Source: https://whitepips.com/blog/prop-firm-rules-explained
Summary: Daily Loss Limit, Maximum Loss Limit, exposure, floating loss, consistency, news and weekends: what each rule measures and what crossing it costs.
Last updated: 2026-10-28

# Prop firm rules explained: every limit in one place

Daily Loss Limit, Maximum Loss Limit, exposure, floating loss, consistency, news and weekends: what each rule measures and what crossing it costs.

- September 26, 2026
- 8 min read
- 8 sections
- Risk

**In this article 8**

1. Profit target and profitable days
2. Daily Loss Limit
3. Maximum Loss Limit
4. Max Exposure and Max Floating Loss
5. Consistency rules
6. News trading
7. Weekends, overnight, inactivity and bots
8. Questions traders ask

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September 26, 2026 8 min read Risk

## Key takeaways

1. **Profit target and profitable days.** The target is what you must make, as a share of the starting balance, before an evaluation is passed.
2. **Daily Loss Limit.** The most the account may lose in one trading day, measured from the day's opening balance, which is the previous day's close.
3. **Maximum Loss Limit.** The most the account may ever lose.
4. **Max Exposure and Max Floating Loss.** Max Exposure caps the combined notional value of everything you have open, as a share of the balance.
5. **Consistency rules.** A consistency rule limits how much of the profit may come from one day or one instrument.

Every prop firm rule does one of two jobs: it limits how much you can lose, or it limits how you may trade. The first kind is numerical and automatic. The second kind is about conduct and usually ends with a warning or a review rather than a closed account. Most traders know the first kind by heart and discover the second kind the hard way.

This page lists every rule that applies to a WhitePips account, [CFD](https://whitepips.com/cfds) and [futures](https://whitepips.com/futures) , with what it measures, what breaking it does, and the name the dashboard uses for it. The figures are the published ones for our plans; the shape of each rule is the same at most firms, so the page reads as a general reference too.

The binding text is the [trading rules](https://whitepips.com/legal/trading-rules) and the plan card on your account. Where either differs from anything here, they win.

## Profit target and profitable days

The target is what you must make, as a share of the starting balance, before an evaluation is passed. Edge 1 Step asks for 10% in one phase; Edge 2 Step asks for 7.5% and then 5%, each on a fresh phase. Prime uses the same targets at the $50,000 to $200,000 sizes. Instant plans have no target because there is no evaluation. Futures One Step publishes the target in dollars, $1,200 on a $25,000 account.

Alongside the target sits a count of profitable days: trading days that close at least 0.5% up on CFD plans. Edge 1 Step and Prime 1 Step need three, the 2 Step plans two per phase, and once funded the same count is needed again before each payout. Instant Go needs five before each payout; Instant Pro has none. On a $25,000 futures account a profitable day is $62.50 or more. The rule stops a single lucky trade from passing an account.

There is no time limit on any evaluation. Trading days are unlimited; the only clock is inactivity, covered below.

## Daily Loss Limit

The most the account may lose in one trading day, measured from the day's opening balance, which is the previous day's close. It is measured on equity, so open losses count towards it the moment they appear, not when they are closed. On CFD plans it is 4% on Edge 1 Step, 4.5% on Edge 2 Step, 3.5% on Instant Pro, 3% on Instant Go, 4% on Prime 1 Step and 5% on Prime 2 Step.

On CFD plans the limit is hard: reaching it ends the account, the same as the Maximum Loss Limit. On the futures Instant account it is soft: the $25,000 account has a $500 daily limit, and reaching it stops trading for the rest of the day while the account stays open. Futures One Step has no daily limit at all. The dashboard shows a countdown to the daily reset.

The smaller number is the one to watch. On every CFD plan a single day at the limit ends the account, long before the Maximum Loss Limit is in sight. [The daily loss limit, and the hour it resets](https://whitepips.com/blog/the-daily-loss-limit) goes into why this smaller number ends more accounts than the larger one.

Convert every limit into currency on the size you bought and keep the daily figure in view. On a $50,000 Edge 1 Step the Daily Loss Limit is $2,000 and the Maximum Loss Limit $3,750: two days at the daily limit end the account, so a day at the limit should change the next day's size.

## Maximum Loss Limit

The most the account may ever lose. On every CFD plan it is static and measured from the starting balance: 7.5% on Edge 1 Step, 9% on Edge 2 Step, 7% on Instant Pro, 6% on Instant Go, 8% on Prime 1 Step and 10% on Prime 2 Step. Static means the floor never rises: on a $100,000 Edge 1 Step the account closes at $92,500 of equity whether you are at the start or $9,000 in profit.

On futures the rule has the same name but it trails. One Step trails at the end of each day: the floor follows the account's high as Volumetrica measures it, $1,000 below it on a $25,000 account. Futures Instant trails intraday, $1,250 below the high on $25,000. Trailing floors are the ones that surprise traders who have just had a good run, and [static and trailing, side by side](https://whitepips.com/blog/static-and-trailing-drawdown) shows the difference with figures.

Reaching this limit is a hard breach on every plan. The account is closed.

