What is a prop firm challenge?
A prop firm challenge, or evaluation, is a paid test in which a trader must reach a profit target without breaking the firm’s loss limits — usually a daily loss limit and a maximum loss. Passing gives access to a funded account, often simulated, with a share of the profits paid to the trader.
Key points
- You pay a fee; the firm sets the target and the limits.
- Breaking a loss limit ends the attempt, whatever the profit.
- Most attempts don’t pass: firms that publish figures report 8.89% to 36.22% per attempt.
How it works
- A profit target — for example 10% in the first phase of FTMO’s 2-Step Challenge.
- A daily loss limit and a maximum loss: breaching either fails the attempt.
- Other rules vary: minimum trading days, consistency rules, news restrictions.
- After passing: a funded account — at many firms a simulated one — with payouts from its profits.
How many traders pass
Firms that publish their own numbers report that between 8.89% (Earn2Trade, 2025) and 36.22% (Take Profit Trader, 2025) of attempts passed. Counted per person the share is higher, because many traders buy several attempts: Topstep reports that 16.8% of the Trading Combines started in 2025 were completed, while 51.8% of participants reached the funded level at least once.
How an attempt fails
An attempt fails only when a rule is broken. The profit target decides when you pass; the loss limits decide whether you get there — and your risk per trade decides how many losses in a row fit inside them.
Example
A $100,000 FTMO 2-Step Challenge: phase 1 target $10,000, phase 2 target $5,000, maximum daily loss $5,000, maximum loss $10,000. At 2% risk per trade three losses in a row in one day reach the daily limit; at 0.5% it takes ten.
Numbers are illustrative.
Questions
Are funded accounts real money?
Often not at first. At several firms the funded stage is a simulated account with real payouts, and only a small share of traders move to a live account — 0.71% of Topstep’s Express Funded traders in 2025.
What percentage of traders pass a prop firm challenge?
Per attempt, 8.89% to 36.22% at the firms that publish it; per person, 19.97% to 51.8% passed at least once. The full table with sources is on our prop firm pass rates page.