The 6-step plan
Follow these steps in order — skipping the first two is the most common reason traders lose their fee:
- 1. Write down your strategy: instruments, sessions, entry, stop and exit rules.
- 2. Trade the free trial for 14 days with the same rules as a challenge.
- 3. Choose the programme: 2-Step for wider limits, 1-Step for speed, futures for CME contracts.
- 4. Start with a size you can afford to repeat: a $5K–$25K account.
- 5. Risk 0.5–1% per trade and stop for the day after 2 losses.
- 6. Once funded, verify your identity and request payouts regularly.
The numbers that matter
On a 2-Step account the target is 10% in phase 1 and 5% in phase 2, with a 4% daily loss and an 8% static maximum loss. If you risk 0.5% per trade with a 1:2 reward-to-risk ratio, you need about 10 net winning trades to reach 10% — and you can lose 8 trades in a row on a single day before touching the daily limit.
Skills you need first
You do not need years of experience, but you do need:
- A repeatable setup you can explain in two sentences.
- The discipline to use a stop loss on every trade.
- Position sizing: know your lot size before you click.
- A trading journal to review mistakes weekly.