Payout
A payout is the transfer of a funded trader's share of profits from the firm to the trader, after the profit split is applied.
Most firms process payouts on a cycle — commonly every 14 or 30 days, with some offering faster schedules after milestones. A request typically must clear conditions: a minimum number of trading days since the last payout, no open rule violations, sometimes a minimum profit amount, and at some firms a consistency check on how the profit was made.
Payout review is where rule problems surface. Firms commonly audit the trades behind a request and can deny it — or close the account — if they find prohibited behavior such as third-party copy trading or restricted news trades, even when no loss limit was ever touched. A denied payout with voided profits is the usual penalty short of a full account breach.
On simulated accounts, payouts are funded by the firm's own revenue rather than by live-market gains, which is why a firm's payment record over time is one of the most commonly examined facts about it. Only funded-stage profits pay out; challenge-phase profits never do.
Example
A $100,000 funded account is $4,000 up at the end of a 14-day cycle with five trading days logged. At an 80% split the trader requests $3,200. The firm reviews the trades, finds no violations, and pays; at most firms the balance then returns to $100,000 for the next cycle. The full lifecycle is traced in how prop firm payouts work.