r/PropFirms

Hey guys I really need your help, anyone who has experience with taxes as a propfirm trader, or knows about tax law related to prop firm trading. I am someone who has tried to become profitable through prop firm trading, but wasn't able to succeed. Throughout my trading career from january to now, I have made $14k in payouts from propfirms, with all of them being from Lucid, except for one payout from Tradeify. I set aside 30% of that 14k into a HYSA as my "tax" money that I will eventually owe in April. Throughout this process, I have blown all my profits and some of my own money, to being a total of $20k being spent on evaluations and resets. I don't want to continue trading and dig myself into an even deeper hole so I decided to quit now. I wanted to see if there was any route where I could save my lost income, through potentially tax write offs. I don't have an LLC, I don't have an Scorp, or any business card. All expenses were made through a personal credit card/debit card. I've asked around from some traders and from chatgpt and the general consensus is I should be able to write off evals, one trader I asked was even writing off their rent and electricity bills. I didn't want to go around telling people my exact numbers, so I wanted to come here and ask here what my situation is looking like. Seeing the numbers I have, (14k in payouts, 4k taxes, 20k in expenses) I am basically 10k in red. Please let me know what is the best course of action and help me understand what is likely to happen.
SIDE NOTE: I am a college student, this year I have done two PAID internships (one in Boston, one in Colorado) meaning I also have W-2 wages.

Will I be able to write off all 4k of that tax money from the 20k I spent on evals (meaning I would owe no tax money)?
Would I be able to get a tax refund since I am considered a business loss, meaning my taxable income from my W-2 income would be reduced and I'd get a refund from that?
During my 2 internships, I stayed in different states, one in Boston, one in Colorado. I was staying in a furnished finder (similar to airbnb), should I report the rent I paid as a "business expense"?

I know it's very early considering we are months from April, but I want to get a general idea of what it looks like and if I should do this myself or get a CPA. I would like to hear from anyone experienced who might have some good knowledge related to my situation.
Thanks!

took me way too long and way too many blown challenges to figure this out.

the difficulty of a challenge isn't fixed. it depends on your numbers — your win rate, your R:R, how much you risk — hitting up against that firm's target and drawdown. so two firms at the same price can be completely different difficulties for you.

quick example. a tight trailing drawdown is fine for a scalper with a smooth 60% win rate curve. but a swing trader hitting 40% with big 3R winners? they draw down over and over before the big trade lands, and that trailing dd taps them out before they ever get near the target. same firm, opposite odds — just depends who's trading it.

and everyone compares firms on price and profit split because those are the obvious numbers. but price tells you what the attempt costs, not whether you'll actually pass it.

so now i just sanity check my win rate + R:R against the firm's rules before buying anything. completely changed which firms i bother with.

curious how people here actually pick — do you factor your own stats in, or is it mostly price and vibes?

trying to figure out safe lot sizing for gold without blowing daily DD. what's the biggest lot you run per trade on a 2.5k account, how many trades a day before you stop, and what's your risk % per trade? also curious what SL/TP points you're using on gold specifically since it moves so fast. blew 1 account yesterday, wanna know what's actually worked for people who passed.

Seems like every trader online talks about how props are a scam and you should trade your own account. "Dont have a daily drawdown limit." "You're not forced to be consistent." "No time trades."

Here's my issue. Losing my own $500 is way more painful than losing a $50 evaluation.

When trading a prop, I know I can only lose my evaluation fee.
When trading my own money, I am watching my savings go down the drain. Completely different mindset.

I tend to run my losers longer in my own account because I hate realizing a loss. I get rid of my losing trades quickly during a prop eval because I know they will take me out at the drawdown limit.

Am I crazy or does trading your own money cause more pressure than a prop trade?

Hi I have been looking for a prop firm to trade S&P options and I’ve happened to find optionsfunding, has anyone used them before or knows if they are legit?

One thing I've been wondering is whether traders stay with the same prop firm for years or if most people are constantly moving around. Do you feel like prop firms actually create opportunities to grow or are they mainly a way to access capital?

I'm interested in hearing from traders who've been with the same firm for a while.

Buying the biggest prop firm account you can afford is usually a terrible way to start.

Something clicked for me after blowing evaluations that were completely avoidable.

The account size wasn't really helping me.

It was just making each failed attempt more expensive.

Have $800–$1,000 available?

Buy the biggest challenge you can afford and try to pass it.

The problem is that you're concentrating your entire evaluation budget into one attempt.

One bad week, one rule violation, one stupid trade and you're buying another challenge from scratch.

I started looking at it differently.

Say I have $900 I'm willing to spend on evaluations.

Instead of putting most of it into one large challenge, I'd rather split that budget across 3 smaller accounts.

Something like:

3 × $50K evaluations
Same strategy
Same risk per setup
Same rules for entering and exiting trades

Now I have 3 separate attempts.

If one account fails, I haven't burned through the entire budget.

