ProEA Lab · Topic hub
Prop firm rules, decoded and computed
A prop-firm challenge adds contractual rules to trading risk: a daily-loss reset, a trailing drawdown that moves with profit, or a consistency limit that affects payout eligibility. Understand the relevant rulebook before choosing a position size.
This cluster decodes the rulebook mechanics that repeat across firms — and where we name a firm, we quote its own published pages, dated and linked, because rules change and we only publish what we can defend. The calculators turn each rule into arithmetic you can run before the challenge starts.
Start with the six numbers every rulebook hides. Then run your plan through the calculators until the numbers stop surprising you.
Start here
Prop-Firm Rules, Decoded.
16 min read
Consistency rule calculator →
best-day share and additional profit under a chosen threshold
Daily-loss allowance calculator →
explore the stated model, then compare it with your account's rules
Prop-Firm Challenge Toolkit →
a chart monitor to configure against your account's actual rules
The rulebook
Prop-Firm Rules, Decoded.
A prop challenge isn't only a test of trading skill. It's a rulebook with barriers — and here's the math to run before you pay the fee.
Prop Firm Consistency Rules: Your Best Day Is the Problem.
Calculate best-day profit as a share of total profit, test an example threshold, and see why a new best day changes the required total. Rules vary by firm.
Prop Firms Without a Consistency Rule: We Read the Rulebooks.
Some prop firms genuinely publish no consistency rule — but the question hides three qualifiers most lists skip: which product, which stage, which payout path. The same brand can be rule-free in the challenge and capped at the payout desk. Here's what ten firms' own rulebooks say, quoted and linked, checked on one date — plus the five-minute check that beats any list, including this one.
Prop Firm Profit Target: Estimate Trades and Risk
Convert a prop-firm target into a linear planning estimate using risk and expectancy. The worked example gives 64 trades, but that is not a completion promise: drawdown rules, costs, outcome variability and actual deadlines still matter.
You're Not Funded.
A funded balance may represent simulated capital with conditional rewards, or a route to a live account. Check the specific program, contract, payout evidence and counterparty before paying an evaluation fee.
Firm by firm, sourced and dated
FTMO Rules 2026: Every Program, Sourced and Dated.
The 2-Step and 1-Step FTMO Challenge, the Swing account type and the separate FTMO Futures evaluation: profit targets, daily and maximum loss, minimum days, the Best Day Rule, news and weekend rules, EAs, rewards, scaling and fees, each read from FTMO's own pages on 2026-10-08. One $100,000 account, animated, shows where both loss floors sit.
Topstep Rules 2026: Every Account, Sourced and Dated.
The Trading Combine, both Express Funded Account paths and the Live Funded Account: profit targets, the end-of-day trailing Maximum Loss Limit and where it locks, the optional Daily Loss Limit, the 55% and 40% consistency rules, scaling, payout caps and prices, each read from Topstep's own help center on 2026-10-08. One sample Combine, animated, shows the limit lock and the 55% target move.
Apex Trader Funding Rules 2026: Every Account, Sourced and Dated.
EOD and Intraday evaluations, Performance Accounts and payouts: profit targets, both trailing drawdowns and where they stop, daily loss tiers, the 50% consistency rule, the safety net and the six-payout ladder, each quoted from Apex's own help center and dated. One sample payout cycle, animated, shows where the threshold stops and what the safety net leaves to request.
Lucid Trading Rules 2026: Every Plan, Sourced and Dated.
LucidPro, LucidFlex, LucidDaily, LucidDirect and the invite-only LucidMaxx: profit targets, drawdown type, consistency, daily loss limits, payout rules, minimum days and prices, each read from Lucid's own pages on 2026-10-03. Then one sample week run through the consistency math.
Lucid Trading, one question at a time
Lucid Trading Payout Rules: What You Can Withdraw Today, Plan by Plan
Pick your plan, size and payout number, set your balance and this cycle's days, and see the most you can request today and the exact rule in the way. Every limit is read from Lucid's own pages on 2026-10-08.
Lucid Trading Drawdown: Where the Max Loss Limit Sits and When It Locks
A fixed number of dollars under your highest balance, locked at your start plus $100 once you pass the Initial Trail Balance. Drag a week of P&L through any Lucid plan and watch the line, the daily loss limit and a payout move. Read from Lucid's own pages on 2026-10-08.
Lucid Trading Live Account Rules: What Happens After Payout 5
Payout 5 ends the sim payouts on LucidFlex, LucidPro and LucidDirect and puts you in Lucid's live review pool. If the risk team moves you, the live account starts at $0, its end-of-day drawdown locks at $100, and a Live Bonus pays after a profit target and 20 trading days, again and again. Read from Lucid's pages on 2026-10-08, two days after it rewrote its live program.
Lucid Trading Hours and News Rules: When You Must Be Flat, and When You Can't Trade News
Be flat by 4:45 PM EST on LucidPro, LucidFlex and LucidDirect. LucidLive closes at 4:45 or 4:15 PM, by data feed. LucidDaily makes high-impact USD news a hard breach. A clock puts today's cutoff on your own time zone, both ways Lucid's "EST" can be read. Read from Lucid's pages on 2026-10-10.
The risk math underneath
Your Risk of Ruin Isn't Zero.
We computed real ruin probabilities with the same seeded engine behind our free calculator: a trader with a genuine edge, risking a 'standard' 2% per trade, has a 0.6% chance of losing half the account — and a 43% chance of touching the -10% line that fails a prop challenge. The curve doesn't climb. It explodes. Every number regenerates from one command.
Drawdown Recovery: The Math Is Brutal. The Plan Isn't.
Losing 50% means you need +100% just to get back — the asymmetry every trader learns too late. Here's the full recovery table from our public calculator, the three kinds of drawdown and how to tell which one you're in using your own journal, and the honest part: our own EA's backtest once sat 73% below its peak. We publish that number on purpose.
Static vs Trailing Drawdown: Rules & Examples
Static drawdown stays anchored to starting capital. Trailing drawdown follows a peak. Compare formulas, worked examples, EOD rules and intraday limits.
How Much to Risk Per Trade: The Position Sizing Math That Decides Survival
There is an exact, mathematically optimal answer to 'how much should I risk per trade.' It's called the Kelly criterion — and betting it at full strength is one of the fastest ways to blow up a real account. Here's the formula, the trap inside it, and the fraction the pros actually use.