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123 rules, 14 firms, none of them in the four numbers a pricing page prints

The rules that decide whether you keep the account are not on the pricing page

A prop firm pricing page shows four things: the profit target, the daily loss limit, the maximum drawdown and the fee. Everything on this site is computed from the first three, because they are the only figures every firm publishes in a comparable form.

Reading 14 firms’ rules produced 123 further rules that fit none of those fields, across 40 of the 52 programmes recorded. 26 of those programmes carry at least one rule that can end an attempt or make it unpassable — an inactivity closure, a cap on how much of the profit one day may supply, a minimum number of days that must be won rather than merely traded. Nobody prices any of it, and this site’s own model counts none of it.

The 123, grouped

Group Categories Rules Programmes
Rules that can cost you the account or the pass 6 37 27
Rules that decide what you are paid and what you pay 4 41 26
Rules that change what the published numbers mean 3 29 20
Notes on the limits of this record 2 16 15

Programme counts do not sum to 40: a programme appears in every group whose rules it carries. Each of the 123 rules belongs to exactly one category, and the build fails if any of them stops matching one. 12 of the 52 programmes carry no recorded rule of this kind at all, which means none was found on the pages read — not that none exists.

Rules that can cost you the account or the pass

37 rules across 27 programmes. None of these is a profit target, a drawdown or a daily loss limit, and each of them decides whether the account is kept. 35 of them can end an attempt before the target; the other 2 change the rules only once it is passed.

This site’s headline figure — the chance a losing streak ends an attempt before the target — is computed from the daily limit, the drawdown and the target alone. For the 24 of these programmes with an evaluation to fail, that figure runs from 43% to >99% at 1% risk per trade, and it is a floor: each of the 35 rules below is another way to fail that the model does not count.

Programme What it adds Modelled failure rate
The5ers Hyper Growth inactivity closure 43%
Lux Trading Firm 1-Step Evaluation — $100K single-trade cap 43%
Lux Trading Firm 1-Step Evaluation — $400K single-trade cap 49%
City Traders Imperium 1-Step Challenge days must be won, holding or tooling rule 54%
Lux Trading Firm 1-Step Evaluation — $1M single-trade cap 58%
FundedNext Stellar 2-Step inactivity closure 73%
Funding Pips 2 Step Standard inactivity closure 73%
The5ers High Stakes inactivity closure, days must be won 78%
HyroTrader Two-Step Challenge days must be won 78% modelled optimistically
City Traders Imperium 2-Step Challenge days must be won 78%
Audacity Capital Ability Challenge days must be won 78%
HyroTrader One-Step Challenge consistency cap, days must be won 84% modelled optimistically
The5ers Bootcamp inactivity closure, rules change once funded 84%
Alpha Capital Group Alpha One 6% rules change once funded 86%
E8 Markets E8 One inactivity closure, consistency cap 86%
FundedNext Stellar Lite inactivity closure 89%
Funding Pips 2 Step Flex inactivity closure 95%
FTMO 1-Step consistency cap 97%
FundedNext Stellar 1-Step inactivity closure 97%
The5ers Pro Growth days must be won 97%
Hola Prime 1-Step Prime single-trade cap 97%
Funding Pips 2 Step Pro inactivity closure 98%
Funding Pips 1 Step Flex inactivity closure, single-trade cap 98%
E8 Markets E8 Pro inactivity closure, consistency cap >99%
FundedNext Stellar Instant inactivity closure no evaluation to fail
Funding Pips FundingPips Zero inactivity closure, holding or tooling rule no evaluation to fail
Audacity Capital FTP (Instant Funding) days must be won no evaluation to fail

At 1% risk per trade, a 40% win rate and 2R winners. 3 of these are instant-funding products with no evaluation, so the measure does not apply to any of them — the rules still do.

Trade, or the account closes on its own

14 rules · 14 programmes · 4 firms

The commonest rule in this group, and the one with no cell anywhere to put it in. It costs nothing until it costs the fee in full: an account left alone through the window is closed, expired or breached depending on the firm, with the evaluation unfinished. At the $25K size, which 11 of the 14 sell, these cost $95 to $210. The other 3 publish no fee at that size, so nothing of theirs is folded into the range.

