Evaluation Rules & Trading Policy – EdgeProp Help Center

Evaluation Rules & Trading Policy

EdgeProp Help Center • Trading Rules

This guide explains the core rules and requirements for EdgeProp evaluation accounts. Understanding these policies will help you successfully navigate the evaluation process and qualify for funded trading.

What is the Evaluation Program?

The EdgeProp evaluation is a professional qualification process designed to assess your trading discipline, risk management, and execution quality. It's not a contest or game—it's a structured assessment to verify you can consistently manage risk and trade with institutional standards.

The evaluation verifies that you can:

Control downside risk without external intervention
Respect predefined risk parameters consistently
Demonstrate a repeatable trading process
Operate within professional execution standards
Comply with monitoring and compliance requirements

Understanding Key Terms

Account Balance vs Account Equity

Account Balance is your starting capital adjusted for closed profits/losses and fees.

Account Equity is your Account Balance plus any unrealized profit/loss from open positions.

Important: Both are calculated at end-of-day (EOD), not during the trading session.

Peak Equity

Peak Equity is the highest end-of-day Account Equity your account has achieved since activation. Once a new peak is set, it never decreases—even if your account value drops later.

Example: If your account reaches $52,000 at end-of-day, that $52,000 becomes your Peak Equity permanently, even if the account later falls to $50,000.

Trailing Drawdown Threshold

This is the minimum Account Equity level you must maintain throughout the evaluation. It's calculated using this formula:

Trailing Drawdown Threshold = Peak Equity − Drawdown Distance

The Drawdown Distance is a fixed dollar amount set for your account size (e.g., $2,500 for a $50K account).

How the Trailing Mechanism Works:

Your threshold starts at: Starting Balance − Drawdown Distance
When your Peak Equity increases at EOD, your threshold moves up automatically
The threshold never moves down, even if you lose money
If your EOD equity touches or falls below the threshold, you fail the evaluation

Practical Example: You have a $50,000 account with a $2,500 Drawdown Distance. On Day 1, your threshold is $47,500. By Day 5, you've grown to $52,000—your threshold now moves to $49,500. On Day 7, even though your account drops to $51,000, your threshold stays at $49,500. If your account ever drops to $49,500 or below at end-of-day, you fail.

This "trailing" system protects your gains by raising the minimum allowed equity as you profit, preventing you from giving back too much of your progress.

Maximum Position Size

This is the total number of futures contracts you can hold open at once across all instruments. It's not per-instrument—it's your total position limit.

Example: With a 10-contract limit, you can hold 6 ES + 4 NQ (total 10), but not 6 ES + 6 NQ (total 12).

Valid Trading Day

A day counts as valid when you:

Open and close at least one position during market hours
Generate non-zero realized profit or loss
Conduct genuine trading (not artificial activity just to meet requirements)

Profit Target

The minimum closed profit required to complete your evaluation. Only realized gains from closed positions count—unrealized profits don't contribute to this target.

Requirements to Pass the Evaluation

To successfully complete your evaluation, you must satisfy all of these requirements simultaneously:

Profit Target: Achieve the required profit on closed trades
Drawdown Compliance: Never touch or breach your Trailing Drawdown Threshold at EOD
Minimum Trading Days: Complete at least 7 Valid Trading Days
Position Size: Never exceed your Maximum Position Size
End-of-Day Flat: Close all positions and cancel all orders before market close
No Rule Violations: Follow all trading restrictions (especially news trading)

Critical: Failing any single requirement results in evaluation failure, regardless of your profits or other achievements.

Trailing Drawdown: What You Need to Know

Your Trailing Drawdown Threshold is checked at the end of each trading day
The threshold moves UP when you make money (new Peak Equity) but NEVER moves down
A violation occurs if your end-of-day Account Equity is at or below the threshold
Once you violate the threshold, the evaluation fails immediately—no recovery period

Key Insight: Unrealized profits increase your Peak Equity. If you have open positions showing gains at end-of-day, those unrealized gains will raise your Peak Equity and your threshold, even if you close those positions the next day at a lower profit or a loss.

Profit Target & Completion

Only realized profits from closed positions count toward your Profit Target. Open positions with unrealized gains don't contribute until you close them.

