Minimum Profitable Days: What the Rule Really Asks For

Of all evaluation rules, minimum profitable days is the one traders most often discover at the worst moment: after hitting the profit target. The account shows the target reached, and progression waits on a number they never planned for. The rule is simple once seen clearly, and easy to satisfy on purpose.

What the rule says

A minimum profitable days requirement says that before you progress, a set number of your trading days must have ended in profit. On FFUNDED plans the requirement varies by plan family: five days on Instant Lite, none on Instant Standard, three on the 1-step plans, and two per phase on the 2-step plans.

The days do not need to be consecutive, and there is no requirement about how the profit is distributed beyond the day count itself.

Why firms ask for it

The rule exists because of one specific account shape: the single lucky day. A trader who hits a 10% target in one oversized session has proven they can win a coin flip at size, not that they can trade. Requiring profitable days spreads the evidence across multiple sessions and multiple market conditions. It is a consistency check, the mildest one in the industry's toolbox, and it pairs naturally with rules that cap how large any single day can loom.

For the trader, the useful reframe is this: the firm is not asking you to trade more. It is asking you to show the target was not an accident.

What counts as a "day"

Precision matters here, because trading days are measured against a fixed daily boundary, not your local midnight. Industry-wide, prop trading days almost universally roll over at 5pm New York time, when the global FX day turns. A position opened Tuesday evening and closed Wednesday morning New York time contributes its result to the day the profit was realised.

Two consequences:

• A green morning given back by the afternoon is one flat-or-red day, not a profitable one. The day is judged at its close.
• Trading a tiny size for ten minutes still opens a day. Days with activity and a profitable close are what count; days you do not trade at all simply do not exist for the rule.

Planning an evaluation around it

The rule only bites traders who try to finish in fewer days than the minimum. Building it into the plan costs nothing:

• Divide the target by the required days as a sanity check. A 10% target with three required days is never more than 3.4% of progress per day even in the fastest legal pass, which is conveniently close to sensible daily risk anyway.
• Bank small green days. A day that closes up 0.3% counts exactly as much as a day that closes up 3%. Once a day is meaningfully green, protecting it into the close both banks progress and banks a counted day.
• Do not manufacture days with junk trades. A forced trade to "open a day" near the close is risk taken for paperwork. With no time limit on the evaluation, patience is free.
• On 2-step plans, remember the counter resets per phase: two profitable days in phase one, then two again in phase two.

The interaction traders miss

Minimum profitable days also gate other milestones, not just the pass itself. Depending on the plan, payout eligibility and scaling reviews can reference the same day-counting machinery. The habit that satisfies all of them is identical: aim for a distribution of modest green days rather than one heroic one. It is also, not coincidentally, the shape of an account that survives.

Related reading: how it works end to end and payouts.

Frequently asked questions

What counts as a profitable day?

A trading day, measured to the daily rollover at 5pm New York time, whose closed result leaves the account up on the day. Any day you traded and finished green counts; days without trades do not count either way.

Do the profitable days have to be in a row?

No. The requirement is a count, not a streak. Three profitable days can be spread across three weeks with red and flat days between them.

Is there a minimum profit for a day to count?

Policies differ across the industry: some firms count any green close, others set a small threshold as a fraction of the account so that token one-cent days do not count. Check the specific plan's terms, and to be safe, treat a day as counted only when it closes meaningfully green rather than flat.

Can I hit the profit target before finishing the minimum days?

Yes, and the target does not expire. You simply continue trading normal size until the day count completes. The mistake to avoid is treating those remaining days as a formality and taking oversized risk in an account that has already done the hard part.