  • FundedNext · Stellar 1-Step Accounts inactive for 60 days are closed.
  • FundedNext · Stellar 2-Step Accounts inactive for 60 days are closed.
  • FundedNext · Stellar Lite Accounts inactive for 60 days are closed.
  • FundedNext · Stellar Instant Accounts inactive for 60 days are closed.
  • The5ers · Hyper Growth Accounts inactive for more than 30 consecutive days expire.
  • The5ers · High Stakes Accounts without trading activity for more than 30 consecutive days are closed.
  • The5ers · Bootcamp Accounts without activity for more than 30 consecutive days are closed.
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Standard Accounts with no completed trade for 30 consecutive days are breached.
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Pro Accounts with no completed trade for 30 consecutive days are breached.
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Flex Accounts with no completed trade for 30 consecutive days are breached.
  • Funding Pips · 1 Step Flex Accounts with no completed trade for 30 consecutive days are breached.
  • Funding Pips · FundingPips Zero Accounts with no completed trade for 30 consecutive days are breached.
  • E8 Markets · E8 One At least one trade must be placed and closed every 60 days or the account is disabled.
  • E8 Markets · E8 Pro At least one trade must be placed and closed every 60 days or the account is disabled.

The minimum-days row means more than it says

8 rules · 8 programmes · 4 firms

28 of the 52 programmes publish a minimum-days figure, and the row is identical whatever it means. On 8 of them it means something a losing week cannot satisfy by trading more: the days must be profitable, and several attach a size to the profit. On 3 the figure is also per phase rather than per attempt, so the real requirement is the published number multiplied by the number of phases — 10 at HyroTrader's Two-Step Challenge, 6 at City Traders Imperium's 2-Step Challenge and 8 at Audacity Capital's Ability Challenge.

  • The5ers · Pro Growth Minimum days are profitable days: closed profit of at least 0.5% of the initial balance each.
  • The5ers · High Stakes Minimum days are profitable days: closed profit of at least 0.5% of the initial balance each.
  • HyroTrader · One-Step Challenge A day counts toward the five only if a trade of at least 5% of the balance is closed and its result is at least 1% of the trade value.
  • HyroTrader · Two-Step Challenge Five trading days are required PER PHASE — the firm says ten in total.
  • City Traders Imperium · 1-Step Challenge The three days must be PROFITABLE days — the firm’s own table reads "Min Profitable Trading Days 3". That is a harder requirement than the trading-day minimums other firms publish, because a losing week cannot satisfy it by trading more.
  • City Traders Imperium · 2-Step Challenge Three PROFITABLE days are required in each phase, six in total.
  • Audacity Capital · Ability Challenge Four minimum trading days in each phase, eight in total.
  • Audacity Capital · FTP (Instant Funding) Five minimum trading days, of which at least three must be profitable.

What a single trade may risk, must carry, or may earn

7 rules · 5 programmes · 3 firms

The risk-per-trade table on this site computes the position size each programme needs and assumes the size is yours to choose. On these 5 it is not: the firm caps what one trade may risk, requires a stop before entry, or caps what one trade may earn. A cap on what a trade may earn is the same rule as a best-day cap pointed at a single position instead of a session. On one of them — Funding Pips' 1 Step Flex — the recorded cap binds the funded account rather than the evaluation.

  • Funding Pips · 1 Step Flex On the funded account, a floating loss of 1% on one trade idea draws a warning; four warnings close the account.
  • Lux Trading Firm · 1-Step Evaluation — $100K Risk per trade is capped by the rules at 5% of remaining risk capital — balance minus the drawdown floor — not of the balance. Early on that is 5% of 6%, so roughly 0.3% of the account, and it tightens as the floor is approached.
  • Lux Trading Firm · 1-Step Evaluation — $100K A stop loss must be placed BEFORE entering, and trading without one is a rule breach that can fail the evaluation.
  • Lux Trading Firm · 1-Step Evaluation — $100K No single position may realise more than 5% of the profit target: $500 of the $10,000 needed here. Correlated positions in the same direction count as one trade, and closing and reopening does not reset the cap.
  • Lux Trading Firm · 1-Step Evaluation — $400K Single-trade profit cap: $2,400.
  • Lux Trading Firm · 1-Step Evaluation — $1M Single-trade profit cap: $7,500.
  • Hola Prime · 1-Step Prime Maximum risk of 2% of the initial balance on any one trade.

