Pay an online firm a fee to pass a trading test, then trade its simulated account for a share of the profit.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$0
Most people
$0
Top few percent
$30,000
There is no wage. Most people spend more on evaluation fees than they ever get back, so the typical result is shown as $0. The top figure is a rough guide for the few who collect payouts for a year. No firm publishes how much its traders earn in total per person.
1 in 6
Topstep evaluations passed in 2025
Topstep says 16.8% of its evaluations were passed in 2025. Of the people who reached a funded account, 33.3% got at least one payout. Only 0.71% of its funded traders were moved up to a live account trading real money.
About 7 in 100
Prop firm accounts that ever reached a payout, in a study of 300,000
A 2024 analysis of 300,000 accounts by FPFX Tech (a software company that runs many prop firms) found 7% reached a payout, and the average payout was about 4% of the account size. The founder of The Funded Trader said only 1 to 2 in 100 of its customers were ever paid.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is one discounted evaluation on a small account. The high end is what people commonly spend over a year on repeat attempts, resets, activation fees and market data, since most fail their first tries. The fee is not trading money: it buys a test, and for most buyers it is simply gone.
Treat every fee as spent the moment you pay it. Prices and rules change often, so check the firm's own page the day you buy.
You are a customer who buys a test, not an employee.
No wage or salary
You are paid only a share of profits, and only if you follow every rule.
Usually no real money
Most funded accounts are simulated. The firm pays your share from its own revenue.
No protection if the firm fails
Prop firms have closed overnight with payouts still owed.
No benefits
No health insurance, no retirement plan and no paid time off.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
No degree or license. Passing is a trading skill and a rule-following skill.
Learn to trade
2 to 3 months
Futures, forex (currency trading) or stocks, risk sizing and how margin works, from free material.
Practice in a free demo
3 to 6 months
Copy the firm's exact rules in a free practice account until you can stay inside them for weeks.
Read the rule book closely
A few days
Daily loss limits, trailing drawdowns, news bans and consistency rules decide most failures.
Buy one small evaluation
1 to 3 months
Trade it like real money. If you fail, find out which rule you broke before buying another.
Collect payouts, then decide
1 year or more
A year of steady payouts is a real sign of skill. A few weeks is not.
Statistics and probability
Passing depends on surviving losing streaks, which is a statistics problem.
Mathematics
Percent drawdowns and position sizes are worked out before every trade.
Economics
Interest rate news and jobs reports move futures and currencies.
Computer science
Coding lets you test a strategy against the rules on years of past data.
You pay a fee to trade a practice account under strict rules. At FTMO (a Czech prop firm), a $100,000 test means making $10,000 without ever losing more than $5,000 in a day or $10,000 in total, then making $5,000 more in a second stage. Pass, and you trade a funded account, which at FTMO is simulated, for 80% to 90% of the profit. Break one rule and the account closes, so you pay again.
You need no license, because you trade the firm's account, and in most cases it is simulated. That also means most of these firms are not supervised like a broker by the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), so you rely on the firm's own contract. Payouts are usually paid to you as an independent contractor. They count as self-employment income, not investment gains, so you also owe self-employment tax, which is 15.3% on most of it.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Risk far less than the rules allow
If the daily limit is 5%, they risk 1% or less.
Trade one product and one setup
A single futures contract or currency pair they know well.
Avoid news spikes
Many accounts fail in the minutes after a big economic report.
Withdraw early and often
A payout in hand is safe. Profit sitting in an account is not.
Check the firm's history
Years in business and a record of paying, not just a big discount.
A real proprietary trading firm hires you, trains you and lets you trade its own money, usually with a salary or a draw while you learn. You pay nothing. Traders at firms that are broker-dealers usually pass the SIE (Securities Industry Essentials) exam and the Series 57 (Securities Trader) exam. Online prop firms are the reverse: you pay them, and the fees from the many who fail are the firm's main income.
In 2023 the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) sued My Forex Funds, a large online prop firm, alleging it took about $310 million in fees from 135,000 customers and rigged its platform so traders failed. In May 2025 a judge threw the case out and sanctioned the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) for misleading the court. The claims were never tested at trial, but traders waited years for money the firm owed them.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Most futures prop traders work the first hours after the 9:30 a.m. Eastern stock market open, when prices move most. You check the calendar for big reports, set your daily stop, and take a handful of planned trades. When you hit your target or your loss limit, you stop. Afterwards you log the trades and check how close you came to any rule. Forex traders often start earlier, around the London open.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Topstep says only 0.71% of its Express Funded traders were called up to a live account in 2025. Everyone else stayed in simulation.
FTMO (a Czech prop firm) states that all the accounts it provides are demo accounts with fictitious funds, and all trading is simulated. Your share is paid from the firm's own money.
In 2025, about 1,272 traders at The Funded Trader had been waiting more than a year for payouts. Some settled for 10% to 30% of what they were owed.
Trading and investing first, then the rest of the field. See all online and self-made careers.
Last checked October 2026. This is self-employment, so there is no government wage data for it. The income figures come from the studies and platform data listed above.