Every term the firms bury in their fine print, defined in plain English. If a rule can fail your account, it’s in here.
A one-time fee charged when you move from a passed evaluation to a funded account. Often omitted from advertised pricing, which is why true cost matters more than the sticker price.
Trading outside the 9:30 AM–4:00 PM ET regular session. Thinner liquidity and wider spreads, and many props restrict or disallow it.
An indicator measuring an instrument's typical move over a period. Traders use it to size stops and targets to current volatility.
The bid is the highest price buyers will pay; the ask is the lowest sellers will accept. The gap between them is the spread you pay to enter and exit.
Violating a hard rule — drawdown, daily loss, or a trading restriction — that immediately fails or closes the account. The thing every rule in this glossary is ultimately about avoiding.
The cushion between your current balance and your drawdown line. With a static drawdown, banking profit builds buffer that can never be taken away.
For stock props, the dollar value of shares you can hold at once rather than a cash balance. Firms like the real-equity props size accounts by buying power.
Most stock props fund you on contracts-for-difference (derivatives that track price) rather than real equity. A handful fund actual shares. The distinction affects what you're really trading and how it's regulated.
Topstep's name for its evaluation phase. Pass the Combine, then a short funded-prep stage, then you trade a funded account. The term has become shorthand for futures evaluations generally.
A per-trade or per-lot fee some firms and platforms charge on top of the spread. Fold it into true cost and your per-trade math.
Reinvesting profits so gains earn further gains. On a scaling prop account, compounding plus consistent payouts is how a small funded account becomes a large one.
A rule capping how much of your total profit can come from a single day (e.g. no day exceeding 30–40% of total gains). Designed to stop one lucky trade from passing you. Catches a lot of traders off guard at payout time.
The unit you trade. NQ is the E-mini Nasdaq-100; MNQ is the Micro, one-tenth the size and tick value. Micros let you size risk precisely on a small account.
Limits on running identical trades across multiple accounts or with other traders. Breaking it is a frequent payout-denial trigger, especially across firms.
The most you're allowed to lose in a single trading day. Breaching it usually fails the account even if your overall drawdown is fine. Often the rule that quietly kills evaluations.
The maximum amount your account can lose from its high point before the firm closes it. The single most important rule in any prop evaluation — more important than the headline account size.
A trailing drawdown that only updates based on your balance at the daily close, not on intraday peaks. Far more forgiving than real-time trailing because open profit you give back during the session doesn't raise the loss line.
Your account balance plus or minus open trade P&L. Firms with intraday trailing drawdown measure against peak equity, not closed balance — which is what catches scalpers.
The paid test phase where you must hit a profit target without breaking drawdown or other rules to earn a funded (usually simulated) account.
The average profit or loss you can expect per trade, combining win rate with average win and loss size. Positive expectancy is the only thing that makes a system worth trading.
When a firm returns your evaluation fee, usually with your first payout. A genuine refund lowers true cost — just confirm it's actually paid, not only advertised.
The account you trade after passing evaluation, where you earn a profit split on gains. May be simulated or live depending on the firm.
A recurring payment exchanged between long and short holders of a perpetual swap, typically every 8 hours. A cost (or credit) of holding crypto positions.
The risk that price opens sharply away from the prior close — over a weekend, holiday or news event — jumping past your stop. A key reason props limit overnight and weekend holds.
The highest balance your account has reached. Used to calculate trailing drawdown and, at some firms, the threshold above which profit splits or payouts apply.
A clause that breaches or closes your account if you don't trade for a set number of days. Easy to trip on a funded account you're resting.
Skip the test, pay more, get a funded (simulated) account immediately. You trade rules and a higher fee for speed. Quality varies wildly between firms.
A trailing drawdown that updates off your highest unrealized equity tick by tick. Brutal for scalpers: a trade that runs up then comes back can breach you even if you close it flat.
Know Your Customer: the identity verification (ID, sometimes proof of address) a firm requires before releasing payouts. Stalled or failed KYC is a common reason payouts get held.
The ratio that lets you control a position larger than your capital (e.g. 30:1). It amplifies gains and losses equally; prop firms cap it to control risk.
An order to buy or sell only at a set price or better. You control the price, but the fill isn't guaranteed if price never reaches it.
How easily an instrument trades without moving its price. High liquidity means tight spreads and clean fills; low liquidity means slippage and gaps.
A funded account whose orders are routed to a real broker/exchange. Less common; the firm takes on real market risk on your trades.
The standard forex position unit. A standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency; a mini lot is 10,000 and a micro lot is 1,000. Lot size sets your pip value and risk.
The capital set aside to open and hold a leveraged position. Run out of free margin and positions get liquidated automatically.
An order to buy or sell immediately at the best available price. Fast fills, but you accept whatever the book gives you, plus the spread.
The total loss threshold for the whole account, separate from the daily limit. Hit it and the account is done.
