Prop Firm Rules

News Trading

• Allowed for all evaluations and funded accounts

Micro Scalping

• To maintain fair and sustainable trading conditions, AquaFutures requires that at least 50% of all closed trades remain open for longer than 10 seconds. In addition, at least 50% of total generated profits must come from trades held longer than 10 seconds. Traders are also expected to maintain an average risk-to-reward ratio above 0.3RR across their overall trading activity.

Expert Advisors, HFTs, Automation

• The use of fully automated systems, unattended algorithms, trading bots, AI-driven execution software, latency arbitrage systems, or any form of self-operating execution mechanism is strictly prohibited across all AquaFutures account types. Semi-automated systems may only be used when the trader remains fully present during execution, actively manages positions, fully understands the strategy being used, and is not attempting to exploit simulated market behavior. AquaFutures also prohibits excessive trading frequency that resembles high-frequency trading behavior. Traders may not execute 100 or more trades within a single trading day.

Copy Trading

• Copy Trading is allowed between your own accounts (including external accounts personally owned). Copying trades from or to another trader's account, using shared EA configurations, third-party copy services, or "Pass Your Challenge" services is not permitted. Violations result in account breach, profit forfeiture, and potential permanent ban.

Trading Hours

Daily session:

• 10:00 PM UTC – 8:10 PM UTC the following day (Sunday through Friday). All open trades are auto-closed at market close, this does not count as a violation.
• Holiday hours may vary. Times may shift seasonally due to daylight savings.

Inactivity Rule

Evaluation

• You are required to place at least one trade within 7 days to avoid your account being marked inactive. Failure to this, your account will be breached due to inactivity and no further action can be done on the account.

Funded

• You are required to place at least one trade within 7 days to avoid your account being marked inactive. Failure to this, your account will be breached due to inactivity and no further action can be done on the account.

2% Price Limit Rule

• Trading within 2% of a CME price limit is prohibited. This protects traders from market halts, extreme price swings, and major slippage.

Drawdown Lock Rule

• The trailing drawdown locks at starting balance + $100 and no longer trails for the remainder of the account's lifetime.

Prohibited Strategies

• Order Management, Execution Manipulation & Market Conduct, Gambling Behavior, Account Rolling & Reckless Risk Management
• Read more here

News Trading

• You may not open any new market or pending orders on the affected asset from 3 minutes before until 3 minutes after a Red Folder (High Impact) news event, but you are allowed to keep open and manually close existing positions at any time as long as they were opened more than 3 minutes prior to the news. Any profits generated from new trades opened during this restricted window will be deducted, and repeated violations may trigger an account review.

Expert Advisors

• You can use automated trading software on your Blueberry Futures account only if it meets all three of these conditions:
• It is proprietary. You built it yourself. Not bought, rented, shared, or commissioned from someone else.
• It runs your own strategy. The trading logic and risk decisions in it are yours.
• You disclosed it and received our consent before running it. Contact support, tell us what the tool is and what it does, and wait for our confirmation before it places a single trade.
• This applies on every account and at every stage.

Copy Trading

• Personal trade copiers are allowed for copying your own trades across your own accounts. You manually place a trade and the copier replicates it across your portfolio. Signal copying from external providers or third-party services is strictly prohibited.

Inactivity

• Blueberry Futures doesn't have an inactivity period. You have 30 days to pass the evaluation before your subscription renews, unless you cancel it. Your subscription will continue to rebill every 30 days until you either pass or cancel.

DCA - Dollar Cost Averaging (Stacking)

• DCA/position stacking is allowed, but you can only enter the same instrument and direction up to 3 times per trade idea: 1 initial entry + up to 2 additional adds. This 3-entry limit applies to all account sizes and is a behavior rule, separate from the Max Contracts rule. A 4th entry in the same direction on the same instrument is a violation, even if you're still under your contract cap. You must always respect both: max 3 entries per idea and the Max Contracts limits for your account size.

