Evaluation
The audition where you prove your trading skill on a simulated account — pass it and the firm funds you, usually for the price of a nice dinner out.
An evaluation (also called a challenge, combine, or audition) is the test a prop firm sets before it hands you capital. You trade a simulated account under real rules, and if you hit the profit target without breaching the drawdown or daily loss limit, you get funded.
The economics are the appealing part. You pay a monthly or one-time evaluation fee — often somewhere in the low hundreds of dollars — and that fee is the entire extent of your downside. There’s no margin call chasing you, no second mortgage, no losing more than you put in. The upside is an account many multiples larger than the fee.
A typical shape looks like this:
| Element | Example |
|---|---|
| Account size | $50,000 |
| Profit target | $3,000 (6%) |
| Maximum drawdown | $2,000 |
| Daily loss limit | $1,100 |
| Minimum trading days | 5–10 |
| Evaluation fee | ~$150 |
To pass, you need $3,000 of net profit while never letting the account drop below its trailing floor. Notice the shape of the problem: you’re asked to make more than you can lose. That’s not a trick — it’s the firm telling you exactly what disciplined risk management looks like. Traders who size so that a losing day costs them $300 rather than $900 have room to be wrong three times and still finish green.
Evaluations come in a few flavors: one-step, two-step, and instant funding, which skips the test in exchange for other trade-offs. Our full walkthrough is in Prop Firm Challenges Explained, and you can compare live evaluation terms in the directory.