You want to trade seriously, but you don't have (or don't want to risk) a lot of your own money. That's where funded accounts come in. Everyone talks about them lately, but rarely does anyone calmly explain what they are and where the small print hides. Let's do it from scratch, taking nothing for granted.
A funded account is a deal: a company (called a prop firm, from proprietary trading firm) lets you trade with THEIR money, and in exchange you split the profits. You bring the skill; they bring the capital. If you win, you get a percentage; if you lose, the hit lands on their capital, not your pocket.
It sounds too good, and that's why it comes with conditions. The firm gives away nothing: it tests you first and ties you to strict rules afterwards. Understanding those rules is half the game.
Before handing you real money, the prop firm wants to see that you can trade without blowing up. That's what the evaluation is for, also called the challenge. You pay a fee (monthly or one-off) and trade in a simulation account —fake money, real prices— with a target to hit and limits you can't cross.
If you reach the target without breaking any rule, you pass. Then they give you a "funded" account with which you generate real profits that get split. If you break a rule, you fail and have to pay for another attempt. That simple, and that demanding.
Every firm has its own, but almost all revolve around these three:
Once you have the funded account and generate real profits, you don't keep it all: it gets split. A common split leaves most of it for you and a portion for the firm. Sometimes the firm keeps the first profits or there's a minimum before you can withdraw. Always read that part of the contract: it's your real paycheck.
And watch out for one important thing: paying the evaluation fee does not guarantee you'll make anything. Plenty of people chain challenges, pay fee after fee and never get to withdraw. The business of some firms is, precisely, selling evaluations.
Here's the fact almost nobody says out loud: most people don't fail from picking bad trades. They fail on risk management. That is, from breaking their own limits.
Notice: all of these are discipline mistakes, not analysis mistakes. That's why working on your head (we cover it in the guide on trading psychology) and keeping a trading journal matters as much as knowing how to read the market.
If 90% of failures come from breaking limits in the heat of the moment, the fix isn't "having more willpower": it's making the limits act without depending on you. A system that automatically cuts the day when you touch your limit, blocks entries with no stop, and knows your trailing drawdown in real time takes exactly the account-burning mistakes out of your hands.
That's what our dedicated guide is about: how not to blow your funding evaluation. If you're about to start a challenge, read it before you press the first button.