A prop trading firm funds traders with its own capital, sharing profits while earning through fees and splits. Traders pass evaluations or join instant funding programs to access large capital without risking personal funds.
The way prop trading works is it allows you to trade financial markets using a firm’s capital instead of your own money, keeping a share of the profits while they provide the funding, technology, and support. To get your funded account, you usually have to complete a challenge of sorts.
For example, with the popular prop firm FXIFY, their 50K one step challenge has a one off fee of $379, then your goal is to reach the 10% profit target without losing more than 3% per day or 6% overall.
Targets are calculated based on the account size you choose, so for a 50K account it would be a target of 5K, a daily drawdown of 1.5K, and max drawdown of 3K.
After passing the challenge, you gain access to your funded account and start earning a profit share. For FXIFY this starts at 80%, so if you say, make 4K in a month, your profit would be 3.2K and the firm would keep $800.
Proprietary trading, casually known as prop trading, is when you trade financial markets using a prop firm’s capital instead of your own. They provide the trading funds, platforms and tools, and live market data, and in return, you share a percentage of the profits you generate.
The huge perk of the prop model is it enables you to access much greater funding than you would often be able to front yourself, while keeping your personal financial risk limited to the initial challenge fees.
Proprietary trading firms want to find the most skilled and consistent traders, then give them the tools and resources they need to scale up the mutually beneficial relationship. In this partnership, the firm takes on the financial exposure, while you focus on trading within your risk limits.
The personal financial risk of prop trading is usually limited to your initial challenge fee paid when you first sign up to a firm, unless its a futures prop firms where recurring fees for platforms, data, and accounts are more common. Unlike traditional online or CFD trading, you’re not using your own funds to open positions, so any losses are absorbed by the prop firm, and the main risk is losing your challenge or funded account, along with the initial fees.
The best prop firms for beginners we’ve reviewed are reputable or broker backed firms like OANDA Prop Trader, BrightFunded, and FundedNext. They offer a combo of beginner friendly evaluation processes, supportive environments, and clear trading rules that help new traders learn consistency while having all the educational resources and support they need along the way.
A globally known name in the finance industry, the OANDA brand provides two prop trading challenges, with Classic and Boost accounts. Trading rules are clear from the get go, and they provide all the tools and educational resources beginners need to learn MetaTrader 5 (MT5) and develop strong trading strategies.
This European prop firm is popular thanks to its unique loyalty and rewards program, where you earn tokens for any trading activity, not just successful trades. It offers a traditional two step evaluation process which keeps things simple, and there’s no time limits which makes it more beginner friendly.
One of the largest prop firms worldwide, FN offers both CFD and futures challenges, plus great educational materials, customer support, and a selection of the top trading platforms like MT4, MT5, cTrader, MatchTrader.
Top Beginner Prop Firms
If you are a new trader, it’s best to opt for low cost challenges so you are keeping your personal risk low. You also want to make sure you are choosing a reputable prop so if you do pass the challenge and get a funded account, you can rely on payouts being paid promptly with no issues.
We recommended OANDA, BrightFunded, and FundedNext for beginner traders, and also starting with a smaller account size:
Each of these low cost challenges provides a structured way to establish trading experience, gain market insights, and become familiar with the financial instruments of your choosing.
Prop trading and CFD trading use the same markets, platforms, and sometimes even pricing, but the structure behind each is completely different. In CFD trading, you’re using and risking your own money so every loss directly reduces your balance. With a prop trading firm, you trade using the firm’s funds, and your personal risk is limited to the small cost of the evaluation fee.
This key difference isn’t just financial – it’s also psychological. CFD traders often feel pressure from risking their own money, while prop traders focus on performance within structured risk limits, knowing they aren’t risking significant losses.
| Scenario | Retail Account | Prop Firm Account |
|---|---|---|
| Account Size | $1,000 | $50,000 |
| Monthly Return (4%) | $40 | $2,000 |
| Your Risk | Entire deposit | Evaluation fee only |
| Payout | 100% ($40) | 80% ($1,600) |
While there’s more and more types of prop challenges appearing, the most common you’ll see are one step, two step, and three step evaluation processes where you prove your consistency across multiple stages.
