Every programme shows the same three numbers on its landing page. Account size, profit split, price of the evaluation. Those three decide almost nothing.
What decides your result is the set of rules that sit under them. They determine whether you keep the account, and whether the profit ever leaves the company. The second half of that chain is described in how a funded account payout works.
What you are actually buying
You are not buying capital. You are buying the right to trade under a set of conditions, and a promise to be paid a share if you stay inside them.
So the comparison is not “whose account is bigger”. It is “whose conditions can I actually live with for six months”.
The rules that end accounts
Read these before the price.
- Daily drawdown. The limit that closes the account in one bad session. Check whether it counts from the day’s start balance or from the peak equity.
- Overall drawdown. Whether it is static or trails your highest balance. A trailing limit is far harder than it looks.
- Consistency rule. A cap on how much of your total profit may come from one day. Pass the evaluation with one lucky trade and the payout can still be refused.
- Time limits. Minimum trading days, maximum days per phase.
- Forbidden behaviour. News trading, holding over the weekend, copy trading, hedging between accounts.
A programme with a generous split and a trailing drawdown is usually worse than a plain one with a static limit.
The payout terms
This is where most of the real difference sits, and the FAQ on receiving money answers the practical half of it.
Four questions cover it. How often are payouts made. Whether you have to request them yourself. Which routes are available where you live. In which currency the money arrives.
The currency question is the one traders skip. Profit is counted in dollars almost everywhere, so a local-currency account converts on arrival. A multi-currency balance removes that step, because the money can simply sit in the currency it was earned in.
The costs that are not on the price page
The evaluation fee is visible. These usually are not. Even a free funded trading account carries costs of this kind.
- Reset fee. What it costs to restart after a breach.
- Monthly or platform fee. Some programmes charge while the account is live.
- Data fees. Common on futures programmes, rare on forex.
- Payout fee. A flat charge, a percentage, or an unfavourable conversion rate.
- Card and transfer costs on your side, once the money lands. A card tied to the same balance avoids one conversion.
Add the realistic case: two attempts, four months of trading, three payouts. The cheapest evaluation often stops being the cheapest.
Red flags
A firm that cannot say who pays you is the clearest one. If support will not name the payment route before you buy, the payout is not a solved problem.
Others worth noticing. Rules that are described only in marketing language. A changing rulebook with no version history. Payout proof that consists only of screenshots. No written answer to “what happens if my bank rejects the transfer”.
A working checklist
- drawdown type, daily and overall, in writing;
- consistency rule, and what it does to a single good day;
- payout frequency, and who starts the request;
- payout routes available in your country;
- payout currency, and whether you can hold it;
- the full cost of two attempts, not one;
- what happens to a rejected transfer and who covers the fee.
Evaluation and funded stage are different products
Most comparisons stop at the evaluation. The funded stage usually carries its own rules: a different drawdown, a waiting period before the first payout, sometimes a lower split at the start.
Check both sets. A programme that is easy to pass and hard to hold is a bad deal, even at ninety per cent.
Five questions for support, before you pay
Ask them in writing and keep the answers.
- Which company sends the payout, and from which country?
- What happens if my bank returns the transfer, who pays the fee, and how long until the retry?
- Is drawdown calculated from balance or from equity, and against which reference point?
- How much of my total profit may come from a single day?
- If the rules change after I buy, do my conditions stay as they were?
An answer like “our team will look into it” to the first question is itself an answer. The firm has not solved payouts, and you will meet that fact later.
A realistic cost picture
Say the evaluation costs 250 dollars. One failed attempt plus a reset takes it to roughly 400. Four months on a programme with a monthly fee adds about 120. Three payouts with a fixed fee and a poor conversion rate can take another 90.
The real price of the first year is therefore closer to 600 than to 250. That is the number to compare against the split, and against a payment account of your own that removes at least the conversion part of it.
Where SharPay fits
The part of this chain you control is the last one. An account with its own IBAN and a card receives the payout in the currency it was earned in, holds it, and converts only when you decide to. Stablecoin payouts land in the same place through a crypto card.
Opening an account takes documents and verification, and the tariffs show what it costs to run. Both are better dealt with before a payout is due than during one.