More importantly, I don't increase risk on the remaining accounts trying to “make the money back.”

That's where this approach can go wrong FAST.

Having 3 accounts doesn't turn an unprofitable strategy into a profitable one.

If you're randomly taking trades with negative expectancy, you've basically found a way to lose 3 accounts instead of 1.

You still need a setup you've tested, predefined risk per trade and enough discipline to leave the account alone when there isn't a trade.

There's another part people overlook too.

Before spreading money across different prop firms, I check:

• Drawdown structure
• Payout requirements
• News trading restrictions
• Copy trading rules
• Consistency rules
• Maximum allocation
• Whether the firm's rules actually fit how I trade

A cheap challenge with rules that constantly interfere with your strategy isn't necessarily a better opportunity.

Once one of the smaller accounts reaches funded stage and starts producing withdrawals, you can decide whether to use some of those profits for another evaluation.

That's when scaling becomes much more controlled.

You're not constantly injecting fresh money every time something goes wrong.

One account works → withdraw → allocate part of it toward another attempt → repeat.

It sounds less exciting than immediately buying a massive challenge.

But after looking at prop accounts this way, putting my entire evaluation budget behind one account stopped making much sense.

Curious if anyone here already does something similar.

I'm interested to hear what people prefer once they have both options. Would you rather trade a funded account with rules attached or a much smaller personal account with complete freedom? I can see good arguments for both. What would you choose and why?

Can someone tell me which is the ultimate best prop firm that’s not to expensive that has 1-3 days to withdraw with no activation Fee and not bad on the consistency part and where I can pass the challenge in 1 day

Pls and thank you

Why not someone making any trustable prop firm for indian market. I just hear from my friend do trading in forex that he do trade in prop firm and making a money a lot without taking high risk. But I just so deep into Indian market i don't want to go in forex. But still want to find any prop firm in indian market. Is anyone who wants same?

🚨 THE COMPLETE FUNDINGPIPS CID TIMELINE — FROM ALLEGATION TO TODAY

For those who have followed my case, here is the full timeline in one post.

📅 17 July
I publicly questioned my FundingPips termination and asked a simple question:

"What evidence was used to terminate my account?"

Instead of receiving verifiable proof, I was met with generic responses and told the decision was final.

📅 17–28 July
For 17 days I continued asking the same questions publicly:

❓What is the evidence?

❓What account was supposedly involved?

❓How was the CID violation determined?

❓Why was my account terminated?

No detailed explanation was provided.

📅 28 July
FundingPips finally released what they called "evidence."

According to their claim:

⚠️ My device had logged into another trader's account.

⚠️ The account allegedly had a Swiss connection.

⚠️ They concluded it was the "same device."

📅 29 July
I responded with my own evidence:

✅ MT5 login records

✅ Complete MT5 journal history

✅ Counter-analysis of their claims

✅ Direct response to the alleged Swiss connection

After reviewing everything, the only Swiss connection I could identify was Duplikium, a Switzerland-based copy trading platform I used while managing my 3 × $100K evaluation accounts.

But that raises an obvious question:

❓ How does a Swiss service automatically become proof of the same physical device?

A Swiss connection ≠ Same device.

📅 Evidence Contradiction

FundingPips claimed my device accessed another trader's account approximately 5 months earlier.

However:

✅ The account they referenced was reviewed by FundingPips.

✅ The account was approved by FundingPips.

✅ I was later promoted to a Master Account.

If a serious device-sharing violation existed, why was the account approved and promoted?

📅 MT5 Log Issue

I reviewed the entire MT5 log period they referred to.

My account appears throughout the logs.

The alleged account does not appear anywhere in my MT5 journals.

This created another question:

❓ If the login occurred, why doesn't it appear in the MT5 records covering that period?

📅 Current Situation

After I published:

✅ MT5 logs

✅ Counter-evidence

✅ Timeline inconsistencies

✅ Questions regarding the "same device" conclusion

I again contacted support.

The response?

📌 Decision final.

📌 No response to the counter-evidence.

📌 No explanation of how "same device" was determined.

📌 No response to the MT5 log contradiction.

📅 Today

The dispute is no longer about whether FundingPips can investigate traders.

The dispute is about transparency.

My questions remain:

❓ How was "same device" determined?

❓ Why doesn't the alleged login appear in my MT5 logs?

❓ Why was the account approved and promoted if the violation already existed?

❓ Why are questions about the counter-evidence being ignored?

❓ Why should traders accept serious allegations without seeing verifiable evidence?

Until these questions are answered, the concerns surrounding the CID evidence remain unresolved.

#FundingPips #PropFirm #Forex #Trading #Payout #Transparency #CID #PropTrading #FundedTrader #ForexTrading

THEIR EVIDENCE - https://x.com/ErkanOriginal/status/2082016574744224243

MY COUNTER - https://x.com/theanonymous_IN/status/2082476230746771690