The number of days you must trade before passing or before a payout is allowed. Stops one-and-done passes and gates withdrawals.
A restriction on holding or opening positions around high-impact economic releases (CPI, FOMC, NFP). Violating it can void trades or fail an account, so check the firm's window.
A single phase to funding: hit one profit target under the rules and you're funded. Faster but the rules are usually tighter.
US regulation flagging accounts that make four or more day trades in five business days in a margin account under $25K. Shapes how stock props structure buying power and account types.
Money withdrawn from a funded account, paid as your profit split. Speed, minimums, frequency and reliability matter more than the advertised split percentage.
A limit on how much you can withdraw per payout cycle, especially on early payouts. A high split with a low cap can be worse than a lower split with no cap.
The stage after you pass evaluation where you trade the firm's (usually simulated) capital for a profit split. Some firms apply extra rules — consistency, payout caps — only at this stage.
A crypto futures contract with no expiry — the dominant instrument on crypto props. Holding one incurs a periodic funding fee exchanged between longs and shorts.
A pip is the standard smallest price move in forex (usually the 4th decimal, 0.0001). Pip value is the dollars that move is worth for your position size — the forex equivalent of tick value.
Deciding how many contracts or lots to trade based on your stop distance and the dollars you're willing to risk. The lever that keeps a single trade from breaching your drawdown.
The share of profits you keep once funded. Common splits run 80–90%, with some firms offering up to 100% on an initial tranche. Higher isn't always better if payouts are slow or capped.
The profit you must reach to pass an evaluation phase. Usually expressed as a dollar amount or percentage of the account size.
What you pay to restart a failed or breached evaluation instead of buying a fresh one. Usually cheaper than a new challenge but it adds up fast.
The statistical probability of losing enough capital — or hitting a firm's drawdown limit — that you can no longer trade. Driven by win rate, risk-reward and risk per trade. It's the math behind why oversizing blows accounts.
The fixed amount or percentage of your account you're willing to lose on a single trade (commonly 1%). The input that drives position size and risk of ruin.
The ratio of what you risk to what you aim to make on a trade. A 1:2 R:R risks one unit to make two. Win rate and R:R together determine whether a system is profitable.
The schedule by which a firm increases your buying power as you hit profit and consistency milestones. Determines how fast a small funded account can grow into a meaningful one.
A style of taking many short-duration trades for small gains. Prop relevance: scalpers are most exposed to intraday trailing drawdown, news rules and minimum-hold-time clauses.
A US tax treatment for regulated futures and certain options where gains are taxed 60% long-term and 40% short-term regardless of holding period — usually a lower blended rate than ordinary income. Not tax advice; confirm with a professional.
Selling borrowed shares to profit from a falling price, buying them back lower. Real-equity stock props must locate borrowable shares; CFD props simulate it.
A funded account that trades in a simulated environment; the firm pays you from its own capital based on your sim performance. Standard in the futures prop model.
The difference between your expected fill and your actual fill, common around fast news. On a tight prop drawdown, slippage on stops can mean the difference between a pass and a breach.
The gap between the bid and ask price — an execution cost you pay on every trade. Wider spreads on news or exotic pairs eat into tight prop targets.
Payouts settled in USDT or USDC rather than fiat, standard at crypto props. Fast and borderless, but you handle conversion and any on-chain fees.
A fixed maximum loss measured from your starting balance that does not trail upward. Once you bank enough profit above the threshold, the drawdown effectively becomes a no-lose buffer.
An order that closes a position once price hits a preset level, capping a loss. The single most important tool for staying inside a prop drawdown.
The smallest price increment a futures contract can move. For the E-mini Nasdaq-100 (NQ) a tick is 0.25 index points.
The dollar value of one tick. On NQ it's $5 per tick ($20 per full point); on the micro MNQ it's $0.50 per tick. Know this cold before sizing a stop.
The maximum number of days allowed to pass an evaluation. 'No time limit' firms remove this pressure; timed challenges force pace and raise breach risk.
A day on which you place at least one trade — distinct from a calendar day. Minimum-trading-day and consistency rules count these, not the days you sat out.
A drawdown limit that follows your highest balance (or highest unrealized equity) upward but never moves back down. As you make money the loss line rises with you, which can trap traders who give back open profit.
A stop-loss order that follows price in your favour and locks in gains but never moves against you. Not to be confused with a firm's trailing drawdown, which trails your account balance.
The all-in price of getting and keeping a funded account: evaluation fee plus activation, plus any resets and monthly data. The number prop firm marketing pages prefer you didn't add up.
Two phases (often a larger target then a smaller verification) before funding. More hoops, frequently cheaper and more forgiving per phase.
How much and how fast price moves. Higher volatility means bigger opportunity and bigger drawdown risk — and it spikes around news.
The percentage of your trades that close profitable. On its own it means little: a 40% win rate is highly profitable at 1:3 risk-reward, while 70% can lose money at 1:0.3.