Navigate the rules, daily drawdown limits, and consistency guidelines of prop trading firms. Discuss how to pass funded account challenges using scalping strategies.
Passing a challenge often means moving to a slightly different rulebook. Things that commonly change:
News trading: allowed in evaluation, restricted on funded.
Leverage: sometimes reduced on funded accounts, which changes margin and maximum lot size.
Consistency rule: frequently only applies to payouts.
Minimum trading days: may disappear or turn into "per payout cycle" requirements.
Execution: some firms route funded accounts differently, so spreads and commissions may not match the evaluation account.
A good habit is to download or screenshot the full rule set on the day you pass, because firms update their FAQ pages and the version you agreed to is the one that matters.
For a scalper, the leverage change is the one that hurts silently: a strategy built on 1:100 margin may hit "not enough money" at 1:30 on the same lot size.
Which rule changed for you between evaluation and funded, and did it require adjusting your strategy?
The rule that bit me was not leverage but a minimum hold time. One firm had nothing about it in the evaluation terms, then the funded agreement said trades closed in under 60 seconds would not count toward profit for payouts.
For a scalper that is a strategy change, not a detail. About 40 percent of my trades on that account closed inside a minute, so I would have been trading a different system with half the data behind it.
On leverage, the numbers are worth running before the first funded trade. With gold near 4,100 one lot is about 410,000 dollars of exposure, so margin goes from roughly 13,700 at 1:30 to 41,000 at 1:10, and two open lots on a 100k account leave little room.
I would add the daily loss basis to the list. Some firms measure it from starting balance in the evaluation but from the day's opening equity once funded, so an open winner carried overnight shrinks the next day's room.
Screenshots help, but I also save the agreement as a PDF and the FAQ page with the date in the file name. Has anyone actually used one of those in a payout dispute, and did the firm accept the older version?
