# How to pass a one-phase futures evaluation

> A one-phase evaluation asks one thing: reach the profit target without touching the Max Loss Limit. With no minimum days and no deadline, the plan is arithmetic. Divide the target into days you can realistically produce, cap each day's loss well under the daily limit, and keep the largest day inside the consistency threshold.

By StarTrading Team · Published 2026-09-10 · Updated 2026-09-24 · Source: https://startrading.io/blog/pass-a-one-phase-futures-evaluation

A one-phase evaluation asks one thing: reach the profit target without touching the Max Loss Limit. With no minimum days and no deadline, the plan is arithmetic. Divide the target into days you can realistically produce, cap each day’s loss well under the daily limit, and keep the largest day inside the consistency threshold.

## What you are being asked to do

Every StarTrading evaluation is one phase: reach the profit target, $6,000 on a 100K, without breaching the [Max Loss Limit](https://startrading.io/rules/max-loss-limit) of $3,000. No second phase, no minimum days, no deadline, no monthly fee. The [how it works page](https://startrading.io/how-it-works) lists the five steps; this article is about the first two.

The ratio matters more than the numbers: the target is twice the drawdown on every size. You are asked to make two units before you lose one. That is a reasonable bar for a trader with an edge and an impossible one for a trader who sizes by feel.

## Turn the target into a plan

Pick a number of days. A trader who averages $400 a day with a good day at $1,200 needs about fifteen sessions for a 100K target; a trader who counts on three $2,000 days is hoping, not planning. The plan then fixes three amounts:

1.  **Daily goal**: target ÷ planned days. For fifteen days on a 100K, $400.
2.  **Daily stop**: the loss at which you stop for the day, well below the [Daily Loss Limit](https://startrading.io/rules/daily-loss-limit) of $1,800. Half of it, $1,200, is a common choice: the platform’s limit becomes a backstop you never see.
3.  **Largest allowed day**: only on [Clear](https://startrading.io/accounts/clear) and [Stream](https://startrading.io/accounts/stream) evaluations, where the [consistency rule](https://startrading.io/rules/consistency-rule) caps the best day at 50% of the target, $6,000 ÷ 2 on a 100K. A Cycle evaluation has no consistency check.

With a $900 daily stop and a $3,000 drawdown, you can have three full losing days and still be in the game with room to spare. That is the whole point of a daily stop smaller than the limit: it converts one catastrophic day into several survivable ones.

## Trade the room, not the balance

The distance to the Max Loss Limit is the account you actually have. On day one it is $3,000; after a losing day it is less, and because the limit trails it never recovers on its own. Recompute it every morning and size from it. If you risk 10% of the room per trade, a fresh 100K allows $300 of risk per trade: two ES contracts with a six-tick stop, or five MES with the same stop and a third of the exposure. The [sizing article](https://startrading.io/blog/micros-vs-minis-position-sizing) has the tables.

The [trailing drawdown article](https://startrading.io/blog/what-is-a-trailing-drawdown) explains why an intraday trail, the default on a Stream evaluation unless you pay for end of day, punishes runners that come back. On an end-of-day evaluation, the peak of an open trade does not count; only the close does.

Put it into practice on a Cycle account

$272One-time fee, no subscription, no time limit.

Profit target

$6,000

Max Loss Limit

$3,000

[Start the 100K Cycle evaluation](https://startrading.io/pricing?f=cycle&s=100k&p=rithmic)[About Cycle accounts](https://startrading.io/accounts/cycle)

## The consistency check is a planning tool

On Clear and Stream evaluations the check is simple: the best day may not exceed half the target. It does not fail the account; it delays the pass until other days catch up. Plan for it rather than around it. If your typical good day is $1,500 on a 100K, you are far from the $3,000 ceiling and the rule is invisible. If you tend to have one huge day, the rule will ask for at least one more good day before the pass, which is exactly the skill it is measuring. The [consistency article](https://startrading.io/blog/consistency-rules-explained) has the arithmetic for each account type.

## The four ways evaluations actually end

From the rulebook, only two things fail an account: the Max Loss Limit and a [prohibited practice](https://startrading.io/rules/prohibited-practices). In practice, failed evaluations follow a few scripts:

-   **Sizing up after a loss.** A $600 loss becomes a $1,800 loss in the attempt to get it back today. The daily stop exists to make this impossible.
-   **Holding through flat time.** Positions are auto-closed at [flat time](https://startrading.io/rules/flat-time), 4:15 pm ET on Rithmic, at whatever the price is. Overnight ideas do not exist on these accounts.
-   **Trading the news release itself.** Allowed on evaluations, but a five-second slip through a 40-tick move costs more than a week of planned days.
-   **Ignoring the trail after a good streak.** The limit moved up with the balance; the room did not grow. A trader who thinks “I am up $2,500, I can afford a bad day” is right only up to the new limit.

These patterns repeat often enough to be worth studying on their own; [why most evaluations fail](https://startrading.io/blog/why-most-evaluations-fail) breaks down each one with numbers.

## What happens when you pass

The funded simulated account activates within 5 to 30 minutes, same type and size, with the funded rules of the type: buffer and 40% consistency on Cycle, no consistency on Clear, intraday trail and daily payouts on Stream. Read the [account type page](https://startrading.io/accounts/cycle) before the first funded trade; the funded rules are different from the evaluation rules, and the [payout policy](https://startrading.io/rules/payout-policy) is what you are trading for from then on. [What happens after you pass](https://startrading.io/blog/what-happens-after-you-pass) covers the handover in detail. Funded accounts stay simulated until the Live stage, and the risk of loss on any futures account is substantial.

## A one-page plan

| Item | 50K | 100K |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Target | $3,000 | $6,000 |
| Max Loss Limit | $2,000 | $3,000 |
| Daily Loss Limit (Cycle) | $1,200 | $1,800 |
| Your daily stop (half) | $600 | $900 |
| Daily goal for 15 days | $200 | $400 |
| Best day allowed (Clear, Stream) | $1,500 | $3,000 |
| Max position | 4 minis | 6 minis |

Print it, and trade the plan rather than the target. Prices for every size are on the [pricing page](https://startrading.io/pricing).

## Sources

-   CME Group, [E-mini and Micro E-mini equity index contract specifications](https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/equities.html): tick values behind the per-trade risk examples.
-   CME Group, [Globex trading hours and holiday calendar](https://www.cmegroup.com/trading-hours.html): the sessions a day plan is built on.
-   U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, [economic news release schedule](https://www.bls.gov/schedule/news_release/): the release dates referenced in the news paragraph.
-   Commodity Futures Trading Commission, [customer advisories on leveraged futures trading](https://www.cftc.gov/LearnAndProtect/AdvisoriesAndArticles/index.htm).

## Questions on this topic

### Is there a minimum number of trading days?

No. A Cycle evaluation can be passed in one day. Clear and Stream evaluations apply a 50% consistency check, so the realistic minimum is two profitable days. Direct accounts have no evaluation at all.

### Is there a time limit or a monthly fee?

No. The fee is one time and the account stays open until it passes or fails. There is no deadline and nothing to renew.

### What fails an evaluation?

Only the Max Loss Limit and a prohibited practice. The Daily Loss Limit pauses the day, the consistency check delays the pass, flat time closes positions. Read the rule pages before the first trade.