Prop Firm

Modern prop firms operate on an evaluation model: you buy access to a simulated account (the combine), trade it until you hit a profit target without breaking any rules, and the firm graduates you to a funded account where you trade real capital. The combine acts as both a paywall and a filter.

Some firms run a one-step evaluation: pass the target, get funded. Others use a two-step model where you have to pass an evaluation phase and a verification phase before going live. The economics work because most participants don't pass, and the evaluation fees fund the rare traders who do.

When you trade a funded account, you keep a percentage of the profits — typically 80-90%. The firm keeps the remainder. Payouts usually require minimum profit thresholds, minimum trading days, and consistency rules (no single oversized day distorting the average).

You don't deposit capital and you don't lose money beyond the combine fee. The firm absorbs the trading losses on funded accounts. This is why the rules are strict — the firm is on the hook for your bad days.

Every prop firm enforces a maximum trailing drawdown, a daily loss limit, and a maximum account loss. Break any one of them and the account closes — even on a funded account where you've been profitable for weeks. The rules are designed to filter for traders with controlled risk, not lucky ones.

Some firms also enforce consistency rules (no single day greater than 30-50% of total profits), scaling rules (max contracts based on account size), and news-event restrictions. Always read the current rulebook of the specific firm you're evaluating, because the rules change frequently.

Apex Trader Funding, TopStep, Tradeify, MyFundedFutures, TakeProfitTrader, TradeDay, and Earn2Trade are the names most futures-focused prop traders run combines with. Almost all of them execute on Tradovate underneath, which is why a single Tradovate-native copier can serve every one of them.

In the forex space, the major names are FTMO, MyForexFunds (when active), and various MT4/MT5-based firms. Those run a different execution stack — MetaTrader and cTrader — which is why copying across futures and forex prop firms typically requires two different copier products.