Prop Firm Risk Desk Reviews: What Triggers a Manual Check Before Payout

[FXS Prop Desk]

Before a payout, many firms run a manual review of the trading history. Understanding what triggers a closer look helps avoid delays.

Common triggers:

• A large share of profit from very few trades.
• Trades opened seconds before high-impact news.
• Very short hold times across most of the activity.
• Identical trades across accounts owned by different people (copy trading from a group or signal provider).
• Unusual fills, e.g. trades opened at a price that existed only briefly due to a feed spike.

What helps when you are reviewed:

• A trading journal with screenshots and the reasoning for entries.
• Consistent sizing and a clearly repeatable setup.
• Answering questions factually and quickly.

Has your payout ever been held for review, and what were you asked to provide?

[Shadow Trader]

My one held payout took six business days, and the trigger was boring. Two of my best trades that cycle opened about ninety seconds before CPI, inside the firm's restricted window, and the risk desk wanted to know whether that was a habit.

They asked for a plain description of the setup, why those two entries were taken, and where I traded from. The location question came up because my VPS shared an IP range with other accounts at the same firm.

I now run a self check before every request. If my top three trades make up more than 40 percent of the cycle profit, or any trade sits within five minutes of a red event, I write the explanation in advance.

I doubt journal screenshots carry much weight. My reviewer cared about the history itself: similar lot sizes, similar stop distances, a setup visibly repeating.

Short hold times were never questioned for me, even with a median under four minutes. The concern seemed to be timing around news, not speed.

Did anyone else get asked about their VPS or IP address? I moved to a dedicated IP afterwards, which costs a few dollars a month.