Consistency: how much of the profit one day may supply

4 rules · 4 programmes · 3 firms

The rule the industry calls a consistency rule. Each firm sets its own share and measures it against a different base — total profit, total net result, profit that counts toward the target — so the 4 here are not variants of one standard. The cost is time: the profit has to be produced across days, which means more trades, which means more exposure to the daily limit. One of them is recorded against payouts on the funded account rather than against the evaluation — E8 Markets' E8 One — so 3 of the 4 can decide whether a challenge is passed at all. 2 of those 3 publish no minimum number of trading days, so the field a buyer would read to learn that the profit must be spread out is the one field that says it need not be.

  • FTMO · 1-Step Best-day rule: a single trading day may not exceed 50% of the total profit made on profitable days.
  • E8 Markets · E8 One On the funded account: a best-day rule (no day above 40% of total profit) applies to payouts.
  • E8 Markets · E8 Pro Only 2% of profit per day counts toward the target, and the cap persists on the funded account.
  • HyroTrader · One-Step Challenge Evaluation only: no single day may contribute more than 40% of the total net result; the excess does not count toward the target.

The rules change once you have passed

2 rules · 2 programmes · 2 firms

The rules you pass under are not always the rules you then trade under. 2 programmes record a different cap on the funded account from the one in the evaluation, and not always in the same direction — a limit the evaluation does not carry, or a limit it carries loosened. These cannot end an attempt, which is why they are counted apart from the 35 above that can. Every figure on this site is the evaluation’s, because the evaluation is what is being bought.

  • The5ers · Bootcamp The funded stage adds a 3% daily pause and a 4% max loss; the evaluation steps publish no daily limit.
  • Alpha Capital Group · Alpha One 6% The daily limit rises to 4% on the qualified account; the 3% recorded here is the evaluation rule.

Which positions may be held, and which tools may be run

2 rules · 2 programmes · 2 firms

2 programmes record a rule about what may be held over a weekend or which tools may be run. One runs the other way and grants a permission the same firm withholds from its other programmes, which is the same fact read from the other side. These are the rules most easily broken by accident, because nothing in the platform stops you.

  • Funding Pips · FundingPips Zero Holding any position over the weekend terminates the account.
  • City Traders Imperium · 1-Step Challenge The only CTI programme that permits third-party expert advisors and Martingale; the other three allow personal EAs only and forbid Martingale.

Rules that decide what you are paid and what you pay

41 rules across 26 programmes. The fee on the pricing page is the first attempt at list price. These decide what the attempt after it costs, when the money comes back, and what share of the profit is actually yours.

When the fee comes back, and whether

15 rules · 15 programmes · 7 firms

13 of the 52 programmes are recorded as refunding the fee on passing, and that single field is what the cost page nets out of a three-attempt total. On 6 of them the firm’s own rule says the money arrives with a later reward or payout instead — after passing, after funding, and after the funded account has produced something. Across the 4 that publish a price at the $25K size, that is $677.97 of fee counted as returned by an arithmetic that has no way to know when. Audacity Capital's Ability Challenge and Ability One defer it too and publish no price at that size, so they are not in that figure. The reverse also happens: Funding Pips' 2 Step Standard is recorded as not refunding on passing — correctly, since the fee returns several rewards into the funded account instead. A yes/no column cannot hold either case.

