Next steps: your own account or a prop firm
Once you have a plan, a practice record and a journal, the next step is trading with real consequences. There are two main routes.
Your own account
Open an account with a broker, start with the smallest size available, and keep following your plan. You keep all of your profit and carry all of the risk. Our guide to prop firm vs your own money compares the two in detail.
A prop firm evaluation
You pay a fee to trade a firm's account under its rules, and if you pass you can earn payouts from a funded account. Your risk is the fees you pay rather than your own capital, but the rules are strict. Learn them before you buy:
- Trailing drawdown, explained: the rule that fails most evaluations.
- Consistency rules, explained: why one big day can delay your pass.
- Every firm's rules compared, with guides to passing the Topstep Combine and an Apex evaluation.
Free tools for either route
- Pass rate calculator: your odds of passing each firm's evaluation from your stats.
- Position size calculator: contracts from your risk and stop.
- Evaluation cost calculator: what getting funded is likely to cost.
Keep measuring
Whichever route you take, keep journaling and reviewing every week. The traders who improve are the ones who know their numbers. TradeHarbor is free for one account and tracks your results and your prop firm's rules from your own trades. Explore the demo or start free.
That's the end of the course. Thanks for reading, and trade carefully.