Prop trading glossary
Every prop-firm and funded-account term, explained in plain English with a real example — and how it works at WICK FUNDED.
Simulated Funds
Account balances in a prop-firm challenge that exist in a demo (simulated) environment — no real money is bought or sold in the market.
Prop Firm (Proprietary Trading Firm)
A company that gives traders access to a (usually simulated) trading account after they pass an evaluation, and shares the profits with them.
Profit Split
The percentage of the profit a funded trader keeps; the rest goes to the firm.
Profit Target
The percentage gain you must reach to pass an evaluation phase.
Maximum Drawdown
The largest total loss allowed before the challenge or funded account fails.
Daily Drawdown
The most you can lose in a single trading day before breaching.
Trailing Drawdown
A maximum-drawdown limit that follows your highest balance upward, locking in some of your gains.
Consistency Rule
A rule capping how much of your total profit can come from a single day, to reward steady trading over one lucky trade.
Funded Account
The (simulated) trading account you receive after passing an evaluation, on which you earn a profit split.
1-Step Challenge
A single-phase evaluation: hit one profit target within the risk rules to get funded.
2-Step Challenge
A two-phase evaluation with a softer target in each phase, proving consistency twice.
Instant Funding
A funded account from day one, with no evaluation phase — usually with stricter rules.
Payout
The transfer of a funded trader’s share of profits from the firm to the trader.
Leverage
The ratio that lets you control a position larger than your account balance.
Lot Size
The unit of volume for a trade; in forex one standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency.
News Trading
Opening or holding trades around scheduled high-impact economic releases.
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
An open standard that lets an AI assistant (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor) securely connect to an external tool and act through it.
Trading API
A documented programmatic interface (usually REST) that lets software read an account and place or manage trades without the human UI.
OAuth Connection
A secure authorization flow that lets you grant an app limited access to your account without sharing a password or pasting a key.
AI-Agent Trading
Letting an AI agent (an LLM with tools) read a trading account and place or manage trades on the trader’s behalf.