Prop firm foundations: what you must understand before you pay

An evaluation (or “challenge”) is a paid test account with a profit target, a drawdown limit, and often a minimum number of trading days. Passing does not mean the firm wires you a funded bank account. Many products stay in a simulated or proprietary environment and pay a profit share only after you clear payout rules. Treat the evaluation as a product with a bill and a rulebook — not a job offer.

We define true cost as evaluation price + any activation fee after you pass + the cost of each failed attempt (reset fee, or a new evaluation if resets are not offered). A $119 challenge can become roughly double after one failed attempt. Our calculator and firm pages use this formula; list prices are dated because promotions expire.

Static floors stay put. End-of-day (EOD) trailing usually updates from closed equity. Intraday trailing can move while you are in a trade. Know whether open (unrealized) profit or loss counts, when the floor stops trailing, and whether a daily loss limit exists on top. Most failed evaluations die on the drawdown rule — not “a bad week of bad luck.”

A consistency rule can cap how much of the profit target may come from a single day. Minimum trading days slow a fast pass. Payout rules decide when you can withdraw, how much of the buffer is locked, and whether the first payout has a waiting period. Passing the target without reading payout rules is how “wins” disappear on paper.

Prices and rules come from the firm’s own pages, with a checked date. We only advertise discount % for codes we control (TRUECOST, TRUECO, use partner link) or clearly labelled partner public codes such as LUMEN60 when verified. If we cannot confirm a field, the cell says “check site” — we do not invent end dates or fake countdowns. Affiliate links never change the ranking math. Full write-up: Methodology.