TradeDay's rulebook is simpler than most futures prop firms — 3 evaluation objectives, 3 guidelines, and 1 hard violation rule.
That's it on paper. But after 14 months of trading, 4 passed evaluations, and 1 account breach that taught me more than any guide ever could, I can tell you the rules interact in ways that aren't obvious until you've traded through them. The 30% consistency rule is the silent killer. The drawdown mechanics shift completely between evaluation and funded. And the news trading ban catches traders who don't know the specific windows. This is everything that matters, explained by someone who's had the rules applied to their actual money.
14 months of real trading: I've been trading TradeDay since December 2024—passed 4 evaluations, received 14+ payouts totaling over $38,000, dealt with their support team, and navigated every stage from evaluation through funded sim. I've tracked their payout reliability and compared them against every major futures alternative in the space.
That said, longevity doesn't mean perfection. TradeDay has strengths (day-one payouts, EOD drawdown option, 95% profit split potential, clean rulebook) and weaknesses (30% consistency rule during eval, no instant funding, futures only) that I've documented honestly. For a complete breakdown of their account types, pricing, and what to expect at each stage, read my complete TradeDay review. For the absolute latest, check TradeDay's website.
The 3 Evaluation Objectives
TradeDay's evaluation has three things you must complete. Miss any one of them and you won't get funded—even if you've hit your profit target with room to spare.
Objective 1: Hit Your Profit Target
This is the obvious one. Trade until your account balance reaches the starting balance plus the profit target.
For EOD and Intraday accounts: $3,000 on 50K, $6,000 on 100K, $9,000 on 150K. For Static accounts: $1,500 on 50K, $2,500 on 100K, $3,750 on 150K.
Seems straightforward, right? The catch is Objective 3 (the consistency rule) which can push your effective target significantly higher. More on that below.
Objective 2: Trade a Minimum of 5 Days
TradeDay reduced this from 7-10 days to 5 days in late 2024. Days don't need to be consecutive. One completed round-trip trade during a session counts as one trading day.
My mistake on evaluation #2: I hit my $3,000 target on Day 4 with a monster NQ session. Submitted for funding immediately, confident I was done. TradeDay rejected it — 5-day minimum not met. Had to come back for Day 5, trade conservatively to not breach drawdown while already at target, and keep my best day under 30% at the same time. Incredibly stressful. Could have avoided it by just trading 5 days before going aggressive.
The lesson: spread your trading across at least 6-7 days. Don't rush to hit target before you have your days logged. I now trade minimum 2 days at reduced size before even attempting target runs.
Objective 3: The 30% Consistency Rule
No single day's profit can exceed 30% of your total profit at the time you request funding. This is the rule that trips up more traders than anything else at TradeDay, and it's more nuanced than it appears.
How it actually works:
Your profit target doesn't disappear if you breach 30% — it adjusts upward. The formula: Best Day Profit ÷ 0.30 = New Minimum Total Profit Required.
Real example from my second evaluation ($50K EOD):
Target: $3,000. Day 8 I caught a strong NQ trend and made $1,100. Felt great until I checked the dashboard — my effective target had jumped to $3,667 ($1,100 ÷ 0.30). I needed $667 more than originally planned, and I had to earn it without having another day over $1,100 (which would push the target even higher). It took 9 additional trading days of $70-$150 daily profits to grind out that extra amount.
My approach now: I cap daily profits at $800 on a $50K account ($3,000 × 0.27 ≈ $810). If I'm up $700 and see another setup, I stop trading for the day. Boring, but I've passed my last 3 evaluations without the target adjusting once.
| Account Size | Profit Target | 30% Threshold | Safe Daily Max | What Happens If Exceeded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $50K (EOD/Intra) | $3,000 | $900 | $800 (my recommendation) | Target adjusts upward: $1,200 day → new target $4,000 |
| $100K (EOD/Intra) | $6,000 | $1,800 | $1,600 | Target adjusts upward: $2,500 day → new target $8,333 |
| $150K (EOD/Intra) | $9,000 | $2,700 | $2,400 | Target adjusts upward: $3,500 day → new target $11,667 |
| $50K (Static) | $1,500 | $450 | $400 | Target adjusts upward: $600 day → new target $2,000 |
Key detail most guides miss: the consistency rule only applies during evaluation. Once you're funded, there's no consistency requirement. Trade however you want. This is a significant advantage over firms like Lucid Trading's Direct accounts that enforce consistency on funded traders.
