Prop Firm RulesExplained

Your maximum loss limit follows your highest balance upward but never moves back down. If you start at $50K with a $2,500 drawdown, your floor starts at $47,500. If you profit and reach $53K, your floor rises to $50,500. The floor trails your peak balance — it never drops back even if your balance falls.

Your drawdown floor only moves at the end of each trading session — intraday floating profits and unrealized gains do not raise the floor. Only your closed balance at the end of the day updates the floor. This is more forgiving than intraday because a trade can run against you intraday without tightening your floor — as long as you close the session above the current floor. Important: the floor is still enforced in real time. If your balance touches the floor at any point during the day, the account is immediately breached — EOD just means the floor doesn't move intraday, not that you can dip below it and recover.

Your drawdown floor is calculated in real time based on your highest equity at any point during the session — including unrealized open profits. The moment your floating P&L pushes your equity to a new high, the floor moves up immediately and permanently — even if that peak never closes. This means a trade can run in your favor, pull back, and close profitable — but your floor has already moved based on the peak, leaving you less cushion than you had before the trade.

Your floor is fixed from day one and never moves — regardless of profits. If you start at $50K with a $3,000 static drawdown, your floor is always $47,000 for the life of the account. Once you build enough profit above the floor, it becomes irrelevant. Common in challenge evaluations.

A separate hard cap on how much you can lose in a single day — regardless of your overall drawdown position. Even if you have plenty of room in your trailing drawdown, hitting the daily loss limit ends your trading for that day. Some firms apply it EOD, others apply it intraday on floating losses.

Some firms offer a drawdown lock feature — once your balance reaches a certain threshold above your starting balance, your trailing floor locks permanently at your starting balance. You can never blow back to below your initial account size. Apex's "Safety Net" locks the trailing drawdown once your balance is $100 above starting. Once locked, the floor stays fixed — your trailing drawdown effectively becomes static from that point.

A rule that prevents you from making too large a portion of your total profit on a single day. Your best trading day cannot exceed a set percentage of your total profit — typically 30–50%. This prevents traders from getting lucky on one big day and requesting a payout. It forces you to prove consistent profitability across multiple sessions.

Most firms require a minimum number of trading days before you can request a payout — even if you hit your profit target on day one. A "trading day" typically means a day where you opened and closed at least one trade. Some firms also require a minimum profit per day for that day to count.

Many prop firms prohibit holding positions past the end of the trading session — typically 4:00–5:00 PM ET for equity futures. Any open position at the cutoff time is automatically closed by the platform. Violating this rule can result in a warning, position closure, or account termination depending on the firm.

Some firms prohibit or restrict trading around high-impact news events such as NFP, FOMC, and CPI. This may mean no open positions 2 minutes before and after the release, or a full prohibition on trading during the event window. Violating news rules is one of the most common reasons funded accounts get terminated.

Some firms require traders to increase their account size in stages rather than trading the full allocation immediately. You start at a lower level and must hit profit targets to unlock the next tier. The drawdown limit typically resets or increases at each stage. This protects the firm from large early losses.

The minimum profit required to pass an evaluation or qualify for a payout. Expressed as a dollar amount or percentage of account size. Most futures firms require 6–10% profit on the evaluation account. You must hit this target while simultaneously staying within all drawdown and daily loss rules.

The percentage of profits you keep after a successful payout request. The firm keeps the remainder. Most futures prop firms offer 80–90% splits. Some offer 100% on the first X amount withdrawn. The split applies to the amount you withdraw, not your total account balance.

The maximum percentage of your profit balance you can withdraw in a single payout request. This is separate from the profit split. Some firms cap withdrawals at 50% of your profit, meaning you need to earn double your target payout in gross profit to take out what you want.

How often you are eligible to request a payout. Most firms require a minimum number of qualifying trading days between requests. Some firms allow daily payouts, others require 5+ winning days before each request. The clock restarts after each successful payout.

When you request a payout, some firms reset your trailing drawdown floor back down — either to your new balance after withdrawal or to a fixed level. This means taking a payout can actually expose you to more drawdown risk than staying in profit. Always understand what happens to your floor after a withdrawal.

Some firms require your balance to be a certain amount above your starting balance before you can withdraw. For example Take Profit Trader requires your balance to reach $52,000 on a $50,000 account before any payout is eligible — a $2,000 buffer. You cannot withdraw until you clear this threshold.

Some firms cap how much you can withdraw in a single payout request regardless of how much profit you have built up. If your max is $5,000 and you have $12,000 in profit, you still can only take $5,000 at a time and must wait the required days between requests.