What an EA rule covers
An EA rule answers three questions. May a program place trades on the account at all? Which strategies are banned, whether a program or a person runs them? And does the EA have to be yours, or may it be one many traders bought? The strategies firms ban sit on similar lists:
- High-frequency trading: many trades in short bursts, where the result rests on speed rather than a strategy.
- Arbitrage: trading on a delay in a price feed, or on a price difference between brokers or markets.
- Martingale and grid: raising size after a loss, or a ladder of positions that harvests small moves.
- Someone else trading the account: an account manager, a signal group, or a service that runs its EA on your account for you.
How named firms state it
| Firm | EAs | Limits the firm names |
|---|---|---|
| FundedTick | Trade managers allowed; an EA that trades by its own strategy once support approves it. Every plan, evaluation and funded | The closed prohibited list; the same rules as a trade placed by hand |
| FTMO (opens the firm’s page in a new tab) | Allowed | No one else may trade for you; no tools that exploit price delays; over 2,000 server requests a day counts as hyperactivity; a third-party EA can be a reason to refuse the funded account |
| FundingPips (opens the firm’s page in a new tab) | Your own EA, with its source code as proof | A bought EA only as a trade or risk manager; no HFT, latency arbitrage, tick scalping or copying between traders |
| FundedNext · Stellar (opens the firm’s page in a new tab) | A paid add-on on accounts under $50,000, MT4 and MT5 | Manual trading only from $50,000; no EAs built to pass prop challenges |
| The5ers (opens the firm’s page in a new tab) | Allowed; you must own the source code | No HFT, tick scalping, arbitrage or copying signals; a bought EA whose trades other traders hold counts as copy trading |
| Blue Guardian · 2 Step Standard (opens the firm’s page in a new tab) | Allowed, set up to your own strategy | Trades held under 2 minutes can be treated as tick scalping; copy trading only between your own accounts |
| Alpha Capital (opens the firm’s page in a new tab) | Only for risk management and trade assistance, MT5, approved in advance | Fully automated EAs and bought bots banned; the same EA placing identical trades for several traders breaches the group trading rule |
| FXIFY · 1, 2 and 3 Phase (opens the firm’s page in a new tab) | Allowed once support approves the EA | Not allowed on Instant Funding or Lightning |
| Maven (opens the firm’s page in a new tab) | Not allowed | On every Maven platform |
Read from each firm’s own rule, help or pricing page on the date at the top of this guide. Firms change these terms; check the linked page before you buy.
What an EA has to respect on our accounts
Every rule is measured on the account, not on who placed the trade. Four matter most to a program that trades without you watching:
| Rule | What it means for an EA |
|---|---|
| Daily and total drawdown | Measured on equity on every tick, open positions included. On a $10,000 2-Step account the floors start at $9,400 (daily) and $9,000 (total). |
| Max floating risk | 2-Step only: open loss across every position at once is capped at 2% of the balance, $200 on $10,000. An EA that stacks positions reaches it faster. |
| 30 seconds minimum | Profit from a trade closed in under 30 seconds does not count toward a target or a payout. It is not a breach. |
| Prohibited practices | High-frequency bursts, martingale and grid, arbitrage of feeds or brokers, gap trading and double-sided bracket orders are prohibited, run by a program or by hand. |
Worked example · 2-Step $10,000, max floating risk 2% ($200)
5 positions × 0.5 lots EURUSD = 2.5 lots
2.5 lots × $10 a pip = $25 a pip
$200 ÷ $25 = 8 pips against all 5 at once
The same EA holding one position of 0.5 lots has 40 pips of room before the cap. The cap counts what is open together, so check how many positions your EA can hold at the same time before you run it on a 2-Step account. The 1-Step has no floating-risk rule; its tighter floors (2% daily, 5% total) do that job.
Your own EA, or one you bought
Our terms allow automated tools that place trades under your own strategy, and say they do not change who is responsible for the account. A trade manager (an EA that sizes lots, moves a stop or closes at a set loss) needs nothing from us. An EA that opens and closes trades by its own strategy, written or bought, needs our support team’s approval before you run it: send it through chat or a ticket. Two lines of the prohibited list draw the outer edge: the account must not be traded or managed by a third party, and trades must not be coordinated, mirrored or shared with other people.
| Setup | Our rule |
|---|---|
| A trade manager: sizes lots, moves stops, closes at a set loss | Allowed |
| An EA that opens and closes trades by its own strategy, written or bought | Allowed once support approves it |
| A trade copier from your own personal account | Allowed |
| A service or account manager that runs its EA on your account for you | Not allowed |
| The same trades shared or mirrored across a group of traders | Not allowed (group trading) |
An EA sold to many traders places the same trades on many accounts at the same moments. If your account’s trades match other traders’ trades that closely, support can ask you about it before a payout.
Our rule
The rule
Trade-manager EAs are allowed on every plan and every size, evaluation and funded, on MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. An EA that opens and closes trades by its own strategy is allowed once our support team has approved it; ask before you run it. Either way, the rules do not change for a program: the same floors, the same 2% floating-risk cap on the 2-Step, the same 30 seconds rule and the same closed list of prohibited practices. If a practice is not on that list, it is not prohibited.
Trade under these rules
One-time fee, refunded in full with your first payout.
| Account | 1-Step | 2-Step |
|---|---|---|
| Rules | Target 10%Drawdown 2% daily, 5% total | Target 5% → 10%Drawdown 6% daily, 10% total |
| $1K | $9 | $13 |
| $2K | $16 | $19 |
| $3K | $23 | $29 |
| $5KRecommended | $39 | $49 |
| $10K | $59 | $79 |
Your first challenge is 25% off with code NEW at checkout.
1-Step or 2-Step: how they differ