  • FTMO · 1-Step The fee is not refunded on passing — unlike the 2-Step, whose fee returns with the first payout.
  • FundedNext · Stellar 1-Step The fee refund arrives with the third reward, not on passing.
  • FundedNext · Stellar 2-Step The fee refund arrives with the first reward.
  • FundedNext · Stellar Lite The fee refund arrives with the third reward, not on passing.
  • The5ers · High Stakes The fee refund is shown at Step 2, alongside a $2 reward for completing Step 1.
  • The5ers · Bootcamp The fee comes in two parts, and the second is the opposite of a refund: $22/$95/$225 to start, then $50/$205/$350 more on passing — $72/$300/$575 all in.
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Standard The registration fee is refunded at the fourth reward on the funded account, not on passing.
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Pro Not eligible for the fourth-reward registration-fee refund.
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Flex Not eligible for the fourth-reward registration-fee refund.
  • Lux Trading Firm · 1-Step Evaluation — $100K The fee is refunded in full on passing, after a risk-desk review, and is otherwise non-refundable from the moment the login details are emailed.
  • Lux Trading Firm · INSTA The fee is not refunded on passing or on failing.
  • Audacity Capital · Ability Challenge The refund is not paid on passing but with the first payout, and only "provided the payout amount exceeds the fees". Passing and then never reaching that payout means no refund.
  • Audacity Capital · Ability One The refund is published as applying to this programme, but its mechanics — paid with the first payout, and only if that payout exceeds the fee — are published only for the Ability Challenge.
  • Audacity Capital · FTP (Instant Funding) The fee is not refundable: "Refunds only apply to the Ability challenge and Ability one program."
  • Hola Prime · 1-Step Prime The fee refund arrives in four 25% installments with the first four payouts, not on passing.

The profit split is not the split you start on

10 rules · 10 programmes · 8 firms

44 of the 52 programmes publish a profit split. 14 of those carry a recorded rule about that split — what it starts at, what it takes to reach, which payout cycle it belongs to, or what the higher one costs as a paid add-on. The published figure is sometimes the one you are paid from the first payout and sometimes the far end of a ladder, and the pricing page prints the same number either way. It is the figure this industry advertises hardest and the one most often finished somewhere else.

  • FundedNext · Stellar Instant Reward share starts at 70% and rises to 80% from the third tier.
  • The5ers · Pro Growth The profit split starts at 75%; a published maximum was not stated on the pages read.
  • Funding Pips · FundingPips Zero Rewards unlock after seven profitable days (0.25% or more each) in a rolling 30-day window; 95% split.
  • Alpha Capital Group · Alpha Swing Profit split is on-demand payouts only.
  • E8 Markets · E8 One Payout share climbs 80% → 90% → 100% across payouts.
  • E8 Markets · E8 Pro Payouts are requestable daily from 1% profit; the firm describes them as discretionary performance-based incentives.
  • City Traders Imperium · Instant Funding You start on half the advertised account size, and the profit share starts at 50% rather than the 80% the challenges pay. Reaching the full size and a 70% share means clearing the first 10% milestone.
  • City Traders Imperium · Direct Funding The same product as Instant Funding without the half-sized start: full balance from day one and a 70% profit share from the first trade, for roughly three times the fee at the same traded size.
  • Lux Trading Firm · INSTA Not instant funding in the usual sense. The account is a demo, there is a 12% target to reach, and what passing buys is a payment — 80% of the target — rather than a funded account: "INSTA accounts do not scale."
  • Audacity Capital · Ability Challenge The profit share starts at 75%, rises to 85% for withdrawing over 10% profit within 30 days, and reaches 90% only after the account has doubled twice with consistent 10%-plus profits.

Choices made at checkout that lock a rule

10 rules · 8 programmes · 5 firms

A checkout choice that cannot be changed afterwards, on 8 programmes at 5 firms. Most of them fix the split or the payout cycle. One goes further and replaces a trailing daily limit with a fixed one — a change to the rule the model reads, sold as an upgrade. Whatever the comparison table said about these programmes, it described one configuration of them.