Meeting all numerical requirements doesn't automatically guarantee funding. EdgeProp conducts a detailed audit and reserves the right to:

Review your complete trading activity and patterns
Decline funding if risk concerns or compliance issues exist
Offer alternative arrangements or request re-evaluation

You must wait for formal written approval from EdgeProp before your evaluation is considered officially complete.

Trading Hours & Daily Requirements

Trading Hours:

You may only trade during official exchange hours
You're responsible for knowing the correct trading schedule for your instruments

End-of-Day Requirements:

You must close all positions and cancel all orders before market close every day
Holding positions or orders beyond close time is a rule violation
On holidays or shortened trading days, be flat by the adjusted close time

Contract Rollover:

During rollover periods, expect wider spreads, gaps, and slippage
These are normal market conditions and not grounds for trade adjustments

Position Size Rules

Your Maximum Position Size applies to the total of all open contracts across all instruments
You can trade any size from 1 contract up to your maximum
Exceeding your position size is a violation regardless of profitability or how briefly you held the excess
Multi-leg strategies and hedged positions count toward the same aggregate limit unless you have written authorization from EdgeProp

News Trading Prohibition

Trading during scheduled high-impact economic news releases is strictly prohibited.

The 5-Minute Rule

For each high-impact news event, you must:

Be completely flat (no open positions, no pending orders) at least 5 minutes BEFORE the scheduled release
Remain flat until at least 5 minutes AFTER the release occurs

What Counts as High-Impact News?

All Tier 1 macroeconomic events, including:

FOMC decisions and interest rate announcements
Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP)
Consumer Price Index (CPI), Producer Price Index (PPI), Core CPI
GDP releases
Major central bank announcements and press conferences

The complete and up-to-date event list is available in your trading platform calendar. You're responsible for checking this calendar regularly.

Consequences: Violating the news trading rule results in immediate evaluation failure. Any profits generated during the prohibited window may be voided. There are no exceptions for unintentional violations or unawareness of events.

EdgeProp does not provide individual reminders about upcoming news events. Monitoring the calendar is your responsibility.

Monitoring & Audit Process

When you participate in an evaluation, you consent to comprehensive electronic monitoring of all your trading activity. This monitoring is used for risk management, compliance verification, and operational purposes.

Completion Audit

When you reach your Profit Target and appear to meet all other requirements, EdgeProp conducts a detailed audit that may take several business days. During this period:

Your account may be suspended from further trading
EdgeProp reviews all trades, patterns, and compliance factors
Funding is not guaranteed until the audit is complete and formally approved

Investigation Suspensions

EdgeProp may suspend your account at any time to investigate potential rule violations or technical issues. You must cooperate fully with all audit and investigation requests.

What Causes Evaluation Failure?

Your evaluation fails immediately if:

Your end-of-day Account Equity touches or falls below your Trailing Drawdown Threshold
You exceed your Maximum Position Size at any point
You hold positions or orders past the required market close time
You trade during prohibited news event windows
EdgeProp determines your trading behavior is incompatible with funding standards

Reset Option

If your evaluation fails, you may be able to reset by paying the reset fee (subject to EdgeProp approval):

A reset restores your starting balance and initial threshold
All previous progress is cleared—each evaluation is completely independent
EdgeProp may decline resets in cases of serious misconduct or abuse

Professional Conduct Expectations

You're expected to trade as if you're managing real firm capital with professional standards:

Use consistent, professional risk management techniques
Avoid reckless sizing or "all-in" trading behavior
Scale positions appropriately to market conditions and volatility
Follow a documented and repeatable trading strategy
Respond professionally to EdgeProp communications and requests

Prohibited Activities

EdgeProp has zero tolerance for:

System abuse or attempts to game the evaluation
Coordinating with other participants to share information
Using multiple accounts improperly
Unauthorized automated trading systems or bots
Sharing your account credentials with anyone

Any abuse or gaming behavior results in immediate termination and permanent disqualification from all EdgeProp programs.

Additional Important Information

EdgeProp may amend evaluation rules at any time. The version active when you start your evaluation applies to your account
These rules supersede any conflicting information in marketing materials or platform interface text
EdgeProp's interpretation of any ambiguous rule or situation is final and binding
Failure by EdgeProp to enforce a rule in one instance doesn't prevent enforcement later

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