Free PDF · 14 pages · Updated September 2026

How to choose
a prop firm

The buyer's guide for CFD and futures traders. Compare challenges on what decides whether you get paid: the full cost, the drawdown rules, the payout terms and the firm's track record.

  • Work out the real cost to your first payout
  • Understand static, trailing, EOD and intraday drawdown
  • Spot the payout rules and red flags that catch traders out
  • Scorecard and shortlists of 21 firms with our codes

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Cover of How to Choose a Prop Firm, the Prop Firm Guide buyer's guide

What's inside

  1. 1

    What you're actually buying

    How challenges work, what firms earn from, and one firm's published pass rate.

  2. 2

    CFDs or futures?

    Platforms, fee models and drawdown styles, side by side.

  3. 3

    The true cost of a challenge

    A formula for cost-to-first-payout, with three worked examples.

  4. 4

    Drawdown rules, decoded

    Static vs trailing, balance vs equity, EOD vs intraday, with a chart.

  5. 5

    Getting paid

    Frequency, caps, buffers and a worked consistency-rule example.

  6. 6

    Rules that catch traders out

    News windows, weekend holding, inactivity, copy trading and device checks.

  7. 7

    Reputation and red flags

    How to read ratings across sites and a five-minute background check.

  8. 8

    The scorecard

    Weighted criteria to compare three firms in ten minutes.

  9. 9

    Shortlists and codes

    21 CFD and futures firms with prices, rules, ratings and our codes.

  10. 10

    Before you pay

    A ten-point checklist and how to apply a code.

Get the free guide Or compare firms now