What Is a Funded Trading Account?
A funded account is a trading account backed by a prop firm's capital rather than your own. After you prove yourself in an evaluation, the firm lets you trade their money and you keep the large majority of the profits — often 80–90%.
How it works
You pay a monthly fee to attempt an evaluation: hit a profit target without breaking the drawdown rules. Pass, and you get a funded account. From there you trade within the firm's risk rules and request payouts on your profits.
The rules that matter
- Profit target — how much you must make to pass or to withdraw.
- Trailing/max drawdown — how much you can lose before the account is gone.
- Consistency rules — some firms cap how much of your profit can come from one day.
- Daily loss limits — a hard stop on any single day.
Why traders use them
Funded accounts let a skilled but under-capitalized trader control real size without risking a large personal account. The trade-off is you must respect someone else's rules — which, honestly, makes most people better traders. Compare popular firms →
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Is a funded account real money?
You trade the firm's capital under their rules; your payouts are real money paid to you. Some firms run simulated evaluations that convert to live capital once funded — check each firm's model.
What happens if I break a rule?
You typically lose that account and have to buy a new evaluation. That's why the drawdown and daily-loss rules make risk management mandatory.
Educational content only, not financial advice. Trading futures carries substantial risk of loss.