Funded trading is the practice of trading a proprietary firm's simulated capital after passing that firm's paid evaluation, keeping a published share of the gains. It is best understood by what changes hands: you pay a fee, the firm supplies rules and a simulated account, and if you satisfy the rules the firm pays you a share of the gains the rules allowed.
What the fee buys, and what it does not
The fee buys a measurement against a target and a loss limit. It does not buy capital, a job, training or any commitment beyond the published terms. Entry prices in this index start at $45 at TradeDay and $130 at Uprofit, both quoted from their own pages on the date shown and both the bottom of a tiered range. The figure that costs most traders more over time is the reset fee, which no firm advertises beside its from-price and which is what you buy again after each failed attempt.
The rule you are trading inside
Funded trading is only as good as the loss limit attached to it. A trailing drawdown follows the account's high water mark upward and, at several firms, follows unrealised profit, so an open trade that runs up and retraces can breach a level that never showed on a closed balance. An end-of-day drawdown moves once a day, at the close, on realised profit. TradeDay and Bulenox both publish the two shapes as a choice, which is the clearest way to see that they are different products rather than different wording.
What reaching a payout involves
Passing an evaluation is not the same as being paid. Firms publish minimum trading days, consistency rules and payout thresholds that sit between a funded account and a first withdrawal, and those are usually in the rules document rather than the headline. Earn2Trade publishes weekly withdrawals from $100 upward and states no additional performance targets are required to withdraw, which is the kind of term worth checking at every firm you consider, because a fast advertised cadence can sit behind conditions that slow it down.
Questions people ask about what is funded trading
Is funded trading profitable?
This site publishes no claim either way. The industry's published figures do not support a claim that funded trading is likely to make money, and we would have no means of verifying one.
How much does funded trading cost to start?
The two verifiable entry prices here are TradeDay from $45 and Uprofit from $130, both on the date shown. Budget for resets as well, since restarting after a failed evaluation is the ordinary path through these programmes.
Is the trading simulated?
Yes, at every firm in this index, in both the evaluation and the funded stage. The payouts are real; the account is not.