The account tier you buy decides your position size, your losing-streak tolerance and your true cost per attempt. Work through the sizing logic, run the numbers in the calculator, then compare firms by the market they actually fund.
Evaluation Framework
Six things determine whether a tier fits you. None of them is the headline number on the sales page.
Convert the percentage limit into a dollar figure before you buy. That number, not the headline account size, is what you are actually trading.
If your stop distance and risk per trade require a size the account cannot carry, the tier is wrong regardless of price.
A trailing limit follows your equity up and shrinks your room after a winning run. Confirm which model applies to the tier you are buying.
The daily cap often binds before the total drawdown does. Check how many full-risk losses fit inside one day.
Evaluation fee plus expected resets plus any activation or platform fee. Budget for more than one attempt.
Futures, forex/CFD and equities accounts are sized on different units. Pick the market first, then the tier.
Position Sizing & Drawdown
An account size is a drawdown budget wearing a bigger number. These four principles turn it back into a decision you can make.
Decide the dollar amount you are willing to lose on one trade. Divide it by your stop distance multiplied by the value per point or pip. That is your position size — the account size only tells you whether that size is permitted and survivable.
Divide the total drawdown budget by your per-trade risk. If that number is small, the account will end on a normal bad week rather than on a bad strategy. Reduce risk per trade or take a smaller tier.
It leaves no budget for a re-attempt and pushes you to trade a size you have never tested. Two attempts at a smaller tier is usually a better expected outcome than one attempt at the largest.
Scale when you are passing consistently and the firm's programme adds capital without extra cost. Add a second account when a single breach would remove all of your funded income, or when you want a second market or strategy running independently.
We do not publish fee amounts here. Reset pricing and refund policies change often — read them on the firm's current pricing page before you buy.
Free Tool
Enter the account size and the drawdown rules from the firm's rulebook. The calculator returns your dollar budgets, your position size and how many losing trades the account survives.
Enter the drawdown rules from the firm's own rulebook — we do not pre-fill them, because they differ by firm and by account tier.
Consecutive full-risk losses before you breach the total drawdown: 12
Consecutive full-risk losses before you breach the daily limit: 6
This calculator does arithmetic on the numbers you enter. It contains no firm data and makes no claim about any firm's rules, sizes or pricing — always confirm those on the firm's own site.
Once you know the dollar drawdown you can actually trade, take that figure to a firm's current pricing page and find the tier that matches it — rather than the largest tier you can afford.
Compare By Market
Six firms spanning futures, forex/CFD and equities. Account sizes are not comparable across markets, so pick your market first.
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you purchase through one of these links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Our recommendations are based on the factors explained on each page.
Sized around contract limits and point value. Compare tiers by how many contracts the drawdown lets you carry.
Sized around a nominal balance with leverage. Compare tiers by dollar drawdown against your typical stop distance.
Sized around buying power rather than FX-style leverage. Compare tiers by the share size your setups require.
Forex and CFD traders choosing a first evaluation tier.
Figures we have not confirmed on the firm's own current site are shown as “Not specified”. Check the firm's pricing page for live account sizes and terms.
Forex/CFD traders comparing account tiers across a range.
Figures we have not confirmed on the firm's own current site are shown as “Not specified”. Check the firm's pricing page for live account sizes and terms.
Traders who want to start smaller and scale over time.
Figures we have not confirmed on the firm's own current site are shown as “Not specified”. Check the firm's pricing page for live account sizes and terms.
Futures traders sizing an account around contract risk.
Figures we have not confirmed on the firm's own current site are shown as “Not specified”. Check the firm's pricing page for live account sizes and terms.
Futures traders comparing account tiers by contract limit.
Figures we have not confirmed on the firm's own current site are shown as “Not specified”. Check the firm's pricing page for live account sizes and terms.
Stock traders who want buying power rather than FX leverage.
Figures we have not confirmed on the firm's own current site are shown as “Not specified”. Check the firm's pricing page for live account sizes and terms.
Methodology: firms are grouped by the market they fund, not ranked by payout. Account sizes, splits, drawdown models and pricing are shown only where confirmed on the firm's own current site; everything else reads “Not specified” rather than an estimate. Account size figures are the ranges the firms publish, not prices, and were last checked on 2026-08-20. Check each firm's pricing page for live terms.
FAQ
Choose the largest account whose drawdown you can respect at your normal position size — not the largest you can afford to buy. Work backwards: decide your risk per trade in dollars, check how many consecutive losses the account's drawdown allows at that risk, and step down a tier if the answer is fewer than roughly eight.
Buying the biggest tier you can afford tends to leave nothing for a re-attempt, and it tempts you to trade a size your strategy was never tested at. Drawdown limits scale with the account, but so does the dollar value of every mistake. A smaller account you can afford to buy twice usually survives longer than one large attempt.
Most firms express drawdown as a percentage of the starting balance, so the dollar buffer grows with the account while the percentage stays flat. That means a larger account does not give you more room in relative terms — it only gives you more room if you keep your percentage risk per trade constant. Percentages, thresholds and whether drawdown is static or trailing differ by firm and tier; confirm them on the firm's own rulebook.
Scaling programmes reward consistency on one account and usually cost nothing extra, but they are slower and tie your outcome to a single risk limit. A second account diversifies breach risk and can be traded on a different strategy or market, but doubles your evaluation cost and your rule-tracking overhead. Scale first if you are already passing consistently; add a second account if a single breach would end your funded income entirely.
The true cost is the evaluation fee plus the expected number of resets or re-purchases before you pass, plus any activation or monthly platform fee, minus any refund on first payout where the firm offers one. Multiply the fee by a realistic number of attempts rather than assuming you pass first time. Fees, reset pricing and refund policies are firm-specific — check the firm's current pricing page.
Only if your percentage return stays the same at the larger size, which is not automatic. Larger positions can face worse fills and greater psychological pressure. Payout size is a function of return percentage, account size and profit split together — none of which is fixed by account size alone.
Yes, and they are not comparable. Futures accounts are usually sized around contract limits and point value, forex/CFD accounts around a balance with leverage, and equities accounts around buying power. Comparing a futures account size to a forex balance is meaningless — compare within one market.
Yes. Funded accounts carry maximum daily loss limits and overall drawdown limits, and breaching either can terminate the account. Whether a reset is available, and at what cost, varies by firm.
Run your risk per trade through the calculator, then open the firms that fund your market and read their current account sizes and rules directly.
Futures traders
Futures tiers are defined by contract limits and the drawdown attached to them, so the tier that fits depends on the point value you trade rather than a nominal balance.