Lesson 1 of 12 · 5 min
How Prop-Firm Evaluations Really Work
What you pay for, what you're tested on, and why most evaluations end on a rule, not a strategy.
A prop-firm evaluation is a paid test. You trade a practice account; reach the profit target without breaking a rule and you can move to an account that pays you out.
What you're paying for
You pay a fee (monthly or one-off) for a practice account, usually called a 50K, 100K or 150K. A 50K often has a profit target of about $3,000.
Break any rule — even on a winning day — and the evaluation ends. A reset starts it over for another fee.
The rules are the test
Every firm writes its own, but they come from the same family: a drawdown floor, a daily loss limit at some firms, a consistency rule, minimum trading days, news and closing-time rules, and a cap on contracts.
Each of the next lessons takes one of them apart. Knowing them before you pay is cheaper than learning them on a reset.
Funded isn't the finish line
Passing gets you a funded account with its own rules for payouts: buffers, minimum days, sometimes another consistency rule. Lesson 8 covers them.
The real cost
Fees, resets and activation add up long before the first payout. Track them, so you know what rule breaks are costing you.
Example
A 50K evaluation at $150, then two resets at $80 each.
That's $150 + $160 = $310 spent before any payout.
TradeCompass turns this into your own rules: it checks every trade against them and warns you before you break one.
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Educational content only. Not financial advice, not a buy/sell signal, no guaranteed results.