Drawdown Rules: The Core of Survival
Drawdown is the single most important rule at TradeDay. It's the only thing that can end your account instantly, and how it works depends entirely on which drawdown type you selected.
Trailing Drawdown Mechanics (Intraday)
On Intraday trailing accounts, your drawdown floor moves upward in real-time during the session whenever your account reaches a new equity high — including unrealized profits on open positions.
Here's what that looks like in practice:
Starting balance: $50,000. Drawdown floor: $48,000. You enter a long NQ position at 9:35 AM. By 10:15 AM, you're up $1,200 unrealized. Your equity is $51,200, so the drawdown floor moves to $49,200. The trade reverses and you close at +$400 (balance: $50,400). Your drawdown floor stays at $49,200. Your remaining drawdown room: $50,400 - $49,200 = $1,200. You started the day with $2,000 of room. You made $400 profit. But you lost $800 of drawdown room because of the unrealized peak.
This is why intraday trailing is brutal. Every unrealized peak permanently tightens your leash, even if you close well below that peak.
Trailing Drawdown Mechanics (EOD)
EOD trailing only recalculates at 4:00 PM CT market close based on your realized balance. Intraday swings — up or down — don't move the floor.
Same scenario on EOD: Starting balance $50,000, floor at $48,000. Trade peaks at +$1,200, you close at +$400. End-of-day balance: $50,400. Floor moves to $48,400 (not $49,200). Your remaining room: $2,000 still, because only the $400 realized profit counts.
See the difference? On Intraday you lost $800 of room. On EOD you lost $0. Same trade, same result, completely different drawdown impact.
Static Drawdown Mechanics
Static is the simplest: the floor never moves. $50K Static starts at $49,500 and stays at $49,500 whether you make $100 or $10,000. The catch is that $500 of total drawdown room is extremely tight. One bad trade on a mini contract can wipe it out.
Drawdown Stops Trailing After Reaching Starting Balance
This is critical and often overlooked: trailing drawdown (both Intraday and EOD) stops trailing once the floor reaches your original starting balance. On a $50K account with $2,000 drawdown, the floor starts at $48,000 and trails upward with profits. Once your cumulative profit has moved the floor to $50,000 (your starting balance), the floor locks at $50,000 permanently. It will never move above $50,000.
This means: once you've earned $2,000 in net profit (on EOD) or $2,000 in equity peaks (on Intraday), your drawdown becomes effectively static at $50,000. From that point on, any profit above $50,000 is yours to keep — your only risk is dropping back to $50,000.
Getting to this point is my #1 priority on every new account. Once the floor locks, the psychological pressure drops dramatically.
Trading Session Rules
Permitted Trading Hours
TradeDay accounts trade CME futures sessions: Sunday 6:00 PM ET through Friday 5:00 PM ET. The daily session runs from 6:00 PM to 5:00 PM ET the following day, with a 1-hour maintenance break at 5:00 PM.
All positions must be flat by 5:00 PM ET daily. TradeDay auto-liquidates anything still open. This isn't a soft guideline — it's enforced automatically. I set a hard rule to be flat by 4:45 PM and never trade after 3:45 PM to avoid the close-of-day chop.
News Trading Restrictions
TradeDay prohibits trading during major economic news events. The specific restricted windows are typically 2 minutes before and 2 minutes after scheduled high-impact releases (FOMC decisions, NFP, CPI, etc.).
If you have a position open during a restricted window, TradeDay's system auto-liquidates it. This isn't a manual review — it's automated, instant, and non-negotiable.
My approach: I check the economic calendar every morning before my first trade. On days with FOMC, NFP, or CPI releases, I either trade early and close before the window, or I skip the session entirely. Getting auto-liquidated at a bad price during a news spike is worse than missing one trading day.
Position Limits
Position limits are hard-coded per account and cannot be exceeded:
| Account | Intraday/EOD | Static | Micro Equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50K | 5 contracts | 1 contract | 50 micros / 10 micros |
| $100K | 10 contracts | 2 contracts | 100 micros / 20 micros |
| $150K | 15 contracts | 3 contracts | 150 micros / 30 micros |
These limits apply to combined open positions. You can't hold 5 ES contracts and 2 NQ contracts simultaneously on a 50K EOD account — that's 7 contracts total, above the 5-contract limit. Mix and match however you want, but the total must stay under the cap.
