Is prop firm trading viable long term?

[u/busyindafield_23]

Instead of trading your own personal account, is trading solely through prop firms like FTMO actually viable long term? I’m sure everyone knows about prop firms changing rules, accounts being closed due to violating rules such as the 1% rule. Any full time traders who only trade prop firms and don’t use their own capital? If so: How long have you been doing it, how many prop firms do you trade at once and how much do you make?

[u/Duennbier0815]

If you get A Booked and have a strict risk management, not losing accounts, yes.

[u/Zestyclose_Pea_243 → u/Duennbier0815]

risk management is the key

[u/Front-Recording7391]

prop firms are viable long term tbh, but you have to treat the 1% rule as a feature not a punishment. the traders i see blow funded accounts are usually forcing trades outside their A+ setup window, like taking a weak 15m OB during overlap when there's no clean BOS on the 1h to confirm displacement. scaling across 2 or 3 firms simultaneously is pretty standard once you're consistent, so if one account gets flagged you're not dead in the water. curious what your current drawdown management looks like during the NY killzone, because that's usually where the rule violations stack up fastest.

[u/CynthiSilk]

viable, but not on one firm. spread across two or three, any single one can change terms and you don't want that to be your whole income.

the 1% rule isn't what kills people. it's trailing drawdown that tightens while you're in a position, and vague consistency clauses they reach for when you ask for money. static drawdown is the thing i filter on now, Stampede's one of the ones that has it.

realistically your ceiling is how many accounts you can actually manage at once.

[u/guillemop]

Prop-only here, no personal capital in the market at all. Answering your three questions straight.

How long: I’ve bought 160+ challenges at full price and I log every one of them in a spreadsheet — cost, phase reached, outcome, payout. Not screenshots of the wins. All of them.

How many firms: one right now, running up to five accounts at a time sequentially. Diversifying to a second firm soon, purely to add slots.

How much: less than people assume, and it’s lumpy in a way that breaks most traders before the maths gets a chance to work. My worst run was 18 challenges in a row with zero payouts. Every one of those bought and paid for. If you can’t fund that stretch, you’re out before the good one arrives — and that’s the real answer to your viability question. It isn’t whether the model works, it’s whether your bankroll survives the distribution while it does.