Some firms will also offer instant funding accounts, giving you immediate access to trading capital with no evaluation phase, while others may give you the option of a rapid challenge, where you must reach the target within a short time frame, usually 7 to 10 trading days. We don’t recommend instant prop firms or rapid challenges for beginner traders though, targets and limits are usually much tighter, making them better suited to experienced traders.
You’ll also find trading competitions like ours (details on our Discord), giving you the chance to win funded accounts or discounted challenges.
With one step challenges you only need to reach a single profit target while staying within risk limits. It’s good middle ground – not as demanding as multi step challenges, but still structured enough to test discipline. For beginners, they can work well if you already have a bit of trading experience under your belt and a clear strategy in place.
Two step challenges are the most common prop model and usually the best starting point for beginners. The first step will test your ability to reach a profit target under pressure, while the second step proves consistency. You’ll likely come across three step challenges too, which simply break the process into smaller, more gradual phases.
Instant funding accounts allow you to skip the evaluation process entirely and start trading live capital immediately. Because there’s no evaluation process the initial fee is usually higher and the risk rules are tighter, so these accounts are much better suited to experienced traders than newcomers.
Rapid challenges are short term evaluations with strict time limits, often between 7 – 10 trading days. To pass, you must reach the profit target within that timeframe while following the drawdown and risk management rules, so it’s ideal for intraday or for high frequency trading (HFT), and a mix between instant funding and a traditional evaluation.
Trading competitions are short term events where you can compete for prizes like funded accounts or discounted challenges. They’re a low pressure, community driven way to build experience in live market conditions, test your trading strategies, and gain confidence without risking too much.
Each evaluation process we’ve discussed has its own benefits. You might consider rapid or instant funding if you already have some experience and confidence, while one or two step challenges are more forgiving for beginners.
Most prop firms provide you a simulated trading account with a set balance usually between 10K and 200K, but the odd firm does offer 400K – 500K funded accounts too. Your objective is to hit a profit target while staying within strict daily and overall risk parameters. These conditions vary slightly between firms but generally include:
These rules exist to test two core trading skills – your profitability and risk management. Many prop traders reach the profit target but fail because they breach drawdown limits, so understanding how these limits work is critical before starting. Other important prop trading concepts you should understand before you start are:
To help you further with strategy development, you can read about prop trading strategies and risk management techniques.
Once you pass a prop firm challenge, you start trading with your funded account where profits are shared between you and the firm. The profit sharing model outlines how your returns are divided, how often you’re paid out, and how your account can scale up and grow over time.
How this all works though comes down to whether you’re CFD or futures trading.
CFD prop firms usually start traders on a 70% – 80% split, with increases overtime with some offering up to 90% -100% if you hit certain milestones or purchase add-ons. These firms usually operate through a simulated trading environment linked to a brokers or liquidity providers pricing feed, so trades reflect live pricing, but you are essentially trading in a demo account.
In terms of fees, most CFD prop firms charge a one time challenge fee, which is more often than not refunded with your first funded account payout.
Futures prop firms usually take a different approach, letting you keep 100% of the first $5,000 – $10,000 in profits, and after that, your profit share drops to anywhere from 70% – 90%. Because these accounts trade directly on live exchanges, rather than a simulated environment, profits are verified against real transaction data before payouts are processed.
Another difference between prop trading futures and CFDs is there’s often a recurring costs like platform or data fees for futures markets.
As well as profit splits, you need to understand the prop firms payout rules, including frequency and minimum withdrawals. Some firms will let you speed up profit payouts via addons for cost, while others will increase frequency as you scale up your funded account.
Scaling plans are how prop firms reward consistent performance by slowly increasing your trading capital or profit share as you prove yourself over time, meaning you can go from a smaller account into handling much larger firm capital, without ever having to risk your own money.
Most firms review your results every few months, and if you’ve hit the required profit target and followed their trading rules, they’ll automatically increase your account balance, usually by 20% to 30% at a time.
So for example, if you start with 50K account, and the prop firm scales up your account balance by 25% every 3 months.
