⚠️ Risks
loss: Violation = account loss
inactivity: Fees or closure after 30 days
rules: Possible changes
technical: Platform/connection problems
Pitfalls to Avoid
Common mistakes that lead to failure.
🧠 Psychological
- • FOMO - wanting to finish too fast
- • Revenge trading after loss
- • Overconfidence after gains
- • Trading tired or emotional
- • Compare to other traders
- • Neglecting the rules
⚙️ Technical
- • Not understanding daily drawdown
- • Forgetting trailing drawdown
- • Trading during news
- • Leaving positions over weekend
- • Using unauthorized instruments
- • Exceeding lot limits
📊 Strategic
- • Changing strategy mid-challenge
- • Taking too much risk at start
- • No trading plan
- • Ignoring economic calendar
- • Overtrading
- • Martingale or grid trading
✅ Solutions
preparation
- • Read ALL the rules
- • Backtest your strategy
- • Calculate position sizes
- • Prepare plan B
execution
- • Daily checklist
- • Drawdown alarms
- • Trading journal
- • Weekly review
mental
- • Regular breaks
- • Sport/meditation
- • Support/community
- • Think long term
Choosing Your Prop Firm
Criteria for selecting the best prop firm.
reputation
- • Age (2+ years ideal)
- • Trustpilot reviews
- • Proven payments
- • Active community
- • Responsive support
rules
- • Drawdown type (static vs trailing)
- • News trading allowed
- • Weekend holding
- • Scaling available
- • Tradable instruments
costs
- • Challenge price
- • Monthly funded account fees
- • Withdrawal fees
- • Possible refund
- • Regular promotions
technical
- • Platform (MT4/5, cTrader, etc)
- • Execution quality
- • Spreads and commissions
- • Server location
- • Data feed quality
🏆 Top Firms by Market
forex
futures
stocks
crypto
Multi-Account Strategy
Maximize income with multiple accounts.
🎯 Diversification
firms: Spread across 3-5 different firms
sizes: Mix of accounts (50k, 100k, 200k)
styles: Different strategies per account
risks: Protection against firm closure
📈 Progression
phase1: Get first funded account
phase2: Reinvest profits in challenges
phase3: Target 5-10 funded accounts
phase4: Scale up the best accounts
⚙️ Management
time:
- • Automate as much as possible
- • Simple replicable strategies
- • Defined trading sessions
- • Copy trades between accounts
risk:
- • Correlation between accounts
- • Limited total exposure
- • Hedging between accounts
- • Reserve for new challenges
💰 Objectives
conservative: 5 accounts × 2k/month = 10k/month
realistic: 10 accounts × 3k/month = 30k/month
ambitious: 20+ accounts × 5k/month = 100k+/month
Tools and Resources
Essential tools to succeed with prop firms.
analysis
- • TradingView for charting
- • MetaTrader for execution
- • Position size calculator
- • Economic calendar
- • Trading journal (Tradervue, Edgewonk)
management
- • Multi-account tracking spreadsheet
- • Drawdown alerts (TradingView)
- • Consolidated P&L dashboard
- • Rules and limits tracker
- • Discord bot for updates
learning
- • Specialized YouTube channels
- • Discord communities
- • Forums (ForexFactory)
- • Mentoring programs
- • Prop firm newsletters
automation
- • EA/Robots (if allowed)
- • Copy trading services
- • Multi-account trade copier
- • Risk management tools
- • API connections
🆓 Free
- • PropFirmsCodes.com for promos
- • YouTube tutorials
- • Free Discord servers
- • Unlimited demos
- • Backtesting tools
💎 Premium
- • Specialized trading courses
- • 1-on-1 mentoring
- • Premium signals
- • Pro tools (Sierra, Jigsaw)
- • VPS for trading
Complete Action Plan
Roadmap to become a profitable prop firm trader.
Preparation and Learning
month1
- Study prop firm rules
- Choose your strategy
- Backtest 100+ trades
- Intensive demo trading
- Join community
First Challenge
month2
- Choose suitable firm
- Start with small account (25-50k)
- Apply conservative strategy
- Document every trade
- Analyze performance
Optimization
month3-4
- If failure: analyze and retry
- If success: manage funded conservatively
- Build track record
- Prepare scaling
- Plan multi-accounts
Expansion
month5-6
- Add 2-3 accounts
- Diversify firms
- Gradually increase sizes
- Optimize process
- First significant withdrawals
Professionalization
year2
- 10+ active funded accounts
- Stable 5-figure/month revenue
- Maximum automation
- Mentor other traders
- Legal business structure
💡 Final Tips
- ✅ Start small and increase gradually
- ✅ Never risk more than you can lose
- ✅ Treat the challenge like a real account
- ✅ Respect ALL rules without exception
- ✅ Have a plan B in case of failure
- ❌ Not reading the rules completely
- ❌ Changing strategy mid-route
- ❌ Wanting to finish too quickly
- ❌ Neglecting psychological aspect
- ❌ Putting all eggs in one basket
Important Warning
The information presented on this page is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice, investment recommendations, or trading incentives. Trading carries significant risks of financial losses. Past performance is not indicative of future results. We strongly encourage you to properly educate yourself, practice on a demo account, and never invest more than you can afford to lose. Consult a professional financial advisor before making any investment decision.
PropFirmsCodes.com is an independent information and comparison site. We may receive commissions through affiliate links, but this does not influence our editorial content. We strive to provide objective and up-to-date information on all prop firms.