  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Standard Reward cycle is chosen per payout: weekly at 60%, bi-weekly at 80%, monthly at 100%, or on demand at 90%.
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Pro Weekly reward cycle at a flat 80% split.
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Flex The split is chosen at purchase and locked: 85% with no minimum days, or 95% requiring three profitable days of at least 0.5% per phase.
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Flex Bi-weekly reward cycle.
  • Funding Pips · 1 Step Flex Bi-weekly reward cycle at 85%.
  • Alpha Capital Group · Alpha One 10% A 90% split is sold as a paid add-on at purchase (about 10% of the plan price); the standard split is 80%.
  • E8 Markets · E8 Pro A 100% payout share is sold as a paid add-on at purchase; the standard share is 80%.
  • E8 Markets · E8 Pro The swap-free option adds 10% to the price, and cTrader adds $10 on accounts under $100.
  • HyroTrader · One-Step Challenge A paid Swing upgrade replaces the trailing daily limit with one fixed at the day’s opening equity.
  • Hola Prime · 1-Step Prime Fees above are the monthly-payout plans, which carry the 95% split; bi-weekly and on-demand plans are cheaper — $49 to $1,599 across the same sizes — and pay 80%.

A failed attempt is sold a cheaper next one

6 rules · 6 programmes · 2 firms

The second attempt is not always priced like the first. 6 programmes at 2 firms sell a discounted reset to an account that has just been breached. Where the conditions are recorded they are a window to claim it in and exclusions by account size; where they are not, the discount is all the record carries. Three attempts at the $25K size across the 4 of them with an evaluation and a price at that size comes to $2,040 at full fee, which is what the cost page charges you. With the discount taken it is less — so that figure is an upper bound for these, and the conditions in the rule decide by how much.

  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Standard A breached account can be reset at a discount within seven days: 15% off the evaluation, 7% off the funded account ($100K accounts excluded).
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Pro A breached account can be reset at a discount within seven days: 15% off the evaluation, 7% off the funded account ($100K accounts and above excluded).
  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Flex A breached account can be reset at a discount within seven days: 15% off the evaluation, 7% off the funded account ($100K accounts excluded).
  • Funding Pips · 1 Step Flex A breached account can be reset at a discount within seven days: 15% off the evaluation, 7% off the funded account ($100K accounts excluded).
  • Funding Pips · FundingPips Zero A breached account can be reset at a discount within seven days: 15% off the evaluation, 7% off the funded account ($100K accounts and above excluded).
  • City Traders Imperium · Instant Funding Nothing is refundable on this programme either, and the reset discount is 10% rather than the challenges’ 15%.

Rules that change what the published numbers mean

29 rules across 20 programmes. The same percentage measured from a different point is a different rule. These are the sentences beside the number, and they are often on a different page from it.

What the drawdown percentage is measured against

19 rules · 17 programmes · 8 firms

The largest category on this page, and the one that changes the arithmetic most. The same daily limit measured from the day’s opening balance, from the higher of balance and equity, from the previous day’s close, or from the highest equity the account touched during the session is four different rules printed as one number. The recorded drawdown type carries part of this; these 19 rules carry the rest.

