The consistency rule, firm by firm: why your first payout gets held

You pass the evaluation, you make money, you request your first payout, and it gets denied. The usual reason is the consistency rule, the least-understood rule in futures prop trading. Here is what it does and where each firm sets it.

What it actually does

A consistency rule caps how much of your total profit can come from a single day. If a firm sets it at 30 percent, no one trading day can be more than 30 percent of your total gains.

The counterintuitive part: a lower percentage is stricter. A 50 percent rule lets one good day be half your profit, so you can pass on two strong sessions. A 20 percent rule forces your profit across at least five days. Firms use it to screen out accounts that got lucky on a single trade.

Where the firms land

Looser, 50 percent (one big day allowed): Topstep, Apex Trader Funding, Take Profit Trader, and MyFundedFutures all sit at 50 percent on their standard accounts.

Middle, 40 percent: Bulenox, Lucid Trading's Pro line, Funded Futures Network's Standard MAX (in both the evaluation and the funded account), and several funded stages, including Top One's Elite Access.

Stricter, 20 to 25 percent: the instant-funding accounts are the tightest, because you skipped the evaluation. Top One's Instant and S2F sit at 20 percent, Goat's Instant at 20, Lucid's Direct at 20, and Tradeify's Lightning at 20 and rising. (Funded Futures Network's 25-percent Express line was retired on July 1, 2026 — its replacement, STEADY, runs a looser 52 percent during the evaluation only.)

None at all: a few programs drop the rule entirely as a selling point. Top One's Elite Challenge and Goat's Sprint carry no consistency rule during the evaluation, and several of Elite Trader Funding's plans have none.

How to not get caught

Two habits beat the rule. First, trade more days with smaller targets instead of swinging for one huge session. Second, check whether the rule applies during the evaluation, at payout, or both, because many firms only enforce it when you request money, not while you pass. The number that traps people is not the rule itself. It is not knowing it was there.

Updated July 14, 2026: Funded Futures Network replaced its OG and Express lines with Standard MAX and STEADY; the FFN entries above reflect the new lineup.