Cap each trade at a third of the daily allowance
If the daily limit is 5% of a $100,000 account, risk no more than ~$1,650 per trade. Three consecutive losers must still leave you inside the limit. This single rule prevents the majority of failures.
FTMO Passing Tips: 15 Rules That Actually Work
There is no shortage of FTMO advice online, and most of it is about entries. This is not that. These fifteen rules come from the failure patterns we see repeatedly, and almost none of them concern market analysis — because almost none of the failures do. Every one of them is something you can implement today without learning a new strategy.
The rules that stop you breaching
Remember the limit is measured on equity
Floating losses count towards the daily limit in real time. A large open position can breach it before it is ever closed. Size for the worst case, not the entry.
Set a personal stop inside the firm's limit
Half the official limit, if you are prone to revenge trading. The gap between "I should stop" and "I stopped" is where accounts die.
Set a daily profit ceiling too
Very few traders plan a maximum win. A ceiling keeps profit distributed evenly, which protects your payout eligibility later.
Close the platform when the plan is done
Most breaches happen in the minutes after a trader has already decided to stop. Make stopping a mechanical action, not a decision.
The rules that make the pass comfortable
Pace the target, do not sprint it
A 10% target across a 30-day window is roughly 0.33% per day. Framed that way there is no urgency, and urgency is the parent of most bad decisions.
Use the minimum trading days deliberately
FTMO requires a minimum number of trading days per phase, so you cannot pass instantly. Treat the extra sessions as free buffer to build profit evenly.
Trade 0.01 lots for the first sessions
Learn the platform's execution, spread widening and slippage at minimum size. The evaluation cannot be failed by trading too small.
Reduce size after consecutive losses
Invert the revenge instinct. Smaller size after losses is mechanically protective and psychologically calming.
Know your five numbers from memory
Target, daily loss, overall loss, minimum days, verification target. If you cannot recite them, you are not ready to trade the account.
The verification trap
The FTMO verification phase is where a large share of otherwise successful attempts fail, and the reason is psychological rather than technical. After clearing the harder first phase, traders relax. The verification target is smaller, so it feels like a formality — and size creeps up to "get it done".
Verification is a new challenge
The target resets, the loss limits stay the same, and the minimum trading days apply again. Trade it with the same discipline as phase one, at the same position size. The traders who fail verification almost always failed by increasing size, not by trading badly.
News, sessions and timing
News handling is the most common technical question, and the answer has two parts.
- On the evaluation: avoid holding large positions into CPI, NFP or FOMC. Those releases can gap through a stop, breaching the daily limit before the order fills. A 40-pip stop means nothing if the market opens 120 pips away.
- On the funded account: confirm the firm's current news policy, because restrictions sometimes apply differently once funded. Never assume the evaluation policy carries over.
On session timing: trade your own edge's session, not the "best" session. A trader whose setup appears in the London morning should not be forcing New York afternoon trades to feel productive. On an account with a tight daily limit, forced trades are the most expensive thing you can do.
The four-week structure that works
Week 1 — calibration at minimum size
Establish platform familiarity and identify the two or three setups that consistently present themselves. Target a modest gain, not the full daily allowance.
Weeks 2–3 — steady accumulation
Trade the identified setups at a size capped at one third of the daily allowance. Aim for comparable daily gains, roughly 0.3–0.6%, and bank them.
End of week 3 — approach the target
With the target within reach, hold your sizing constant. Resist the urge to accelerate. Check that your best day as a share of total profit is comfortably low.
Week 4 — verification, treated as new
Fresh target, same size, same discipline. Do not increase risk to finish quickly; you have already proven you do not need to.
What "good" sizing actually looks like
A worked example makes the arithmetic concrete. On a $100,000 FTMO account with a 5% daily limit and a 10% target:
| Metric | Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Daily loss allowance | $5,000 | 5% of account |
| Max risk per trade | $1,650 | One third of the allowance |
| Consecutive losses absorbed | 3 | Leaves ~$50 of margin before the limit |
| Daily profit target | $500 – $700 | 0.5–0.7% — no urgency, well distributed |
| Days to reach target | ~15 – 20 | Comfortably inside a typical window |
Nothing in that table requires an edge superior to average. It requires only that the trader accepts a modest daily target and refuses to increase size when it feels safe to do so. That refusal is the entire skill.
If the daily limit keeps beating you
If you have read this and recognised your own pattern — profitable analysis, failure on the daily limit — the honest options are to implement the sizing cap above and try again, or to have the evaluation handled. Our FTMO passing service covers both phases for a flat $220, with retries funded on managed accounts and no profit split. Full rule detail is in the FTMO challenge rules guide.
Frequently asked questions
The FAQ block below covers the most common failure cause, trade frequency, sizing, the verification phase, news rules and realistic timelines. Related reading: FTMO phase 1 and phase 2 strategy and the daily drawdown explainer.
What is the most common reason people fail the FTMO challenge?
Breaching the maximum daily loss. It is the tightest constraint at FTMO, measured on equity including floating losses, and it ends the evaluation immediately regardless of the overall drawdown remaining.
How many trades should I take per day on FTMO?
Fewer than most traders assume. One to three high-quality setups, sized at a fraction of the daily allowance, produces a higher pass rate than constant activity — because every additional trade is additional exposure to the one event that ends the challenge.
Should I use maximum lot size to pass FTMO faster?
No. The target is modest and the daily limit is tight, so speed is not the constraint. Maximum size converts a manageable evaluation into a single-trade gamble against the daily limit.
How do I pass the FTMO verification phase?
Treat it as an entirely new challenge with a fresh target and the same limits. Complacency and increased size after passing phase one are the two most common causes of verification failures.
Can I trade news on FTMO?
FTMO generally permits news trading on the evaluation, but holding large positions through high-impact releases exposes you to gap risk that can jump your stop and breach the daily limit. Confirm the current policy for your account type.
How long should I take to pass FTMO?
Pace the target across the full available window rather than the minimum days. Most disciplined passes take two to four weeks across both phases, which is comfortable and eliminates end-of-window pressure.
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