  • Funding Pips · 2 Step Standard The daily limit is 5% of the higher of the day’s opening balance and opening equity.
  • Funding Pips · FundingPips Zero The trailing cap follows the highest recorded equity and locks at the starting size once equity reaches +5%; it never resets, including after rewards.
  • Alpha Capital Group · Alpha One 10% Drawdown trails the high-water mark and locks at the starting balance once +6% is reached.
  • Alpha Capital Group · Alpha One 6% Drawdown locks at the starting balance once reached.
  • Funded Trading Plus · 1-Step Express The 6% trail stops once it reaches the starting balance: "Once the maximum simulated loss has reached the initial simulated balance, it no longer trails." Treating the trail as permanent overstates the difficulty after the first 6% of profit is banked.
  • Funded Trading Plus · 2-Step Classic Explicitly static: "a Static Drawdown program … not affected by any simulated profits or gains".
  • Funded Trading Plus · Instant The 6% trail locks at the starting balance, as on the 1-Step Express.
  • HyroTrader · One-Step Challenge The 4% daily limit trails: "The standard daily drawdown is trailing, as it is calculated from the highest equity point reached during the day, including unrealized P&L." The firm’s own example fails a $5,000 account that peaked at $5,200 and fell back to $5,000 — level on the day, and out.
  • HyroTrader · Two-Step Challenge The 5% daily limit trails the day’s equity high, as on the one-step.
  • Fidelcrest · Pro Trader — Normal Trailing per the rules page: "Current Equity / Highest Recorded Balance x 100% = must be over 95% at all times". The general terms word the same cap against INITIAL capital, which would make it static. The firm publishes both; this records what the rules page says.
  • City Traders Imperium · 1-Step Challenge The trail never stops, so 5% is the most that can ever be given back from the peak balance no matter how far the account has run. Withdrawals are excluded from the watermark.
  • City Traders Imperium · 2-Step Challenge Both caps are measured on closed balance, not equity: "CTI checks only closed trades against the limits." An open position at a floating loss cannot breach either one, which is a materially easier rule than the equity-based version most firms use.
  • City Traders Imperium · 2-Step Challenge The daily cap is 5% of the start-of-day balance and the overall cap 10% of the initial balance — neither moves with profit.
  • City Traders Imperium · Direct Funding Same 6% static drawdown, same absence of a daily limit, same scaling ladder.
  • Audacity Capital · Ability Challenge The daily limit is fixed at rollover (00:00 GMT+2) from the higher of balance and equity, then held for the day: "Even if equity rises to $110,000 during the trading day, the daily limit stays at $92,500 until the next rollover." A floating profit carried through rollover therefore RAISES the floor you must stay above, and the firm’s own scenario fails an account on exactly that.
  • Audacity Capital · Ability One Ten percent to make against a 6% total drawdown, with the tightest daily limit on this site: 3%, measured from the higher of the day’s opening balance and equity.
  • Audacity Capital · Ability One Both caps are static and measured from the initial balance: "No trailing drawdown nonsense. Your floor stays fixed based on initial balance."
  • Audacity Capital · FTP (Instant Funding) The 5% daily limit trails the highest equity the account has reached, per the knowledge centre, while the page selling it promises "a static drawdown" with "nothing that tightens as you start to profit". Both are published; they cannot both be true.
  • Hola Prime · 1-Step Prime The daily limit is measured against the previous day’s closing balance, not the starting balance.

Where the firm publishes two different answers

6 rules · 6 programmes · 5 firms

Filed here are the rules whose subject is the disagreement itself. Counted across every category, 9 of the 123 record a firm publishing two different answers to the same question — on 7 programmes at 5 firms. That is the figure worth carrying away, because it is not a rule you can plan around: what you do is ask their support in writing, before paying.

  • E8 Markets · E8 One No fee is recorded: the firm’s pricing article prices a different “standard configuration at checkout” (a 9% target, $48–$1,998 by size) than the 6%-target preset its product article describes and this record follows.
  • Funded Trading Plus · 1-Step Express The firm publishes three different reset times for the daily limit — 23:59 server time on this page, 16:59 EST in its daily-drawdown article, 17:00 EST on the Instant page. The percentages agree everywhere; only the moment does not.
  • HyroTrader · One-Step Challenge The published rules page states no time limit; the general terms state 30 calendar days for the Challenge and 60 for Verification. The firm has not reconciled them.
  • Fidelcrest · Pro Trader — Normal The firm publishes three different formulas for measuring the daily loss. The 5% figure is identical in all three.
  • Audacity Capital · Ability Challenge What breaching the daily limit does is published for the evaluation stages by worked example — "the Account is violated" — but the firm’s general guidance hedges it as "paused or breached (depending on the stage)" without saying which stage is which.
  • Audacity Capital · FTP (Instant Funding) The firm advertises this programme as "$5,000 to $50,000" in one place and "whether you start at $5,000 or $60,000" in another.

The target on the page is not a target

4 rules · 4 programmes · 4 firms

4 programmes state in their own rules that there is nothing to pass: the account is funded from day one and the drawdown is the whole product. 2 of them print a percentage where a profit target would go anyway, and it is not one — it is a scaling milestone on an account that is already funded. Every ranking on this site excludes these products for exactly that reason, and says so rather than dropping them.

