How to start a prop firm from the USA in 2026

A founder in the United States can start a prop firm in 2026 by choosing a simulated platform, setting rules, loading accounts and selling them to traders under their own brand. You do not need to build software. The steps below show the order that works, and what each one costs.

What a US prop firm actually runs on

A prop firm needs a few working parts. Traders need a terminal. Accounts need rules that are checked all the time. You need a way to hand accounts to buyers and see how they are doing. Your brand needs to sit on top of all of it.

Building that yourself takes a developer team and a long runway. Buying a complete platform lets you launch first and learn from real traders. For a deeper look at the parts, see our guide to the prop firm tech stack.

Step 1: Set your budget in US dollars

You pay in dollars, once. PropExecutor plans are one-time payments with no setup fee, no monthly platform fee and no revenue share. Each trading account uses one credit, and credits never expire.

The simulated starting balance, such as $5K or $100K, does not change the cost. One account is one credit. If you outgrow a plan, top-up packs of 100, 500 or 1,000 accounts come at your plan's per-account rate. See the full pricing page.

Step 2: Pick a platform that is complete on day one

PropExecutor gives you a branded web trading terminal. Traders log in with Account Number, Password and Server. The terminal has a watchlist, a price chart with history back to 2000 for FX and metals, an order ticket, positions, history and a live view of how much rule headroom the account has left.

Orders are simulated against live market prices. Nothing is routed to a broker, exchange or liquidity provider. Prices cover 50+ instruments: forex majors, crosses and exotics, gold, silver, palladium, oil, natural gas, 12 stock indices, Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The infrastructure runs on Google Cloud and is built to scale with your traders and traffic, from the $129 plan.

Step 3: Write your rules

Rules are what make your challenge a product. The rule engine judges every account on every price tick, not on a timer. You can use:

• Daily loss limit and maximum loss limit
• Profit target and trailing drawdown
• Minimum trading days and max open positions
• Max lot size, hedging, orders per day and inactivity
• Custom rules

Each rule can breach the account, reject the order, or flag it. Rule sets are versioned, so an account keeps the exact rule version it was created with. You can edit a rule set later without touching existing accounts. Read more on the rule engine.

Plan limits matter here. Starter gives 3 rule sets with 6 rules each and core rules. Basic gives 15 sets, 15 rules and advanced rules, with 5 custom rules per set. Professional gives 40 sets, 25 rules and 15 custom rules per set. Growth is unlimited.

Step 4: Brand it as your firm

Traders should see your name, not ours. Branding covers firm name, logos, colours, login screen and support links. Starter gives you the firm name, a dark logo and an accent colour. Basic unlocks full branding. Professional and Growth also hide the PropExecutor badge.

The branded terminal can also run on your own domain, which helps a new firm look established from the first day. More on white-label options.

Step 5: Create accounts and assign traders

In the admin panel you can create up to 5,000 accounts at once. Then you assign and reassign traders, rotate passwords, manually breach an account and view analytics. A trader record is just a name and an email. Traders never sign up with PropExecutor.

Rotating a password, reassigning or archiving an account ends every live terminal session for it immediately. Breaching or archiving does not refund the credit.

The built-in trader CRM is included on every plan. It keeps every trader with the accounts they hold, their status, capital, pass rate, recent trades and rule warnings, updated by the rule engine as things happen.

Step 6: Automate as you grow

The REST API and API key are included on every plan. You can list and read accounts, assign or unassign a trader by name and email, read trades, positions, orders and rule flags, read and rotate credentials, and pull analytics, an equity curve or one full account report in a single request.

Accounts are created in the admin panel in bulk. Your backend then assigns them to buyers over the API. Webhooks tell your systems when an account breaches or passes, and a WebSocket API streams real-time account events. Start with the API docs.

A sensible launch path

Most founders start small, sell the first accounts, and upgrade when demand shows up. Upgrading means buying the higher plan at its full price and receiving its full account credits. Unused credits carry over.

Try the live demo account on the website first. Then pick the plan that fits your first batch of traders and see the pricing page to get going.