Prop firm hedging and exposure rules
Limits on position size, how many trades can be open at once and whether you can hedge, including across two accounts at the same firm. Breaking them can void profit or close every account involved. Every rule below is quoted from the firm’s own pages, with a link to where we read it.
What can this rule do to you?
Kind of rule
Exposure
Position size, hedging and how much may be open at once.
Opposite positions across accounts count as manipulation
Acting alone or with others, including across multiple accounts or identities, to place trades aimed at manipulating trading circumstances. Their example is simultaneously entering opposite positions, is a breach. This catches the common tactic of hedging one account against another to guarantee that one of them passes.
On Zero, holding over the weekend breaches the account
The Zero model forbids holding trades over the weekend, and their objectives page states plainly that the account will be breached. Every other Funding Pips model allows overnight and weekend holding, so this is a property of the product you bought rather than a house rule.
Anything open at Friday close ends the account
Since 29 January 2026 no funded account may hold over the weekend, and open trades are closed automatically at Friday market close. Leaving any position open into the weekend is immediate termination, whatever the instrument. Crypto is not an exception, despite trading through the weekend everywhere else.
Splitting a trade does not split the risk
A trade idea means a single trade, or several positions on the same instrument in the same direction, or any position opened within 10 minutes of closing a losing one. They are counted as one. Scaling into a position or re-entering after a stop is measured as a single exposure, so the obvious way round the risk cap is closed.
Hedging across firms and platforms is prohibited
Hedging between two of your own accounts, between different prop firms, or across trading platforms is barred, as is hedging via copy trading. So are exploiting platform delays or service errors, external or delayed data feeds, coordinated multi-account trading, automated or high-speed tools, overleveraging, one-sided bets, account rolling, grid trading, arbitrage, tick scalping and HFT.
Exceeding the progression ladder size is an instant fail
The maximum position size is a hard fail rule on evaluations and on funded accounts. One order above the allowed size ends the account.
No hedging across your funded accounts
Holding opposite positions across two or more of your own funded accounts is banned in any form. It is one of the funded rules that risk termination of the account.
No more than two positions per instrument and no averaging down
You cannot hold more than two open positions on one instrument or add to a trade that is already losing, including grid and martingale. It is a soft breach in the challenge but a hard breach on funded and instant accounts.
Forex lot sizes are capped per trade once funded
On instant and funded accounts each forex trade is capped by account size, from 0.2 lots at $2,500 to 6 lots at $100,000 and 10 lots at $200,000. Going over it can disqualify the account. Evaluation phases are exempt.
Quick Strike: trades under 30 seconds capped at 30% of profit
Positions closed in under 30 seconds are watched. If they account for 30% or more of your total profit the rule is breached: on a Challenge account progression is frozen; on a Funded account 100% of profit is forfeited and the account may be terminated. A scalper can pass, get paid nothing, and lose the account for trading the way they always have.
One-sided betting and grid trading are prohibited
Concentrated directional exposure, stacking trades the same way, or reactive entries without regard to conditions, news or analysis, is barred as gambling-like. So is grid trading, meaning layered buy and sell orders above and below price to harvest fluctuation.
A long list of strategies can quietly cost you leverage
Gap trading, high-frequency trading, server spamming, latency arbitrage, hedging, long-short and reverse arbitrage, server execution, toxic flow, tick scalping, churning and opposite-account trading are all prohibited. The response is graduated rather than binary: reduced leverage, fewer trades a day, a lot-size cap, tighter loss limits, a forced 1% risk limit, or a ban from the firm.
Using over 80% of margin on one position loses the profit
A single trade or position may not use more than 80% of available margin. Profit from a trade that breaks this is deducted and repeat cases can lead to a reset or breach.
LucidFlex funded contract limit starts low and updates at end of day
Funded LucidFlex accounts start with part of the max size and unlock more contracts only as end of day profit grows. Getting around the limit can wipe that day's profit.
Uneven risk across your own accounts voids profit
Trading the same idea on several accounts while putting much bigger risk on one of them counts as risk manipulation. Pipstone can void profits, reject payouts and close the related accounts.
Ten lots is the ceiling on any single position
There is no overall lot limit on the account, but "our provider has implemented a maximum limit of 10 lots per open position as part of risk management measures. You may open multiple positions, but each individual position cannot exceed 10 lots." It is a platform limit rather than a rule that breaches you, so on a large account it shapes how a position has to be built rather than whether it is allowed.
Same strategy over $400,000 across accounts can be suspended
Total capital across all accounts is limited to $400,000 per trader or strategy before scaling. If identically traded strategies exceed it FTMO can suspend the accounts and third-party EA users can be refused an FTMO Account.
Adding to a losing trade is capped
When a trade moves against you the terms allow at most four open entries in total. The same terms also say only one extra position at a worse price is allowed and its lot size cannot exceed the first trade.
Futures: the funded contract limit starts lower than the evaluation
A funded FTMO Futures account starts at 2, 4 or 6 contracts for 50K, 100K or 150K, not the 5, 10 or 15 you traded in the evaluation. The limit only rises with end-of-day profit and drops back the next day if the balance falls.
No more than 2 positions in the same direction per instrument
Only 2 aligned positions on one instrument may be open at a time. Accounts that break this are dealt with at the firm's discretion.
This list is only as complete as our reading. 33 of the 83 firms we track have been through a rulebook pass; the rest are still to do, and a firm missing from here has not been cleared. It has not been checked. See which firms are next.