  • FundedNext · Stellar Instant No profit target — the account is live from day one.
  • Funded Trading Plus · Instant No evaluation: "there is no evaluation for this program". The 10% on that page is a scaling target, not a profit target.
  • City Traders Imperium · Instant Funding No evaluation: "funded from day one". The 10% is a scaling milestone that doubles the balance, not a target to pass.
  • Audacity Capital · FTP (Instant Funding) No evaluation and no profit target — the drawdown rules are the whole product.

Notes on the limits of this record

16 of the 123 are not rules that decide an attempt, and are counted apart from the rest so the totals above mean what they say. They record what a figure here actually covers — which variant, which size ladder, which page carried the price, when the product is even on sale — and where a number on this site is our reading rather than the firm’s statement.

What the figures recorded here actually cover — 11 rules, 10 programmes

  • The5ers · Hyper Growth Maximum evaluation capital per trader is $40,000, so there is no $50K account — the cheaper fees shown in the same widget belong to Pro Growth.
  • The5ers · Bootcamp Fixed ladders, no size selector: the $20K ladder starts at $5,000, the $100K at $25,000, the $250K at $100,000.
  • Alpha Capital Group · Alpha One 10% The cost guide prices “Alpha One” without naming a variant; the fees are recorded against this, the original one.
  • Alpha Capital Group · Alpha One 12% Offered up to $100,000, where the other variants reach $200,000.
  • Alpha Capital Group · Alpha Swing Other sizes are offered but only the $100K was priced on the pages read.
  • Goat Funded Trader · GOAT Blitz Sold only in windows — the firm says it drops two weekends a month.
  • HyroTrader · Two-Step Challenge Phase two carries no separate fee.
  • Fidelcrest · Pro Trader — Normal Fees are published on the profit-splits page, not on the rules page cited here.
  • Lux Trading Firm · INSTA The $100,000 INSTA carries the same 12% target and 6% drawdown; its fee is not published.
  • Hola Prime · 1-Step Prime All account sizes share the same percentage rules.
  • Hola Prime · 1-Step Prime The “$39 starting fee” advertised on the Prime Challenge page is the 2-Step Prime programme’s $5,000 bi-weekly plan — a programme this page does not yet model — not a 1-Step Prime price.

Where a figure here is our reading of theirs — 5 rules, 5 programmes

  • The5ers · High Stakes A “Classic” variant with an 8% Step 1 target and higher fees sits behind a toggle on the same page; the figures here are the default “New” variant.
  • Fidelcrest · Micro Trader — Aggressive The firm’s own Micro Trader page renders the minimum trading days as "5 or 1 days" in both phases. Five is what the rules page says.
  • Lux Trading Firm · 1-Step Evaluation — $400K The same 6% drawdown as the $100K account against a target two points higher. Buying more capital from this firm buys a harder evaluation, and the ratio is the figure that shows it.
  • Lux Trading Firm · 1-Step Evaluation — $1M Fifteen percent against six is the steepest ratio recorded on this site, and it is the same firm’s own easiest programme scaled up.
  • Audacity Capital · Ability Challenge The Challenge phase is looser than the figures shown here: 7.5% daily against a 15% overall drawdown, tightening to 5% and 10% for Verification. The computed difficulty on this page applies the tighter pair throughout, which overstates the difficulty of the first phase.

Why the model on the rest of this site ignores all of it

Not because it does not matter. Because it cannot be compared. A profit target is a percentage at every firm, so the 46 programmes that set one can be sorted by it. A best-day rule is a percentage of total profit at one firm, of total net result at another, and of what counts toward the target at a third — three sentences that produce three different numbers from the same trading week, and no honest single column to hold them.

So the arithmetic elsewhere on this site stays inside the four fields that are genuinely comparable, and its output is a floor rather than an estimate. On the 24 programmes above with an evaluation, the modelled chance of a losing streak ending the attempt already runs to >99% at the hard end; each of the 35 rules in the first group is a way to fail that the number does not include.

The practical use of this page is narrower and more useful than a ranking. Before paying, read your programme’s rows. The rules that will decide your attempt are almost certainly among them, and 9 of the 123 recorded here exist only because a firm answered the same question twice, differently.

