FTMO

FTMO - Forbidden Trading Practices

The full list is published on FTMO's website & updated from time to time. Core prohibited practices include:

• HFT & tick scalping
• Latency arbitrage & statistical arbitrage
• Martingale & grid strategies
• Gap trading
• Copy trading from third parties
• Exploiting platform errors or mis-pricing
• One-sided bets & account rolling
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FTMO reserves the right to update this list & to determine at their discretion whether specific behavior qualifies as a violation — including behavior not explicitly listed. If something feels like gaming the system, it probably is.

News Trading

FTMO allows news trading during evaluation on both models. On standard funded accounts, trading is restricted within 2 minutes before and after high-impact news. Swing accounts have no news trading restrictions on either evaluation or funded stage.

Expert Advisors

EAs are allowed. A few conditions worth knowing:

• Maximum 2,000 server requests per day
• Popular third-party EAs may accidentally exceed the $400K max capital allocation limit across multiple users running the same bot — which can lead to account suspension through no fault of your own
• Switching between EA and manual trading between challenge and funded account is not allowed
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Copy Trading

• Between your own FTMO accounts → allowed, subject to the $400K max capital allocation limit
• From third parties → strictly prohibited
• Coordinating trades with other users → not allowed
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The Two Models

Everything at FTMO starts with choosing between two evaluation structures — which is either a refreshingly simple decision or proof that 11 years of operation taught them that most traders don't need more than two options.

Both models lead to the same place — the FTMO Trader Program. The 1-Step gets you there faster. The 2-Step gives you a second phase at lower target to confirm consistency before you're funded.

Capital Allocation Limits

• Standard → $400K max per strategy per person
• Prime Status → $600K
• Supreme Prime Status → $1M
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The $400K limit applies in aggregate — meaning if you run multiple accounts with the same strategy, the total across all of them cannot exceed $400K. FTMO monitors this & accounts using identical strategies that collectively exceed the limit may be suspended.

Risk Management Rules

FTMO doesn't publish a fixed list of every prohibited strategy — instead they define a framework of what "market standard risk management" looks like & reserve the right to determine violations at their discretion. The practical rules:

• No substantially larger position sizes compared to your other trades
• No substantially different number of positions compared to your pattern
• No repeated high Risk per Trade Idea that creates cumulative exposure in the same or correlated symbols
• No overleveraging, overexposure or one-sided bets
• No account rolling — buying multiple challenges to sacrifice some while passing others
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The discretionary element is real — FTMO can determine that certain behavior qualifies as a Forbidden Trading Practice without that specific practice being explicitly listed. This is standard across the industry but worth knowing upfront.

Personal Use & Account Sharing

• Only you can trade your account — no third-party access, no account management services
• No coordinating trades with other users
• Legal entities may only share access with top management — not general employees
• Same device or payment method shared with another user must be disclosed to FTMO
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The last point is unusual — FTMO explicitly asks you to notify them if you share a payment method or device with another user. Worth keeping in mind if you're in a household with another trader.

Inactivity Rule

Two separate triggers worth knowing:

• No trade for 30 consecutive days → account suspended
• Loss between 8-10% of initial capital held for more than 30 days → FTMO may terminate the account
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The second rule is less obvious & catches traders who are sitting near their max loss limit without actively managing the situation. If your account is bleeding slowly & you're not trading, the clock is running.

FTMO Points

• 1 FTMO Point = €1.00
• Can be used to purchase FTMO services & products
• Cannot be exchanged for cash
• Have an expiration date — visible at purchase & in the User Area
• Awarded through: challenge fee refunds, FTMO Trader Program rewards & affiliate program
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The points system is a loyalty mechanism that keeps value within the FTMO ecosystem — you get points back when things don't work out, but they can only be spent on more FTMO services. Useful if you plan to stay, less useful if you're testing the waters.

Data Usage

Section 16.3 of the Terms is worth reading.

FTMO has access to your simulated trading data & shares it with other members of the FTMO Group. This information may be used in connection with trading in financial products or to improve services. Importantly — the data is always anonymised before sharing, which distinguishes FTMO's approach from some other firms that use trading data without this disclosure or this protection.

Withdrawal From Agreement

• 14-day withdrawal right — but only if you haven't opened a first trade
• Opening your first simulated trade waives the withdrawal right immediately
• After first trade → no refund under any circumstances
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Standard across the industry — but the 14-day window is real & useful if you change your mind before you start.

Final Take

FTMO's 4.8/5 on 42,188 Trustpilot reviews — with 92% five-star — isn't a marketing number. It's 11 years of consistent payouts, clear rules & a community large enough that most questions have already been answered publicly somewhere.

The structure is familiar, the rules are documented & the discretionary risk management framework is the same one every serious firm uses — FTMO just wrote it down more clearly than most. After all, every other firm compares itself to FTMO on their homepage — which is either the highest compliment in the industry or just proof that being first matters more than most people admit.

Hidden Rules Meter: 1.7/10 — Trust Score: 4.6/5 — Trustpilot: 4.8/5.

Restricted Countries

🇮🇷 Iran 🇸🇾 Syria 🇲🇲 Myanmar 🇰🇵 North Korea 🇮🇶 Iraq 🇸🇴 Somalia 🇸🇩 Sudan 🇸🇸 South Sudan 🇨🇺 Cuba 🇷🇺 Russia 🇧🇾 Belarus 🇻🇪 Venezuela 🇦🇫 Afghanistan 🇦🇮 Anguilla 🇦🇶 Antarctica 🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda 🇧🇿 Belize 🇧🇹 Bhutan 🇧🇻 Bouvet Island 🇧🇮 Burundi 🇨🇻 Cape Verde 🇨🇫 Central African Republic 🇹🇩 Chad 🇨🇰 Cook Islands 🇰🇲 Comoros 🇨🇬 Congo 🇩🇯 Djibouti 🇩🇲 Dominica 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea 🇪🇷 Eritrea 🇸🇿 Eswatini 🇫🇯 Fiji 🇬🇦 Gabon 🇬🇲 Gambia 🇬🇩 Grenada 🇬🇳 Guinea 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau 🇻🇦 Vatican City 🇮🇩 Indonesia 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan 🇰🇮 Kiribati 🇽🇰 Kosovo 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan 🇱🇸 Lesotho 🇱🇷 Liberia 🇲🇼 Malawi 🇲🇱 Mali 🇲🇷 Mauritania 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands 🇫🇲 Micronesia 🇳🇷 Nauru 🇳🇪 Niger 🇳🇺 Niue 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea 🇧🇱 Saint Barthélemy 🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis 🇱🇨 Saint Lucia 🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 🇼🇸 Samoa 🇸🇲 San Marino 🇸🇹 Sao Tome and Principe 🇸🇨 Seychelles 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone 🇸🇧 Solomon Islands 🇸🇷 Suriname 🇹🇯 Tajikistan 🇹🇱 Timor-Leste 🇹🇰 Tokelau 🇹🇴 Tonga 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan 🇹🇻 Tuvalu 🇺🇦 Ukraine (partial) 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan 🇻🇺 Vanuatu 🇪🇭 Western Sahara