Prop firm evaluations like futures combines and challenges give you a chance to trade a larger account if you hit a profit target without breaking the rules. Many traders who fail have a perfectly reasonable strategy. They fail on the rules: a daily loss limit, a drawdown limit or a consistency requirement.
This guide is a general plan. Every firm's rules are different and change over time, so always read your firm's current rules before you start.
1. Write the rules down in your own words
Before your first trade, write a short list:
- Profit target
- Maximum drawdown, and whether it's static, trailing or end-of-day
- Daily loss limit, if there is one
- Consistency rules (for example, a limit on how much of your profit can come from one day)
- Allowed products, trading hours and news restrictions
- Minimum trading days
If you can't explain each one in a sentence, you're not ready to start.
2. Size from the drawdown, not the account size
A "$50K" or "$150K" account sounds big, but your real risk capital is the drawdown allowance. Risk a small fraction of it per trade, for example 5% to 10% of the drawdown, so a normal losing streak can't end the evaluation. See how much to risk per trade for the position size formula.
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Try VOLERON free for 7 days3. Set personal limits inside the firm's limits
- Personal daily loss limit at roughly half of the firm's daily limit.
- Stop after two losses in a row (see revenge trading).
- Personal max drawdown well inside the firm's, at which point you cut size in half.
4. Don't rush the target
Most evaluations don't reward speed. Trying to pass in two days usually means oversizing, and oversizing is how most accounts get breached. Aim for steady progress with small, consistent days, which also helps with any consistency rule.
5. Trade only your proven setups
An evaluation is not the place to experiment. Use your journal to pick the one or two setups with the best expectancy in your best session, and trade only those.
6. Journal every trade, and every rule
As well as the usual fields, track your distance from each limit at the end of every day: "Drawdown remaining: $1,640. Daily loss used: $0." Seeing how much room you have left keeps decisions calm.
7. After you pass
Funded accounts usually have their own rules, which can differ from the evaluation. Keep the same sizing and limits that got you through, and keep journaling. Many traders lose funded accounts by trading bigger once the pressure of the evaluation is gone.
Running several accounts
If you copy trades across several accounts, journal the lead account so each trade is counted once. Otherwise your stats are inflated by duplicate trades.