A prop account is an account at a proprietary trading firm that you trade under that firm's rules rather than as your own brokerage account. It has two stages with different rules, and conflating them is the most common reason people are surprised later: the evaluation account you buy, and the funded account you are given if you pass.
Stage one: the evaluation account
This is the account the fee buys. It carries a profit target, a loss limit and usually a minimum number of trading days, and its only purpose is to measure you. Breaching the limit ends it, and most firms sell a reset so you can start again on the same size. Since restarting is the ordinary path rather than the exception, the reset price is the number that decides what a prop account really costs over a year, and it is not part of any firm's advertised from-price.
Stage two: the funded account
Passing converts you to a funded account with a published profit share, still simulated, still governed by a loss limit, and now carrying payout rules as well. My Funded Futures publishes that the split and cadence follow the rules specific to your plan, which is the important qualifier: the terms belong to the plan you bought rather than to the firm. Some firms also apply a scaling arrangement that increases the size as you build profit, with its own conditions.
The rules that end either stage
The loss limit is the main one, and its shape differs by firm and sometimes by plan. Beyond it, firms publish rules on news trading, minimum trading days, consistency, prohibited strategies and, in several cases, the maximum number of accounts you may trade. These live in each firm's rules document rather than its headline, and they are the part of a prop account most worth reading before paying, because they are where accounts are lost that never breached a drawdown.
Questions people ask about what is a prop account
Is a prop account a real brokerage account?
No. It is an account inside the firm's own platform holding simulated capital, governed by the firm's rules.
What is the difference between an evaluation and a funded prop account?
The evaluation is what you pay for and is a measurement; the funded account is what you receive on passing and is what pays. Both are simulated, and both carry a loss limit.
Can I trade my own strategy on a prop account?
Within the firm's published rules. Firms restrict certain approaches and publish those restrictions; none of the firms in this index tells you what to trade, and this site publishes no strategy or advice of any kind.