Workable
FTMO Phase 1 for Scalpers
5% daily + 10% static DD give scalpers room; the 10% target is the actual hurdle.
Persona: Sub-15-minute timeframe, tight stops, hundreds of trades per week.
Rules at a glance
FTMO Phase 1, the six numbers.
- Profit target
- 10.0%
- Daily loss cap
- 5.0%
- Max drawdown
- 10.0%(static)
- Payout cadence
- 14 days
- Recommended risk/trade
- 0.5%
- Status
- live
Persona context
How Scalpers think about prop firms.
Scalpers live or die on three rules: the daily-loss cap, the consistency / best-day rule, and the firm's position-on / news-blackout policy. Tight daily caps (under 3%) make scalping arithmetic punishing — a normal losing morning can lock you out for the rest of the day, and the rest-of-day lockout often pushes you into the same trades you would have taken later at worse pricing. Consistency rules are the silent killer: a single oversized day above the cap (typically 15–30% of total profit) means even a profitable week gets the payout halted. Scalpers also tend to underestimate news risk — the policy on holding through CPI, NFP, FOMC, ECB, and BoE varies firm-by-firm, and "news closed your account" rejection is non-recoverable.
- Daily loss cap
- Consistency / best-day rule
- News blackout window
- Position-on through restart
- Latency + spread tolerance
The specific analysis
FTMO Phase 1 × Scalpers.
FTMO Phase 1 is workable for scalpers. The 5% daily loss cap is generous by industry standards, twice FundingPips Zero, and means a normal red morning rarely closes the day. The 10% static drawdown gives the account a fixed floor that doesn't chase your highs, which suits the bursty rhythm of scalp days. The real hurdle is the 10% profit target, that's twice FundingPips Zero's synthetic 2%, and reaching it within Phase 1's 30-day window requires a meaningful edge. There's no minimum profitable-days rule in the eval, so a single great week can pass Phase 1, but most scalpers find that pace unsustainable. News-trading policy is more permissive than FundingPips: holding through news is allowed but the gain doesn't count if news is the dominant source of profit.
Workarounds
- Aim for 0.5% net per day for 20 days, passes the 10% target without forcing oversized risk
- Use the full 5% daily cap as a session circuit-breaker, not a per-trade limit
- Don't hold positions through high-impact news in eval, the "dominant source" rule is interpretable
Account killers
- Trying to clear 10% target in the last week of eval, forces oversized risk and breaches DD
- Three consecutive losing days at 4% each compounds to a Phase 1 fail
Run the math
Three calculators pre-flight your strategy.
- Firm-rule drawdown calculator , project equity floor and breach distance under FTMO Phase 1.
- Firm-mode position sizing , recommended 0.5% risk-per-trade for a scalper.
- Prop firm vs self-funded cost , total cost to pass FTMO Phase 1 given your realistic pass-rate.
FAQ
Questions about FTMO Phase 1 for scalpers.
Is FTMO Phase 1 a good fit for scalpers?
5% daily + 10% static DD give scalpers room; the 10% target is the actual hurdle. FTMO Phase 1 is workable for scalpers. The 5% daily loss cap is generous by industry standards, twice FundingPips Zero, and means a normal red morning rarely closes the day. The 10% static drawdown gives the account a fixed floor that doesn't chase your highs, which suits the bursty rhythm of scalp days. The real hurdle is the 10% profit target, that's twice FundingPips Zero's synthetic 2%, and reaching it within Phase 1's 30-day window requires a meaningful edge. There's no minimum profitable-days rule in the eval, so a single great week can pass Phase 1, but most scalpers find that pace unsustainable. News-trading policy is more permissive than FundingPips: holding through news is allowed but the gain doesn't count if news is the dominant source of profit.
What's the biggest rule risk for a scalper at FTMO Phase 1?
Trying to clear 10% target in the last week of eval, forces oversized risk and breaches DD
What risk-per-trade percentage do you recommend?
0.5% of equity per trade is the conservative starting point for a scalper at FTMO Phase 1. Use Glitch Executor's position-sizing calculator to confirm the lot size respects both your risk budget and the firm's drawdown cushion.
Does the firm permit trading through high-impact news?
Yes, FTMO is the only firm in the supported set that explicitly permits holding through news, subject to a "dominant source" review at payout.
How does the drawdown rule work specifically?
FTMO Phase 1 uses a static 10.0% drawdown anchored to the starting balance, it doesn't follow your highs.
Compare and shortlist
Where this fits in the wider research.
- Best prop-firm challenges shortlist
- FTMO Phase 1, full rule + payout brief
- Current prop-firm partner offers
- FTMO Phase 1 drawdown calculator
Authored and reviewed by Ryan Tran (Strategy Lead, Glitch Executor). Last reviewed . Rule values pulled from the firm-rule registry in this repo; verify with FTMO Phase 1 directly before funding.
Same firm, different personas