Guides
A field manual for the rules, before you pay the fee.
59 guides. How challenges work, how accounts end, and how to read a rule page before you pay.
01
Before you pay
What you are actually buying, who the contract is with, and which answers have to be in writing.
9 guides
02
Rules that end accounts
Drawdown, holding, news, automation, consistency, and why a futures session is not a forex account.
18 guides
03
Fees, resets and rewards
Every charge on its own line. A share is not a payment. A refund trigger is not cash received.
9 guides
04
Read it like a desk
Source cards, a glossary, and worked comparisons that stay inside what was actually captured.
9 guides
05
How a programme is built
One step, two steps, instant accounts, and why a bigger nominal balance is not a kinder contract.
5 guides
06
Forex, futures and crypto
A session clock, a contract cap, and a weekend hold are different products. The word challenge does not unify them.
5 guides
07
Reading a live rule page
How this desk files a firm’s own sentence, and what it refuses to copy from a review site.
4 guides
Before you pay
Primer24 min
How to become a prop trader, and how challenges actually end
A field guide to prop challenges: what you are buying, how accounts fail, what to read before you pay, and what a pass does not guarantee.
Primer9 min
Challenge terminology, without the slogans
Nominal balance, phases, targets and reward shares — what the words refer to, and what they do not.
Primer8 min
A nominal balance is not capital
Simulated, live-linked, and conditional-reward arrangements are different products. The title does not choose among them.
Primer8 min
Questions to ask before you pay
A list that is more useful than a badge. Ask for the clause, not the slogan.
Working note8 min
The legal entity is the contract
A city, a brand, and a registration number are three different facts. Residence rules fail closed.
Primer6 min
Residence is a hard rule, and silence is not a visa
A country list has to be on the page. ‘People in my city use it’ is not eligibility.
Primer7 min
The checkout checklist
Ten lines to confirm on the firm’s site the day you pay. None of them are optional because a guide mentioned them last month.
Working note6 min
Questions worth sending to a firm’s support
Copy them. A useful reply quotes the clause. A useful firm does not answer with a screenshot of a dashboard.
Primer6 min
United Kingdom and United States buyers are not the same queue
Eligibility is the firm’s list. This is not legal advice, and a challenge is not a UK-regulated investment just because you found it from London.
Rules that end accounts
Working note12 min
Static versus trailing drawdown
How the floor is calculated, when it moves, and when this desk refuses to calculate it.
Working note8 min
Weekend and overnight holding
Why “not mentioned” is not “allowed”, and why a FAQ can lose to the terms.
Working note8 min
News windows
A two-minute ban, a named calendar, and a missing clause are three different products.
Working note8 min
Automation permissions
Manual trading, your own tools, and third-party bots are separate questions.
Working note10 min
Consistency rules and minimum days
You can be in profit and still fail the phase, because one day was too large or there were not enough days.
Working note8 min
Futures challenges are a different session
Flattening, data fees, and a trailing dollar distance. Do not score them on forex rows.
Working note8 min
Daily loss and maximum loss are two different tests
You can pass the day and fail the account, or get flattened for the session and still be in the evaluation.
Working note7 min
Equity and balance are not interchangeable
A floating loss can breach a rule before you close the trade. Some daily limits use the higher of the two.
Working note6 min
A soft breach and a hard breach are different products
One ends the session. One ends the account. The homepage rarely leads with which is which.
Desk method7 min
When a trailing floor stops rising
A lock is a second rule hiding inside the trail. ‘It trails’ does not say where it stops.
Desk method9 min
Best-day rules, with the arithmetic written out
50% of total profit, 50% of positive days, and 55% of the target are three different tests.
Working note7 min
A news rule is a clock, a list, and a penalty
‘News allowed’ is incomplete. You need the minutes, the calendar, and whether the evaluation differs from the reward stage.
Working note6 min
Your own expert advisor is not a third-party copier
Manual, your own code, and someone else’s bot are three permissions. Firms split them, and they should.
Working note6 min
Hedging, martingale and grid are named strategies, not personalities
A firm can ban a method without banning discretion. You need the definition they use.
Working note5 min
Time limits and inactivity are different clocks
One says you must finish by a date. The other says you must not disappear. ‘No time limit’ does not mean you can vanish for a quarter.
Primer5 min
Swap-free is a priced permission, not a moral category
Either the schedule offers it, with a cost and a limit, or it does not. A trader’s need does not create the add-on.
Working note5 min
Two accounts are a new rule, not a personal system
Copying yourself, hedging yourself, and buying the same evaluation twice are often restricted. The dashboard will not warn you in the language you use.
Primer6 min
Drawdown words, one screen
Static, trailing, end-of-day, intraday, lock, equity, balance. The short definitions used on this desk.
