What is a funded trading account?

A funded trading account is an arrangement in which you trade capital provided by a firm rather than your own, and keep an agreed share of any profit you generate.

Access is granted through an evaluation. You pay a one-time fee, trade a simulated account under published objectives — a profit target, a maximum daily loss and a maximum overall loss — and if you clear those objectives without breaching the limits, you move to a funded account.

What you are actually buying

The fee buys access to the evaluation. It is not a deposit, it is not an investment, and it is not held on your behalf. If the evaluation is not cleared, the fee is not returned. This is the single most important thing to understand before starting: you are paying for the opportunity to demonstrate a trading edge, not depositing money into a trading account.

Why firms offer this

A firm that can identify consistently profitable traders benefits from backing them. The evaluation is a filter, and the fee both funds the filtering process and ensures applicants are serious.

What it is not

It is not a way to get free capital, and it is not suitable for someone without a tested strategy. The evaluation objectives are reachable, but they require the same discipline that profitable trading requires anywhere else. If you would not survive a 10% drawdown limit trading your own money, an evaluation will not change that.