Max daily loss
Commonly around 5% of starting balance. The single most common reason an account dies — and almost always to one more trade after the day was already over.
Prop Firm Algo Trading
The rules are numbers. Code doesn't negotiate with them.
Almost nobody loses a funded account because their edge stopped working. They lose it to one more trade after the daily loss cap, on a day they had already decided to stop. Describe your firm's limits in plain English and they become constraints inside the strategy — not intentions you have to hold to at 3am.
6 MB · Windows, macOS, Linux · No credit card
“Your own logic” is a rule, and a bought EA fails it
Most firms permit automated trading. FTMO among them — but with a condition worth reading twice: the logic has to be yours. Copy-trading somebody else's signals can breach terms, and some firms will not fund an account found running a known commercial Expert Advisor.
That is a real problem with the usual route. An EA bought off a marketplace is the same file thousands of other traders are running, and it is recognisable as such.
A strategy you described in your own words, whose code sits on your own disk, which you can read line by line and change whenever you want, is your own logic in a way a download never is. That is not a marketing distinction — it is the distinction the rule book is actually drawing.
The limits that actually end accounts
Every one of these is a number. Numbers are the one thing software is better at than you are on a bad day.
Max total drawdown
Often about 10%, sometimes trailing. Slow to breach, and easy to argue yourself past when you are close to a target.
Risk per trade
Your own rule, not the firm’s, and the first one to quietly grow after a loss you want back.
Prohibited styles
Grid, martingale, latency arbitrage and tick scalping are widely restricted. Check your firm’s list before you describe a strategy, not after.
Limits vary by firm and change over time. Read your own rule book — this page describes the shape of the problem, not your specific agreement.
What this does and does not do
What it does
- Turns your rules into code you own and can read
- Enforces sizing and loss limits on every single trade
- Backtests against real history before anything is live
- Tells you when a drawdown is material instead of showing you the good part
What it does not
- Make a losing strategy profitable
- Help you pass a challenge
- Get around any firm's rules
- Supply an edge — that part is still yours
Prop firm FAQ
Do prop firms allow automated trading?
Most do. FTMO and many others permit Expert Advisors, with an important condition: the logic has to be your own. Copy-trading someone else’s signals can breach terms, and some firms will not fund an account running a known commercial EA. Always read your specific firm’s rules — they differ, and they change.
Why does a bought EA put a funded account at risk?
Because thousands of other traders are running the identical file. Firms can recognise a commercial EA, and several refuse to fund accounts using one. A strategy you described in your own words, whose code sits on your own disk and which you can read and change, is your own logic in a way a marketplace download is not.
Can this help me pass a challenge?
No, and be suspicious of anything that says otherwise. Nothing makes a strategy profitable. What automation removes is a different failure: breaking your own rules. The daily loss cap and the total drawdown limit are just numbers, and code obeys numbers at 3am on a losing day, which is exactly when people do not.
What about grid and martingale strategies?
Most firms flag or ban them outright, because both build exactly the kind of exposure that blows through a drawdown limit. Latency arbitrage and tick scalping are close to universally banned, and some firms treat very high server-request rates as grounds for termination. QuantIDE will build what you describe — it is on you not to describe something your firm prohibits.
Does this work for futures prop firms like Apex or Topstep?
Not through MetaTrader. Futures firms generally run NinjaTrader, Tradovate or Rithmic rather than MT4/MT5, so Expert Advisors are not the right shape there. QuantIDE has no fixed venue list — you can describe the platform you actually trade and have that connection built — but the EA workflow on this page is forex and CFD territory.
How do I express my firm’s rules?
In plain English, the way the rule book states them. "Never risk more than half a percent per trade. Stop trading for the day at two percent down. Flatten everything and stop if total drawdown hits eight percent." Those become hard limits inside the strategy rather than intentions you have to hold to under pressure.
What does it cost?
The app is free forever — a 6 MB download for Windows, macOS and Linux, no credit card, no trial. Paid tiers ($19.99 and $39 a month) only add hosted AI capacity. Given a challenge fee is often a few hundred dollars, the tooling is not the expensive part.
Write your firm's rules into the strategy.
Describe the limits from your rule book, backtest against real history, and run it on a demo account first. The edge stays yours — this just stops you overriding it.
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