What is the Instant Funding Challenge? 

What is the Instant Funding Challenge? 

The Instant Funding Challenge gives traders direct access to a Funded Account, without having to pass evaluation phases. Traders must comply with the prohibited trading strategies, trading rules and restrictions; any violations will result in failure of the challenge. The Instant Funding Challenge operates on a profit-sharing model, starting at 80/20, allowing traders to retain a portion of the profits they generate.

Key Features of the Instant Funding Challenge: 

Profit Targets and Drawdowns:

• Do not exceed a Max Total Loss limit of 6%
• Do not exceed a Trailing Drawdown of 3%.
  • The Trailing Drawdown is calculated based on your account's highest equity (balance plus open profit/loss). As your account reaches new highs, the Trailing Drawdown will automatically move up. However, it will never move down as a result of trading losses.
  • If a payout is made, the Trailing Drawdown will be recalculated based on your account balance after the payout has been processed. This means that withdrawn profits are effectively locked in, and the Trailing Drawdown will continue to trail from the new account balance.

Example

• • • A $10,000 account starts with a Trailing Drawdown of $9,700.
    • If the account grows to $12,000, the Trailing Drawdown level increases to $11,640.
    • If the account then declines to $11,700, the Trailing Drawdown remains at $11,640.
    • If a payout of $300 is made, the account balance becomes $11,400 and the Trailing Drawdown is recalculated to $11,058 (3% below the new balance).
    • The Trailing Drawdown is always calculated using the account's highest equity and continues to trail upward as new highs are achieved. There is no lock at the starting balance, and payouts reset the trailing drawdown based on the post-payout account balance.

• No time limits, trade at your own pace. 
• A minimum of 5 trading days is required to be completed to be eligible for payout per payout cycle. 
• Accounts inactive for 30 consecutive days will be terminated. 

Leverage: 

• Forex 1:30
• Metals 1:10 
• Energies 1:10
• Indices 1:10
• Crypto 1:1
• Stocks <1:4

Profit Split and Payouts: 

• Profit-sharing starts at 80%. 
• First payout requests can be made 5 days after your first funded trade. 
• Subsequent payouts can be made every 15 days after your initial payout.

Prohibited Trading Strategies, Trading Rules and Restrictions: 

• The combined value of all active funded accounts cannot exceed $400,000 per trader. 
• No single trading day should contribute more than 20% of the total profits when requesting a payout. If multiple payouts have been made, only the trading activity since the previous payout will be considered when calculating the profit consistency rule. Failure to meet this objective will result in the payout being rejected and the new payout date being extended by 15 days.
• Maximum Risk per Trade: You are not permitted to risk more than 2% of your account balance, calculated using the previous day's End of Day Balance (calculated at 17:00 EST), on any single instrument, regardless of the number of open trades. For ProTradingCult accounts, the previous day's end-of-day balance is defined based on UTC time (00:00 – 00:00 UTC). The previous day's End of Day Balance can be found in the Max Daily Loss infographic in the Goals Overview section of the Overview Tab, relative to the specific account you are viewing in the client area.

For example, if your previous day's End of Day Balance (17:00 EST) is $50,000, the maximum allowable risk per instrument is $1,000.

Prohibited Trading Strategies include: 

• Holding Shares during Earnings: Holding a Single Share Equity CFD position into an earnings release pertaining to that underlying equity.  To avoid being in breach of this rule, you must close all such Single Share Equity CFD positions by 3:50 pm Eastern Time on the day of the release, if an aftermarket release, or on the preceding day, if a before market open release. 
• Arbitrage and Latency: Using price differences or delays across platforms or data feeds to gain unfair profits is prohibited.
• System Exploits: Taking advantage of platform bugs, freezes, or server issues is forbidden. Report any technical problems to support.
• Hedging between accounts or profiles: Whether independently or in collaboration with others, as well as internal hedging (placing opposing positions on the same instrument within a single account), is strictly prohibited.
• High-Frequency Trading (HFT) and Tick Scalping: Strategies that place trades in rapid succession or aim to profit from very small price movements are not allowed.
• Sharing accounts: Giving someone else access to trade on your account, or managing another person’s account, is strictly prohibited.
• ALL in 1 Bet: Trying to reach the profit target with a single trade is not allowed as it does not demonstrate consistent trading behaviour. This rule applies to any trade where the profit generated from one position is equal to or exceeds the account’s profit target. 
• Automated Trading (EAs, Bots, Algorithms): Use of any automated system, including Expert Advisors or bots, is not permitted. All trades must be placed manually.
• Copy Trading & Reverse Copy Trading: Mimicking trades from another account or using account management services is prohibited. All trading must be done independently.
• News Trading: Opening or closing trades within the restricted 10-minute window (5 minutes before and 5 minutes after any high-impact news event shown on our Economic Calendar) is strictly prohibited. You may hold existing positions during this time, but if a trade closes within the window, whether by Take Profit, Stop Loss, or manual action, it will still count as news trading. Any trade that opens or closes inside the restricted timeframe will be treated as a breach and will cause the Instant Funding Challenge to fail.
  • Trading Gold (XAUUSD) during any high-impact economic news release from the European Union (including member states) or G7 countries (United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom) will result in a breach.
  • Trading during any US high-impact news event will result in a breach across all instruments, including Forex, Metals, Indices, Stocks, and Crypto.
  • Trading stock indices during high-impact news related to the country or region of the index may result in a breach. For example, trading a European index during high-impact European or relevant national news events, or trading any index during high-impact US news, will result in a violation.
  • For currency pairs, trading during high-impact news related to either currency in the pair will result in a breach. For example, trading CADJPY during CAD or JPY news will result in a violation.
• Inadequate Risk Management, Exploitation of Statistical Vulnerabilities, and Gambling-like behaviour: Trading strategies that involve poor risk management, gambling-like behaviour, or exploitation of statistical weaknesses are strictly prohibited. This includes but is not limited to:
  • Excessive Risk-Taking: Taking on large, unjustified exposure in trades.
  • All-In Trading: Committing a large portion or all of your capital in a single trade.
  • Improper Use of Leverage: Over-leveraging by risking too much across one or several trades in the same direction.
  • Inconsistent Strategies: Trading without a clear, repeatable approach within one or multiple accounts.
  • Account Rolling: Continuously buying multiple evaluation challenges and trading recklessly to bypass rules.
  • Binary Event Trading: Frequently placing trades immediately before major news releases to exploit volatility.

Failure to comply with these rules may result in the account being breached, the challenge being failed, and any profits becoming null and void.