How to pass a prop firm evaluation
A practical checklist built from the firms' published rules and from real, finished live evaluations.
1. Know your package's numbers before the first trade
Every evaluation is a short list of numbers: the profit target, the maximum loss (drawdown), the daily loss limit, any consistency rule, the minimum number of trading days and the time you must be flat by. They differ by firm, plan and account size — even two 50K accounts can work very differently. Here is the package with the most live passes at each firm in the PropPass directory:
| Package | Profit target | Max loss | Daily loss limit | Consistency | Min days | Flat by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apex Trader Funding Apex EOD Trail 50K | $3,000 | $2,000 · End-of-day trailing | $1,000 | None in the evaluation | 1 trading day | 4:59 PM ET |
| BluSky Trading Orbit 50K | $3,000 | $2,000 · End-of-day trailing | None | None in the evaluation | 1 trading day | 4:45 PM ET |
| FundedNext Futures Rapid Pro 50K | $3,000 | $2,000 · End-of-day trailing | None | None in the evaluation | None | 4:10 PM ET |
| Lucid Trading LucidPro 50K | $3,000 | $2,000 · End-of-day trailing | $1,200 (optional — only if added at purchase) | None in the evaluation | 1 trading day | 4:45 PM ET |
| My Funded Futures Builder 25K | $1,500 | $1,000 · End-of-day trailing | $600 | None in the evaluation | 1 trading day | 4:10 PM ET |
| Take Profit Trader Test-PRO 25K | $1,500 | $1,500 · End-of-day trailing | None | Best day ≤ 50% of total profit, or the profit target rises | 3 trading days | 4:55 PM ET |
| Topstep Trading Combine (XFA Standard) 100K | $6,000 | $3,000 · End-of-day trailing | $2,000 (optional — only if added at purchase) | Best day ≤ 55% of total profit, or the profit target rises | None | 4:10 PM ET |
| Tradeify Growth 50K | $3,000 | $2,000 · End-of-day trailing | $1,250 | None in the evaluation | 1 trading day | 4:45 PM ET |
From each firm's published rules; dates on each firm's page.
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2. Treat the daily loss limit as a hard line
Measure each day's loss from the start of the firm's trading day, and count open positions — most firms include unrealised losses. Plan to finish a bad day well inside the limit rather than at it, so one more trade cannot end the day or the account.
3. Know which way your drawdown trails
An end-of-day trailing drawdown moves up only from closing balances; an intraday trailing drawdown follows the highest balance during the day, including open profit; a static drawdown never moves. With a trailing drawdown, every new high raises the line you cannot touch — so giving back open profit can matter as much as a loss.
4. Respect the consistency rule
If the package has one, a single big day can block the pass or raise the profit target. Check the best-day share before treating the target as reached.
5. Be flat before the cut-off
Each firm sets a time by which every position must be closed (see "Flat by" above). Being in a trade at the cut-off can mean an automatic close at a bad price or a rule break.
6. Check the firm's news rules
| Prop firm | News trading in evaluations |
|---|---|
| Apex Trader Funding | News trading is allowed for normal trading; chasing news or betting on both sides of a release is not. |
| BluSky Trading | Trading news events is allowed and does not fail the account. |
| FundedNext Futures | No news restrictions on its futures evaluations. |
| Lucid Trading | News trading is allowed on LucidPro, LucidFlex and LucidDirect; it is prohibited on LucidDaily. |
| My Funded Futures | News trading is allowed in all evaluations and Builder plans; top-tier news is restricted on some funded accounts. |
| Take Profit Trader | News trading is allowed in the Test; PRO accounts may not hold positions or orders around FOMC, NFP and CPI releases. |
| Topstep | Allowed with limits: trading maximum size into major news is prohibited, and around CPI releases new opening trades in index and metal minis are paused for 5 minutes either side. |
| Tradeify | No rules against trading news events. |
What the live record shows
Across the PropPass directory today: 147 live passes and 12 fails by 23 strategies on 8 prop firms. The median pass took 2 trading days; 34 passes took 1 day, 61 took 2, 16 took 3, 5 took 4 and 31 took 5 or more.
Recorded live on a virtual evaluation account. Finished evaluations only.
- Apex Trader Funding: strategies that passed live
- BluSky Trading: strategies that passed live
- FundedNext Futures: strategies that passed live
- Lucid Trading: strategies that passed live
- My Funded Futures: strategies that passed live
- Take Profit Trader: strategies that passed live
- Topstep: strategies that passed live
- Tradeify: strategies that passed live