Frequently asked questions

An evaluation is a test: hit a profit target without breaking the rules, then you get a funded account. Instant funding skips the test. You pay more and start on a funded account straight away, usually with tighter rules.

The most your balance can fall before the firm closes the account. It's the rule that fails most accounts, and firms measure it in different ways, covered below.

The loss limit follows your balance up in real time, including open trades. If a trade is $1,000 up, your limit rises $1,000 before you close it. It's the strictest type: a winning trade that fades back can fail the account even though you never lost money.

The loss limit only moves once a day, based on your balance at the close. Open trades during the day don't move it, so you have more room to hold a position.

The loss limit is fixed on day one and never moves. You always know your exact risk, but profit never gives you extra room.

Many trailing limits stop moving once they reach a set level, usually your starting balance or a little above it. From then on the limit stays put, so later gains can't be used against you.

A cap on how much you can lose in one day, separate from the overall loss limit. What matters is what happens when you hit it. On a hard breach the account fails immediately. On a soft breach you're stopped for the rest of the day and can trade again tomorrow. Lucid Trading, Alpha Futures and Bulenox's End-of-Day accounts use soft breaches. Many accounts have no daily limit at all.

A limit on how much of your profit can come from one day. With a 40% rule, no single day can be more than 40% of your total profit when you request a payout (or, at some firms, when you pass).

The fewest days you must trade before you can pass or request a payout, so one lucky trade can't finish the job. Many firms only count a day if you made a minimum profit on it, often around $150 to $200. For example, "5 qualifying days" can mean five separate days each closing at least $150 up, not just five days with a trade on them.

Some firms block new trades in a window around major economic releases, often 2 minutes either side. You can usually keep a position open through the news, you just can't open one. A trade that's fine at any other minute can break the rule inside that window. Each account page shows whether it applies.

Usually not. Most futures firms want positions closed before the session ends, and very few allow weekend holds. If you leave something open, the platform normally closes it for you at the cutoff. The account survives, but you exit on the firm's schedule. A few accounts do allow overnight holds, sometimes with a lower contract limit. Account pages show this where we've confirmed it.

No. The platform and market data come with the account. Firms support a short list of platforms (commonly NinjaTrader, Tradovate or a Rithmic-connected one), so check yours is on it.

Every account caps how many contracts you can hold at once. Ten micros equal one mini, so a 3-mini limit is the same as 30 micros. Larger accounts get higher limits. Micros let you trade smaller than one mini, which matters on small accounts. Each account page lists its limit.

Most firms charge once per evaluation. A few charge monthly until you pass or cancel, and some reset your progress at each renewal. We label which one applies.

The share of profit you keep once funded. A 90% split means you keep 90 cents of every dollar. Some firms raise it after a profit threshold or a number of payouts.

Identity checks: usually a government ID and proof of address. Most firms ask around your first payout rather than at purchase. Have your documents ready so it doesn't delay that payout.

Usually through Wise or Rise, and many firms also pay in crypto. Bank wire exists but tends to be slower. Expect a minimum payout amount and sometimes a fee. How long the firm takes to approve a payout is a separate question from how fast the transfer clears.

Profit you have to leave in the account before you can withdraw. Your balance must stay a set amount above your starting balance. Usually the buffer equals the account's drawdown: on a $50,000 account with a $2,000 drawdown, you'd need to get the balance to $52,000 before you can withdraw anything, and only profit above that can be paid out. It's common on end-of-day drawdown accounts. Accounts sold as buffer-free (often called Flex) let you withdraw once you meet the normal payout rules. Account pages show the buffer where we've confirmed it.

Most firms send an approved payout within a few business days. A firm that regularly takes much longer is worth knowing about before you buy, because you only find out after you've earned the money. No firm publishes this, so we flag it on the Trust Score only where we have evidence of a pattern, with roughly how long it takes.

Buying lots of cheap evaluations at once, passing as many as possible, and putting any payout straight into buying more. Firms call it account rolling, churning, stockpiling or bulk account exploitation, and Apex, FundedNext, TopOne Futures, Topstep and Goat Funded Futures ban it explicitly. Penalties include closed accounts, voided profits and bans. Holding several accounts within a firm's limit is normal. The rule targets the buy, blow and rebuy cycle.

Rules about how you made your profit, not how much. Two patterns get flagged: erratic sizing (a few minis on the trades that count, micros on the rest to tick off trading days) and windfall profit (most of the result from one huge day or trade). The firm can void that day, reduce what counts toward a payout, or review the account. There's no number to stay under and you find out at payout time, so if you rely on occasional big winners, read the firm's wording first.

Opposite positions on two of your accounts, so one always wins, are banned at most firms, and firms watch for correlated trades between accounts you own. If you run related positions across accounts, check the firm's wording first.

A schedule that raises your contract limit as your funded account makes profit. On Funded Futures Family's 25K account you start at 1 mini, get 2 at $1,000 profit and 3 at $2,000. Other firms step faster. Check two things: whether the account just gives you the full limit from day one, and whether you keep a tier if your balance later drops.

Most firms let you pay a reset fee to restart a failed evaluation, usually less than the original price. Some cap how many you can buy. If you expect more than one attempt, add resets to the real cost.

A one-time charge some firms take after you pass, before the funded account goes live. Firms that charge less upfront often charge more here, so compare the two together. You can filter for accounts with no activation fee in the comparison table.

A requirement to trade at least once every set number of days, or the account is paused or closed. It's separate from minimum trading days. If you wait days for a setup, check this before buying.

It depends on the firm. A common line: automation you built yourself, trading only your own account, is fine; someone else's bot or signal service isn't. The rules vary a lot, so if anything in your setup trades on its own, read the firm's wording first.

Copying an unrelated trader's positions, for example a Discord group where members all take the same call seconds apart, is treated as a red flag at many firms. Others don't define it. Check the firm's wording before joining a signal group.

No. Arbitrage, including latency arbitrage (trading the lag between the firm's price feed and the real market), is banned at essentially every firm and treated as a serious violation.

Some firms ban them by name. Elsewhere, doubling up after losses tends to run into the daily and overall loss limits quickly anyway. If it's core to how you trade, read the firm's terms first.

Usually not. Firms want the buyer trading the account. VPNs and changing IP addresses can trigger a review even for innocent reasons like travel, and letting someone else trade for you is banned. If you need a VPN, check the firm's policy first.

Stop trading it and report it. Trading a frozen feed, a stale fill or a display error on purpose lets the firm void the trades, take back the profit and close the account, and repeated cases are treated as fraud.

Some firms require a stop on every trade and treat skipping it as a violation. Others ban lopsided setups (a tiny target with a huge stop) or letting a losing trade run into the account's loss limit instead of exiting yourself. These rules are about method, so check them if you trade without fixed exits.

Trading that exploits how the simulated account works rather than the market: high-frequency trading aimed at the simulator, chasing bad fills, going over the contract limit, or placing orders both sides of the market hoping for a lucky fill. It usually ends the account.

Often. A typical rule says at least half your trades, and half your profit, must come from trades held longer than 10 seconds or a minute. It rules out microscalping that only works with a simulator's perfect fills. It can block a payout even if you passed everything else.