The Prime Challenge was built with trader feedback in mind. A simpler, fairer path to funding. Instead of piling on complicated restrictions, we’ve focused on clear guidelines that protect your progress, keep the playing field level, and ensure the data we collect is worthy data, a real reflection of trading skill, not chance or exploitation. By following these guidelines, you’re not only protecting your account but also showing us the kind of trader who can succeed long term.
🚫 Gambling & One-Sided Bets
🚫 Gambling & One-Sided Bets
One-sided betting occurs when a trader repeatedly concentrates positions in only one market direction (always long or always short) without proper risk diversification or robust analytical justification. This behavior exposes the account to unnecessary risk and may be classified as gambling-like activity rather than professional trading.
Why is it a problem?
It reduces trading outcomes to a binary event (all-or-nothing).
It increases the probability of catastrophic drawdowns if the market reverses.
It may be deemed gambling when excessive volume is accumulated on the same asset and direction over a short period of time.
Practical Examples
Opening five consecutive long positions on BTCUSD in short periods of time after losses, attempting to “recover” in a single move.
Holding correlated exposures such as EURUSD long, XAUUSD long, and BTCUSD long DOGEUSD simultaneously — all effectively one-sided bets against the U.S. dollar.
Only taking buy positions on NAS100 for an entire pay cycle, without any balanced short exposure or market rationale.
Increasing lot size with each new position in the same direction after previous losses (tilt or disguised martingale behavior).
Risk Team Red Flags
Disproportionate trade volume on a single instrument and direction.
Lack of diversification across assets or strategies.
Repeated averaging into losing one-sided positions.
🚫 All-In Trading
🚫 All-In Trading
All-In trading occurs when a trader allocates a disproportionate share of account equity into a single position or cluster of highly correlated positions, leaving little to no margin for error. This transforms trading into a make-or-break gamble, undermining risk management principles.
Why is it a problem?
It exposes the account to total loss risk if the trade moves unfavorably.
It eliminates the use of structured risk controls such as position sizing, stop-losses, and diversification.
It often reflects emotional or gambling-driven behavior (e.g., revenge trading, overconfidence, or desperation to recover losses).
Practical Examples
Opening a large position on XAUUSD in a $100k account, risking more than 4% of equity in a single trade.
Placing multiple correlated trades (e.g., long NAS100, long SP500, long DJ30) with outsized volume, effectively betting everything on one directional market move.
Using full account margin on a single entry, leaving no room for adverse volatility.
Repeatedly scaling up to “go all in” after losses, attempting to recover equity in one decisive trade.
Risk Team Red Flags
Equity exposure concentrated in one position or correlated cluster.
Absence of stop-loss protection or reliance on “the trade must turn.”
🚫 Excessive Scalping
🚫 Excessive Scalping
Excessive scalping occurs when a trader executes a high frequency of very short-term trades (often seconds to a few minutes in duration) with disproportionately large volumes relative to account size. While scalping itself is a recognized trading style, when taken to extremes it can create unfair market advantages, platform abuse, or operational risk that falls outside the boundaries of acceptable trading behavior.
Why is it a problem?
It can exploit latency or execution mechanics in a way that resembles arbitrage rather than genuine trading.
It may overload systems or liquidity providers, raising concerns of platform abuse.
It undermines risk assessment models, as evaluation accounts are not designed for ultra-high-frequency, millisecond-style trading.
It frequently correlates with gambling-like churn, where trades are opened and closed without structured analysis.
Practical Examples
Opening 50+ trades in a single hour, each lasting less than 1 minute, across the same instrument.
Consistently closing trades within seconds to capture fractional pip movements, without any broader strategy or market rationale.
Running an EA/bot that fires dozens of trades simultaneously, exploiting micro-latency or tick discrepancies.
Attempting to “farm” evaluation accounts by scalping very tight ranges repeatedly until limits are breached.
Risk Team Red Flags
Large clusters of trades with an average hold time below 1 minute.
Abnormal trade counts per day (hundreds of executions on a single account).
Profit/loss distribution skewed toward tiny gains and occasional large losses (typical of scalping churn).
Evidence of latency arbitrage, news-spike sniping, or other non-trading exploitative tactics.
🚫 Grid & Martingale Strategies
🚫 Grid & Martingale Strategies
Grid trading is a method where traders place a series of buy and sell orders at pre-set intervals (a “grid”) above and below a price level, without clear stop-loss parameters or adaptive risk controls. While this can appear systematic, in practice it often results in unlimited downside exposure and behavior that resembles gambling rather than professional risk management.
Why is it a problem?
It escalates exposure automatically as the market moves, creating uncontrolled drawdowns.
It conceals directional bias — while appearing hedged, grids often accumulate in one direction.
