# Prop firm evaluation or your own account?

> Your own futures account puts your capital on the line, with no rules beyond margin. An evaluation costs a one-time fee, runs on a simulated account under a trailing drawdown and other rules, and pays 90% of profit once funded. Neither is better: one fits a capitalised trader who wants freedom, the other a trader who wants defined risk.

By StarTrading Team · Published 2026-09-11 · Updated 2026-09-11 · Source: https://startrading.io/blog/prop-firm-evaluation-vs-own-account

Your own futures account puts your capital on the line, with no rules beyond margin and no ceiling on what you keep. A prop firm evaluation costs a one-time fee, runs on a simulated account with a trailing drawdown and other rules, and pays 90% of profit once funded. Neither is better in general. This article lays out what each one costs, what each one imposes, and the situations where one fits and the other does not.

## What does trading your own account cost?

Three things: capital, margin and losses.

**Capital.** A futures broker needs a deposit large enough to cover the exchange margin of every contract you hold. CME publishes maintenance margins per contract and revises them with volatility; for a full-size index contract the figure is measured in thousands of dollars, and it must be in the account before the position is opened. Brokers offer lower day-trading margins for positions closed the same session, sometimes a small fraction of the exchange figure, which lets a small deposit control a large contract. That is leverage, and it cuts both ways.

**Margin calls.** If a position moves against you far enough, the broker liquidates it or asks for more money, at its discretion and on its timeline. There is no soft limit and no next-session reset.

**Losses.** They are yours, in full, and they can exceed the deposit. The CFTC and the NFA both say this plainly in their investor material: futures are not suitable for everyone, and the amount lost can be greater than the amount invested.

On the other side, everything you make is yours, minus commissions, exchange fees and data. Nobody caps your best day, nobody tells you to be flat at 4:15 pm ET, and nobody reviews your trades.

## What does an evaluation cost?

A fee. A [Cycle 50K](https://startrading.io/accounts/cycle) lists at $172 and a reset, if the account is failed, at $120. A Cycle 100K lists at $272. There is no monthly charge, no time limit and no deposit: the account is simulated, so the $50,000 balance is not money and the $2,000 Max Loss Limit is not a loss you can incur. What you can lose is the fee, and a reset each time you want to try again on a failed account.

Direct accounts skip the evaluation and cost more, $515 for a 50K, because the trader is funded from the first trade and the 20% consistency rule replaces the evaluation as proof of skill.

Put it into practice on a Cycle account

$172One-time fee, no subscription, no time limit.

Profit target

$3,000

Max Loss Limit

$2,000

[Start the 50K Cycle evaluation](https://startrading.io/pricing?f=cycle&s=50k&p=rithmic)[About Cycle accounts](https://startrading.io/accounts/cycle)

## What rules does each impose?

|  | Own account | StarTrading evaluation and funded account |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capital at risk | your deposit, and possibly more | the fee, plus any reset |
| Loss limit | margin call, at the broker’s discretion | Max Loss Limit, trailing, fails the account |
| Daily limit | none | soft Daily Loss Limit on most sizes, pauses the day |
| Position size | whatever margin allows | 4 minis on a 50K, 6 on a 100K, micros at one tenth |
| Overnight | allowed, at full margin | never; flat at 4:15 pm ET (Rithmic) or 4:45 pm ET (Tradovate) |
| Consistency | none | 40% on funded Cycle, 50% on Clear and Stream evaluations, 20% on Direct |
| Profit kept | 100% minus costs | 90% of each payout, $500 minimum per request |
| Payout timing | withdraw any time | when the rules of the account type are met, wire in two business days |
| Prohibited | nothing beyond the law and the broker’s terms | HFT, hedging across accounts, micro-scalping |

The rules are the product. A firm that pays 90% of simulated profit has to filter for traders whose results repeat, and the [trailing drawdown](https://startrading.io/blog/what-is-a-trailing-drawdown), the daily limit and the [consistency rule](https://startrading.io/blog/consistency-rules-explained) are that filter. A trader who finds them arbitrary will be happier on their own account. A trader who was going to impose something similar on themselves anyway loses little.

## What do you actually keep?

On your own account: your profit, and your loss. On a funded simulated account: 90% of each payout, from a minimum of $500, with the payout rules of the account type; a first-cycle goal of $500 and a first-payout cap of $2,000 on a Cycle 50K, for instance. After five simulated payouts the account moves to the Live stage, where the trading is real, the starting drawdown of $2,000 on a 50K is StarTrading’s capital, and payouts are daily. The [payout policy](https://startrading.io/rules/payout-policy) has every figure.

The arithmetic that matters is the ratio of what you can lose to what you can make. On your own account the two are symmetrical. On an evaluation they are not: the downside is the fee, the upside is 90% of a simulated account’s profit, and the price of that asymmetry is the rulebook.

## When does your own account make sense?

-   You can fund the margin without it changing your life, and a full loss of the deposit would not either.
-   Your method needs overnight positions, spreads, or size beyond 10 minis.
-   You want no consistency check, no daily pause and no review of your trades.
-   You already have a track record and the account is a business, not an experiment.

## When does an evaluation make sense?

-   You want the loss on a bad month to be a known number, the fee, rather than an open-ended one.
-   You want to trade a $50,000 or $100,000 line without depositing it.
-   Your method is intraday, in ES, NQ, CL or GC, at a size the limits already allow.
-   You are still finding out whether you have an edge, and the rules are a structure you would have needed anyway.

Evaluation and funded accounts are simulated until the Live stage, and futures trading, on any account, carries a substantial risk of loss. If the second list describes you, the [pricing page](https://startrading.io/pricing) has the fee for each size and type, and the [one-phase evaluation article](https://startrading.io/blog/pass-a-one-phase-futures-evaluation) has the plan for the first weeks.

## Sources

-   CME Group, [E-mini S&P 500 margins](https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/equities/sp/e-mini-sp500.margins.html): exchange maintenance margins per contract, revised with volatility.
-   U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, [Learn and Protect](https://www.cftc.gov/LearnAndProtect/index.htm): investor material on the risks of leveraged futures trading.
-   National Futures Association, [Investor resources](https://www.nfa.futures.org/investors/index.html): what to know before opening a futures account.

## Questions on this topic

### Is a prop firm evaluation real money?

The fee is real; the account is not. Evaluation and funded accounts are simulated, payouts are paid from the firm, and your own capital is never at risk beyond the fee and any reset. The Live stage, after five simulated payouts, trades real capital provided by StarTrading, still not yours.

### Can I lose more than my deposit on my own futures account?

Yes. Futures are leveraged, and a fast move against an open position can take the account below zero; the broker then asks for the difference. Day-trading margins offered by brokers are lower than exchange margins, which increases the leverage and the chance of that outcome.

### How much does a StarTrading evaluation cost?

A one-time fee by size and account type, with no monthly charge, no time limit and no deposit. A failed account can be reset for a lower fee. Direct accounts cost more because they skip the evaluation. The list price of each of the sixteen products, and any promotion, is on the pricing page.