Prop Firms vs. Brokers – Why Not Both?
Using Both Might Be the Smartest Move
In 2025, traders have more tools, platforms, and capital options than ever before. One of the big questions many traders face is: Should I trade with a prop firm or stick with my own broker?
The answer might surprise you – why not both?
Let’s begin by assuming we have $5000 to start trading with. What is the best option for us with our starting capital here?
We have a few choices, maybe we put the whole $5000 into a broker and just trade our own capital. Nice and simple, no trading rules to abide by. Sounds good, right?
Let us assume that we are a good trader and making consistent profits for now. If we make a reasonable 5% per quarter on our trading balance, so about 1.66% per month on average. What does that look like on our $5000 starting capital. Making 5% per quarter and leaving that in the account to compound our gains.
Gaining 5% per quarter and compounding that over the year on $5k.
Quarter |
Broker Balance |
| Starting $5,000 | $5,000 |
| End of Q1 + 5% | $5,250 |
| End of Q2 + 10% | $5,512 |
| End of Q3 + 15% | $5,788 |
| End of Q4 + 20% | $6,077 |
So, at the end of our first trading year, now we have a balance in our broker account of $6077, which is a very nice 21.54% gain for the year. Not bad at all.
These are some great results, but unfortunately because of our lack of starting capital, ultimately, we don’t end up with large amounts of money at the end of the years trading.
Invest in a prop firm account
Let’s try something different this time. We will take a small portion of that starting capital of $5000 and invest some of it into a prop firm challenge at the same time. Putting the rest of our capital into the broker account, as before.
We will use The5ers 100K High Stakes account here, as our example. But obviously there are plenty to choose from.
The cost of a 100K High Stakes account is (at the time of writing) $545. On this account we need to make 8% profits, followed by 5% profits to activate a live trading account. Assuming we have passed the account and now starting quarter 1 of the year. Let’s make 5% per quarter and take that money out each time. Remembering that there is a profit split between ourselves and the prop firm, on this example here, it is a 80% to 20% split in our favour. So if we make $1,000 then we keep $800 and the prop firm keeps $200.
Gaining 5% per quarter and withdrawing that gain over the year on $100k.
Quarter |
Prop Firm – 80/20 Split |
| Starting $100,000 | xxx |
| End of Q1 + 5% | $4,000 |
| End of Q2 + 10% | $8,000 |
| End of Q3 + 15% | $12,000 |
| End of Q4 + 20% | $16,000 |
But wait, with this prop firm challenge our trading capital balance scales up as we make 10% gains. Let’s have a look at how it scales.
Starting capital of $100,000 – this increases each time we make 10% gains on the account. So, by the end of Q2 our trading capital increases from $100,000 to $125,000 on this prop firm challenge with The5ers High Stakes account.
Lets have a look at what that looks like, when we allow for making 5% per quarter and with a 80%/20% profit split – in our favour.
Gaining 10% on the prop firm account increases our trading capital each time.
Quarter |
Prop Firm Capital |
Prop Firm – 80/20 |
| Starting $100,000 | $100,000 | xxx |
| End of Q1 + 5% | $100,000 | $4,000 |
| End of Q2 + 10% | $100,000 | $8,000 |
| End of Q3 + 15% | $125,000 | $13,000 |
| End of Q4 + 20% | $125,000 | $18,000 |
At 10% gained our trading capital jumps from $100k to $125k
This time around our broker account has also been increasing, as before, but from a starting balance of $4,450. As we invested $550 in the prop firm challenge account of $100k.
Quarter |
Prop Firm Gains |
Broker Balance |
| Starting $4,450 + $100,000 | xxx | $4,450 |
| End of Q1 + 5% | $4,000 | $4,672 |
| End of Q2 + 10% | $8,000 | $4,906 |
| End of Q3 + 15% | $13,000 | $5,151 |
| End of Q4 + 20% | $18,000 | $5,409 |
At the end of this trading year – the broker account has $668 less in it, when compared to trading the whole $5,000 in the broker account. $5,409 instead of $6,077.
But, that $550 we invested into the prop firm has now gained us a huge $18,000 over the year. After allowing for profit splits and increasing trading capital. Plus, our new broker capital balance of $5,409.
Meaning our net worth by using a prop firm and a broker together is now $18,000 + $5,409 = $23,409. Whereas just using the whole $5,000 in a broker for a year would mean a net worth of just $6,077.
Re-investing back into the Brokerage account!
We have not even considered what we might do with all those prop firm payouts yet!
