Prop Farming 101: Running Funded Accounts as a System
One funded account is an event. A farm is a loop designed to fund itself — seed, cashflow, recycle — run under the firms' rules, with a ledger, a calendar and one structural rule we have not seen written down elsewhere.
The Loop
Seed an evaluation. Pass it to a funded account. Take cashflow when a payout lands. Recycle part of that payout into the next seed. The thing that compounds is the number of seats a repeatable process is allowed to run on, not the size of any one position. The loop turns only if a process already passes on one account — the farm multiplies whatever it is given.
Two Groups, Never Crossed
Evaluations are trying to reach a target under a consistency rule, spread across days on purpose. Funded accounts are trying to stay alive and pay on schedule. Those are opposite objectives, so evaluations only copy evaluations and funded accounts only copy funded accounts. A breach in one group cannot travel into the other, by construction rather than by luck.
The Three Documents
A rules matrix (where the firms' rulebooks agree and where they don't — drawdown type, consistency after funding, hedging, copy freezes, news), a calendar (seeds, activations, payout windows, blackouts, sessions) and a ledger (seed cost, state, days, landed payouts, what each became). Running a farm is mostly keeping those three honest.
What Is Not Here
No returns, no pass counts, no payout tallies, no firm rankings, no affiliate links, no entry rules. Firms' published terms are stated with a pointer to verify them on the firm's own site. Most evaluations fail; the farm is built with that fact, not around it.
Questions
Is prop farming allowed?
Copying trades between accounts you personally own is permitted at most firms, within their per-trader caps and rules; copying anyone else's trades, or providing signals to accounts you don't own, is banned everywhere we have read. Verify each firm's current terms yourself.
Do I need more than one account to start?
No — and you should not add a second until the first is genuinely repeatable. The farm funds later seeds from earlier payouts, which is why it starts with one account traded well.
The Full Series
Every Prop Firms & Funding article, newest first — read the cluster to go deep.