Passing a prop firm evaluation feels like being handed capital. It is not. What you get is a funded account (PA, Express Funded or sim funded, depending on the firm), almost always simulated, with different rules and the cushion back at its minimum. This guide covers what it really is, what changes, what going live means and how to run the first weeks so you reach your first payout with the account still alive.
What a funded account really is
It is the account you trade after passing the evaluation and, unlike the evaluation, the one that lets you withdraw profit. Every firm brands it differently: Apex calls it a PA (Performance Account), Topstep calls it Express Funded and others just say funded or sim funded. The mechanics are nearly always the same.
What is not always spelled out: at most futures firms the funded account is simulated. Your orders run in a simulator fed with real market data, never reach the exchange, and the firm pays payouts out of its own funds. Its business rests largely on evaluation and activation fees, and its risk and payout rules exist so that the accounts that get paid belong to consistent traders.
The payout is real money, but it changes how you should read the balance: the $53,000 on screen is not yours. Your capital is the cushion to the liquidation threshold, and the only thing that turns into money is what you withdraw.
From evaluation to funded account
- You pass the evaluation: profit target reached without touching the drawdown or the daily limit and, if the firm requires it, with a minimum number of trading days.
- You sign the trader agreement and verify your identity. To the firm you are an independent contractor, and payouts are taxable income where you live.
- You pay activation, if there is one. Some firms charge a one-time fee, others a monthly fee while you hold the account and others nothing. It changes often: check before you buy the evaluation.
- You get a brand-new account: starting balance, cushion equal to the maximum drawdown and the evaluation profit gone. You start from zero.
Step 4 costs the most accounts: you arrive with the confidence and the size of a passed evaluation into an account whose cushion is back at the minimum.
Which rules change after the evaluation
No two firms are alike, but the differences tend to land in the same places. The table reflects what is common as of September 2026: use it as a map of what to look for in your rules, not as the rules of any firm.
| Rule | In the evaluation | In the funded account (typical) |
|---|---|---|
| Profit target | You have to hit it | Gone; payout requirements replace it |
| Maximum drawdown | Intraday or end-of-day, depending on the plan | Usually the same amount; at some firms the mode or freeze point changes |
| Daily limit | Depends on the firm | Check whether it exists, its size and whether hitting it ends the session or the account |
| Contracts | The plan maximum | Often a scaling plan: fewer contracts at first |
| Consistency | Some firms apply it to pass | Many apply it at payout time |
| News | Often unrestricted | Some firms restrict trading around high-impact releases |
| Minimum days | To pass | For every payout |
| Cost | Evaluation, one-time or monthly | Activation, monthly fee or nothing |
Three rows deserve attention. The scaling plan caps size exactly when you are most tempted to raise it; how micros count toward that cap is covered in micros vs minis. A news trade that was legal in the evaluation can void a payout in the funded account: check the economic calendar before every session. And if the drawdown changes mode or freeze point, reread how trailing drawdown works with the new rules in front of you.
What going live means
Some firms move a share of their funded traders to an account with real capital: orders go to the market through a broker and the capital is the firm's. Topstep, for example, reserves the name Live Funded for that account. When it happens is the firm's call (after a number of payouts, a level of profit withdrawn or at its discretion), and the criteria are not always public.
What usually changes: real fills, with their slippage and partial fills; a balance, drawdown or daily limit that may differ; and sometimes the way you get paid. At some firms going live also affects your other funded accounts. If you get the offer, ask for the rules in writing before accepting. What does not change: you are still trading the firm's capital under its rules and keeping a share of the profit.
The first weeks: cushion before payout
A funded account starts like the evaluation: cushion equal to the drawdown, no banked profit protecting it and, under intraday trailing, every floating peak lifting the threshold. The goal of the first weeks is not to get paid: it is to build cushion until the threshold freezes.
- Go back to base R. With a risk ladder, the funded account starts on rung 1, around 8% of the drawdown per trade, not where you finished the evaluation.
- Set your own daily stop. Two or three losses and you are done for the session, even if the firm allows more.
- Micros first. You match size to R without $50-per-point jumps.
- Do not chase the first payout. A withdrawal that leaves the cushion at the minimum is the shortest road to losing the account; how to decide how much to take is covered in prop firm payouts explained.
A worked example
A $50,000 account with a $2,500 intraday trailing drawdown that freezes at the starting balance plus $100: the September 2026 reference values of an Apex 50K used in the trailing drawdown guide. The threshold starts at $47,500 and freezes at $50,100 once the peak touches $52,600. Two traders with the same system: 50% win rate, average wins of 1.5R and losses of 1R (0.25R expectancy), three trades per session and an 8-point stop in the S&P.
| Same system | Trader A: 5 MES | Trader B: 2 ES |
|---|---|---|
| Risk per trade | $200 (8% of cushion) | $800 (32% of cushion) |
| Consecutive losses it survives | 12 ($100 left) | 3 ($100 left) |
| Expected profit per session | $150 | $600 |
| Sessions to freeze the threshold | About 18 | About 5 |
| Odds of the liquidating streak in that time | 13 in a row within 54 trades: 0.3% | 4 in a row within 15 trades: 37% |
B reaches the freeze point sooner, if it gets there. More than a third of the time, a streak of four losses ends the account before the fifth session, and that 37% is a floor: losses do not have to be consecutive to drain $2,500 at $800 a hit, and under intraday trailing every floating peak narrows the cushion. A takes almost four weeks, with a 0.3% chance of a streak liquidating it along the way. Once the threshold freezes, every dollar earned is new cushion: that is when to start climbing rungs.
Several accounts at once and copy trading
Most firms allow several funded accounts at once, up to a per-trader maximum, and many traders run them in parallel with a trade copier. Copying between your own accounts is usually allowed; hedging opposite positions across accounts or copying someone else is not. Read your terms.
The trap is arithmetic: five accounts copying the same trades are one strategy multiplied by five. The streak that liquidates one liquidates all of them on the same day.
- Size for the weakest account. The same $200 trade is 8% of the cushion in a new account and 3% in one with a frozen threshold and banked profit. If you copy the same contract count everywhere, the new account sets the size; otherwise, size each account on its own.
- Stagger the accounts. Opening them at different times keeps them from all going through the fragile early phase at once.
- Log each account separately. Fills, commissions, threshold and consistency ratio belong to each one. But the note, the setup and the screenshot are the same: do not write them five times.
Frequently asked questions
Is the money in a funded account real?
At most futures prop firms, no: the account is simulated and your orders never reach the market. What is real is the payout, which the firm pays you out of its own funds when you meet its rules. Only a minority of traders later move to an account with real capital.
What do I lose if my funded account is liquidated?
The account, any profit you had not withdrawn and what you paid to get it (the evaluation and, if there was one, the activation fee). Losses in a simulated account are not billed to you. To trade again you usually need to pass another evaluation or pay for a reset, if the firm offers one.
Can I hold several funded accounts at once?
At most firms, yes, up to a per-trader maximum each firm sets, and copying trades between your own accounts is usually allowed. What usually is not: hedging opposite positions across accounts or copying someone else. And five copied accounts are one strategy multiplied by five.
Next step
If you just got funded, work out your real cushion with the trailing drawdown calculator and set the base R of your risk plan before the first session. When your first payout gets close, the guide to prop firm payouts helps you decide how much to withdraw without leaving the account at the minimum.