A green P&L calendar doesn’t mean prop trading is paying you. The only number that answers that is take-home: what you were paid minus everything you spent to get paid. This is a ten-minute check to do on the first day of each month.
Step 1: add up what you were paid
Count only payouts that reached your bank or wallet last month, after the firm’s split. Profit still sitting in a funded account doesn’t count yet. It can still be lost.
Step 2: add up everything you spent
Go through your card statement and count every prop trading charge from last month:
- new evaluations
- monthly rebills on evaluations you hadn’t passed
- resets
- activation fees
- market data
- platform and other tools
Rebills are the easiest to miss, because they arrive on their own.
Step 3: work out take-home
Take-home = what you were paid − what you spent.
| Payouts received | $1,400 |
| 2 evaluations at $98 | −$196 |
| 3 rebills at $105 | −$315 |
| 1 reset at $105 | −$105 |
| Market data | −$40 |
| Platform | −$30 |
| Take-home | $714 |
|---|
These numbers are made up to show the math. They are not anyone’s real results.
Step 4: look at three months, not one
Payouts are lumpy. One month can have two and the next none, while the fees keep coming every month. Add the last three months together before you judge.
| July | −$420 |
| August | $150 |
| September | $714 |
| Three months | $444 |
|---|
September alone looks great. The three months together show a smaller, more honest number.
Step 5: ask three questions
- Is three-month take-home above zero? If not, the fees are winning, however good the trading days look.
- Which costs grew? Count resets and new evaluations this month against last month. A jump often follows a rough week.
- Are you paying rebills on accounts you no longer trade? Cancel those before the next charge.
Write it down
Keep one line per month: paid, spent, take-home. After six months you will know whether prop trading is a business for you or a cost. Keep the receipts too, for your accountant.
Let the app do the adding
Assets Plus Prop Desk (in beta) adds up payouts, evaluation fees, rebills, resets, activations, data and platform costs for any period, shows take-home and a month-by-month report, and can send a weekly recap email. It only shows what you enter or import. See Prop Desk. For the full list of costs, read What prop firm challenges really cost you.
This guide is general information, not financial or tax advice. Talk to an accountant about how prop firm payouts and fees are taxed where you live.