← Guides

Tracking a funded account and its profit split

A funded account's balance is not your money. What counts is what you paid to get it and what you have actually withdrawn from it.

The displayed balance is not yours

On a funded account, the capital belongs to the prop firm. A $100,000 account showing $104,000 does not earn you $4,000: it earns you your share of that $4,000, and only on the day you withdraw it. Until then, a drawdown can wipe it out, along with the account.

That is why a funded account is not tracked like a live one. The question is not "what is my account worth?", but "how much has this program earned me, all things counted?".

The three numbers to track

The cost: the challenge fee, and the fee of every new attempt. A challenge failed and then passed costs twice.

Withdrawals, after split: each withdrawal, multiplied by your share. With an 80% profit split, a $5,000 gain earns you $4,000, not $5,000.

The net: what you have received, minus what you have paid. It is the only number that tells you whether the program is profitable for you.

An example

You buy a $100,000 challenge for $540. You fail it once, then pass it: $1,080 in fees. On the funded account, you make $6,000, and your split is 80%: you withdraw $4,800. Some prop firms also refund the challenge fee with the first withdrawal: add it if that is the case.

Your net: 4,800 − 1,080 = $3,720. That is the number to weigh against your time and your risk, not the $6,000 on screen.

Common mistakes

• Adding funded account balances to live account balances, as if it were the same money.
• Forgetting failed challenges, which are a real expense.
• Counting the gross gain instead of your share.
• Changing profit split along the way, after a scaling step for instance, without noting it: later withdrawals are no longer worth the same.

In My Trading Book

Each account has its type: live, funded, demo or managed. On a funded account, you enter the challenge fee and your profit split, and each withdrawal is counted for your share. The accounts page shows separately what your programs have cost, what you have received from them and the net, without ever mixing them with your own capital.

To size each position on a funded account, the position size calculator takes the account currency into account.