Prohibited Practices
TradeDay maintains a list of explicitly prohibited trading behaviors. Violating any of these can result in account termination without appeal:
Manipulative trading: Any pattern designed to game the evaluation rather than trade legitimately. This includes opening and immediately closing trades to accumulate "trading days" without actual market participation, or coordinated trading across multiple accounts to hedge positions.
Automated exploitation: Bots designed to exploit TradeDay's platform infrastructure rather than trade market conditions. Legitimate algo trading is allowed — the distinction is intent and behavior. If your algorithm makes real market-based decisions, you're fine. If it's designed to game drawdown mechanics or exploit data feed latencies, that's a violation.
Copy trading (with caveats): Copy trading between your own TradeDay accounts is prohibited. Each account must be traded independently with independent decision-making. You can use the same strategy on multiple accounts, but the exact entry, exit, and sizing should differ organically — not be mirror-copied by software.
Account sharing: Your account is tied to your identity. Letting someone else trade it, or trading someone else's account, gets both accounts terminated.
News event exploitation: Beyond the auto-liquidation windows, TradeDay monitors for patterns that systematically exploit pre-news positioning or post-news spikes in ways that suggest gaming rather than trading.
What Changes After You're Funded
The transition from evaluation to funded sim is smooth, but the rule changes matter:
Consistency rule disappears. Once funded, you can have a single day account for 100% of your profits. No more capping daily gains. This was the biggest relief for me — during evaluation I felt constantly constrained. Once funded, I could let my winners run without calculating percentages.
Drawdown type stays the same. If you evaluated on EOD, you're funded on EOD. No switching. The drawdown floor continues from where it was at evaluation completion, not from a fresh starting point.
Payout buffer applies. You need to earn enough profit to clear the drawdown buffer before requesting your first payout. On a $50K EOD account, that's effectively $2,000 — you need your balance high enough that after withdrawal, you still have drawdown room to keep trading.
Monthly subscription continues. You keep paying the monthly fee during funded sim. This stops only if you cancel, breach, or transition to funded live.
No daily loss limit on funded sim. TradeDay doesn't impose daily loss limits at any stage. You can have a terrible day, lose $1,800, and come back tomorrow — as long as your drawdown floor isn't breached. This is a massive advantage over firms that end your session or your week after a single bad day.
Funded Sim → Funded Live Transition
After proving consistency in funded sim, TradeDay transitions eligible traders to funded live accounts where you're trading real capital. The criteria for this transition involve:
Consistent profitability over an extended period, clean compliance with all rules, and meeting milestone targets set by TradeDay. The exact milestones aren't publicly disclosed with specific numbers, but based on my experience and conversations with other funded traders, it generally involves demonstrating stable, profitable trading over several months of funded sim activity.
Funded live adds some new considerations: professional data fees apply, execution quality is monitored more closely (real fills vs sim fills behave differently), and the slippage rule becomes relevant — consistent negative slippage patterns can flag your account for review.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the three evaluation objectives at TradeDay?
Hit the profit target (EOD/Intraday: $3,000 on $50K, $6,000 on $100K; Static: $1,500 on $50K, $2,500 on $100K), trade a minimum of 5 days, and satisfy the 30% consistency rule. Missing any one of the three prevents funding even if the profit target is fully met. The consistency rule is the one that catches most traders off guard.
How does TradeDay's 30% consistency rule actually work?
No single day's profit can exceed 30% of total profits at the time funding is requested. If your best day exceeds that threshold, the formula adjusts the effective target upward: Best Day Profit ÷ 0.30 = New Minimum Total Profit Required. A $1,100 day on a $3,000 target evaluation raises the required total to $3,667 — and every additional big day pushes it higher.
What is the best way to avoid the 30% consistency rule triggering on TradeDay?
Cap daily profits at roughly 27% of your original target — approximately $800 on a $50K EOD account targeting $3,000. Stop trading for the day once that level is reached even if setups appear. Spread trading across at least 6-7 days before attempting aggressive target runs. This approach has resulted in passing three consecutive evaluations without the effective target adjusting once.
What is the difference between Intraday and EOD trailing drawdown at TradeDay?
