Funded account
A funded account is the account a prop firm grants a trader who passes its evaluation, allowing them to trade the firm's capital — or a simulation of it — in exchange for a share of profits.
Funded status normally requires passing a prop firm challenge: a one- or two-phase test with a profit target, a daily loss limit, and a maximum drawdown. Once you are funded, the profit target disappears, but every loss rule remains. Crossing the daily loss limit or the maximum drawdown closes a funded account exactly as it fails a challenge.
Profits are shared through a profit split — commonly 75–90% to the trader — and withdrawn as a payout on a fixed cycle, commonly every 14 or 30 days. Many firms add a scaling plan that raises the account size after sustained profitable periods.
The word "funded" deserves care. At most modern firms the account remains a simulated funded account: trades never reach a live market, and the firm pays your split from its own revenue. Some firms state that they copy selected traders into real markets, but the account you trade is typically virtual either way, and the rules and discipline required are identical.
In a prop-firm challenge
The funded account is what the whole evaluation points toward, and its rulebook mirrors the challenge you passed. Traders who treat the challenge as rehearsal for funded-stage discipline, rather than a sprint to the target, are commonly cited as more likely to keep the account afterward. See how prop firm payouts work for what happens once profits accrue.