What this article covers
General evaluation advice that applies to any prop firm lives in 10 tips to pass a prop firm challenge. This article is the FTMO-specific version: it converts FTMO’s exact parameters — 5% daily, 10% max, 4 trading days, the Best Day rule — into concrete position sizes and routines. For the full rulebook, start with FTMO rules explained.
FTMO’s parameters in one table
| Item | 2-Step | 1-Step |
|---|---|---|
| Profit target | 10% → 5% | 10% |
| Daily loss limit | 5% | 3% |
| Max loss | 10% | 10% |
| Minimum trading days | 4 per phase | none |
| Best Day rule | no | yes (50%) |
| Time limit | none | none |
The unlimited time is the single most strategically important line. FTMO gives you no reason to hurry — most failures come from behaving as if it did.
Tip 1: derive your lot size from the 5% daily limit
The daily loss limit is widely considered the most common cause of failure at FTMO. The fix is arithmetic, not willpower.
On a $100,000 2-Step account:
- Daily loss line: −$5,000
- Risk 1% per trade (−$1,000) → five same-day losses to breach
- Risk 0.5% (−$500) → ten same-day losses to breach
A day with five straight losses is a day your edge is not working, and you should not still be trading. So the practical rule is: 1% fixed risk, and stop for the day after three consecutive losses. Follow that and the 5% line becomes nearly unreachable.
One critical detail: the limit counts floating losses. Your closed P&L can show −3% while open positions quietly drag the true figure past −5%. Manage by the number you would realize if you closed everything right now.
Tip 2: treat the 10% max loss as a budget you never spend
Ten percent is the loss budget for the entire attempt. At 1% risk, that is ten consecutive losses of headroom — but do not plan to use it.
A simple circuit breaker works: when cumulative drawdown reaches −5%, halve your risk to 0.5%. Going defensive at half budget prevents the classic ending, where a trader with −8% swings for one oversized recovery trade and converts a bad attempt into a failed one.
Tip 3: do not leave the 4 trading days for last
Each phase requires trades on at least 4 distinct trading days. Hitting the target early does not waive this.
The trap usually catches traders who win big on day one: the profit is banked, they do not want to touch the account, but the day count says 1 of 4. The solution is mechanical — on each remaining day, place a single minimal trade (0.01 lots) and stop. There is no minimum size for a day to count.
Tip 4: on the 1-Step, design around the Best Day rule
The 1-Step adds the Best Day rule: your best single day must contribute no more than 50% of the sum of all positive days’ profits.
Example: you finish at +10% ($10,000), but $6,000 came on one day. That is over 50% of your positive-day total, so the requirement is not met — you would need to add profit on other days to dilute the ratio.
Practical adaptations:
- cap your daily gain at about +2% of the account, then stop for the day
- if a monster day happens anyway, follow it with several modest positive days
If your style wins through occasional explosive days, choose the 2-Step, which has no Best Day rule. The trade-offs are compared in FTMO account types.
Tip 5: use the Free Trial as a dress rehearsal
FTMO’s Free Trial is free, single-phase, with a 5% target and 2 minimum trading days. Passing grants nothing — no funded account — but it runs on the same platform, dashboard, and metrics as the paid challenge.
Its best use is to rehearse your rules under real conditions: run the 1%-risk, three-losses-and-stop, floating-loss-aware routine and confirm you can reach 5% without a violation before spending money on the real attempt. More in the FTMO Free Trial guide.
FTMO-specific failure patterns
1. Ignoring floating losses in the daily calculation
Closed P&L looks safe; open positions breach the line. Track your worst-case liquidation value, not your realized figure.
2. Relaxing in Verification
Phase 2 halves the target to 5% but keeps every loss rule. Traders raise lots because it “should be easier” and fail the phase the statistics say they should pass. Same risk plan, lower target — that is all Verification is.
3. Stopping before the day count is done
Target reached, trading stopped, 4-day requirement unmet. Check the Trading Days counter on the dashboard daily.
4. Holding through major news releases
The evaluation itself has no news-trading restriction, but spreads widen and slippage spikes around major releases. During an evaluation there is no prize for surviving a CPI print with full size — lighten up or step aside.
Conclusion
The FTMO Challenge rewards the trader who exploits its one soft parameter: unlimited time. Risk 0.5–1% per trade, stop after three losses in a day, satisfy the 4-day requirement early, and let the target arrive slowly. Those habits eliminate most of the documented failure modes. Rules can change — verify the current terms on the official site before you start.
Recommended prop firms
Two industry leaders, by use case:
The5%ers — skip the evaluation
Established 2016. Instant Funding starts without an evaluation phase, and the profit split climbs in steps up to 100%.
→ The5%ers official (coupon code “HZZS4”)
FTMO — the industry benchmark
Operating since 2015 with the industry’s largest published payout track record. The classic challenge-then-funded model.