10 · Prop firms and challenges
Chapter 10

Prop firms and challenges

Compare firms and their rules, track the progress of your challenges, and measure what they really earn you, fees included.

4 min read · Version 1.2.51 · updated 29 September 2026

By the end of this chapter, you will know how to
  • Compare prop firms and brokers on their rules and their cost
  • Check what a firm allows in terms of automation
  • Track target, daily loss and drawdown on a challenge
  • Keep a ledger of your spending and your payouts

The comparator

Profile and Social > Propfirms / Brokers. Two tabs, Propfirms and Brokers, filterable by category (Forex / CFD, Futures), platform, model (1, 2 or 3 steps, instant) and rating.

Cost per $
What you pay for $1 of funded capital: sum of prices divided by sum of sizes of the 2-step accounts. The lower, the cheaper the funding.
Reliability
Regulation and jurisdiction, seniority, reviews, transparency.
Max allocation, max split, payout
The maximum capital, your share of the profits, and the payout rhythm.
Brokers
Regulators, minimum deposit, spread from, commission and maximum leverage.

A firm's page details each account (size, model, price, phase targets, daily loss, drawdown and its type — static, trailing or end of day —, split, fee refund) and its rules: news trading, weekend holding, EAs and robots, copy trading, scaling plan, minimum days, time limit, consistency rule. Every page cites its sources and its verification date.

Automated trading: three uses

A firm can allow one use and forbid another. Kara tells them apart, with a level for each: Allowed, With conditions, Forbidden or To confirm.

Terminal (trade-manager EA)
You decide, a program places and manages the order: the trading terminal and its risk engine.
Copier (between your accounts)
Replicating your own positions from one account to another: the copier. Copying a third party's account is forbidden everywhere.
Automated strategy
A program decides and places orders on its own: an automated strategy.

Track a challenge

  1. 1
    Declare the account's firm.

    When adding a MetaTrader account, give the firm, the phase and the challenge size; Kara often recognises the firm from the broker.

  2. 2
    Trading Journal > Challenges tab > Tracking, then Track this challenge on the account.
  3. 3
    Check the pre-filled rules.

    Account size, target, maximum daily loss, maximum total loss, drawdown type (static, trailing on equity, trailing at end of day), minimum trading days and start date. An empty field means the firm has no such rule.

  4. 4
    Save.

The challenge card shows the stage (Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3 or Funded), the status (In progress, Target reached or Limit breached) and four gauges:

Target
What is left to earn.
Daily loss
The margin left before today's floor.
Max drawdown
The margin left before the overall floor.
Trading days
Days counted, against the required minimum.

Profitability

The Profitability tab keeps count of what prop firms cost you and earn you. Record each entry: challenge, reset, activation, other fees, payout or refund, with the firm, the account, the amount and the currency. The firm's catalogue price is offered when Kara knows it.

  • Spent, Received, Net profit and Return (the return on what you spent), in total and by firm.
  • Withdrawals found on your prop firm accounts: a withdrawal from a funded account is usually a payout. Record as payout adds it in one click.
  • Export CSV for your bookkeeping.