A prop firm doesn't sell trading — it sells challenges. The catalogue on your storefront is your product line, and every parameter in it is doing two jobs at once: marketing (does this look passable and fair to a trader comparing five firms in another tab?) and risk management (what does this cost me when someone actually passes?). Firms that treat challenge design as a one-time template copy inherited from a competitor end up with a competitor's economics, minus the scale.
The good news is that challenge design is a configuration problem, not a development one — in the Singuard Prop Firm CRM, every parameter below is a per-challenge-type setting in your owner portal, editable without code or deploys. That means you can design deliberately, test, and revise weekly. Here's the design space.
Account Sizes: The Price Ladder
Account sizes are your pricing tiers, and the classic ladder ($5K to $200K notional, in steps) exists because it maps to distinct buyer psychology: small sizes are impulse purchases and second attempts; mid sizes are the volume sellers; large sizes anchor the brand and flatter the ambitious. Three practical rules:
- Anchor high, sell mid. The $200K tier on the storefront makes the $50K tier look reasonable — even if it sells rarely, it earns its place.
- Price per notional dollar should fall as size rises — traders compare fee-to-size ratios across firms, and a ladder that gets relatively cheaper upward feels honest.
- Every size is its own challenge type — which in a proper CRM means its own full rule set, not just a different number on the banner. A $5K impulse buyer and a $200K aspirant should not face identical leverage and consistency rules.
Evaluation Structure: Phases as a Risk Filter
One-phase, two-phase or instant funding is the deepest fork in the design — deep enough that we've given it a full comparison. The short version for the catalogue designer: two-phase filters hardest and lets you price lowest; one-phase converts better at a moderate filter; instant funding sells access rather than evaluation and must be priced accordingly. The strategically correct answer is usually all three, at different price points — they are different products for different buyers, and a configurable storefront makes carrying all of them free.
Drawdown: The Parameter That Carries Your Risk
Profit targets get the marketing attention, but drawdown settings are where your money actually lives. Three types, each configurable per challenge:
- Daily drawdown — caps how much can be lost in a single day, on equity including floating P&L. It's the sharpest behavioral filter: it fails the revenge trader and the one-day gambler.
- Overall (static) drawdown — a fixed floor under starting balance. Simple, generous-feeling, easy to market.
- Trailing drawdown — the floor rises with the high-water mark, locking in the firm's protection as the trader profits. Tighter economics, but it must be explained clearly or it becomes your top complaint generator.
The daily/overall pairing (the familiar 5%/10% shape) is popular because it's legible — traders can hold it in their head mid-trade. Whatever you choose, enforcement has to be real-time: a daily-drawdown rule checked overnight is fiction, which is why the engine syncs positions every 500ms. Full mechanics in the drawdown guide.
Profit Targets, Trading Days and Leverage
The target-to-drawdown ratio is your pass-rate dial: an 8% target over a 10% overall drawdown is a fundamentally different bet than 10% over 6%, and traders do this math before buying. Pair the target with minimum trading days and minimum trades so a pass reflects a sample of skill rather than one lucky swing — these settings also feed your consistency story. Leverage, set per challenge type, closes the loop: high leverage marketed on small accounts sells, but it accelerates both passes and blowups, so tune it with your drawdown settings rather than against them. Instant-funding and funded accounts generally warrant tighter leverage than evaluations — funded accounts are where your actual payout risk lives, and they carry their own separate rule set.
Design principle: every parameter should be set per challenge type, never globally. The moment sizes, phases, drawdowns, targets and leverage are independent per product, your catalogue becomes a portfolio you can tune — tighten one product, loosen another, and watch conversion respond.
Pricing Mechanics That Lift Conversion
Two storefront mechanics consistently outperform simple price cuts, because they change perceived risk rather than margin:
- Split-fee (pay-in-two) pricing — a smaller fee starts the evaluation; the balance is charged automatically only when the trader passes and gets funded. The sticker price drops; the economics don't. Details in the split-fee guide.
- Refundable fees — return the evaluation fee (an amount or percentage you set) with the first payout. It reframes the fee as a deposit on the trader's own skill — see the refund analysis.
Both are per-challenge toggles in the CRM, alongside promo codes, shareable checkout links and trading competitions that funnel into the catalogue. Scaling plans — funded balances that step up automatically at profit milestones — complete the offer by giving passers a reason to stay.
Iterate Like a Product Team
Your first catalogue is a hypothesis. The firms that win treat it that way: watch pass rates, breach reasons and conversion per challenge type in the firm-wide dashboards, then adjust. If a challenge type's pass rate drifts far from design, the culprit is usually one parameter — a target too tight for the leverage offered, a trailing drawdown biting earlier than traders expect. Because the whole catalogue is configuration, a revision ships in minutes; because every account carries its challenge type's rule set from purchase, changes apply cleanly to new sales without disturbing accounts already running. Try designing a catalogue end-to-end in the live demo — sizes, rules, pricing and toggles are all there to experiment with.
"A challenge is a product, not a filter. Design it for the trader you want to fund — the rules engine will handle the rest."
— Alex Onta, Executive Director, eTrader & Prop Firm CRM
Key Takeaways
- Every challenge parameter does two jobs — conversion and risk. Design each size, phase structure, drawdown, target and leverage setting with both in view.
- Carry two-phase, one-phase and instant funding as separate products at separate prices — they serve different buyers.
- Drawdown design carries the firm's risk; targets and minimum-day rules shape what a "pass" proves. All of it must be enforced in real time.
- Split-fee and refundable pricing lift conversion without cutting margin — and in a configurable CRM they're toggles, not projects.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Challenge Types Should a New Firm Launch With?
Enough to cover the ladder without paralyzing choice — typically three to five account sizes in one or two evaluation structures. Because challenge types are configuration in the Prop Firm CRM, you can launch lean in 24 hours and add instant funding, more sizes or new rule sets as real data comes in.
Should Evaluation Rules and Funded-Account Rules Be the Same?
No — they answer different questions. Evaluation rules filter for skill; funded rules protect capital, and each challenge type carries a separate post-funding rule set where you choose consequences (fail, reset balance, or nothing) independently.
Can I Change a Challenge's Rules After Launch?
Yes — rule sets, pricing, refund and split-fee toggles are all editable in the owner portal with no code. Apply changes to new purchases, keep running accounts on the terms they bought, and let the audit log record every rule change with who made it and when.