I'm wondering about the companies out there that give you a funded account, or "performance" account if you pass their evaluation. Apex and Leeloo or two companies that come to mind.
So they will say they may or may not copy your trades against the real market, based on your trading habits/consistency, but you'll get paid either way if you make money, follow the rules, and wait patiently for your eligible payout dates.
Question I have is, if I'm trading 1 contract, and these companies mirror my trades in the market, does that make me more likely to get stopped out? Like does anyone know if they're copying my contracts and profits/stops? Or using my trades as a baseline to trade with more contracts or something?

I have wondered about the same... and here are somemore questions / thoughts I had on the subject - may be I will get some answers or other opinions:

I think some companies make you use their methods - so if you have "graduated" from their classes then they know the methods already and are likely to place the same trades as you, but expect it will still work - if so nothing to worry about..

If the companies allow you to use your own method but make you trade on their platform (if that is possible and works) then you have to wonder if it will affect your trades and your methods will be known.... You certainly can't use this type of company if you have any proprietary methods...

Some of these companies say their "system" is free but you have to qualify and during the training process you have to pay them a monthly fee - one wonders if they are just an education company disguised as a company providing trading capital....

May be the fixed hours and profit target / loss limits associated with working with such companies are a blessing... or they are not? ...

cheers

I think most of them put you on a sim account and that's pretty much it. They pay out the winners with the money from the gamblers. Only company I know of that gives you a real account (where you can see your orders hit the DOM) is Earn2Trade. Do you think it's a coincidence that they have one of the more strict evaluations? Probably not.

I do think it is worth it to try one out, though, if you are already profitable. The risk is essentially capped at the evaluation fee and the opportunity cost of trading their account over your own.

With that said, some are better than others in terms of rules. Some organizations will trail the maximum drawdown with the profit on open trades. Others will trail up based on the end-of-day value in the account. I suppose the decision really depends on which has the least restrictions that conflict with your strategy.

Just my two cents.

Bonk 

I think most of them put you on a sim account and that's pretty much it. They pay out the winners with the money from the gamblers. Only company I know of that gives you a real account (where you can see your orders hit the DOM) is Earn2Trade. Do you think it's a coincidence that they have one of the more strict evaluations? Probably not. I do think it is worth it to try one out, though, if you are already profitable. The risk is essentially capped at the evaluation fee and the opportunity cost of trading their account over your own. With that said, some are better than others in terms of rules. Some organizations will trail the maximum drawdown with the profit on open trades. Others will trail up based on the end-of-day value in the account. I suppose the decision really depends on which has the least restrictions that conflict with your strategy. Just my two cents.

Yeah that makes sense. In reality I'm just trying to get to $50k then open my own account. My trading strategy right now is the same and consistent and in SIM for past year it's been averaging the same profits.
So my thinking is, if they do decide to mirror my trades against the real market, so they can pay me the $5k/mo from the market instead of their existing customer sign-up profits, I'm just not sure if that will throw a wrench into my strategy.