What this page does not tell you

On the numbers above

Fidelcrest — Micro Trader — Aggressive

It comes out ahead on the chance a losing streak ends the attempt, at 1% risk per trade, at 19% — 6 percentage points clear of Fidelcrest's Pro Trader — Aggressive, the next best.

This is computed from the published rules, not chosen. Whichever programme wins that calculation appears here, including firms we earn nothing from, and it changes when the rules do. It says nothing about any of the 123 rules on this page, nor about payout reliability, the platform, or the fee.

Open Fidelcrest → Read its rules here first

Where every rule came from

One line per firm: the document, and the date it was read. Where a firm publishes a page per programme rather than one covering them all, the programme’s own page is cited on that firm’s page here beside the rules it carries.

FTMO — programme comparison and pricing — read 2026-08-05

FundedNext — CFD trading objectives — read 2026-08-05

The5ers — challenge programmes explained — read 2026-08-05

FundingPips Help Centre — account models — read 2026-08-05

Alpha Capital — rules explained — read 2026-08-05

E8 Markets Help Center — product overview — read 2026-08-05

Funded Trading Plus — hard rules and account breaches — read 2026-08-06

Goat Funded Trader — models — read 2026-08-06

HyroTrader — trading rules — read 2026-08-06

Fidelcrest — programs — read 2026-08-06

City Traders Imperium — 2-Step Challenge — read 2026-08-06

Lux Trading Firm — trading rules — read 2026-08-06

Audacity Capital — trading guidelines — read 2026-08-06

Hola Prime — forex trading rules — read 2026-08-05

Questions

What are the hidden rules at prop firms?
Not hidden, in most cases — published, but somewhere other than the page that takes your money. Reading the rules of 14 firms produced 123 of them across 40 of 52 programmes, and none is a profit target, a daily loss limit or a drawdown. The largest single category is how the cap is measured, on 17 programmes at 8 firms. Of the ones that can end an attempt the commonest is inactivity closure: 14 programmes at 4 firms. Beside it sit minimum days that must be profitable rather than merely traded (8 programmes), consistency caps on how much of the profit one day may supply (4), and caps on what a single trade may risk or earn (5). 26 programmes carry at least one rule of a kind that can end an attempt.
What is a prop firm consistency rule?
A cap on how much of your total profit may come from one day, so that a single lucky session cannot pass an evaluation. 4 of the 52 programmes recorded here carry one — FTMO's 1-Step; E8 Markets' E8 One and E8 Pro; and HyroTrader's One-Step Challenge — and each states the share in its own words rather than a common standard. On one of them the recorded rule applies to payouts on the funded account rather than to the evaluation — E8 Markets' E8 One — so 3 of the 4 can decide whether a challenge is passed. What makes it expensive is the interaction with the minimum-days row: 2 of the 3 that gate an evaluation publish no minimum number of trading days at all, so the field a buyer would check to learn that the profit must be spread out says nothing. The rule that actually spreads it is elsewhere.
Can a prop firm close my account if I stop trading?
At 4 of the 14 firms read here, yes — 14 programmes publish an inactivity rule, and the wording ranges from the account expiring to being formally breached. It is the commonest of the rules here that can end an attempt, and the one least likely to appear anywhere near a price. At the $25K size, which 11 of the 14 sell, those programmes cost $95 to $210, and that is what a quiet month costs if it runs past the window.
Is the prop firm challenge fee really refunded when you pass?
Sometimes, and usually not at the moment of passing. 13 of the 52 programmes here are recorded as refunding the fee on passing; on 6 of those the firm’s own rule says the money arrives with a later reward or payout on the funded account instead. Across the 4 of them that publish a price at the $25K size, that is $677.97 of fee treated as returned by any three-attempt calculation, including ours, before a funded account has paid out once. It runs the other way too: Funding Pips' 2 Step Standard is recorded as not refunding on passing, and the fee does come back — several rewards into the funded account.
FTMO → FundedNext → The5ers → Funding Pips → Alpha Capital Group → E8 Markets → Funded Trading Plus → Goat Funded Trader → HyroTrader → Fidelcrest → City Traders Imperium → Lux Trading Firm → Audacity Capital → Hola Prime →