The rules they do not put on the pricing page
48 terms across 15 firms that can cost you an account or a payout after you have paid — 28 of them close the account outright. Every one is quoted from the firm’s own pages, with a link to where we read it.
Risk per trade
Caps on what one trade — or one trade idea — may lose.
Positions on the same pair are assessed together
Multiple positions open at once on the same instrument in the same direction are treated as one trade idea, and their floating AND realised losses are combined. Their own example: three EURUSD buys losing $300, $200 and $250 on a $25K account with a 3% limit reach the $750 cap and breach — even though one position is still open and none individually came close.
A winning trade does not offset a losing one
Within a single trade idea, profit on one position does not reduce the loss assessed on another. Each trade idea is measured on its losses only. Hedging inside the same idea therefore does not protect you from the limit.
The risk limit depends on your model and account size
Risk Per Trade Idea does not apply to every plan. On 2 Step Flex it is 3% at $25K and 2% above $25K, and does not apply below $25K. On Zero it is 3% below $50K and 2% at $50K and above. It does not apply at all to 1 Step Flex, 2 Step Standard or 2 Step Pro. The rule you read may not be the rule on the plan you bought.
Risk is judged per trade idea, and judged by a person
FTMO recommends keeping risk to about 1% per trade idea, with roughly 1–1.5% of the initial balance as the maximum it advises. This is guidance rather than an automatic cut-off — there is no threshold that closes the account by itself. What matters is that FTMO monitors activity and can intervene where it judges the behaviour excessive or gambling-like, and that it assesses a trade IDEA rather than individual tickets. Splitting one oversized bet across several positions does not make it several small ones.
This list is only as complete as our reading. 15 of the 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 every firm we track.