Planning a prop challenge month on a calendar

[FXS London Scalper]

Before starting a challenge, plan the month on a calendar. Sounds old-fashioned, but it turns a vague target into a daily number you can judge.

What to mark:

• High-impact news days where the firm has restrictions, and days you'll skip anyway.
• Bank holidays in the UK and US, where liquidity is low.
• Days you know you won't be at your desk.

Then count the available trading days. A worked example: 15 available days out of 22. With a 10% target and 15 days, you need about 0.7% a day. At 0.5% risk per trade, that's more than one full winner every single day. For most scalping strategies, that's not realistic.

That arithmetic tells you something important before you pay the fee: either the time limit doesn't fit your strategy, or you'd be forced to raise risk, which is the path to failing on the drawdown rule instead.

Options when the numbers don't work: a challenge format with no time limit, a two-phase version with lower targets, or a longer window if the firm offers one.

Knowing the numbers in advance prevents overtrading in the last week.

Does anyone else plan the month like this?