Evaluations and accounts

Account reset

Paying to return a failed or drawn-down evaluation to its starting balance rather than buying a new account. It is a recurring revenue line at firms that sell it, and a real cost to track.

Account size

The virtual balance an account is denominated in. It scales every percentage rule into dollars, sets the fee, and determines how much a single pip of movement is worth to your objectives.

Account suspension

A temporary restriction on trading or payouts while a firm reviews an account. It is not the same as a breach: the account still exists, but progression and withdrawals are paused pending the outcome.

Activation fee

A charge some firms apply when a passed evaluation is converted into a funded account. It is separate from the evaluation fee, which is why it is so often missed when headline prices are compared.

Consistency rule

A rule capping how much of an account's total profit may come from a single trading day. It stops one outsized day from carrying an otherwise flat account through an evaluation.

Demo account

A practice account with no assessment, no rules and no payout. It exists to learn an interface or test a strategy, and nothing that happens on it qualifies you for anything.

Evaluation

The assessment stage of a prop programme, traded on a simulated account. Profits made during an evaluation are simulated results used to decide whether you pass; they are not withdrawable.

Evaluation fee

The one-time price of an assessment. It is what the trader is genuinely risking - no customer capital is exposed on a simulated account - and it is the number to compare between firms per dollar of allocation.

Free retake

A second attempt at an evaluation included in the original fee, granted after a hard breach. It is not a free first attempt - the evaluation was paid for - and its rules are often tighter than the original.

Funded account

The account a trader receives after passing an evaluation, or buys directly under an instant programme. At a simulated-funding firm it is a simulated account whose eligible gains can qualify for a real payout.

Instant funding

A programme with no assessment phase. You buy a simulated funded account and trade it from day one, with no profit target to clear - paid for with tighter risk limits and a lower virtual profit share.

Live account

A brokerage account holding a trader's own money, where orders reach a market and losses are the trader's own. It is the thing a simulated prop account is deliberately not.

Maximum allocation

The ceiling on how much simulated capital one trader may hold across every account with a firm. It is the real limit on how large a trader can get, and it is often lower than the largest account on sale suggests.

Minimum trading days

The number of separate days on which an account must trade before an evaluation phase can pass. Some firms also require a minimum profit on each qualifying day for it to count.

One-step evaluation

An assessment with a single profit target. Clear it without breaching and you go straight to a simulated funded account - there is no second verification phase to trade afterwards.

Pass rate

The share of purchased evaluations that reach a funded account. Industry figures are usually low single digits, and almost every published number is unaudited and defined differently by whoever published it.

Phase one

The first stage of a two-step evaluation, carrying the higher of the two profit targets. Clearing it without breaching a risk rule moves the account to phase two rather than to a funded account.

Phase two

The second stage of a two-step evaluation, usually at a lower profit target than the first. It exists to check the result repeats, and it is where a large share of otherwise successful attempts fail.

Profit target

The virtual gain required to pass an evaluation phase, stated as a percentage of the starting balance. It is the only objective you have to reach; every other rule is something you have to avoid.

Prop firm challenge

A paid assessment on a simulated account. Reach a virtual profit target without breaking the risk rules and the firm issues a simulated funded account that pays you a share of the gains you generate on it.

Retake

A second run at an evaluation after a failed one. Some firms include a retake in the original fee; others sell it, and the terms of the second attempt are not always the terms of the first.

Scaling plan

A published schedule under which a firm increases an account's virtual capital as the trader meets profit and consistency milestones. Not every firm runs one, and the conditions vary widely.

Simulated account

An account that reproduces live market conditions - prices, spreads, commission, slippage - without routing orders to a market. Every GFN evaluation and funded account is one, and no customer capital is ever exposed.

Time limit

A deadline by which an evaluation must be completed. Where one exists it changes the strategy entirely, because it converts a test of process into a test of process under a clock.

Two-step evaluation

An assessment split into two phases with separate profit targets. The first phase proves the strategy, the second - usually at a lower target - checks it repeats before the firm issues a simulated funded account.

Virtual capital

The simulated balance an evaluation or funded account is denominated in. It sets the size of every percentage-based rule on the account, and it is not money held on the trader's behalf.