Understand the rules, manage your drawdown, and apply a clear trading strategy. A practical walkthrough from your first evaluation to funded trading and payouts.
PAGES 1–5 · The remaining lessons are being built one page at a time.
The objective: hit the profit target before you hit the drawdown limit. Keep your account above the limit as you work toward the target.
Choose an account
Drawdown type
Illustrative presets. Enter your account’s actual target and drawdown; account size alone does not determine its rules.
Watch the evaluation · End-of-day drawdown
Ready to begin
| ACCOUNT | PROFIT TARGET | DRAWDOWN | TARGET ÷ DRAWDOWN |
|---|
Failure level & daily limitConfirm what triggers a breach, whether open P&L counts, and any separate daily loss limit.
Trading requirementsCheck minimum days, consistency requirements, position limits, and restricted trading times.
When trailing stopsConfirm the balance where the failure level stops rising, if your account has a cap.
Funded account & payoutsRecheck the rules after passing: required buffer, qualifying days, withdrawal limits, and the balance left after a payout.
Passing is one step. The goal is to keep the funded account and get to payouts. Start by understanding the mistakes that get traders into trouble.
Illustrative estimates
Illustrative journey. Bar lengths are not measured conversion rates.
These figures are illustrative estimates chosen for this walkthrough, not verified industry-wide rates. The payout figure refers to traders starting an evaluation, not only funded traders. The animation is a conceptual illustration; its bar lengths do not calculate a payout success rate. The mistakes alongside are teaching topics, not measured causes or statistical rankings.
YOUR NEXT MOVE
PUT IT INTO PRACTICE
Know your risk before you enter. Trade a clear setup. Protect the account after passing.
Your drawdown is your risk budget. Decide what one full-stop loss can cost, and leave room to keep trading when a setup loses.
Example amounts. Enter the drawdown you actually have left.
Enter a positive whole-dollar amount.
ONE FULL-STOP LOSS
$200
10% of your remaining drawdown.
Same dollar risk, no wins or changes to the drawdown limit. Recalculate before the next trade.
Win rate and average win size work together. Expectancy estimates the average result per trade over many trades; it does not predict the next trade.
Win rate × average win − loss rate × average loss. This example assumes every loss is your full-stop amount.
Your risk plan is set. Now understand the context behind the setups.
Start with VWAP →Before the setups, understand who has control and where you want to trade. VWAP helps connect the direction of the market with your trade location.
The session’s average price, weighted by volume. It gives us a reference for where price is trading relative to that average.
Volume Weighted Average Price · Definition ↗Strong buying moves. Smaller selling reactions. Buyers are making more progress.
Illustration · Select a step, then compare Buyers and Sellers.
VWAP can act as support or resistance. We’ll connect that context to each setup next.