Brokers or Prop Firms, or both...

When you get to the point where you are ready for live trading, it can be overwhelming to choose between brokers and prop firms.

To summarize it quickly; if you dont have much money to start with then go with prop firms, just make sure to thoroughly review all the rules. Later in your career you should be making use of both prop firms and brokers.

The main reason why you would want personal capital is because of no restrictions. With a prop firm you do have some restrictions, but you have access to a lot more money.

The way I go about it is simple. Every month I add more money to my personal capital to help it grow, then I also buy more prop firm accounts to help my overall capital scale as well.

Now, before you choose a prop firm & a broker, make sure to look out for these things:

1. Spread: If your spread is high, you will not have a good time with executions, try to choose one with a fixed spread of 3 ticks or less.
2. Consistency rules: Simply put, they are very hard to achieve most of the time.
3. Overall drawdown: Make sure to choose one with at least 8%-10% max drawdown.
4. Risk: On the broker it is your choice what you want to risk, but on the prop, I would say keep it under 0.5% if you are not experienced.