Fees, resets and rewards
Working note9 min
How to read a challenge fee
The initial price is one line. Activation, reset, data and a refund trigger are others.
Working note7 min
Resets, and what a second attempt costs
A reset fee is the price of another try only when a reset fee is published.
Working note7 min
Refund triggers are scenarios
A fee that comes back if you pass is not a fee you have already saved.
Desk method10 min
Reward shares are not payouts
80% of a defined profit, after a request, sometimes after a review. Not 80% of the nominal balance.
Primer6 min
Why a watched record can have no price
A rule page and a checkout are different documents. Copying a fee from a review blog is how comparison sites go stale the same afternoon.
Working note6 min
Activation fees and resets are not the evaluation price
A pass can create a second invoice. A fail can create a third. Neither belongs inside the headline fee.
Working note7 min
A pass does not start a payroll
Eligibility to request a reward is not a date the money arrives, and the split is not a share of the nominal balance.
Working note5 min
Refundable is a trigger, not a mood
The fee comes back if a named event happens. ‘Refundable’ with no event is an adjective.
Desk method5 min
Commissions can sit inside the profit target
On a futures combine the target is after simulated costs if the page says so. A forex spread can do the same job without being called a commission.
Read it like a desk
Desk method9 min
How to read a source card
The passage, the date, the scope, and the conflict note. The paraphrase is the convenience.
Primer7 min
A glossary of the words that move money
Short definitions the rest of the guides assume. If a word is not here, do not upgrade it.
Desk method8 min
Two demonstration programmes, side by side
An editorial template. Fictional records only. Not a ranking and not a review of live firms.
Desk method8 min
Same brand, three sizes, three contracts
The Northline ladder shows why a nominal balance is not a slider on one product.
Desk method7 min
How the matcher decides, including what it refuses to decide
A strong fit means every requirement you set is covered. Unknown stays unknown. Commission is not an input.
Desk method5 min
A rule captured last month is already a hypothesis
Watched records go stale on purpose, faster than a textbook. Twenty-one days, then the label changes.
Primer5 min
What this desk will not rank
No best firm, no pass-rate league, no ‘highest capital’. Those lists need numbers the firms do not publish as comparable facts.
Working note6 min
How to compare two challenges without crowning one
Put the loss mechanism, the daily line, the consistency denominator, and the unknowns in one view. Then stop.
Working note6 min
The first week, if you already paid
You cannot unread the contract. You can still measure the floor before you place the trade that matters.
How a programme is built
Primer8 min
One-step, two-step, and what the extra phase actually costs
A second phase is another target and another chance to breach. It is not a quality score, and it is not automatically cheaper.
Working note7 min
An instant account skips the target. It does not skip the rules.
No profit target is not the same as no drawdown, no consistency cap, or capital you own.
Working note8 min
A larger nominal balance is not the same contract with more zeros
Dollar limits, consistency caps, and contract caps change by size. Doubling the title does not double the room.
Primer7 min
What ‘funded’ is allowed to mean
A passed evaluation is a rule outcome. It is not proof the firm allocated live capital in your name.
Working note5 min
A scaling plan is a later contract, not today’s balance
‘Up to 2 million’ describes a path you have not been offered yet. Read the conditions or ignore the number.
Forex, futures and crypto
Primer8 min
A forex challenge and a futures combine are not the same product
Percent of a simulated balance versus a dollar floor and a contract cap. The session clock is part of the rule.
Working note6 min
The futures clock is a rule, not a preference
A session that runs from the evening into the next afternoon is one trading day. Your broker’s midnight may not be the firm’s.
Working note6 min
Contract caps are a loss rule in disguise
A mini limit is a cap on how fast you can reach the floor. Micros are not a free second account.
Primer6 min
A crypto challenge is not a forex challenge priced in USDT
The fee currency, the weekend, and the meaning of a swap are part of the contract.
Primer5 min
The platform is not the rulebook
MetaTrader, cTrader, Tradovate and a firm’s own web terminal display a balance. The contract is still the firm’s page.
Reading a live rule page
Desk method9 min
How to read the FTMO objectives page without adding a reviewer’s numbers
What the 19 October 2026 capture supports, and what it deliberately does not.
Desk method8 min
How to read Topstep when two help articles disagree
The maximum loss table is clear. The consistency percentage is not. A careful record keeps both.
Desk method8 min
How to read the Funding Pips 2-Step Pro article
A 6% static floor and a 3% daily line are usable. The news sentences are not, until the firm picks one.
Desk method6 min
When two official pages disagree, do not average them
A conflict is a finding. Smoothing it into one cell is how a comparison table becomes marketing.