Many prop firms dont encourage EA use, do they want you to fail?

Prop firms have set unrealistic rules for traders to follow and these rules are designed to make you fail.

Expert Advisors (EAs) are designed to make you win and the prop firms know this so they frown at you using EAs.

The prop firms may claim that when you use an EA, the chances of the EA breaking one of their many laid down rules is high.

This is not true and it is just an excuse for the prop firm to shut down a profitable trader.

For example the FTMO prop firm claims that they allow EA use but when you study their customer agreement it reveals otherwise.

FTMOs definition of forbidden practices indirectly points to the use of EAs because they said "any software" that can give you an unfair advantage is termed forbidden practice.

So, in other words they do not want you to use an EA and if you go ahead and do so they can simply say your EA broke one of their many rules and close your account.

Remember prop firms are not regulated so if they close your account, aint nothing you can do about it except give a bad review online.

I agree with you.

I'll also add that funding challenges is not real trading. The emotions you have when trading a real account with your own money is not the same as when you are trading a demo or a funded account.

Most funding challenges are designed to ensure that you lose your challenge fees, that is the business model, make traders lose their challenge fees.

If you've read the public data on any so called 'Prop firm' that makes it public (or were forced to), less than 1% of the traders ever make it to funding stage. And a very small percentage of them receive payout.

And the prop firm can withhold your payout for whatever reason they deem to be against their terms.

It is an unregulated business that is currently making a lot of money, filled with scammers. Be careful.

Trading funded accounts or demo trading will not teach you anything about trading with real money. Unless you have money on the line, you will not know how you will behave different on price movements.