Within two years, your funded account could grow from 50K to nearly 300K, all while maintaining the same low personal risk.
Some firms also include profit split scaling, which means your share of the profits grows as your consistency improves. You might start at an 80% split and move up to 90% or even 100% after hitting certain targets.
Passing a prop firm challenge comes down to a combo of risk management, emotional control, and consistent trading. The ones who trade successfully (which is few considering prop trading statistics show more than 85% can’t be consistently profitable for a year) usually treat the process like a professional job, not a gamble. Here’s some tips for passing your first challenge:
1. Control Your Risk
Have a set % amount you are willing to risk per trade. This keeps your account stable during drawdowns and prevents small losses from escalating. Using tools like stop loss orders will help protect your account and within risk parameters.
2. Stick to Your Trading Plan
Write out a detailed plan that clearly defines things like your entry rules, exit rules, and max daily exposure, and stick to it. Following this plan removes emotion from it and encourages consistency.
3. Focus on Quality Over Quantity
Focus on trades that meet your technical or fundamental criteria rather than boredom or frustration. Successful prop traders typically trade less but with higher conviction, using clear confirmation signals such as support and resistance breaks, price action, or volume shifts.
4. Respect Drawdown Limits
Many traders end up failing challenges because they chase losses and hit their drawdown limits. To protect your challenge and funded account, stop trading when you hit your daily loss cap.
5. Journal Every Trade
Keeping a trading journal will help you analyse patterns and identify mistakes. Write down your reasoning for each trade, entry and exit points, and whether you followed your plan, you can be creative, using AI to automate a journal and track your progress.
6. Manage Your Mind
The pressure of trading can be mentally taxing, so focus on trading well, not to hitting the targets as fast as possible. Taking breaks when markets are volatile and setting yourself daily trading limits will help you maintain composure.
Overall, passing a prop challenge isn’t about luck or a hot streak, it’s about showing you understand market volatility and can manage funds responsibly. If you can demonstrate patience and consistency, you are far more likely to become a successful prop trader, securing a funded account and scaling the balance up.
The best prop trading firms provide educational content, live training programs, and community support to help you establish a solid foundation.
You can also join the Best Prop Firms Discord, where you can find info on trading competitions, community support, and prop firm promo codes. As well as being the main point where we share exclusive deals and offers, it’s also a space to share trading strategies, ask questions, and stay updated on rule changes.
Prop firms can be useful for beginner traders but they need to be aware of the high risks involved in any form of online trading. Most new traders struggle to pass challenges, and it’s easy to lose your entry fee if you don’t yet have a consistent strategy. Some beginner traders will practise on a demo account or before paying for a prop evaluation. But once you can manage risk, stick to rules, and trade consistently, look for a top beginner prop firm like OANDA, BrightFunded, or FundedNext.
Prop trading works by letting you trade with a firm’s money instead of your own, keeping a share of any profits you make. You’ll usually start by completing a challenge with set trading rules to prove you understand financial markets. Once you pass your challenge, you get a funded account where profits are split between you and the prop firm. This model helps you scale up your trading without needing huge amounts of initial capital or to take on such high risk.
For day traders, two top prop firms DNA Funded and Blueberry Funded. DNA Funded offers fast evaluations and flexible rules that suit intraday traders who prefer quick setups and shorter holding times, while Blueberry Funded provides low spreads, solid trading tech, and reliable payouts.
Yes prop firms are legal, but because they aren’t managing client funds like a CFD broker or exchange would, they aren’t regulated by financial authorities like the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). While firms still need to follow business law in their relative region, there’s no formal oversight to make sure payouts or trading conditions are fair. Reputable firms are transparent about their rules, publish payout proofs, and have positive reputations in the industry, but because they aren’t licensed like regulated brokers, there are scam prop firms that hide their terms, avoid paying traders, or change rules and close accounts without warning. This is why its so important to read prop firm reviews before you start a challenge.
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All funded accounts offered by reputable prop firms have a fee of sorts, whether its an initial challenge fee (CFD prop firms) or a monthly fee (often found with futures prop firms). If you are wanting immediate access to a funded account, look into instant funding prop firms (which all charge upfront fees).