A 'funded account' is a simulated account: the fact, printed

At nearly every firm in this dataset, the "funded account" you win is a simulated account. FTMO's terms say it in plain words: no actual trading is taking place; the challenge service is not regulated by the Czech National Bank and carries no regulatory protection. US futures firms describe the same structure — simulated accounts, payouts as a contractual obligation of the firm.

What follows from that one fact

Your payout is a contract claim, not a market withdrawal. The firm pays you — or reviews, reduces, or refuses — under its terms. There is no segregated account with your name on it.
The firm's incentive is fee-shaped. Payouts are a cost line funded by the fees of the ~93% who are never paid. This is not an accusation; it is the published arithmetic of the model, and it explains every funded-stage rule on this site.
Rule changes bind you prospectively. Simulated-account terms can be amended; your protection is the screenshot of the rules on the day you bought — which is why the checker tells you to take it.
"Live capital" is a later, rarer country. Topstep's own disclosure: 0.71% of funded participants ever reached a live-capital account. The funded stage is not a halfway house to a brokerage account; for almost everyone, it is the destination.

None of this makes challenges worthless. It makes them a priced contract with a simulation — to be bought with the same care as any contract, after reading the funded-stage terms, which is the entire premise of this site.

Before you pay, take the whole walkthrough

The verdict gives you the expected cost and the rule that applies to you. The Challenge Odds Kit gives you, program by program, the before-you-buy checklist, the style-versus-rules worksheets, the expected-cost workbook, and the payout-protection playbook: how to never hand a firm the excuse to refuse your payout.

Included in the $39 Challenge Odds Kit

See the Challenge Odds Kit

Sources: the firms' own published pages (price grids and program terms), the FPFX Technology dataset of 300,000+ accounts reported by Finance Magnates (2024), pass and payout figures published by the firms themselves, and regulator publications (CFTC, FSMA, Consob, CNMV). Recorded and checked October 22, 2026. Prices on this site are the list prices recorded on that date, promotions excluded; if a price or a rule has moved since, the firm's own page wins — and write to help@doogex.com so we can correct ours.