Passing and getting paid are two different tests
An evaluation asks one question: can you make the target without touching a limit. A payout asks four or five, and most of them are about consistency and time rather than profit.
The result is a category of trader who is profitable, funded, and unpaid — usually for a reason they could have seen coming weeks earlier.
The safety-net or buffer balance
Many futures firms require your account to sit a defined amount above the starting balance before any withdrawal — often the same size as the drawdown. Practically, this means your first withdrawable dollar is much further away than your first profitable dollar.
It also interacts with the trailing drawdown: reaching the buffer is usually the same moment the trailing line locks. Two milestones, one number — worth knowing which one you are chasing.
Minimum trading days
Usually counted as days with a real trade, sometimes with a minimum profit or minimum contract count to stop traders logging a one-tick day to tick the box. Some firms count only days since funding, not days during the evaluation.
Read the definition rather than the headline number. "Ten trading days" can mean ten calendar days with any activity, or ten qualifying days — a difference of weeks.
The consistency rule at payout
The rule that catches the most people. Your best day may not exceed a set share — often 30% to 50% — of total profit at the moment you request the withdrawal.
Two consequences worth internalising. First, the big day is not a problem now, it is a problem at payout, so the calculation has to run continuously. Second, the fix is never to make a bigger day, it is to make more ordinary ones.
Worked example: a 30% rule, a $1,800 best day and $3,100 of profit. The best day is 58% of the total, so the payout waits. At 30%, that $1,800 needs $6,000 of total profit — $2,900 of ordinary trading away. The consistency calculator does this arithmetic for any rule percentage.
Profit splits and thresholds
The share you keep — commonly 80% to 100% on early withdrawals at futures firms, 80% to 90% at CFD firms — plus a minimum withdrawal amount and a payout cycle. Some firms cap the first few withdrawals, then lift the cap.
None of these are negotiable and all of them are published. The mistake is not choosing the wrong split, it is not knowing the cycle: requesting on the wrong day of the week can cost you two weeks.
What stays in the account
Withdrawing usually lowers your balance, and on a trailing account the drawdown line does not come down with it. Take out too much too fast and you are suddenly trading with very little room above the line.
A simple rule that keeps accounts alive: never let a withdrawal take you within one bad day of the line.
The audit at the end
Firms review the trade history before releasing money. What gets flagged is rarely profitability — it is behaviour: copied fills across accounts at prohibited sizes, news trading where it is banned, latency arbitrage, one account traded by two people.
If you run several accounts from the same strategy, know your firm's stance on copy trading before you scale. Some allow it outright, some allow it only within their own ecosystem, some treat it as grounds to void payouts.
Track the rules instead of remembering them
Propbook keeps your drawdown, daily loss, target and consistency live on every account you trade, and warns you on Telegram before a limit is crossed. Free, no card.
Open Propbook →FAQ
How long does a prop firm payout take?
Between a few hours and a few weeks depending on the firm, the payment method and the cycle. The delay traders complain about is usually a rule they had not met, not a processing problem.
Why was my payout denied?
The usual causes are the consistency rule, not enough qualifying trading days, a balance below the buffer requirement, or a prohibited behaviour in the trade history — copy trading or news trading where it is banned.
Can I withdraw everything above my starting balance?
Rarely. Most firms require a buffer above the starting balance to remain in the account, and on a trailing account the line does not fall when you withdraw, so a large withdrawal leaves you with very little room.
Does the consistency rule apply to every firm?
No. Topstep, Apex, FundedNext and several others apply one; many futures and CFD firms do not. Check the account you own — Propbook carries the percentage for each firm as an editable preset.