How prop firm challenges work

A firm can't hand a large account to everyone who asks. A challenge is how it finds traders who control risk. The rules are built to test exactly that: can you reach a profit without a big drawdown, on more than one lucky day?

It is also a business. The fees of everyone who buys a challenge pay for the rewards of those who pass. Many people who buy a challenge don't pass it, at any firm, and it is worth knowing before you buy: treat the price as something you can afford to lose, and the challenge as a test of your process, not a quick way to make money.

Most challenges, wherever you buy them, are built from the same parts.

• Account size. The starting balance, for example $10,000 or $100,000. The price usually grows with it.
• Steps. One, two or three stages, each with its own profit target. Some challenges have no stages at all and are funded from the start ("instant funding").
• Profit target. The profit you need to pass a step, as a % of the size. 8% of $25,000 is $2,000.
• Max loss. How far the account can fall in total before it ends. It can be a fixed line under the start, or a line that trails your best balance. See Trailing vs static drawdown.
• Daily loss limit. How much you can lose in one day. See Daily loss limits explained.
• Minimum trading days. The fewest days you need to trade before a step can pass.
• Time limit. Some challenges give each step a deadline; many have none.
• Consistency. A rule that no single day can be too large a part of your profit. See Consistency rules explained.
• Reward split. Once funded, the share of the profit that is yours, for example 80%.

The numbers change from challenge to challenge, and the small print matters as much as the headline. Two challenges with the same target can be very different to pass if one has a trailing max loss and the other a fixed one.

Here is a $10,000 two-step challenge, as an example:

1. You buy it. The account opens at $10,000.
2. Step 1: reach 8% ($800 profit) without touching the max loss or the daily limit, over at least 3 trading days.
3. You pass. Step 2 starts again at $10,000: reach 5% ($500) under the same limits.
4. You pass again and the account is funded. It starts again at $10,000.
5. You trade and make $1,000. With an 80% split, your reward is $800.
6. You claim it, the account goes back to $10,000, and you keep trading for the next one.

If you touch the max loss at any point, the account ends, and so does a daily limit set to end it (on Runtiler, a daily limit can pause the account until the next day instead). You can buy the challenge again and start over.

Runtiler follows the same shape, with a few differences in who makes the challenges and how you're paid.

Challenges made by traders

On Runtiler, traders make the challenges. Anyone can build one in the editor, choosing the size, steps, targets, limits and split, and publish it on their profile for others to buy. The creator earns a share of each sale. You can pick one someone else made, or build exactly the one you want.

Runtiler sets every price from the rules, never the creator. Rules that pay rewards more often cost more. Prices start at $10. How that works is in How prices are set.

Simulated accounts on real prices

Every account on Runtiler is simulated. Prices come from real exchanges, but no order you place reaches a market, and the balance isn't money. What is paid out is a reward, in real USDC. This is how prop challenges usually work: the account tests your trading, and the reward is what you earn from it.

You trade in Runtiler's own terminal, in your browser on desktop or phone, across 25 markets: crypto, forex, metals, energy, indices and stocks.

Rules fixed at purchase

Each challenge's rules are on its Rules tab, in plain words, before you buy. When you buy, those rules and that price are kept with your account and never change, even if the creator later makes a new version or stops selling it.

If you change your mind, you can get the price back at any time until your first trade on that account. See Refunds.

Rewards in USDC

Once funded, you claim a reward when your account is in profit, nothing is open and the claim window is open. The reward is your profit times the split, paid in USDC on Polygon to your Runtiler wallet. A claim with nothing flagged is checked and sent within seconds. Rewards are paid from an on-chain vault whose numbers anyone can check. See How payouts work.

A few habits help whichever challenge you choose:

• Read every rule, especially the max loss type and the daily limit. They decide how much room you really have.
• Pick a size you can trade calmly. A bigger account doesn't make the rules easier; it only makes the numbers bigger.
• Plan your risk per trade from the max loss before you place a trade. How to pass a challenge walks through a full plan.
• Know what a step needs to pass: on Runtiler, a step passes when you close a trade with nothing left open and every condition met. Open profit doesn't count.

The exact rules, step by step, are in How a challenge works.