Accounts & Evaluations
Evaluation
The tryout phase a prop firm uses to test a trader. You trade a simulated account and must hit a profit target without breaking the drawdown or other risk rules to earn a funded account.
In plain English
The evaluation (also called a challenge, audition, or combine) is the gate between paying a fee and getting funded. You trade live market data on a simulated account with a defined profit target, a maximum drawdown, and often extra rules like a daily loss limit, a consistency rule, or a minimum number of trading days.
Break any hard rule and the evaluation fails. Most firms let you restart with a reset fee or a new evaluation. Because the fee is the firm's main revenue and your only risk, pricing and rule strictness vary widely between firms, which is exactly what a comparison table is for.
- A $50,000 evaluation might require $3,000 in profit with a $2,000 trailing drawdown.
- Reach $53,000 without the drawdown ever catching you and you pass.