Guides

What every rule in our comparison tables means, with examples. New to prop trading? Start with the first guide. Looking for a specific word? See the glossary.

• What is a prop trading firm?

  How retail prop firms work: evaluation fees, simulated funded accounts, profit splits and what you are really buying.

• How prop firm evaluations work

  Profit target, max drawdown, daily loss limit, minimum trading days and the phases from evaluation to funded account.

• Drawdown types explained: intraday, end-of-day and static

  The three drawdown models used by prop firms, with a worked example, and why trailing intraday is the hardest to pass.

• The consistency rule explained

  What a 30%, 40% or 50% consistency (best-day) rule means, with examples, and how it can block your payout.

• The true cost of a prop firm: fees you only see later

  Evaluation fee, activation fee, data feed, resets and payout thresholds: how to calculate what you really pay before your first payout.

• Activation fees and data feed fees

  What a PA/activation fee is, why futures firms charge data fees, and how they change the real price of an account.

• Payout rules, thresholds and safety buffers

  Minimum payout days, winning-day requirements, caps and withdrawal buffers: what stands between you and your first withdrawal.

• Profit split explained

  What 80/20, 90/10 and 100%-first-$10K splits mean and how they change what you actually keep.

• News trading and weekend holding rules

  Can you trade FOMC, NFP and CPI? Can you hold positions over the weekend? How prop firms restrict both.

• Contract scaling and position limits

  Why some futures firms limit your size at first and how scaling plans work.

• How to choose a prop firm

  A checklist for picking a prop firm based on your trading style: drawdown, consistency, fees, payouts and platform.

• Prop firm red flags to watch for

  Warning signs: unrealistic claims, hidden fees, unclear rules and slow payouts.

• How PropFirmVS makes money and how we compare firms

  Our affiliate disclosure, how data is collected and verified, and what “Unverified” means.