Understanding the rules

An Evaluation account makes you pass a test first — hit a profit target without breaking the rules — before you get a funded account. Instant Funding skips that: you pay more upfront and start trading a funded (simulated) account immediately, usually with tighter rules to compensate.

Drawdown is the maximum your account balance is allowed to fall before the firm shuts it down. Every firm enforces this differently — that difference is one of the most important things to understand before picking a firm.

The drawdown floor follows your balance up in real time, including open (unrealized) trades — if an open position is up $1,000, your floor moves up $1,000 too, even before you close it. This is the strictest style: a big open profit that fades back can breach the account even if you never actually lost money on paper.

The floor only moves once a day, based on your balance at market close. Open trades during the day don't move it. This gives more breathing room for trades you're holding, at the cost of only "locking in" progress once daily.

The floor is fixed from day one and never moves, regardless of profit. It's the most predictable style — you always know your exact risk — but it also never gives you extra room as you build profit, the way trailing drawdown types do.

Many trailing-drawdown accounts stop moving the floor once it reaches a certain point — often your starting balance (or a small amount above it) — so a big win can't accidentally count against you later. Once locked, the floor stays put for good.

A separate cap on how much you can lose in a single day — hit it, and the account is breached immediately, even if you're still comfortably above the overall drawdown floor. Not every firm has one; some only enforce the overall drawdown.

A rule that stops one lucky day from carrying your whole result. It's usually expressed as a percentage — e.g. a 40% consistency rule means no single day's profit can be more than 40% of your total profit when you request a payout (or, on some firms, when you pass the evaluation).

The fewest number of days you must actively trade before you're allowed to pass an evaluation or request a payout — it exists so a single lucky trade can't finish the whole thing in one shot.

Some firms don't allow opening new positions in a short window around major economic news releases (a common shape is "no new trades 2 minutes before or after," though the exact window varies by firm) — usually you can still hold an existing position through the news, just not open a fresh one. This exists because news moments cause sudden price gaps that behave differently from normal trading. It catches people who don't know it's there — a trade that would be fine any other minute of the day can be flagged if it lands inside that window. We show whether a specific account restricts this wherever it's been confirmed.

Most futures prop firms make you close every position before the session ends, and don't allow holding into the weekend at all — this is the default assumption unless a firm says otherwise. A small number explicitly allow overnight holding. Either way it's a real rule with real consequences (an automatic breach, not just a warning), so confirm it on the specific account page rather than assuming.

No — the platform and the market data feed that comes with it are provided as part of the account; you don't need to already own a platform or pay for a data subscription separately. Firms typically support a specific short list of platforms (commonly NinjaTrader, Tradovate, or a Rithmic-connected one), so the thing worth checking is whether your preferred platform is on that list, not whether you'll need to buy one.

Yes — every account caps the number of contracts you can hold at once, usually split between "minis" (standard-size futures contracts) and "micros" (roughly a tenth the size). Bigger accounts generally get higher limits. We list the exact minis/micros limit on every account's own page.

Most firms charge once for an evaluation attempt. A few bill it like a subscription instead — a recurring monthly charge that keeps renewing (and can reset your progress) until you either pass or cancel. We show whichever applies, labeled clearly.

Once funded, this is the percentage of profit you keep versus what the firm keeps — e.g. a 90/10 split means you keep 90%. Some firms increase your split at higher profit tiers, or after enough successful payouts.

KYC ("Know Your Customer") is the identity-verification step firms require before they'll pay you — usually a government ID and proof of address. Most ask for it around your first payout request rather than at purchase, though the exact timing varies by firm. Either way, have your documents ready before your first payout so it doesn't hold things up.

Payout methods vary by firm — bank wire and crypto are the two most widely supported, with some firms also offering a payment platform like Wise for international transfers. There's often a minimum payout amount and sometimes a small processing fee on certain methods. Check the specific firm's payout page for exactly what it supports and how long transfers actually take.

No — money you've already been paid out is yours to keep; breaching the account afterward only ends that specific account, not past payouts. What you lose is the account itself (and, on some firms, you'd need to buy or reset to get another one). This is standard across the industry, but worth confirming in a firm's own terms if you're unsure.

No — we always list the firm's raw list price, before any promo or affiliate discount, and we never blend a monthly-billed firm's price with a one-time firm's price into the same number (we label which one applies). Discount amounts change constantly and we didn't want a stale number left on the page. If a firm has an active affiliate code, it'll be shown separately.

An extra cushion some firms require on top of your profit before they'll approve a withdrawal — your account balance has to sit a set amount above your starting balance, not just above zero. It's common on accounts with EOD (End-of-Day) drawdown, since the firm wants a margin of safety baked in before releasing cash. Accounts advertised as buffer-free (often branded "Flex" or similar) skip this — you can withdraw as soon as you clear the ordinary profit/eligibility bar, with nothing extra held back. We show whether a specific account requires a buffer, and how large it is, wherever that's been confirmed — and flag it clearly as unresearched where it hasn't.

"Profit split" (e.g. 90/10) only tells you the ratio — it doesn't tell you how often you can actually ask for money, whether there's a minimum amount, whether a buffer has to clear first, or whether only part of your available profit is withdrawable per cycle even though your split is higher. Firms bundle these into their own named payout structure — for example, a firm's "Flex" plan might pay out a portion of open profit every few days with no buffer, while its "EOD" plan pays the full split less often but only after a buffer clears. Both can be fair; they just suit different trading styles (frequent smaller withdrawals vs. fewer, larger ones). We break out each of these facts separately on every account page instead of collapsing them into a single split number, precisely so the real structure is visible before you buy.