Microscalping

• Manual scalping is allowed, but high-frequency "tick scalping" and HFT-style behavior are not.
• Is there a minimum time I must hold a trade? No, the firm does not enforce a hard "1-minute" rule for every single trade. However, the Risk Team monitors for Tick Scalping behavior. Trades that are consistently opened and closed in sub-second intervals (e.g., 0-5 seconds) are characteristic of High-Frequency Trading (HFT) and arbitrage bots. This trading behavior is prohibited. If you are manually entering and exiting trades based on market structure, you have nothing to worry about. Legitimate scalping typically lasts significantly longer than the latency of a data feed.

Hedging

• You cannot hold a Long and Short position on the same asset simultaneously. This includes cross-contract hedging. For example, holding a Long position on a Mini contract (e.g., NQ) while simultaneously holding a Short position on the Micro equivalent (e.g., MNQ) is a strict violation.

One-Direction Rule

• Using max leverage on a single trade idea without technical justification. This includes consistently across many accounts taking advantage of one single market direction to keep placing one-sided trades. This behavior is understood as intentional one-sided trading rather than legitimate strategy.

Bulk Account Exploitation

• Buying many accounts to trade in an exploitative manner is explicitly listed as a prohibited strategy.

High Frequency Trading

• Strategies that enter and exit positions in sub-second intervals to exploit server latency are labeled HFT and are strictly prohibited.

Stop-Loss Policy

• Not required. But strongly recommended.

VPN Usage

• Use of VPNs, VPSs, or any location-masking tools to bypass "restricted countries" rule is strictly prohibited and may result in account termination and forfeiture of any profits.

More on Prohibited Strategies

• https://help.blueberryfutures.com/en/articles/12921710-what-counts-as-gambling-or-prohibited-strategies

Live Accounts Explained

• https://help.blueberryfutures.com/en/articles/12942982-the-road-to-live-graduating-to-a-live-account

• We do not allow any strategy that exploits the demo environment, guarantees profits with little risk, or that cannot be consistently replicated in real markets.

The most common prohibited practices are:

• Latency arbitrage, reverse arbitrage, gap exploitation, or any abuse of platform or server errors/glitches;
• Extremely fast trades taking advantage of atypical market liquidity that would be characterized as liquidity fraud, and/or microscalping (trades held for 30 seconds or less) in most trades;
• All types of arbitrages (latency, statistical, hedge arbitrage, etc.);
• Hedging between multiple accounts (own or third-party), including opposing positions on the same instrument or correlated instruments;
• Group hedging, reverse trading, or any form of collusion between accounts;
• Flipping, operating without the real intention of growing your account, but rather doing the bare minimum so that a new withdrawal can be requested;
• Copy trading of external signals, copiers between different accounts, or use of ""passing challenges"" services;
• Account sharing or allowing someone else to trade on your behalf;
• Martingale, aggressive grid systems, or ""all-in""/gambling-style progressions;
• Use of identical third-party trading EAs that generate duplicate trading patterns among many traders;
• Exploiting news with bracketing (pending orders on both sides);
• Any strategy that only works because it is being executed on a demo/simulated account.

Inactivity Rule

• Minimum 1 traded day in 7 days for Challenge and 1 traded day in 30 days for Funded.

Automation

• With the exception of the Order Replicator, no type of automation is allowed in Ylos for any type of account or stage of its journey.

News Trading

• Allowed during the Challenge phase. In the Funded account, it is strictly forbidden to be positioned at the time of news releases.
• You must close your positions before the event, but you have complete freedom to resume trading immediately after the announcement, respecting your risk management.

News Rule

• One Step Accounts

  • Evaluation: Allowed

  • Funded: News trading is restricted by a 4-minute window (no trades 2 minutes before or after high-impact news)

• Instant Accounts

  • News trading is restricted by a 4-minute window (no trades 2 minutes before or after high-impact news)

• Positions opened before the window began may be held through the event. Any profit made from activity inside the restricted window is removed, while any loss stays on the account.

Expert Advisors

• Yes. Trading bots and automated trading systems, including EAs and personal automated strategies, are allowed in Instant and One step accounts, as long as they match your normal trading style and do not exploit system vulnerabilities, latency, or data feed anomalies.

Copy Trading

• Copy trading is permitted only between accounts that you personally own and control. This includes your Finotive Futures accounts and accounts held with other prop firms, provided you are the sole owner of every account involved.

Micro Scalping

• Microscalping is allowed, but it cannot be your primary source of profit. No more than 50% of your total profit can come from trades held for under 30 seconds. In other words, at least half of your profit must come from trades held for 30 seconds or longer.

