The 6 Core Rules

• Rule 1: Hit Your Profit Target

For each account size at Take Profit Trader there is a defined profit target. By referencing the table below, you can find the profit target for each account size.

• Rule 2: Do Not Exceed Maximum Position Size

Just like Rule #1 this rule is straightforward. Your maximum position size is a static number of contracts, depending on what size account you choose to trade. 

Futures

• Rule 3: Do Not Hit Daily Loss Limit

Risk management is key to being a successful trader. Traders ability to not exceed a daily loss limit is one of our key risk management parameters. Here are the daily loss limits for each account size, added to the table from Rule #2
Daily loss limit applies to unrealized losses. This means your positions will in most cases be closed by the system if the loss limit has been reached (even with an open position). Breaking the daily loss limit will lead to immediate account liquidation for the trader.

Futures

Please note that you need to keep track of your commissions. For Rithmic accounts, there is a column in RTrader Pro that will give you the value of your total daily commissions in real time.

Commissions for all products amount to $5 per round trip per contract, while Micros incur a commission of $0.50 per round trip per contract. It’s important to note that these commissions are not imposed by a third party; rather, they are established and regulated by TakeProfitTrader. Commissions are integral to live trading, and as such, we strive for uniformity in our traders’ requirements when engaging in trading activities within the SIM environment. These commission rates are applicable to both test and PRO accounts.

• Rule 4: Do Not Hit the End-Of-Day (EOD) Maximum Trailing Drawdown

The most common risk management error we see is a failure of EOD trailing drawdown. The good news is that we have simplified this rule for test accounts to be calculated at the end of the day, instead of in the middle of each trade. 

Included in the table is the value for EOD trailing drawdown, and below you will see a diagram to explain a visual of how EOD trailing drawdown works.

Futures

• Rule 5: Trade Approved Products, During Approved Hours

Approved Products:

For futures, most products on the CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX are permitted. If there is something that you would like to trade and the order is getting rejected, please let us know. You can find the list of permitted products here.

Approved Times:

As a general rule, we do not allow a position to be held from one day to the next. This means that every position can only be open during the following hours:

Futures: 6PM Eastern – 5PM Eastern. We define the end of the trading day to be 5PM Eastern time. Any position held past 5PM Eastern will result in an automatic failure of test and loss of account.

Positions can be re-opened at 6 PM eastern time and held into the next day, but anything opened at 6 PM eastern time or later will count as a trade for the following day. 

It’s also important to ALWAYS be aware of what time your asset stops trading. If your asset stops trading and you get “stuck” in a trade because the market is closed, you will not be able to exit the trade before the 5PM deadline and this will result in liquidation of your account.

*Market hours may vary due to Holidays and it is the trader’s responsibility to be aware of such variations. Failure to do so will result in liquidation of the account.

• Rule 6: Be Consistent

1. Number of Days

In order to prove that you can make money and manage risk, we ask that you show us trades over a MINIMUM 5 trading days. A trading day is defined as any trading day in which you have executed at least one trade.

Please note, your test can take as long as you would like, but must meet the minimum number of days to be approved. If you reach the profit target in 2 days, you need to still trade 3 more days to show you can manage risk.

We know this rule can be frustrating, but simply trading and getting lucky for a few days is not enough to prove that you’re capable of managing funds.

2. Percentage of Profits

Anybody can get lucky. In order to combat our trading test to be treated like a lottery ticket, we ask that one trading day doesn’t exceed more than 50% of your total profits. This one is pretty simple to follow. See formula below:

Your highest profit day / Total profit = Consistency percentage

Example: 

50K account with a 3K profit target. 

One trading day you make $2,000. The rest of the days you make a combined $1,100. 

If we use our formula we see that  $2,000/$3,100 = 65%

This number needs to be less than 50% to be eligible for a pro account. If you are in this situation, you would need to make another $901 to get below the threshold. 

$2,000/$4,001 = under 50%