How to pass a prop firm challenge
To pass a prop firm challenge you have to reach a profit target without breaking a daily loss limit or a maximum loss, often over a minimum number of trading days and under the firm's news and consistency rules. The target is the part you cannot force. The limits are the part you control, so a plan starts with them.
Below: what each rule measures, the arithmetic of risk per trade, and what 16 firms allow around news, each read on the firm's own help page between 9 October 2026 and 15 October 2026. General education, not advice about your account.
By Mike, who runs MacroSetup. Updated 21 October 2026. We are not affiliated with any prop firm.
In short
- What a challenge measures
- A profit target, a daily loss limit and a maximum loss, usually with a minimum number of trading days
- What ends it
- Breaking a loss limit. Missing the target only means you have not passed yet, unless your programme has a time limit
- News in the evaluation
- No window at 12 of the 16 firms we track, read 9 October 2026 to 15 October 2026
- Five losses in a row
- About 5 percent of the account at 1 percent risk per trade, about 10 percent at 2 percent
- Pass rate
- No reliable public figure, so we do not quote one
- Where MacroSetup fits
- Macro research and the news calendar. No signals, no pass guarantee
What a prop firm challenge measures
Six rules decide a pass, and every firm writes its own version of each. The numbers differ per firm and per programme, so the question next to each rule is what to look up in yours before the first trade.
| Rule | What it means | Look up in your firm's terms |
|---|---|---|
| Profit target | The gain, as a share of the starting balance, you need before a phase counts as passed. A two-step challenge has one per step. | Look up: Does profit made inside a news window count toward it? |
| Daily loss limit | The most the account may lose in one trading day. Breaking it can end the attempt on the spot, whatever the rest of the week brings. | Look up: Is it counted from the day's opening balance or equity, does it include open losses, and when does the day reset? |
| Maximum loss | The most the account may ever lose: from the starting balance, or at some firms from the highest balance reached. | Look up: Is it fixed or does it trail the highest balance? |
| Minimum trading days | How many days you must trade before a pass counts, even when the target is reached sooner. | Look up: What counts as a trading day, and is there a time limit as well? |
| News rules | A window around high-impact releases in which trading is restricted, or in which a trade's profit is cut or does not count. | Look up: Does it apply in the evaluation, or only once funded? |
| Consistency rules | A cap on how much of the total profit one day or one trade may make up. | Look up: Does your programme have one, and how is the share measured? |
Where the news rule reaches the target and the limits
We keep one rule per firm on file: what it allows around news, read on its own help page. For targets, loss limits and trading days your firm's page is the one that counts, and we do not quote them. The news rule, though, often decides whether a profit counts toward the target or whether a deduction breaks a limit. Five examples, in the firms' own terms.
The5ers, High Stakes
A soft breach: profit made in that window is deducted and does not count towards the target. A loss in the same window stays yours.
Read on 9 October 2026
Maven Trading, Standard plans
The window also covers a take profit that fills and the automatic close when you reach the challenge profit target.
Read on 15 October 2026
Goat Funded Trader, Challenge and funded
Allowed in the challenge and once funded, but a trade opened or closed within five minutes either side of high-impact news can make at most 1 percent of the initial balance.
Read on 15 October 2026
FundingPips, Master account
If a deduction pushes the account past the daily or maximum loss limit, that breach is yours.
Read on 9 October 2026
Funded Trading Plus, Risk review
No penalty specific to news. Their risk review at a pass, a scaling request or a withdrawal can forfeit the pass or the profit, lower the leverage, end the account or ban the trader. Their terms list excessive risk taking exacerbated by news events as a prohibited strategy.
Read on 15 October 2026
Position size and risk per trade, worked out
Risk per trade is a share of the account you are willing to lose if the stop is hit. Position size follows from it, the stop distance and what one pip is worth, and from nothing else. Which share you choose is your decision. The arithmetic only shows what each choice leaves you.
The daily loss limit is where it bites. At 1 percent risk, 5 full losses in one day use up a 5 percent daily limit. At 2 percent the third loss of the day takes you past it. A plan that stops for the day after a set number of losses keeps that decision away from the moment you are least fit to make it.
The position size calculator and the pip value calculator do these sums for any pair and account currency, free. What a reward of twice the risk asks of your hit rate is on the risk reward ratio page: a third of your trades, to break even.
An example account
Round numbers for the sums, not any firm's rule. Put your own firm's in.
- Balance
- $10,000
- Profit target
- 8 percent, $800
- Daily loss limit
- 5 percent, $500
- Maximum loss
- 10 percent, $1,000
- Risk per trade
- 1 percent, $100
- Size. A 25 pip stop on EUR/USD, where one standard lot is worth $10 a pip in a dollar account: $100 divided by 25 times $10 is 0.4 lots.
