Prop Firms
Replay a backtest's trades through every prop firm challenge in our directory, and stress-test the ones that fit.
Open the Backtest viewer, then choose Prop Firms. The tab answers one question: which prop firm challenges would this strategy have passed? It replays the backtest's closed trades through the rules of every challenge in our prop firm directory and sorts them into three outcomes:
| Outcome | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pass | Every phase passed without touching a loss limit, within six months, and without breaking a holding rule. |
| Almost | Close, with what's missing spelled out, such as a different position size or only the first phase passed. |
| No fit | A loss limit ended it early, or it got nowhere near the target, at every size tried. |
The tab replays past trades. It is not a promise of a pass, and firms change their rules: check the firm's current rules before you buy a challenge.
How a challenge is judged
Only firms that offer the strategy's market are checked: a BTCUSDT backtest is judged against crypto challenges, an NQ backtest against futures challenges. For each one, the backtest's trades run in order, from its first day, through that firm's own rules:
- the profit target of each phase;
- the daily loss limit;
- the max drawdown, static or trailing;
- minimum trading days, time limits and consistency rules (no single day making too much of the profit);
- overnight and weekend holding rules, and contract or leverage limits where the firm lists them.
A few details decide close results:
- Position size. If the strategy trades a fixed size (contracts, shares or a set amount), every account trades that same size. If it sizes trades as a share of its equity, each trade is scaled to the account: a trade that made 1% of the backtest's capital makes 1% of the account.
- Open losses count. Each trade's worst open loss counts against the loss limits before the trade closes, so a trade that finished in profit can still break a limit on the way.
- Trading days end at 5 PM New York, as prop firms count them. Days shown on the tab are calendar days.
- Instant funding has no target. It counts as a pass when the funded account lasts at least 30 days, in profit, without touching a limit.
News bans, automated-trading rules and stop-loss requirements can't be read from a backtest. Each challenge lists them under Rules to know (the i count on its card), so you can check them yourself.
Read the tab
The summary at the top gives the headline ("Passes 12 challenges at 5 firms") and the scope: how many trades, on which ticker, against how many challenges. Select Pass, Almost or No fit on its bar to show only that outcome.
With only a handful of trades, treat the result as a rough read: the tab says so, and a longer backtest gives a better one.
Would pass
One card per firm, showing its best passing challenge: the account size, the challenge type and its price. If more of the firm's sizes pass, a +2 sizes chip lists them. A badge marks a standout: Most reliable, Most room, Best value or Fastest.
Each card has a small chart of the replay. The line is equity against the dashed target; the red columns underneath show how far equity sat below its peak, with the loss limit as a red dashed line. Multi-phase challenges are split by a divider for each phase.
| Figure | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Passed in | Calendar days from the backtest's first day to the last phase passed. Instant funding shows Stayed funded instead. |
| Closest call | The least room left to a loss limit at any point, as a share of that limit. 10% room means the strategy came within a tenth of the limit. |
| Start dates | The same challenge started again on later month starts in the backtest, and how many of those passed. "4 of 5" passes from most start dates; "1 of 5" depended on when you started. |
A pass that came within 10% of a loss limit, or passed from fewer than half of the other start dates, is flagged Close call, likely luck. Stress-test it before relying on it.
Passes are ordered best first: how reliably they pass from other start dates, how much room they kept, account size per dollar of fee, speed, profit split and the firm's reviews.
Almost there
Near misses are listed by how small the gap is, each with the main thing it's missing:
- Trade 25% smaller or Trade 1.5× bigger: it passes at a different multiple of the backtest's position size, between 0.25× and 2×.
- Passed Phase 1, not Phase 2: the first phase passed, the next didn't.
- 64% of the way to the target: the backtest ended before the target was reached, with no limit touched.
- Too slow for the 30-day limit, or Slow: 210 days to pass: it gets there, but not within the challenge's time limit or six months.
- Profit too concentrated in one day: it reached the target, but broke the consistency rule.
- Close trades before the session ends or before the weekend: the firm doesn't allow holding overnight or over the weekend.
- Hold at most 3 minis: positions are larger than the firm's contract or leverage limit.
Open a row for the details, the replay chart and the challenge's rules.
Why nothing fits
When no challenge passes or comes close, the tab compares the backtest's own numbers with the rules it was checked against: its worst day against the daily loss limits, its deepest drawdown against the max loss, and its net profit against the first targets. A line of advice says which side to work on: losses that come in too big, or profit too small to reach most targets.
Every challenge
Switch from Best matches to All challenges for a table of every challenge checked, rule by rule: target, daily loss, max drawdown, consistency, holding and size limit, each marked as held or broken. The search box and filters stay at the top while you scroll. Search by firm, size or type, or filter by account size, challenge type (instant funding, 1-step, 2-step, 3-step or more) and firm.
Stress-test a challenge
The backtest is one history. Stress-test shows how the same challenge goes across thousands of others.
Select Stress-test on any card or row. It resamples the backtest's closed trades in blocks of consecutive trades, so winning and losing streaks survive, into 2,000 alternative histories at the backtest's pace. Each one goes through that challenge's own rules, fees and payout terms.
| Result | How to read it |
|---|---|
| Pass rate | The share of simulated attempts that pass, with its 95% range and a verdict: Robust, Hit or miss or Fragile. For instant funding, the share of funded accounts that collect at least one payout. |
| Simulated attempts | A fan of 40 attempts against the target and the loss limit, colored by whether each passed or failed. |
| Days to funded | The typical number of days to get funded, and how long 1 attempt in 10 takes. |
| Fees to get funded | The average number of attempts and their cost, with an amount to plan for. |
| Payout once funded | How often a funded account collects at least one payout. |
| Expected value | Payouts minus fees, and the share of runs that come out ahead. |
| Position size | The pass rate at 0.25× to 2× the backtest's size, marking the size that passes most often and the one with the best expected value. They often differ: bigger trades can fail more often but pay more once funded. |
| Why attempts fail | Failed attempts broken down by rule: daily loss, max drawdown, time limit, or too slow to reach the target. |
The same backtest always gives the same stress test, so you can compare challenges side by side.
Links
View opens the challenge on the firm's site. Some are partner links, and the tab says so: LuxAlgo may earn from them. Where a firm offers a promo code, it appears beside the link.
To search the directory in conversation instead, or to have Quant, our coding agent, check a strategy against challenges for you, see Trading with Quant.