There are a couple of options here, and it all depends on each person’s circumstances. Some people might like to keep all those payouts, infact they may well need them as a wage for their trading year. Maybe you only need half of the money and can add the other half back into your broker account balance! Maybe you still have a normal job that pays your way, and you can add all those profits back to your broker account!
If we add just half of the profits back into the broker account, it will look like this.
There are just too many ways we could re-invest those profits here and remember that any cash amounts that we add to that broker account also compound in growth too. The graph above is just a linear example of growth.
Trade Copiers
The best part of all this, is if we use a trade copier, then it takes almost no extra work on our side to see these extra gains over the year. We simply trade on either the broker account or the prop firm account and then copy those trades across to the other account. Remember to scale the lot sizes by the correct amounts, to allow for the trading balance differences between the accounts.
For example, placing trades on the $100,000 prop firm account. At 1% is £1,000 risk per trade. We obviously would not want to risk $1,000 on our brokerage account with a balance of $4,450 in it. So, we need to scale down the lot sizes as we trade copy from one account to the other.
Let’s work this out here….
$100,000 at 1% = $1,000 Risk on prop account.
$4450 at 1% = $44.50 risk on brokerage account.
$44.50 / $1000.00 = a ratio of 0.0445
Therefore, when we copy our trades from the prop account across to the broker account, we need to scale that risk size down to just 0.0445 of the prop firm accounts trade value.
Multiple prop accounts
What we should also discuss is using profits from each payout, to purchase multiple prop firm challenges and trade copy across from main accounts (assuming your prop firm allows this obviously, check the rules).
- It is very important that you check the rules to make sure you are allowed to do this, as you do not want to get `Blacklisted` by any prop firm, for breaking their copier rules.
The $100,000 initial prop firm account, when it scales to $125,000 from making 10%. We could then use $550 of that payout to purchase another $100,000 account. Then trade copy across to that account to pass the challenge by the next quarter by using double or more the risk per trade.
You will be able to then compound your prop firm trading capital this way. Where you might have one account funded at $150,000 and then new account funded at $100,000.
Different Risks
Let’s say you’re trading a $100,000 prop account and a $4,450 personal broker account. You could:
- Trade the prop account with 1–2% risk per trade to maximize potential
- Mirror those trades to your broker account but at just 0.25–0.5% risk
- Withdraw monthly profits from the prop firm to slowly grow your broker account
- Use your broker account as a long-term growth vehicle with more strategic flexibility
This method offers the agility of prop firm trading with the freedom and stability of broker-based trading.
Slowly reduce your traditional work life
The above tables and figures are assuming you still maintain your day job during this time, and do not need to live off the profits. You should not be leaving your traditional workplace just yet anyway. Try not to jump the gun, as they say, trading is hard, and you need time and experience to do it right.
Go slowing, don’t rush. Gradually reducing your working hours over time and slowing swapping it out for the traders’ lifestyle you so desire.
Remember to treat yourself
It is important that we see the benefits of our trading also, this does not have to be big flash expensive items that we do not need. But rather smaller treats to ourselves and family, to encourage us on our journey ahead. To keep pushing and improving each day.
Summary
Combining both a prop firm and a personal broker account allows you to create a symbiotic trading ecosystem:
- Higher risk on the prop side, for faster capital growth
- Lower, more conservative trades on your broker account, for long-term portfolio building
- Use copy-trading tools to mirror trades across both accounts – potentially earning in two places at once
- Withdraw profits from the prop firm, then fund your broker account gradually, building personal capital without needing to deposit large sums upfront
Conclusion, and final thoughts.
Using the strength of prop firm payouts to multiply your broker account capital builds serious long-term scalability.
All this data paints a compelling picture of how leveraging both prop firms and personal brokers can accelerate your trading growth.
It also shows how much this is a personal thing to each trader, and that there really is no one answer to fit all circumstances.
As you can see, taking the payouts from the relatively larger trading balances of prop firms, allows you to drastically compound your trading balance on your broker accounts also.
Final Thoughts
In 2025, there’s no longer a need to choose between using a broker or a prop firm. The smartest traders are leveraging both, turning them into complementary tools within a larger strategy.
If you’re disciplined enough to follow prop firm rules and smart enough to build a private capital base at the same time, you’re putting yourself in a position to win now – and build wealth for the long term.
Everyone is different, and there is no ‘one size fits all’, remember, when it comes to this. You may need to take a wage from winnings/earnings, or you may not need to. You might like to risk each account at differing risk levels per trade.
There are just so many ways to do this, a mixture of all of some of which might be the best option for you.
Let us know in the comments, what would be the best way for you.
Thanks
Stephen V
