Prop Firm Challenge Planner

FTMO Phase 1 requires a 10% profit target with a 30-calendar-day window and a minimum of 4 trading days. Phase 2 requires 5% profit with the same daily/max loss limits. The daily loss limit is 5% and maximum loss is 10% of the initial account balance at all times.

A sustainable daily target is typically 0.3–0.8% of account size per day. At 10% profit target with 30 days and a minimum of 4 days, you only need to average ~0.33% per day — which is achievable with 1–2 quality trades. Chasing aggressive daily targets is the primary reason traders fail challenges.

Some prop firms (notably FTMO and others) require that your best single trading day does not exceed a set percentage of your total profit — typically 30–50%. For example, with a 30% rule on a $10,000 profit target, your single best day cannot exceed $3,000. This prevents traders from passing via one lucky day and ensures consistent performance across the challenge.

Most prop firms allow any strategy on any instrument they offer, but have specific restrictions: no holding positions over weekends (some firms), no trading during high-impact news (some firms), no martingale or grid strategies, and no copy trading between their own accounts. Always check your specific firm's rules before starting.

Hitting the daily loss limit typically means automatic failure of the challenge. You cannot place new trades that day. Most platforms will close all open positions and disable trading for the remainder of that trading day. This is why using this planner to know your exact daily loss limit in dollars is critical before you start trading each session.

With a 55% win rate and 1:2 risk:reward, your expected value per trade is positive — meaning statistically you should grow the account over enough trades. The real challenge is variance: short runs of losses can hit your daily loss limit before the positive expectancy plays out. Managing risk per trade (typically 0.5–1%) is the key to surviving the variance.