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FTMO rules explained from the official FTMO pages: profit targets, the Maximum Daily Loss and Maximum Loss and how they are calculated, minimum trading days, EA, news and weekend rules, and Rewards. It covers the 2-Step FTMO Challenge in detail and the 1-Step and Instant Account in brief, for traders who want the numbers in one place. It summarizes a firm’s rules: it is not investment advice.
The complete Trading Objectives, the account sizes and the current conditions of each program are on the official FTMO website.
FTMO rules explained: the key numbers
FTMO runs three CFD programs: the 2-Step FTMO Challenge (FTMO Challenge, then Verification), the 1-Step FTMO Challenge and the FTMO Instant Account. FTMO describes all of them as accounts for simulated trading, and the payouts are called Rewards. The table compares the rules that decide whether an account passes or fails.
| Rule | 2-Step (Challenge / Verification) | 1-Step | Instant Account |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evaluation phases | 2 | 1 | none (no evaluation) |
| Profit target | 10% / 5% | 10% | no evaluation target |
| Maximum Daily Loss (of the Initial Simulated Capital) | 5% | 3% | 3% |
| Maximum Loss (of the Initial Simulated Capital) | 10%, static | 10%, trailing EOD (end of day) | 10%, intraday trailing |
| Minimum trading days | 4 / 4 | none | no evaluation |
| Time limit | unlimited / unlimited | unlimited | trading period unlimited |
| Consistency rule (Best Day vs total profit) | none | 50% | 30% |
| Reward split | 80%, up to 90% | 90% | 90% |
| Reward request | on request, from day 14 | on request, from day 14 | on request, from day 14 |
| Maximum leverage | 1:100 (Standard), 1:30 (Swing) | 1:100 | 1:100 |
| Account sizes (USD) | $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 | $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 | $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, $100,000 |
| Entry fee refunded | yes, with the first Reward withdrawal | no | no |
Checked against the official FTMO pages on 2026-10-29.
FTMO challenge rules for the 2-Step, stage by stage
The 2-Step runs in order: FTMO Challenge, Verification, then an FTMO Account. The FTMO Challenge has a 10% profit target, the Verification 5%, each with at least 4 trading days and no time limit. The FTMO Account has no profit target and no minimum trading days, but both loss limits still apply. There is no Consistency rule: “The 2-Step FTMO Challenge product has no Consistency rule, but you must follow the Minimum Trading Days rule.”
The daily drawdown rule (Maximum Daily Loss)
FTMO’s daily drawdown rule is called the Maximum Daily Loss. Each day the limit is reset to the balance at 00:00 CE(S)T (Central European time) minus 5% of the Initial Simulated Capital on the 2-Step, 3% on the 1-Step and Instant. It is checked on equity (balance, open profit or loss, swaps and commissions): if equity drops below the limit at any moment, the rule is considered violated.
A worked case, following the arithmetic of FTMO’s own example: on a $100,000 2-Step account, the day 1 limit is 100,000 minus 5,000, so equity must stay above 95,000. If the balance at midnight before day 2 is 102,000, the day 2 limit is 97,000. The amount subtracted stays fixed; only the starting balance changes.
Max loss rules: static, end-of-day trailing, intraday trailing
The Maximum Loss is 10% of the Initial Simulated Capital on all three programs, but it moves differently:
- 2-Step: static. On the same 100,000 account, equity must never fall below 90,000, in both phases and on the FTMO Account.
- 1-Step: end-of-day trailing (trailing EOD). At 00:00 CE(S)T the floor becomes the highest midnight balance so far minus 10% of the starting capital. It only rises, so profits lift the floor rather than widen the cushion; it resets to 90% of the Initial Simulated Capital when a Reward is withdrawn and a new FTMO Account is provided.
- Instant Account: intraday trailing, based on the highest balance from closed positions. It does not reset after a Reward, so once the balance is above 110% of the Initial Simulated Capital, a Reward withdrawal itself would breach the limit.
Minimum trading days and the Consistency rule
FTMO minimum trading days apply only to the 2-Step: 4 per phase. The 1-Step has none but a Consistency rule: to pass, or to be eligible for a Reward, the Best Day must not exceed 50% of the total profit, losing days included, for orders created on or after 12 October 2026; older accounts keep the Best Day Rule (50% of the Positive Days’ Profit), as announced in FTMO’s Trading Update of 8 October 2026. On the Instant Account the threshold is 30%, for Rewards. Exceeding it is not a breach: trading continues until the Best Day falls back under the threshold.
Allowed and not allowed: EA rules, news trading, weekends
- EA rules: allowed if the trading is legitimate, replicable on live accounts and not a Forbidden Trading Practice. With a third-party EA, other traders may run the same strategy, and the FAQ warns of a potential risk of being denied the FTMO Account if the maximum capital allocation rule is exceeded. EAs that make the account hyperactive (more than 2,000 server requests per day) are forbidden.
- News trading rules: conditional. No restriction in the FTMO Challenge and Verification or on Swing accounts; on a Standard FTMO Account, no order execution (Stop Loss, Take Profit and pending orders included) from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after selected news releases on the affected instruments. The Instant Account has the same restriction.
- Weekends: conditional. Allowed in the FTMO Challenge and Verification and on Swing accounts; on a Standard FTMO Account, positions must be closed before any market break longer than 2 hours, such as the weekend. On the Instant Account weekend holding is not allowed.
- Copy trading: conditional. If identical or substantially similar trading across FTMO accounts, signal groups and copy services included, exceeds the Maximum Allocation, FTMO reserves the right to suspend the accounts. The Maximum Allocation is $400,000 per trader or strategy, before scaling.
