An evaluation is the first stage of Kraken Prop. It's designed to assess your trading ability before you gain access to a funded account. During an evaluation, you trade on a simulated account with a set starting balance and must reach a profit target while staying within defined risk limits.
Every evaluation has three key parameters:
Profit Target The percentage gain you need to reach on your account to pass the evaluation. Once your account equity hits the profit target, you automatically qualify for an upgrade to a funded account.
Maximum Daily Loss (MDL) The most your account can lose in a single trading day. For all Kraken Prop plans, the MDL is set at 3% of your starting balance. If your account equity drops below this threshold on any given day, your account is breached.
For example, on a $100,000 account, your MDL is $3,000. If your equity falls $3,000 or more from the day's starting point, the breach is triggered.
The MDL resets daily at 00:30 UTC based on your account's balance or equity from the prior day (whichever was higher).
You can read more about the MDL here.
Maximum Drawdown (MDD) The total drawdown limit for your account measured from the starting balance. If your equity drops below this level at any point during the evaluation, the account is breached.
The type of MDD (static or trailing) depends on the plan you select:
| Tier | Max Drawdown |
|---|---|
| Starter | 6% |
| Intermediate | 5% |
| Advanced | 3% |
You can read more about the MDD here.
Both realized and unrealized profit and loss count. That means open positions affect your MDL and MDD in real time, you don't need to close a trade for it to impact your account limits.
Trading fees also count against your balance. This includes commission fees (charged on every trade) and margin funding fees (charged every 4 hours on open positions).
When your account equity reaches the profit target:
All open positions on your evaluation account are automatically closed.
Your evaluation account is marked as Passed.
A new funded account is created for you (with trading initially disabled).
You receive an email and in-app notification.
From there, you'll need to complete account verification (if you haven't already), sign a Funded Trader Agreement, and wait for a brief manual review. See the Funded Account Activation Process article for full details.
If you violate either the MDL or MDD:
All open positions and pending orders are immediately closed.
Your account is marked as Breached and trading is disabled.
You receive a notification with the breach reason, timestamp, and your equity at the time of breach.
The breached account remains visible in your account list for 7 days.
After a breach, you can purchase a new evaluation at any time to try again.
There is no time limit on evaluations. Take as long as you need to hit the target.
You can only have one active evaluation at a time (across all prop accounts).
Evaluation accounts use simulated execution, your trades are not sent to the open market.
All the same order types, markets, and fees apply as on funded accounts.