It undermines evaluation and funded account models, which rely on transparent, capped risk per trade.
It may evolve into a form of martingale (increasing exposure as losses grow).
Practical Examples
Placing buy orders every 10 pips below market and sell orders every 10 pips above, without a maximum loss cap.
Running an EA that builds a ladder of 20+ positions as price trends, locking in exposure that far exceeds account size.
Opening a long grid on EURUSD and a short grid on GBPUSD simultaneously, creating synthetic leveraged bets.
Allowing a grid to run unattended, where one side balloons into massive floating drawdown while the other side closes tiny scalps.
Risk Team Red Flags
Accounts with large numbers of open trades stacked at systematic intervals.
Persistent floating drawdowns that grow while new trades continue to be added.
Profit/loss curves showing many small gains punctuated by rare catastrophic losses.
Evidence of EAs specifically designed for grid/martingale deployment.
Compliance Reminder
Grid trading is considered high-risk and non-compliant within our funded program. Accounts detected engaging in grid strategies may be subject to warnings, restrictions, or immediate termination, as this method conflicts with sustainable trading practices and risk control standards.
🚫 High-Frequency Trading (HFT)
🚫 High-Frequency Trading (HFT)
High-Frequency Trading (HFT) refers to the use of algorithms, bots, or systems that open and close trades in milliseconds or microseconds, typically seeking to exploit latency, price feed delays, or liquidity gaps. This practice is fundamentally different from discretionary or systematic trading and is not permitted in evaluation or funded accounts.
Why is it a problem?
It exploits infrastructure and latency advantages, rather than demonstrating market skill or strategy.
It can stress liquidity providers and servers, creating operational risks.
It circumvents the risk and evaluation framework designed for sustainable trading behavior.
It is highly correlated with arbitrage-like activity rather than genuine trading intent.
Practical Examples
Running a bot that opens and closes dozens of trades within milliseconds, targeting tiny tick movements.
Exploiting price delays by buying an asset on one feed and instantly offsetting on another.
Submitting hundreds of orders per minute, far beyond human execution capacity.
Deploying latency-arbitrage EAs designed to detect and trade on microsecond feed discrepancies.
Risk Team Red Flags
Abnormally high trade counts per second/minute/Hour inconsistent with human behavior.
Average hold times measured in milliseconds or a few seconds/minutes.
Clusters of trades with tiny profits repeated many times.
Evidence of external software or infrastructure designed for ultra-low-latency execution
🚫 Tick Scalping
🚫 Tick Scalping
Tick scalping refers to the practice of executing extremely short-term trades aimed at capturing only a few ticks or fractional pip movements, usually by entering and exiting within seconds. While occasional quick trades may occur in normal trading, systematic tick scalping is considered a form of exploitative or gambling-like behavior rather than genuine trading strategy.
Why is it a problem?
It often attempts to exploit feed latency, spread differences, or execution speed instead of applying technical or fundamental analysis.
It produces artificially inflated trade counts that distort performance metrics and evaluation integrity.
It undermines risk modeling, as dozens or hundreds of micro-trades do not reflect professional risk-taking behavior.
It frequently overlaps with HFT (High-Frequency Trading) and latency arbitrage practices.
Practical Examples
Opening and closing trades on EURUSD within 2–5 seconds, aiming for 0.2–0.5 pips each time.
Running an EA that fires hundreds of micro-trades per day, each targeting a tick or two.
Churning through large volumes in notional exposure without ever holding positions beyond a few seconds.
Relying on server/data center proximity to repeatedly capture tiny tick discrepancies.
Risk Team Red Flags
Average hold times measured in a few seconds.
Large trade counts with extremely small profit targets (0.1–1 pip).
PnL distribution: many tiny wins, offset by occasional outsized losses.
Spikes in trade volume without corresponding market rationale.
⚠️ What Happens if I Breach the Rules in the Prime Challenge?
⚠️ What Happens if I Breach the Rules in the Prime Challenge?
The Prime Challenge values fairness. Rule breaches are reviewed to protect both traders and the firm, ensuring sustainable trading.
⚠️ Step 1: Review & Warning
Minor or first-time violations may result in a warning.
The risk team will explain what was flagged (e.g., one-sided bets, news trading, excessive scalping).
In some cases, restrictions may be applied temporarily.
🚫 Step 2: Loss of Payout Eligibility
If a violation is confirmed during payout review, the account will lose payout rights for that cycle.
The account may still remain active, giving the trader a chance to continue and demonstrate compliant trading.
❌ Step 3: Account Termination
Severe, repeated, or exploitative violations (e.g., all-in trading, grid/martingale, HFT) may result in immediate account closure.
Terminated accounts forfeit all pending payouts.