- Platforms and instruments: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradingView; forex, indices, commodities, stocks and crypto (the full list is on the Symbols page).
The news and weekend exceptions for the evaluation phases do not cover gap trading (opening trades when major news, macroeconomic events or corporate reports are scheduled, or two hours or less before a market closes for at least two hours), which is a Forbidden Trading Practice at every stage.
FTMO rules that are easy to misread
- Open losses count. Both loss limits are checked on equity, so a floating loss can breach them before any position is closed.
- The day ends at 00:00 CE(S)T. That is not necessarily midnight in the trader’s time zone or on the platform clock.
- Restrictions tighten after the evaluation. News and weekend rules are looser in the FTMO Challenge and Verification than on a Standard FTMO Account.
- Withdrawals interact with the Instant floor. Because the Instant Account’s Maximum Loss does not reset, a Reward withdrawal can itself breach it.
FTMO profit split, Reward requests and the fee
On the 2-Step, the FTMO profit split (the Reward Ratio of the simulated profit) is 80% by default and 90% only if the Scaling Plan or Premium Programme conditions are met. On the 1-Step and the Instant Account it is 90%. Rewards are paid on request, from day 14: a claim can be made on the 14th or any following day after the first trade on the account, with all positions and pending orders closed; FTMO reviews the request within 1–2 business days.
The fee is a one-time purchase fee, not a subscription. On the 2-Step it is refunded once the first Reward withdrawal is requested, using the same payment method; on the 1-Step and Instant it is not refundable. The Scaling Plan can raise the account size by 25% every 4 months for 1-Step and 2-Step FTMO Accounts that meet its conditions; it excludes the Instant Account. Prices depend on currency and account size and are on the FTMO website.
Where to start
The Trading Objectives, the account sizes and the prices are on the FTMO website. FTMO’s terms state that its services are not subject to the laws regulating the financial sector in the countries where it provides them.
FTMO does not accept residents of the countries and territories below; for Iran, Syria, Myanmar and North Korea the exclusion covers nationals too, except nationals of Iran, Syria or Myanmar with EEA residency and an EEA bank account: Iran, Syria, Myanmar, North Korea, Afghanistan, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bouvet Island, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Republic), Cook Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Holy See (Vatican City State), Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Micronesia, Nauru, Niger, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Suriname, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Ukraine (regions of Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia only), Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela and Western Sahara. Clients in the United States are served by an affiliated entity at ftmo.oanda.com and clients in Australia at ftmo.com/au/; the rules on this page are those published on ftmo.com, and those sites may differ.
FAQ
What are the FTMO rules?
For the 2-Step: profit targets of 10% and 5%, at least 4 trading days per phase, a Maximum Daily Loss of 5% and a static Maximum Loss of 10%, plus the Forbidden Trading Practices.
What are the FTMO verification rules?
The same loss limits and minimum trading days as the FTMO Challenge, with a 5% profit target and no time limit.
Are EAs allowed on FTMO?
Yes, if the trading is legitimate, replicable on live accounts, free of Forbidden Trading Practices and not hyperactive.
Does the FTMO Best Day Rule still apply?
Only to 1-Step accounts from orders created before 12 October 2026; newer ones follow the Consistency rule.
From the rules to the lab
NatureLaw Research is the research blog of Nature Law, a lab that develops quantitative tools built on the principles professional desks use, adapted for private traders. Rules like these are the frame any systematic strategy has to fit inside, and upcoming articles on this site will look at them from that angle. To see what the lab builds, visit naturelawtrading.com (opens in a new tab).
Sources
- FTMO, Trading Objectives, https://ftmo.com/en/trading-objectives/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO, Comparison table, https://ftmo.com/en/comparison-table/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO, How It Works, https://ftmo.com/en/how-it-works/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO, Instant Account, https://ftmo.com/en/instant-account/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO, Forbidden Trading Practices, https://ftmo.com/en/forbidden-trading-practices/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO, Reward Growth and Scaling Plan, https://ftmo.com/en/reward-growth-and-scaling-plan/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO, Trading Update, 8 Oct 2026, https://ftmo.com/en/blog/trading-updates/trading-update-8-oct-2026/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO, FTMO Challenge Terms and Conditions (last updated October 12, 2026), https://ftmo.com/en/terms-and-conditions/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ: How does your Consistency rule work?, https://ftmo.com/en/faq/how-does-your-consistency-rule-work/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ on news trading, https://ftmo.com/en/faq/can-i-trade-news/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ on overnight and weekend holding, https://ftmo.com/en/faq/can-i-hold-positions-overnight-or-over-the-weekend/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ on instruments and allowed strategies, https://ftmo.com/en/faq/which-instruments-can-i-trade-and-what-strategies-am-i-allowed-to-use/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ on trading platforms, https://ftmo.com/en/faq/which-platforms-can-i-use-for-trading/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ: What are the account specifications?, https://ftmo.com/en/faq/what-are-the-account-specifications/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ on the number of accounts and the Maximum Allocation, https://ftmo.com/en/faq/how-many-accounts-can-i-have/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ on Reward withdrawals, in the FTMO FAQ at https://ftmo.com/en/faq/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ: Is the entry fee refunded?, https://ftmo.com/en/faq/is-the-entry-fee-refunded/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ: What fees do you charge and are they recurrent?, https://ftmo.com/en/faq/what-fees-do-you-charge-and-are-they-recurrent/, checked October 29, 2026.
- FTMO FAQ: Who can join FTMO?, https://ftmo.com/en/faq/who-can-join-ftmo/, checked October 29, 2026.
Written by Stefano Mastria. Rules checked against FTMO official pages on October 29, 2026.