## Max Exposure and Max Floating Loss

**Max Exposure** caps the combined notional value of everything you have open, as a share of the balance. It is published per account size: $125,000 on a $2,500 account, which is 5,000% of the balance, down to 1,000% of the balance, or $2,000,000, on $200,000. The first breach is a warning; if the account is in profit at that moment, the profit is reset to the starting balance, though profitable days already earned are kept. A second breach closes the account. It applies in the evaluation and once funded.

**Max Floating Loss** limits how far open positions may go against you before you close them yourself. On Instant Pro and Instant Go it is per symbol: all open positions on one instrument may not together float below 1.5% of the starting balance. A floating loss of 1% sends a notice, the first breach of 1.5% is a formal warning, and each later breach is a strike that pays the next payout cycle at a 10% split. On Edge and Prime it applies per trade, once the account is funded; the limit is on the dashboard rule card, and it is warning-based in the same two-warnings way as exposure.

These two are the rules traders forget, because neither shows up in the account's closed profit and loss. A separate post covers [how both are measured and how to stay inside them](https://whitepips.com/blog/max-exposure-and-floating-loss) .

## Consistency rules

A consistency rule limits how much of the profit may come from one day or one instrument. On CFD plans only Instant Pro and Instant Go carry one, called Profit Concentration: one symbol or one trading day may not be too large a share of the profit. Going over it never ends the account; while the share is too high, payouts on that account are paused until it comes back down. Edge has no consistency rule.

Prime has its own version, the Prime Consistency Rule: every seven days, your trade count and your volume per instrument must stay within 25% either side of your averages from the evaluation and your first 30 funded days. With it comes a Quarterly Profit Target: every 90 days, payouts plus the account's profit must reach 5% of the starting balance. Breaking either moves the account to a standard funded account of the same size, without the Prime salary or the 100% split. It is a downgrade, not a closure.

Futures accounts use a share-of-profit rule once funded: 40% on One Step, 20% on Instant. One Step has no consistency rule during the evaluation.

## News trading

On CFD accounts news trading is allowed, in the evaluation and once funded. The one pattern the risk desk reviews is straddling: placing orders both ways around a high-impact release, within 15 minutes either side, to catch the spike whichever way it goes.

Futures are stricter. News is allowed during the One Step evaluation and restricted once funded: no trade may be opened or closed within two minutes of a high-impact release, though a position opened earlier may be held through it. Profit from a trade that breaks this is removed and any loss stays; the first two violations are warnings and a third goes to compliance review. The reasons the funded rule differs are in [news trading, and why the funded rule differs](https://whitepips.com/blog/trading-the-news) .

## Weekends, overnight, inactivity and bots

**Weekend holding** on CFD plans is an add-on costing 20% of the account fee. Without it, positions still open at 4:45 PM New York time on Friday are closed by the system: the first time is warning 1 of 2, the second closes the account. Overnight holding is allowed on every CFD plan; positions held past 5 PM New York pay the symbol's swap, triple on Wednesday, unless the account has the Swap-Free add-on, which is priced per size, from $9 on $2,500 to $146 on $200,000. The two add-ons are separate.

On futures there is no overnight or weekend holding at all: every open position is flattened at 3:55 PM Chicago time, every session.

**Inactivity** ends a CFD account after 30 days without a closed trade and deactivates a futures account after 15 days without trading activity.

**Expert advisors and copy trading** are allowed when they are yours: an EA you built, own, control and can show running; a copier that copies your own trading between your own accounts or from a master account that is genuinely yours, even at another firm. Bought or rented bots, signal services, shared masters, account managers and challenge-passing services are banned on every plan. Consequences are the risk desk's decision, from removing the trades' profit to closing the account. Max lots per trade on CFD and max contracts on futures are capped by the platform, which rejects or reduces orders above them.

## Questions traders ask

**Which rules close the account at once?** Only the Maximum Loss Limit. The Daily Loss Limit stops the day; exposure, floating loss and weekend holding give a warning first; consistency and conduct rules end in a paused or delayed payout, a downgrade or a review.

**Does a warning reset my profit?** On Max Exposure and Max Floating Loss per Trade, yes, if the account is in profit when the warning is issued. Profitable days already earned are kept. A second warning on the same rule closes the account.

**Are the rules the same once I am funded?** The loss limits are. The profitable-days count repeats before each payout, floating loss per trade starts to be measured on Edge and Prime, and on futures the news rule tightens. Your plan card shows the funded column next to the evaluation one.

More in Risk [The consistency rule explained, with examples](https://whitepips.com/blog/consistency-rule-explained) [Drawdown recovery: why a 10% loss needs 11.1% back](https://whitepips.com/blog/drawdown-recovery-maths) [Hedging on a prop account: what is allowed](https://whitepips.com/blog/hedging-on-a-prop-account) [Read next MT5 expert advisors and copy trading on a funded account Risk · 8 min read](https://whitepips.com/blog/expert-advisors-and-copy-trading-on-funded-accounts)

Educational content, not financial advice. Trading carries risk and most people who attempt an evaluation do not pass it. Accounts are simulated; the rules that bind yours are the ones printed on your plan and in the trading rules.

[All articles](https://whitepips.com/blog)

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