FTMO Funded Account Rules: What Changes After You Pass

FTMO funded account rules are, in most respects, the challenge rules with the profit target removed: the daily loss limit and the maximum loss commonly carry over in the same form, while the target and the pressure to reach it go away. What changes is the stake. In the evaluation a breach cost you a fee. On the funded account a breach costs you the account that pays, and the way you trade is commonly reviewed before each payout.

That shift is easy to miss, because the platform looks the same and the numbers on the rule sheet look familiar. The trader who just passed tends to keep playing the old game: push for a number, then relax. The funded stage rewards the opposite, a steady account with a clean record when the payout request goes in.

One caveat applies to everything below. FTMO's rules are commonly structured the way this article describes, but they vary by account type and plan, and they change. Treat this as a map of what to check, then verify every item on ftmo.com and in your own account terms before your first funded trade.

The loss limits are the rules that survive the pass, and they are the ones that close funded accounts. A daily loss limit caps how much the account may lose in one trading day, and a maximum loss caps how far equity may fall in total, measured from the starting balance or from a trailing reference depending on the plan. Both are commonly part of FTMO funded account rules in the same form they took in the challenge.

Take a worked example with round hypothetical figures, not a statement of FTMO's current terms: a $100,000 funded account with a 5 percent daily loss limit and a 10 percent maximum loss fixed to the starting balance. The daily limit is $5,000 and the floor is $90,000. If the account is up $3,000 after a good first week, a fixed floor has not moved. You have $13,000 of room to the maximum loss, but still only $5,000 on any single day.

How the daily figure is measured matters as much as the figure itself. Firms commonly calculate it from the balance or equity at the start of the trading day and count open positions at their floating value, which means an open trade can breach the limit before it is closed. Check exactly how your plan defines the day, the reference value and the timezone, because traders who passed by staying well inside the limit sometimes discover the definition only when they trade closer to it.

If you passed with a large cushion, the habits that protected you are still the right ones. The FTMO verification phase tips that kept your second phase alive, a loss budget smaller than the firm's limit and a hard stop for the day, apply with more force now, not less.

The profit target is the rule that commonly disappears on a funded account, and losing it changes behaviour more than any rule that remains. In the challenge the target was both a goal and a finish line. When you reached it, you stopped. On the funded account there is no finish line, only a payout cycle and an account that has to be alive at the end of it.

That sounds like freedom, and it is, but it creates two quiet problems. The first is drift: without a number to chase, some traders trade more often, in sessions they did not trade before, because nothing tells them to stop. The second is the reverse: a trader who felt the target as pressure now treats the account like a savings book and stops trading altogether, which can conflict with any activity requirement on the plan.

Minimum trading day requirements in the challenge are commonly absent or different on the funded stage, but this is exactly the kind of detail that varies by plan and changes, so confirm it rather than assume it. The useful replacement for the target is a self imposed weekly stop, in profit and in loss, so the account has a rhythm again.

The payout review is the stage where FTMO funded account rules that felt theoretical in the challenge become decisive. A firm commonly reviews the trading behind a payout request before approving it, and that review looks at how the profit was made, not only whether the loss limits held.

This is where many payout disputes start, and it is why the rules worth rereading after you pass are the ones you skimmed before. We cover the common grounds in detail in why prop firms deny payouts. For FTMO specifically, read the prohibited practices section of the terms that apply to your account, since that list is what a reviewer works from.

News and weekend rules on an FTMO funded account are commonly set by the account type, not by a single firm wide policy. FTMO has historically offered a standard and a swing type, with the swing type positioned for traders who want to hold through news and weekends, but the line up and what each type permits can change, so treat that as a starting point, not a rule. The trade off as it has been structured is laid out in FTMO swing vs standard account.

The practical risk is memory. Traders often pass on one account type, buy another later, and carry the old assumptions across. Before your first funded trade, open the terms for the account you actually hold and write down three things: whether trading is restricted around high impact news and in what window, whether positions may stay open over the weekend, and what happens to a position that breaks either rule.

Even where holding is allowed, a weekend gap is a loss limit risk. If the market opens beyond your stop, the fill can land well past the planned loss, and a daily limit measured on floating value does not care that the gap was outside your control. For news, our guide to news trading on a funded account explains how to size and time positions around releases when the rules permit it.

Strategy consistency is the habit of trading the funded account the way you traded the evaluation, and it is the simplest protection against a difficult payout review. A reviewer comparing your evaluation with your funded record is asking one question: is this the same trader with the same approach?

Consistency here is not a percentage rule unless your plan states one, so check whether any consistency or best day requirement applies to your account and how it is measured. It is a practical standard. Keep risk per trade in the same range you used to pass, trade the same instruments and sessions, and keep similar holding times. If you want to change the strategy, change it deliberately, at small size, with a written reason, not in the middle of a drawdown.

The trap is the first losing week. A trader who feels the account slipping often raises size to recover before the payout date, and a sudden jump in size after losses is exactly the behaviour a review notices. A slower month is a better outcome than a fast recovery that gets the payout questioned.

The funded stage is a different game: the challenge rewarded reaching a number, and the funded account rewards staying alive with a clean record. A figure often quoted is that only 1 to 3 percent of funded traders keep the account long term, which says more about the second game than about trading skill.

In practice the shift looks like three changes. Your daily loss budget becomes smaller than the firm's limit, so a bad day ends with room left. Your weekly goal becomes a stop, not a target, so good weeks end early instead of giving profit back. And your payout becomes the measure of success, which means the account has to be clean on the day you request it, not only profitable. The full routine is in how to keep a funded account.

Understanding how the money actually moves helps too. The split, the schedule and the conditions on each request are explained in FTMO payout explained, and reading it before your first request removes most of the surprises traders report at that stage.

Automation on a funded account is useful when it enforces the rules above without discretion, and harmful when it is chosen for speed. If you run an EA, the same review applies to its trades as to yours, so check that its behaviour, size and holding pattern fit your account's terms, and confirm the firm's current position on automated trading on ftmo.com.

PraxAI FUNDED is built for this stage: it trades conservatively once the account is funded, with PraxAI GUARD stepping in before a daily or maximum loss limit is reached rather than at it. It does not change any FTMO rule, it cannot promise a payout, and every firm term still has to be verified by you. For a wider view of the tools traders use, see the best AI trading bots for prop firms in 2026.