Prop Firms, Funded Accounts & Trading as a Business
Learn how prop-firm evaluations and funded accounts really work, calculate the true cost and probability of passing, check the counterparty risk before you pay, and set up trading as a properly organised small business in Germany.
Self-study course Self-study course: written lessons, videos and downloadable materials for independent learning. There is no supervision, assessment, individual feedback or tutoring. Self-check quizzes are evaluated automatically in your browser — we do not see your results.
All 13 lessons free
Before you start
- The course Risk & Trade Management (R-multiples, position sizing, drawdowns)
- A tested trading plan with written entry, stop and sizing rules
- Comfort with percentages, simple probability and spreadsheet-style tables
What you will be able to do
- Explain the revenue model of a prop firm and identify where its interests differ from yours
- Decode an evaluation rule set and convert every rule into a concrete euro or dollar number for your account
- Calculate how static, end-of-day trailing and intraday trailing drawdowns change the real risk budget per trade
- Estimate the probability of passing an evaluation and the expected total cost of attempts from your own trade statistics
- Compare payout structures, scaling plans and counterparty risk across firms with a written checklist
- Classify trading activity and prop-firm payouts for German bookkeeping and choose a sensible legal and budget structure (general orientation)
Lessons in this course
How prop firms make money: evaluation fees, profit splits and simulated versus live accounts
Follow the money through a prop firm's business model, separate fee income from trading income, and see why most retail prop accounts are simulated.
Evaluation rules decoded: profit targets, daily loss limits, consistency rules, minimum days and news restrictions
Translate every rule in a typical evaluation into a concrete number for your account and find the hidden interactions between rules.
Drawdown types with numbers: static, end-of-day trailing and intraday trailing
Calculate the loss floor under each drawdown type day by day and see how a trailing rule turns an open profit into a tighter limit.
The maths of passing: risk per trade, trades needed, probability of passing and the expected cost of attempts
Use a simple random-walk model to estimate your pass probability and the expected number and cost of evaluation attempts from your own statistics.
Payout structures and scaling plans: splits, first-payout rules, buffers, caps and fee refunds compared
Compare the cash you actually receive from different payout designs over six months and learn which clauses delay, reduce or cancel a payout.
Counterparty and regulatory risk: unregulated status, firm collapses, terms-of-service traps and data feeds
Assess the company behind an evaluation before paying: regulatory status in Europe, documented collapses, contract clauses and price-feed differences.
Realistic expectations: survivorship in payout data, funded trading versus own capital and the opportunity cost of attempts
Read published payout figures critically, compare a funded account with trading your own money in euros per month, and price the time and fees spent on attempts.
Multiple accounts and prohibited behaviours: copy-trading rules, cross-firm hedging, gambling clauses and bans
Understand which multi-account and trading behaviours prop firms forbid, how they detect them and what a breach costs you.
When trading becomes a business in Germany: private versus gewerblich, prop-firm payouts and the Gewerbeanmeldung (general orientation)
Learn the criteria German tax law uses to separate private trading from a business, how prop-firm payouts are classified and what registering a Gewerbe involves.
Bookkeeping for a trader: EÜR records, deductible costs, invoices to prop firms, retention periods and working with a Steuerberater
Set up a simple but complete bookkeeping system for a trading business: cash-basis records, deductible costs, correct invoices and retention rules.
Budgeting a trading operation: fixed costs, income volatility, health insurance and pension contributions when self-employed
Build a monthly budget for a trading operation that survives irregular payouts, including German health insurance and pension decisions.
Legal structures for traders: Einzelunternehmen versus UG or GmbH, the Trading-GmbH idea, costs and when it makes sense (general orientation)
Compare the legal forms a German trader can use, calculate the tax on retained and distributed profits in a GmbH and see why the Trading-GmbH rarely helps a prop trader.
A prop-firm evaluation plan with risk rules and a trading-business budget on paper
Combine the course into one written document: a risk-ruled evaluation plan, a capped attempts budget, a payout plan and a trading-business budget with decision gates.
Fraud, Scams & Investor Protection
Continue with Fraud, Scams & Investor Protection to learn how to check any firm, platform or offer before you send money, and what to do if something goes wrong.
View course outline