The prop firm challenge: rules, cost and how to pass it.

How a challenge works.

You pay an entry fee and receive a simulated account priced off live markets. Reach the profit target without breaching the daily or maximum drawdown, trade the minimum number of days, and you pass. Breach a drawdown rule at any point and the attempt is over.

One-step evaluations have a single target. Two-step evaluations split it into two smaller phases, which lowers the target per phase but doubles the number of chances to trip a floor.

The rules that actually fail people.

• Daily drawdown measured on equity — an open loser can breach it before you close anything.
• Trailing maximum drawdown that follows your highest closed-equity peak upward.
• Time limits that push traders into sizing they would never normally use.
• Consistency rules that void an account which already hit the target.
• Minimum trading days, which quietly delay a pass you have already earned.

Our $5 evaluation, in full.

• Account size: $50,000 in simulated buying power.
• Profit target: 10% net closed profit.
• Daily drawdown: 3% on equity, resets at 00:00 UTC.
• Maximum drawdown: 8% on equity, trails your highest closed-equity peak.
• Minimum trading days: 3. No time limit at all.
• News trading, EAs, weekend and overnight holds allowed. No consistency rule.
• $5 entry; $150 activation fee only if you pass, disclosed before checkout.

How to give yourself a real chance.

Size for the floor, not the target. With 8% maximum drawdown, risking 0.5% per trade survives a run of losses that would end a 2%-per-trade account. The target arrives on its own once you stop being at risk of removal.

Trade the system you already trade. An evaluation is not the place to test an idea, and the no-time-limit rule exists precisely so you never need to rush one.