FTMO Challenge 1-Step $100K vs FTMO Challenge 2-Step $100K

A daily loss limit caps how much an account may lose within a single trading day. It is the rule that ends the largest share of evaluations, usually before the overall loss rule is ever approached. The limit is expressed as a share of account size, but what matters more than its size is the reference point it is measured against. Two conventions are common. In the first, the limit is anchored to the balance recorded at the start of the trading day, so intraday gains do not raise the allowance and intraday losses do not lower it until the next day begins. In the second, it is anchored to the highest equity reached during the day, meaning an unrealised profit that is later given back consumes part of the allowance even if the account never falls below where it opened. The same sequence of trades can pass under one convention and breach under the other. Full explanation →

A minimum trading day requirement sets a floor on the number of separate sessions in which activity must occur before an evaluation can be marked as passed. It exists because a profit target can, in principle, be reached by one oversized position held through one favourable move. That outcome tells the firm nothing about how a trader sizes, exits or repeats decisions. By forcing activity to be spread across distinct sessions, the condition converts the test from a single event into a sequence, which is what the firm claims to be measuring. Full explanation →

An evaluation is a simulated test of whether a participant can reach a stated gain on a demo balance without breaching the loss limits attached to that balance. The structure exists because the firm cannot observe the participant's method directly; it can only observe outcomes against fixed constraints. A phase is therefore a bounded window in which two things are measured at once: whether the profit target is met, and whether the daily and overall drawdown limits stay intact throughout. A phase ends in one of three ways — target reached, limit breached, or, where a time constraint applies, the window closes. Full explanation →

A payout cycle is the interval that must elapse between the points at which a participant on a simulated funded account may request payment of their agreed share of the account's recorded gains. It is a structural term, not an administrative detail: two offers with identical profit splits can differ substantially in how frequently that split is actually accessible, and the cycle length interacts with every other rule, because a longer interval means more trading days during which a breach can end the account before any request becomes possible. Full explanation →