- The day. $500 of room at $100 a loss: 5 full losses in one day use all of it.
- The whole challenge. $1,000 of room: 10 full losses in total, whatever happens in between.
- The target. $800 is 8 times the risk. At a reward of 2 times the risk that is 4 winners with no loser, or 6 winners against 4 losers.
Several open trades share one limit
Three trades at 1 percent each, all against the dollar (long EUR/USD, GBP/USD and AUD/USD), are one bet in three positions. A single US release can take all three to their stops in the same minute, so the daily limit sees 3 percent at risk, not 1. If your firm counts open losses toward the day, the limit can be reached before one stop has filled.
In a release a stop can also fill beyond its level, because there is little to trade against at that moment. Three stops at 1 percent can then cost more than 3 percent together.
The account tracker holds your own challenge rules and shows what is left of the daily loss limit and the maximum loss, and the risk calculator shows how many losing trades in a row they allow at the size you use.
Why news events matter in a challenge
A high-impact release is the one part of the week you can see coming, and the fastest way to reach a daily limit. In the minutes around it spreads widen and stops slip, and at some firms the rules change as well.
In the evaluation most firms leave news alone: 12 of the 16 we track put no window on it. At The5ers, Maven Trading and FXIFY it depends on the programme. At Goat Funded Trader a cap on news profit applies in the challenge too. Once funded the windows run from 2 to 10 minutes either side of a release, so the habit you build while passing is the one a funded account will judge.
The economic calendar has the week's releases for the eight majors, and how to plan a week around the rules goes through it step by step.
Your firm's news rule, in full
Each page has the rule in the firm's own terms, what trips people up, the date we read it and a link to their help page. All 16 side by side.
This week's high-impact releases
5 high-impact releases are scheduled for the eight major currencies this trading week, from our own calendar. Which of them your firm restricts is on its own list, so treat this as the week to plan around.
Monday 19 October
- 14:3013:30 UKCADCanada CPIHigh impact
Tuesday 20 October
- 08:0007:00 UKGBPUK labour marketHigh impact
Wednesday 21 October
- 08:0007:00 UKGBPUK CPIHigh impact
- 23:4522:45 UKNZDNew Zealand CPIHigh impact
Friday 23 October
- 01:3000:30 UKJPYJapan CPIHigh impact
Where MacroSetup fits
MacroSetup is a research desk for the eight major currencies, not a signal service. Members see which currencies the macro favours and why, the central bank behind each, and every high-impact release flagged on the currency and on the pairs that include it, before the session starts.
It does not give entries, stops or targets, it does not promise a pass and it does not promise returns. Everyone sees the same research. Passing a challenge stays your work, and the risk disclosure says plainly what is at stake.
7 days free, no card needed to start.
Questions about passing a challenge
How long does a prop firm challenge take?
As long as it takes to reach the target without breaking a limit, plus whatever minimum number of trading days your programme sets. Some programmes add a time limit and some have none, so read yours. The arithmetic gives a floor: at 1 percent risk and a reward of 2 times the risk, a target of 8 percent needs at least 4 winning trades without a single loss, and 6 winners if 4 trades lose along the way.
What percentage of traders pass a prop firm challenge?
There is no reliable public figure. The numbers that circulate disagree widely, come from firms and software vendors with an interest in them, and count different things: per attempt or per person, one step or two. We have not found one that is independently checked, so we do not quote one.
Can you trade news during a prop firm challenge?
At most of the firms we track, yes: 12 of 16 put no news window on the evaluation. At The5ers, Maven Trading and FXIFY it depends on the programme you buy. At Goat Funded Trader a cap on news profit applies in the challenge too. Once funded the rules tighten, with windows of 2 to 10 minutes either side of a release. Each rule was read on the firm's own help page between 9 October 2026 and 15 October 2026. Every firm's rule side by side
How much should you risk per trade in a prop firm challenge?
That is your decision and your firm's, and nobody should give you a number without knowing your account. What the arithmetic shows is the consequence: with a 5 percent daily loss limit, 5 full losses at 1 percent use all of it in one day, and at 2 percent the third loss of the day takes you past it. Position size calculator
How is the daily loss limit counted?
Differently per firm, which is why it is the first line to read in your terms. Some count from the balance at the start of the day and some from the equity, some include losses on open trades, and the day resets at a time the firm sets. Two trades open on the same currency count against the same limit at the same moment.
Can MacroSetup help me pass a challenge?
It can show you the macro side of the day: which currencies the research favours, the central bank behind each, and the high-impact releases ahead on both currencies of a pair, with the time. It does not give entries, stops or targets, it does not promise a pass and it does not promise returns. Passing stays your work. What it does for prop traders