Inactivity Rule

• Accounts with no trading activity for 15 consecutive days lead to deactivation)

Trading Hours

• The main trading session runs from Sunday 17:00:00 CT (Central Time) through Friday 16:00:00 CT. There is a daily maintenance break from 16:00:00 CT to 17:00:00 CT, when trading pauses. After the break, a new trading day begins.
• On Finotive Futures accounts, all open positions are automatically closed 5 minutes before the actual daily close, at 15:55:00 CT, so you never carry a position into the maintenance break, overnight, or into the weekend.

Prohibited strategies

• For more details: https://help.finotivefutures.com/en/articles/56-prohibited-trading-strategies

Hedging

• Hedging within a single account as part of a normal trading strategy is permitted.
• Placing opposing positions across multiple accounts, whether personally owned, held by another trader, or held at another prop firm, with the intent to offset or negate market risk.

Latency Arbitrage and Feed Error Exploitation

• Exploiting delays in price updates between systems or data feeds to trade ahead of a price that has already moved in the real market, or knowingly profiting from mispriced quotes, feed errors, or data discrepancies, regardless of whether the fill is later corrected.

Market Manipulation and Deception

• Spoofing, layering, price manipulation, fraudulent order entry, or any conduct designed to distort market prices, create false impressions of supply and demand, or deceive other market participants.

High-Frequency and Algorithmic Exploitation

• Using HFT systems, tick scalpers, bulk order automation, or any algorithmic tool designed to exploit execution speed advantages, platform inefficiencies, or simulated fill conditions, rather than to express a genuine directional market view.

Coordinated and Group Trading

• Coordinating trade entries, exits, or directions with any other person across separate accounts, whether through shared signals, private communication, shared environments, or any form of linked execution.

News Trading

• News trading is allowed with FTMO Futures during any phase, with no special news restrictions, provided you do not engage in any Forbidden Trading Practices.

VPN/VPS Rule

• Trading with FTMO while travelling to a different country is allowed. Using a VPN/VPS is also allowed, as long as you do not reside in a country FTMO does not offer our services and you retain sole control over your registration.

Trading Hours

• FTMO Futures does not allow positions to be held over the market close. All positions must be closed, and all resting orders (including stop-loss orders, limit orders, and bracket orders) must be cancelled before 4:10 p.m. ET or the relevant market close, whichever is sooner, on each trading day. Positions or orders remaining open at session close will be automatically liquidated and/or cancelled by the Trading Platform; however, traders should not rely on this function.
• Trading within 2% of a CME Price Limit
• A CME price limit is the maximum price range a futures contract can move within a trading day. When the limit is hit, the exchange may halt trading, expand the limit, or stop trading for the rest of the trading day, depending on the product. FTMO adds a 2% safety buffer before this limit, restricting traders from opening new positions on the affected instrument.

Prohibited Strategies

• For more details visit link: https://ftmo.com/en/futures/forbidden-trading-practices/

• Inactivity Rule: You must place at least one trade every 14 days to keep the account active. Accounts with no trading activity for a 14-day period will be terminated due to inactivity.

• News Trading: The5ers Futures allows trading during news events. There are no restrictions on trading around economic releases, as long as you follow all risk and account rules.

• Copy Trading: Copy trading is only permitted on 25K and 50K accounts with a total size of up to $75,000.

  • One important restriction: you can only copytrade your own accounts and your own trades. You can't copy trades from another trader, or let anyone else copy trades from you.

• Overnight Holding:

  • Swing: See Leverage Overview for contract limits. Bigger positions must close at least 10 minutes before market close.
  • Day Trade: Overnight holding is not allowed. You must manually close all positions and cancel pending orders at least 10 minutes before the close (by 4:50 PM CET).
  • Both programs: No weekend holding allowed. All positions must be closed at least 10 minutes before the Friday close.
  • Missing these requirements can result in account termination.

• HFT, Hedging and Algo Trading: not allowed

• Trading Hours: Futures markets operate nearly 24 hours per day, Sunday through Friday, from 5PM to 4PM EST the following day, with a daily maintenance break from 4:00 to 5:00 PM CT.