The problem the software is solving
A prop firm evaluation is a set of hard limits: a daily loss limit, a maximum drawdown (static, trailing intraday or trailing end-of-day), sometimes a consistency rule and a minimum number of trading days. Most traders who fail an evaluation do not fail because their strategy has no edge. They fail because one bad session, or one oversized trade, reaches a limit before the edge has time to show.
The firm enforces those limits on its own systems. Whatever your software says, a breach is a breach. So the useful question is not “which tool has the most features” but “at which point does this tool act — before the trade, during it, or after the account is gone?”
Four kinds of tool
- Position sizers work before the trade. You enter the stop and the dollar risk you can afford against the firm’s limits, and they return the number of contracts or lots. This is the cheapest and most effective layer, because a correctly sized trade cannot breach a limit on its own.
- Monitors work during the session. They show how far you are from the daily loss and drawdown limits, usually measured the way the firm measures them, and alert you as you get close. Many are deliberately read-only: they cannot close a position for you.
- Enforcers and copiers can act. Some flatten positions or block new ones when a threshold is reached; trade copiers place the same trade across several accounts, which multiplies your exposure as well as your results.
- Journals work after the trade. They explain where the money went — which setups, hours and habits — which is how you stop repeating the session that cost you the account.
No single product does all four well, and you do not need all four. Most traders get the largest improvement from the first layer and a simple daily-loss alarm.
What to check before you choose
- Does it run on your platform? Futures evaluations mostly run through NinjaTrader, Tradovate or Rithmic; CFD evaluations through cTrader, MetaTrader or DXtrade. Many tools are locked to one of them.
- Does it model your firm’s drawdown correctly? A trailing drawdown that follows the intraday high is very different from one that only moves at the end of the day. A tool that treats every drawdown as static will show you more room than you have.
- Can it act, or only warn? A warning you ignore at the worst moment is not protection. If you need a hard stop, check what the tool actually does at the limit — and whether your firm allows a third party to do it.
- Is it allowed? Firms differ on copiers, automation and trading across several of their accounts at once. Read the rules for your specific programme.
- What does it cost against an evaluation fee? A tool that costs more per month than the evaluation itself needs to earn that back in passes.
How the main options compare
Facts below were taken from each provider’s own website or store listing on 12 October 2026. Where a provider does not state something, the table says so rather than guessing.
| Tool | Kind | Platforms | Can it act on the account? | Price (as of Oct 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your platform’s own risk settings | Enforcer | Built into the platform | Depends on the platform and firm; some firms lock these settings | Included |
| Prop Firm Control (cTrader Store) | Monitor | cTrader desktop, Windows and Mac | No — the listing says it “cannot open, modify or close orders” | Not stated on the listing (“Ask seller”) |
| TradeZella | Journal and analytics | Web | No; imports and analyses trades (500+ broker and prop-firm integrations listed) | $35, $59 or $99/mo; or $315, $531 or $891/yr |
| RiskDesk | Sizer, monitor, journal and copier | Native Mac, iPhone/iPad and Android; connects to cTrader, MetaTrader 5 and NinjaTrader 8 | Places sized orders and copies trades when you connect a platform; never closes a position on its own | Free with limited features; Pro US$5.99/mo or US$59.99/yr |
Where the alternatives are stronger. A web journal such as TradeZella imports from far more brokers and firms than an on-device app and gives you the same history on any computer. A plugin that lives inside your platform, such as Prop Firm Control for cTrader, sits right next to the chart you are trading. And your platform’s own limits, where the firm lets you set them, act inside the platform itself, which no outside app can match for reliability.
Worked example: why size beats software
A $50,000 evaluation with a $2,000 drawdown
Suppose your strategy wins 45% of trades and you take 100 trades during the evaluation. The account fails if losses reach $2,000.
At $250 risk per trade, eight losses in a row end the account. The chance of at least one run of eight or more losses somewhere in 100 trades, at a 55% loss rate, is about 31% — roughly one evaluation in three, before the edge is even considered.
At $100 risk per trade, it takes twenty losses in a row. The chance of that in 100 trades is well under one in a thousand.
Same strategy, same software, same firm. The only change is the size chosen before the trade. That is why the sizing layer matters more than any monitor: a monitor tells you the streak is happening, the size decides whether the streak is survivable.
Streaks are not the only way to fail — a run of small losses can do it too — so treat this as the floor of the risk, not the whole of it. Risk of ruin covers the full calculation.
Where RiskDesk fits, and where it does not
RiskDesk, which ProDesk makes, is a native app for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android. It sizes positions in contracts, lots or shares from your stop and dollar risk, and its Profitability Calculator estimates the chance of passing an evaluation at a given risk per trade. According to the RiskDesk website, it ranks 47 evaluation plans by their actual rules, shows each connected prop account’s day P&L and distance to its drawdown, and includes a trade copier. Futures prop accounts connect through the RiskDesk Bridge, a NinjaTrader 8 add-on that links the Tradovate and Rithmic logins you already use in NinjaTrader; CFD accounts connect through cTrader or MetaTrader 5.
Its limits. It does not close positions on its own — it will not place an order it cannot protect with a stop, and it leaves the decision to exit with you. Its journal is on-device, so it does not import from hundreds of brokers the way the large web journals do. And the copier multiplies exposure: three accounts copying one trade carry three times the risk, which is the opposite of protection if the size was wrong to begin with. Check your firm’s rules on copiers before you use one.
Putting it together
- Fix the size first. Work out the risk per trade your firm’s limits can survive, with a sizer or the free calculator.
- Add an alarm, not a dashboard. One clear warning near the daily limit beats ten charts you will not look at mid-trade.
- Use the platform’s own limits wherever your firm lets you set them.
- Review weekly. A journal turns a failed evaluation into a specific lesson rather than a vague one.
Software supports discipline; it does not replace it. The trader who sizes correctly and stops at the daily limit passes with almost any tool.