A futures prop firm lets you trade its capital instead of your own. You pay for an evaluation, trade a simulated account under strict rules, and if you pass, you trade a funded account and keep most of the profit. The firm never needs you to be a genius. It needs you to respect the rules, and that is exactly where most traders fail.
I traded as a funded trader at Topstep in Chicago, and this April I made about $10,000 in profit on a Take Profit Trader account in roughly ten trading days, trading the same metals and oil futures this site covers.
That is one trader’s result, not a typical one, and not a promise. Most traders do not pass an evaluation, and many who pass lose the funded account. The rest of this page is about why, and how to stack the odds in your favour.
How an evaluation works
The details differ from firm to firm, but the shape is the same everywhere:
- You buy an evaluation for an account size, for example $50,000. You trade it in simulation, usually with a monthly fee until you pass.
- You hit a profit target, typically a few thousand dollars on a $50,000 account, without breaking the rules.
- You stay inside the loss limits: a maximum drawdown for the whole account and, at many firms, a daily loss limit.
- You pass, and get funded, sometimes after an activation fee. From then on, profits are paid out under the firm’s payout rules, with a profit split in your favour.
The firm’s business model rests largely on evaluation fees. That is not a scandal; it is how the industry works. It means the rules are designed so that undisciplined traders pay, and disciplined ones get paid.
The rule that fails most traders: the drawdown
Most accounts are not lost to one bad trade. They are lost to the drawdown rule, and above all to the trailing drawdown, which many traders misunderstand.
Start: the floor sits at $48,000
Profit to $51,500: the floor trails up to $49,500
Give back $2,000 from the peak: account closed, even though you are still $1,500 up
That is the trap: a trailing drawdown follows your best equity, not your starting balance. Some firms trail intraday, counting unrealised profit at its peak; others only at the end of the day; some stop trailing once the floor reaches the starting balance. Know exactly which one you are trading before your first order. A daily loss limit adds a second wall: one bad morning can end the day, even if the account survives.
The drawdown calculator
Enter your firm’s numbers and your stop. The calculator shows how many contracts the rules really allow, and how many losing trades in a row the account survives.
Contract sizes: CME Group (COMEX and NYMEX) specifications. Ignores commissions and slippage, which make the real numbers slightly worse. Check your firm’s contract limits too: many cap the number of contracts per account size.
Why metals and oil suit it, and where they bite
Gold, silver and crude are liquid around the clock and move on scheduled events, which makes them tradeable with a plan. The same events are where accounts die. A CPI print or a payrolls number can move gold $30 to $50 in seconds, and silver twice as hard in percentage terms. Check whether your firm allows trading through major news, and size down when it does.
| Contract | Size | $1 move is worth | Same risk as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold GC | 100 oz | $100 | 10 micro gold |
| Micro gold MGC | 10 oz | $10 | – |
| Silver SI | 5,000 oz | $5,000 (1 cent = $50) | 5 micro silver |
| Micro silver SIL | 1,000 oz | $1,000 (1 cent = $10) | – |
| Crude oil CL | 1,000 bbl | $1,000 (1 cent = $10) | 10 micro crude |
| Micro crude MCL | 100 bbl | $100 (1 cent = $1) | – |
The desk’s tools exist for exactly this kind of trading: the session times and settlements in Brussels time, the Levels Watch for gold and silver, the crack spreads with daily NYMEX closes for oil, and the Fed hike odds before every release.
Choosing a firm: what to compare
Firms change their rules and prices often, sometimes monthly. Compare them on the rules, not on the advertising:
- Drawdown type. Intraday trailing, end-of-day trailing or static, and whether it stops trailing at the starting balance.
- Daily loss limit. Whether there is one, and whether breaking it ends the day or the account.
- Total cost. Evaluation price, monthly fees until you pass, activation fees, data fees, resets.
- Consistency rules. Limits on how much of your profit may come from one day; they decide how fast you can pass.
- Payout rules. How soon after funding, how often, minimums, buffers and the profit split.
- Contracts and news. Whether metals and energy futures are allowed, including micros, and whether you may hold through CPI, payrolls and Fed decisions.
Take Profit Trader
Where the author made the April result above.
Topstep
Where the author traded funded; one of the longest-running futures prop firms.
Tradeify
Futures evaluations and funded accounts.
My Funded Futures
Futures evaluations and funded accounts.
A side-by-side table of each firm’s current rules and prices is being verified against the firms’ own pages and will appear here with the date it was checked. Disclosure: this page contains no affiliate links today. If it does in future, every such link will be labelled, and firms will be described on their rules, never on the commission.
The trader’s rules for an evaluation
- Size against the drawdown, not the account. Risk 5–10% of the drawdown per trade, so one loss never decides the account.
- Start with micros. MGC, SIL and MCL let you size finely; move to full contracts only when the cushion allows it.
- Bank the cushion first. Early profit lifts a trailing floor; it pays to build distance before increasing size.
- Respect the calendar. Know every release and settlement time before the session; flat or small into CPI, payrolls and the Fed.
- Stop for the day after the daily limit’s half. The rule that saves the account is the one you set below the firm’s.
Educational content to support your own research and decisions. Not financial advice. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss; prop-firm evaluations are fee-based and most participants do not pass.