About

The education this space was missing

Prop Firm Novice exists to explain how trading and prop firm rules actually work, in plain English, with the dollar figures shown, and with nobody paying us to bend the truth.

Why this site exists

If you've tried to learn futures, forex or gold trading from scratch, you'll know the landscape is broken in a specific way. The sites that compare prop firms assume you already understand trailing drawdowns and tick values. The "academies" that would teach you those things are usually owned by a firm that profits when you buy an evaluation, ready or not. And the general trading-education world rarely touches the mechanics that actually decide whether you pass a funded account.

So a beginner is left stitching answers together from forum posts, YouTube comments and marketing pages, none of which quite tell you the one thing you need: if this trade goes against me, exactly how many dollars do I lose, and how does that interact with my firm's rules? Prop Firm Novice is the resource built to answer that, from first principles, for the trader who's serious but starting out.

Who's behind it

Prop Firm Novice
Tom, founder. An active trader in futures, forex and gold, writing the guide they wish had existed when they started.

I trade these markets myself, and I built this site because I got tired of watching capable people fail evaluations, or lose their own money, for reasons that were never explained to them properly. Not because they were bad traders, but because nobody had shown them what a tick was worth, or how a trailing drawdown really moves, or why the "$50,000 account" was really a $2,000 one.

You won't find me on camera here, and you won't find screenshots of trades or promises of returns. That's deliberate. This site isn't built on a personality or a track record you'd have to take on faith. It's built on whether the explanations are clear, the maths is right, and the tools do something useful. The work is meant to be the credential. If a calculator here saves you from a mistake, or an article finally makes a rule make sense, that's the point, and it stands on its own regardless of who wrote it.

How we approach it

Everything here follows a few rules that don't bend:

The method

  • Mechanics before opinions. We explain how things work, ticks, margin, drawdown rules, before anyone's view on what to do with them.
  • Every claim in dollars. No definition without a worked example, because "minimum price fluctuation" teaches nothing and "$12.50 a tick" teaches everything.
  • Firm-neutral throughout. We describe categories of rule, not any specific firm's current terms, which change constantly. The firm's own documentation is always the authority.
  • The honest answer, always. When the truth is "you may not be ready" or "a personal account might beat an evaluation," we say it, even when it costs us.
  • Free tools, no gate. The calculators and simulator are free and always will be. They're the whole point.

How we stay independent

Trust only means something if you know how we're paid, so we've put it in plain sight. In short: we may earn affiliate commissions or run ads to keep the lights on, but money never decides what we recommend for your situation, and we'll always tell you when the honest answer is "don't." The full detail is on our How We Make Money page, and the standards behind our content are set out in our Editorial Standards.

Where to start

If you're new, the fastest way to see whether this site is for you is to use it:

And if something here is wrong, unclear, or out of date, tell me. Getting it right matters more than getting it published.

Prop Firm Novice provides general educational content only, not financial advice. Trading futures and forex carries a substantial risk of loss. Last updated: July 2026.

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