Intraday trailing moves the drawdown floor in real-time with every new equity high including unrealized profits. EOD trailing only recalculates at 4:00 PM CT based on the realized closing balance. Same trade peaking at +$1,200 and closing at +$400 results in $800 of lost drawdown room on Intraday versus zero lost drawdown room on EOD — identical trade, completely different drawdown impact.
At what point does TradeDay's trailing drawdown stop moving?
Trailing drawdown stops permanently once the floor reaches the original starting balance. On a $50K account with $2,000 drawdown, the floor starts at $48,000 and trails upward until it reaches $50,000 — at which point it locks forever. On EOD accounts this requires $2,000 in realized net profit. Reaching this lock point eliminates the psychological pressure of a moving floor and should be the first priority on every new account.
Does TradeDay have a daily loss limit?
No — at any stage. Evaluation, funded sim, and funded live accounts have no daily loss limit. The only hard stop is the maximum drawdown floor for the account type. A trader can lose $1,800 in a session and return the next day as long as the drawdown floor hasn't been breached. This is a significant advantage over firms that terminate the session or week after a single bad day.
What happens if a position is open during a TradeDay news trading window?
Automatic liquidation — instant, non-negotiable, and not a manual review. The position closes at whatever price the system fills during the news spike, which is typically a bad fill. This is enforced around FOMC, NFP, CPI, and other major high-impact releases within a 2-minute window before and after the scheduled release. The financial damage from a bad news fill exceeds the cost of skipping one trading session.
Does the 30% consistency rule apply to funded TradeDay accounts?
No — the consistency rule applies only during evaluation. Once funded on a sim account, there are no consistency requirements whatsoever. A single day can account for 100% of profits. This is one of TradeDay's strongest advantages versus firms like Lucid Trading's Direct accounts that enforce consistency rules on funded traders as well.
How does TradeDay count a trading day toward the 5-day minimum?
One completed round-trip trade — an open and a close — during a session counts as one trading day. Profitability is not required. Opening and immediately closing a position technically satisfies the requirement, but patterns of doing this solely to accumulate days without real market participation can be flagged as manipulative trading and result in account termination.
What are the prohibited practices at TradeDay?
Four hard violations: manipulative trading patterns (opening and closing immediately just to log days, coordinated hedging across accounts), automated exploitation (bots targeting platform infrastructure rather than market conditions), copy trading between your own TradeDay accounts (each must be traded independently), and account sharing. All result in immediate termination without appeal.
What are TradeDay's position limits and how do they apply?
Limits apply to total combined open contracts across all instruments simultaneously — not per trade or per instrument. On a $50K EOD account the cap is 5 contracts total: holding 5 ES and 2 NQ simultaneously would breach the limit at 7 contracts. Mix instruments freely but track total open exposure at all times. Limits increase with account size.
What changes when transitioning from TradeDay evaluation to funded sim?
The consistency rule disappears entirely. The drawdown type stays the same as evaluation with no switching allowed. The drawdown floor continues from where evaluation ended rather than resetting. A payout buffer applies — on a $50K EOD account, $2,000 of profit above the drawdown floor must exist before the first withdrawal can be requested. The monthly subscription continues through funded sim.
Can algorithmic and automated trading be used at TradeDay?
Yes, with a clear distinction: legitimate algorithmic trading based on real market analysis is permitted. Systems designed to exploit platform infrastructure, game drawdown mechanics, exploit data feed latencies, or copy trades between accounts are prohibited. The line is intent and behavior — if the algorithm makes genuine market-based decisions, it qualifies. If it's targeting the firm's systems rather than the market, it doesn't.
What products can be traded on TradeDay accounts?
All major CME Group futures including ES, NQ, RTY, YM, CL, GC, SI, NG, and their micro equivalents. This covers CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX-listed products. Position limits cap combined open contracts across all instruments, so traders running multiple futures products simultaneously need to track total exposure carefully.
How should TradeDay traders approach the funded sim to funded live transition?
Consistent profitability over an extended period, clean rule compliance, and meeting undisclosed milestone targets are the criteria. Based on experience and funded trader community feedback, this generally requires several months of stable funded sim trading. Funded live introduces professional data fees, closer execution quality monitoring, and slippage pattern review — consistent negative slippage can flag an account for review regardless of overall profitability.
