FTMO rules: the 2-Step rulebook in cash

What the static floor actually buys you

The maximum loss is fixed at 10% below the starting balance. It does not follow the peak, so a $6,000 gain does not tighten the room by $6,000 — the floor is still at $90,000 whatever the equity does. That is the single most forgiving structural feature a rulebook can have, and it is the reason a trader who struggles on trailing accounts can often pass here with the same strategy.

It also changes how the final stretch should be traded. On a trailing account, profit is dangerous because it raises the floor; on a static account, profit is simply progress. The correct behaviour near the end of a phase is therefore different: on a static plan you can keep normal size, while on a trailing plan the last twenty percent of the target is the point at which size must be cut hardest.

Which rule actually ends FTMO attempts

The daily limit, not the target. Five percent a day is generous until a session goes wrong, and the failure mode is familiar: two losses at 1.5% each, then a size increase to recover, and the third trade ends the day. At $100,000 the whole daily budget is $5,000, and a third of it — about $1,667 — is the most any single trade should risk if the session is to survive three consecutive losses.

The four-day minimum is the second constraint, and it is underrated. A phase target reached inside two sessions leaves the evaluation open with the profit exposed to the same daily limit, so the job after the target is protecting a pass rather than producing one. Traders who have never looked at the calendar discover this on the day the target is hit.

What to confirm before you pay

• 2-Step or 1-Step. The 1-Step adds a consistency clause that the 2-Step does not have; the target and loss figures differ too. Buy the plan whose rulebook you have actually read.
• Daily measurement basis. Confirm whether the 5% is measured on equity including floating positions or on closed balance, and when the day resets. The two conventions produce materially different room.
• The third-party trading clause. Whether a service may trade the evaluation is a separate question from the rules above, and it decides whether a passed account can ever pay out.
• Restricted periods. Confirm the news and holding policy on the specific plan, because those clauses remove sessions from the calendar rather than adding risk to a trade.

How a pass is planned against these numbers

The order is: daily budget first, position size second, target last. A $5,000 daily budget split into three losses gives roughly $1,667 a trade; at a 20-pip stop that is a defined position size rather than a chosen one, which is what the position size calculator converts. The $10,000 phase-one target then needs six full-risk winners or, more realistically, a smaller size over more sessions with the four-day minimum in mind.

If you would rather read how an evaluation is actually traded day by day, that is what a passing service does, and it is worth reading the FTMO review for the funded-phase side this page deliberately leaves out.

Frequently asked

Is there a consistency rule on the FTMO 2-Step?

None at evaluation on the 2-Step as published. The 1-Step carries a consistency term, which is why the plan name matters more than the brand — the same firm sells two different rulebooks.

Does the maximum loss move as I profit?

No. The 2-Step maximum loss is static, measured from the starting balance. A gain does not raise the failure level, so profit does not reduce your remaining room — unlike a trailing account, where the floor rises with the peak.

What happens if I hit the target before four days?

The phase continues until the minimum day count is met. That period is spent protecting the result rather than producing it: the daily limit is still live, so a large position after the target can still end the attempt.

Can I pass FTMO with a service?

Only if the firm's terms permit third-party trading, which you must confirm for your own account. We check the clause in writing before accepting a job and decline where it is prohibited — see the risk disclosure.