FTMO rules for EA traders: every limit, verified.
Most “FTMO rules” articles recycle numbers from 2023. We pulled every figure below from FTMO's own Trading Objectives and FAQ pages on July 20, 2026 — including the newer 1-Step model (3% daily loss, trailing max loss) and the Best Day consistency rule most posts miss — and mapped each rule to how you should configure an automated TradingView → MT5 setup so a robot never costs you the account.
The rules at a glance (source: ftmo.com, Jul 20, 2026)
| Rule | 2-Step (classic) | 1-Step |
|---|---|---|
| Profit target | 10% Challenge, 5% Verification | 10% |
| Max Daily Loss | 5% of initial capital | 3% of initial capital |
| Max Loss | 10%, static | 10%, trailing (recalculated end of day; resets on withdrawal) |
| Daily reset | 00:00 CE(S)T, measured on equity (balance + floating P/L, swaps and commissions included) | |
| Min trading days | 4 (per phase) | None |
| Best Day Rule | Your best day must not exceed 50% of your total positive days' profit | |
| EAs allowed | Yes — discretionary, algorithmic and EA trading are all permitted (with caveats below) | |
| News window | Funded Standard accounts: no opens/closes (SL/TP included) within ±2 min of selected high-impact news. Swing: unrestricted. Evaluation phases: unrestricted. | |
Always confirm against ftmo.com/trading-objectives before funding — prop-firm rules change, and this page is dated for a reason.
What each rule means when a robot is trading
Max Daily Loss: the one that kills EA accounts
The daily limit is measured on equity, not balance — floating losses count in real time. An EA holding three open positions into a spike can breach 5% (or 3% on 1-Step) without ever closing a trade. Two configuration rules follow: size positions so your worst realistic simultaneous drawdown stays under roughly half the daily limit (our lot size calculator does this math for prop-firm limits), and run a hard equity guard: SignalForge's Prop Firm Shield watches equity in real time and flattens everything before the line, because a breach at 00:01 is just as terminal as one at 16:00 New York.
Max Loss: static vs trailing changes your EA math
On the classic 2-Step, 10% from initial capital is a fixed floor — simple. On 1-Step it trails: it is recalculated at end of day, so profits raise your floor and yesterday's cushion is not today's. Trailing drawdown punishes EAs that give back open profit (martingale-style recoveries especially). If your strategy scales into winners, test it against a trailing floor before paying for a 1-Step challenge.
The Best Day Rule: consistency beats one golden trade
If a single day produces more than 50% of your total positive-day profits, you fail the objective even with the target hit. For automated setups this argues for uniform position sizing — one fixed risk percentage per trade, every trade — rather than confidence-weighted sizing. A strategy that makes its month on two NFP days needs rethinking (or the Swing/2-Step route with more trading days to dilute).
The 2-minute news window: where funded Standard accounts die
On a funded Standard account, having a Stop Loss or Take Profit trigger inside the ±2-minute window around selected high-impact news counts as a breach — not just manual opens. That is brutal for unattended EAs. Your options, honestly ranked: (1) take the Swing account, which has no news restriction; (2) block signal execution around news — SignalForge's news filter does this out of the box, no configuration; (3) widen stops around scheduled events so SL/TP cannot trigger in the window — fragile, we do not recommend relying on it alone.
The EA policy fine print
FTMO explicitly allows algorithmic trading and EAs, with three caveats that matter in practice. First, marketplace EAs are risky: FTMO flags that many traders running the identical EA can hit capital-allocation limits — a bridge executing your own TradingView strategy avoids this, since your entries are yours, not a shared robot's. Second, forbidden practices: tick scalping, arbitrage and HFT get accounts terminated; alert-driven execution (one webhook, one order) is nowhere near these. Third, server limits: 200 simultaneous orders and 2,000 positions per day — if your Pine strategy can fire runaway alerts, cap it (our webhook setup guide covers alert throttling).
Rule → setting cheat sheet:
• Max Daily Loss → Prop Firm Shield daily limit at 80% of FTMO's (4% on 2-Step, 2.4% on 1-Step) — buffer for spread spikes.
• Max Loss → Shield total limit at 8%; on 1-Step, re-tighten after each withdrawal.
• Best Day Rule → fixed fractional sizing via the lot calculator, same risk every trade.
• News window → news filter ON (Standard) or Swing account.
• 4 min trading days → nothing to configure; just do not pass the target in 2 days and stop.
FAQ
Does FTMO allow Expert Advisors and trading bots?
Yes. FTMO permits discretionary, algorithmic and EA trading. The practical risks are shared marketplace EAs (capital-allocation limits when many accounts trade identically) and forbidden practices like tick scalping, arbitrage or HFT.
Is the FTMO daily loss based on balance or equity?
Equity — open floating P/L, swaps and commissions all count, and the day resets at 00:00 CE(S)T. An open position can breach the limit without being closed.
Can my EA trade the news on FTMO?
On funded Standard accounts, no opens or closes (including triggered SL/TP) within 2 minutes either side of selected high-impact releases. Swing accounts and evaluation phases are unrestricted.
Does SignalForge work with FTMO?
Yes — FTMO accounts run on MT4/MT5 and allow EAs, and SignalForge executes your own TradingView strategy with Prop Firm Shield enforcing the daily and total loss limits automatically. 14-day free trial, no card.
Author: Benjamin SF is the founder of SignalForge and an expert in trading algorithm automation. He builds and operates the SignalForge bridge for prop-firm traders and maintains its public latency benchmark (187 ms median).