What is prohibited?
| Practice | Rule | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| High-frequency trading | Not allowed | Warning, then closure |
| Hedging, in one account or across accounts | Not allowed | Permanent ban |
| Micro-scalping | Flagged above 50% of profit from trades held ≤ 5 seconds | Review, then closure if it continues |
Everything else that a retail futures trader does is allowed: scalping, swing intraday, bots, trade copiers, news trading on eligible accounts.
Why is hedging a permanent ban?
Because it turns two simulated accounts into a free option: one side is guaranteed to pass or reach a payout while the other fails at the cost of an evaluation fee. That is not trading, and it is paid for by every honest trader through pricing. Hedging across accounts held by different people is treated the same way.
What is micro-scalping?
Trades held five seconds or less. A few of them are normal; an account whose profit comes mostly from them is exploiting data latency between the simulated feed and the exchange, not trading a market. The flag triggers when more than half of the account’s profit comes from such trades. The review looks at the pattern, not at isolated trades.
What is high-frequency trading here?
Automated strategies that send orders at a rate no human could sustain, with the aim of capturing the spread or feed latency, are not allowed. An algorithm that trades a handful of times per hour is not HFT; see bots and algos for what is allowed.
What is reviewed and how?
The rules engine flags patterns automatically: opposite positions across accounts, hold-time distribution, order rates. A human reviews every flag before a decision. You are told what was flagged and why.
Common mistakes
- Running the same strategy long on one account and short on another “to test both sides”.
- Copying a signal service that hedges, without knowing it.
- Assuming a five-second average hold time is safe: the check is the share of profit, not the average.
Simulated accounts until Live. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss.