Glossary
Every term,
one straight answer.
The words of prop firm rules and order flow, each defined in one passage you can quote, with the number from today's board where the term is a rule. Follow the links to the guide, the calculator or the shortlist that uses it.
All 34 terms · Data checked October 15, 2026
Accounts & fees
What you pay for, what you get, and what you keep.
Prop firm (futures)A futures prop firm sells access to a trading account: the trader pays an evaluation fee, trades the firm's capital under drawdown and consistency rules, and keeps a share of the profits (the split) once funded.On today's boardEvaluation (challenge)An evaluation is the paid test a prop firm runs before funding a trader: reach a profit target without breaching the maximum drawdown, the daily loss limit or the trading rules, in one, two or three phases.On today's boardFunded accountA funded account is the account a prop firm opens after a passed evaluation (or sells directly as instant funding).On today's boardInstant fundingInstant funding is a funded account sold without an evaluation: the trader pays a higher one-time fee and trades under the firm's drawdown and payout rules from day one.On today's boardProfit splitThe profit split is the share of the profits the trader keeps on a funded account, the rest going to the prop firm.On today's boardProfit targetThe profit target is the gain a trader must reach to pass a prop firm evaluation, usually 6 to 10 % of the nominal account size: $3,000 on a 50K account, $6,000 on a 100K.On today's boardReset feeA reset fee is what a prop firm charges to restart a failed evaluation with a fresh balance and drawdown, instead of buying a new account.On today's boardActivation feeAn activation fee is the amount a prop firm charges to open the funded account after a passed evaluation, as a one-time payment or a monthly subscription.On today's boardPayoutA payout is the transfer of a trader's share of profits from a funded prop firm account to their bank or wallet.On today's boardScaling planA scaling plan is the rule that limits how many contracts a prop firm account may trade until its balance grows: for example 2 minis (20 micros) until the account is up $1,500, then 5, then the full allowance.On today's board
Rules
The constraints an account lives under: each one with its count on today's board.
Trailing drawdown (intraday)A trailing drawdown is a loss limit that follows the account's highest balance: it rises as the account makes new highs and never comes back down.On today's boardEnd-of-day drawdownAn end-of-day drawdown is a trailing loss limit updated once a day on the closed balance, not on the intraday peak.On today's boardStatic drawdownA static drawdown is a fixed loss limit that never moves: on a 50K account with a $2,000 static drawdown the account is breached at $48,000 whatever the balance did before.On today's boardDaily loss limitThe daily loss limit is the most an account may lose in one trading day, closed and open positions included, before the firm closes the positions or the account.On today's boardConsistency ruleA consistency rule caps the share of total profit that a single day may represent, typically 30 to 50 %.On today's boardMinimum trading daysMinimum trading days is the number of days, with at least one trade each, an account must log before an evaluation can be passed or a payout requested: commonly 5 to 10 days for a pass and 8 to 14 for a first payout.On today's boardNews trading ruleA news trading rule restricts or forbids holding or opening positions around scheduled high-impact releases (CPI, FOMC, NFP, usually a window of 2 to 5 minutes each side).On today's boardOvernight rule (flat before close)The overnight rule requires all positions to be closed before the firm's daily cut-off, typically between 4:10 pm and 4:59 pm ET for CME equity index futures, and forbids holding through the 5 pm ET maintenance break.On today's board
Order flow
What the tape, the footprint, the book and the heatmap show.
Order flowOrder flow is the stream of executed trades and resting orders in a market, read trade by trade rather than as a price line: who bought at the ask, who sold at the bid, how much, and where limit orders are waiting.On today's boardFootprint chartA footprint chart is a candlestick opened up to show, at every price inside the candle, how many contracts traded at the bid and how many at the ask.On today's boardDelta (order flow)Delta is the difference, for a candle or a price level, between the contracts bought at the ask and the contracts sold at the bid.Cumulative delta (CVD)Cumulative delta is the running sum of each candle's delta from the session open, plotted as a line under the price.Imbalance (footprint)An imbalance is a footprint cell where the contracts traded at the ask are a multiple (usually 3× or more) of the contracts traded at the bid one tick lower, or the reverse.AbsorptionAbsorption is heavy aggressive volume at a price that does not move price: market buyers keep lifting the ask and the ask keeps refilling, so the footprint shows a large number on the ask side and a candle that fails to break higher.ExhaustionExhaustion is the end of a move for lack of fuel: aggressive orders shrink from candle to candle, delta fades while price still edges in the same direction, and the last push shows thin volume at the extreme.Iceberg orderAn iceberg order is a large limit order shown to the market in small slices: the DOM displays 20 contracts, they fill, 20 more appear at the same price, and so on until the hidden total is done.DOM (depth of market)The DOM, or depth of market, is the live order book displayed as a ladder of prices: resting bid sizes on one side, resting ask sizes on the other, with the last trade in the middle.Liquidity heatmapA liquidity heatmap paints the history of the order book on the chart: at each price and each moment, the resting size is drawn as a colour, from dark (little) to bright (a wall).Volume profile (POC, value area)A volume profile is a histogram of the volume traded at each price over a period (a session, a week, a composite).GEX (gamma exposure)GEX, gamma exposure, is an estimate of how much the options market makers must buy or sell in the underlying as its price moves, summed over the open options.
Markets & contracts
The contracts prop firm traders actually trade, and the data behind the charts.
Tick and tick valueA tick is the smallest price increment of a futures contract, and the tick value is what one tick is worth in dollars for one contract: 0.25 points and $5.00 on NQ, 0.25 and $12.50 on ES, 0.25 and $0.50 on MNQ, $1.25 on MES.Micro futures (MNQ, MES)Micro futures are contracts one-tenth the size of their E-mini: MNQ is 1/10 of NQ ($0.50 per tick instead of $5), MES is 1/10 of ES ($1.25 instead of $12.50).E-mini futures (NQ, ES)E-mini futures are the electronically traded, CME-listed contracts on the major US indices: NQ on the Nasdaq-100 ($20 per point, $5 per 0.25 tick), ES on the S&P 500 ($50 per point, $12.50 per tick), RTY on the Russell 2000 and YM on the Dow.Data feed (Rithmic, dxFeed, CQG)The data feed is the service that delivers the market's trades and order book to a trading platform: Rithmic, dxFeed, CQG and Tradovate's own are the usual ones for futures prop firms.On today's board