What Are Private Accounts?

Private accounts are trading accounts you own, funded with your own capital. Unlike challenges and funded accounts which involve prop firm money, private accounts track your personal trading capital and performance.

The Purpose of This Module

Private Accounts is your personal trading tracker. It answers questions like:

  • How much of my own capital is in trading accounts?

  • What's my actual trading performance?

  • How has my balance changed over time?

  • Am I profitable with my own money?

This is where you track accounts at retail brokers like IC Markets, Pepperstone, OANDA, and others where you deposit and trade your own funds.

What Private Accounts Track

Balances

Your actual account balance at any point in time. You record balance snapshots, and the platform tracks the history.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Money you move in and out of the account. These are capital movements, not profit or loss.

Trading P&L

The platform calculates your true trading profit or loss based on balance changes, adjusted for deposits and withdrawals.

Account Status

Whether the account is Active, Paused, or Closed.

What Makes Private Accounts Different

AspectPrivate AccountsFunded Accounts

Whose money?

Your capital

Prop firm capital

Track balance?

Yes

No

Track P&L?

Yes (calculated)

No

Revenue from?

Withdrawing profits

Payouts from firm

Risk?

You lose your money

You lose account access

Private accounts are real capital you own. Funded accounts are trading privileges that can be revoked.

The Core Accounting Principle

This is critical to understand:

Deposits and withdrawals do not represent profit or loss by themselves.

When you withdraw $5,000 from your trading account, that's not necessarily profit. It might be:

  • A realized profit you're taking out

  • A realized loss you're cutting

  • Simply moving capital elsewhere

  • Some combination of profit and return of original capital

The platform never assumes a withdrawal equals profit. Instead, it calculates P&L correctly:

Net Trading P&L = (Ending Balance − Starting Balance) − Deposits + Withdrawals

This formula ensures that only actual trading performance is measured.

Why This Matters

Consider two scenarios:

Scenario A:

  • Starting balance: $10,000

  • You deposit: $5,000

  • Ending balance: $15,000

Without the formula, you might think you're flat (started with $10K, ended with $15K, deposited $5K).

Actual P&L: $15,000 − $10,000 − $5,000 = $0 You broke even. Correct!

Scenario B:

  • Starting balance: $10,000

  • You withdraw: $3,000

  • Ending balance: $9,000

Without the formula, you might think you lost $1K ($10K → $9K) and also took out $3K.

Actual P&L: $9,000 − $10,000 − 0 + $3,000 = $2,000 You actually made $2,000! You withdrew some, and what's left is just slightly less.

The platform handles these calculations automatically so you always see accurate performance.

How Private Accounts Fit Into Your Business

For traders who also do prop trading:

                Your Trading Business
                           │
          ┌────────────────┼────────────────┐
          ↓                ↓                ↓
      Challenges     Funded Accounts   Private Accounts
      (Cost)         (Revenue)         (Assets + Performance)

Private accounts represent:

  • Your owned capital (an asset)

  • Your personal trading skill (measured by P&L)

  • Potential income source (withdrawing profits)

Dashboard shows private account trading P&L separately from prop trading metrics.

What Private Accounts Don't Track

Individual Trades

You won't log each trade with entry/exit prices, lot sizes, etc. This is business-level tracking, not trade journaling.

Real-Time Balances

The platform doesn't connect to your broker. You manually update balances or import statements.

Prop Firm Rules

There are no drawdown limits or rule violations to track. It's your money—you set your own rules.

When to Use Private Accounts

Add a private account when you:

  • Have a live trading account with your own capital

  • Want to track balance and performance over time

  • Trade your own money alongside prop firm accounts

  • Want a complete picture of your trading business

You don't need private accounts if you:

  • Only trade prop firm challenges and funded accounts

  • Don't want to track personal trading performance

  • Keep personal trading completely separate from business tracking


Next: The Most Important Rule: Deposits ≠ Profit