Alpha Capital Group Rules: What Traders Need to Know
12 min read
If you're considering an Alpha Capital Group evaluation, understanding the alpha capital group rules before you buy is the difference between a clean pass and an avoidable breach. Alpha Capital offers multiple plan types with different targets, drawdown structures, and restrictions. Some of the details catch traders off guard.
This article breaks down every rule that applies during the evaluation and after you're funded, sourced directly from Alpha Capital's official website and help center.
Alpha Capital Group Plans and Account Sizes
Alpha Capital Group is a UK-based prop firm that offers simulated trading accounts. You trade in a simulated environment, and once you pass the evaluation, you become a Qualified Analyst. From there, you earn a share of your trading profits, which Alpha Capital calls an Analyst Performance Fee.
The firm offers six evaluation plans across three structures:
1 Step (one assessment phase): Alpha One
2 Step (two assessment phases): Alpha Pro 6%, Alpha Pro 8%, Alpha Pro 10%, and Alpha Swing
3 Step (three assessment phases): Alpha Three
All plans are available in account sizes from $5,000 to $200,000, with one exception: Alpha Three starts at $10,000.
Available trading platforms include cTrader, MetaTrader 5, DX Trade, and TradeLocker. Tradeable assets span Forex, Metals, Cash Indices, and Commodities.
The maximum allocation across all plans is $400,000 per trader (per household). This is shared across every plan type, so if you hold a $200,000 Pro account, you have $200,000 of allocation remaining for any other plan.
Alpha Capital Evaluation Targets and Drawdown Limits
Each plan has its own profit targets, drawdown limits, and leverage. Here's how the alpha capital evaluation objectives break down.
Alpha One (1 Step)
Alpha One is the quickest path to a funded account: one assessment phase with only one minimum trading day. The tradeoff is a trailing drawdown and lower leverage (1:30) compared to the Pro plans. Here are the key rules:
Phase 1 Profit Target: 10%
Max Drawdown: 6% (trailing)
Max Daily Drawdown: 4%
Min Trading Days: 1
Leverage: 1:30
Alpha One is the only plan with a trailing drawdown. The max drawdown moves up with your account's high-water mark (highest balance achieved). For example, on a $100,000 account, your initial drawdown floor is $94,000. If your balance reaches $102,000, the floor moves to $96,000. Once your balance hits $106,000 (initial balance + 6%), the trailing drawdown locks at $100,000 and stops moving.
2 Step Plans: Alpha Pro and Alpha Swing
The Pro plans are Alpha Capital's two-phase evaluations with the highest leverage (up to 1:100). The three variants let you choose your risk-reward balance. Pro 6% has the lowest targets and tightest drawdown. Pro 10% gives you the most drawdown room but demands the highest profit target. Pro 8% sits in the middle.
Rules | Pro 6% | Pro 8% | Pro 10% | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Phase 1 Profit Target | 6% | 8% | 10% | 10% |
Phase 2 Profit Target | 6% | 5% | 5% | 5% |
Max Drawdown | 6% (static) | 8% (static) | 10% (static) | 10% (static) |
Max Daily Drawdown | 3% | 4% | 5% | 5% |
Min Trading Days | 3 per phase | 3 per phase | 3 per phase | 3 per phase |
Leverage | Up to 1:100 | Up to 1:100 | Up to 1:100 | Up to 1:30 |
Alpha Swing is designed for traders who prefer longer-term strategies. It has the same profit targets and drawdown as Pro 10%, but with lower leverage (1:30). The payoff is more flexibility: Swing accounts have relaxed news trading rules and allow weekend holding on funded accounts, which Pro accounts don't allow.
Alpha Three (3 Step)
Alpha Three spreads the evaluation across three phases with lower per-phase profit targets (8% → 4% → 4%). The drawdown is tighter at 6% static, and leverage sits at 1:50, between Pro and One/Swing. This plan starts at $10,000 (no $5,000 option). Here are the key rules:
Phase 1 Profit Target: 8%
Phase 2 Profit Target: 4%
Phase 3 Profit Target: 4%
Max Drawdown: 6% (static)
Max Daily Drawdown: 4%
Min Trading Days: 3 per phase
Leverage: Up to 1:50
There are no maximum trading days on any plan. You have unlimited time to hit your targets.
How Alpha Capital Drawdown Rules Work
The alpha capital drawdown rules are where most breaches happen, so it's worth understanding exactly how they're calculated.
Daily Drawdown
Your daily drawdown resets at the start of each trading day (00:00 GMT+3). How it's calculated depends on which plan you're on.
One thing to understand first: your balance only reflects closed trades, while your equity includes unrealized profit or loss on any open positions. These two numbers are identical when you have no open trades. They only diverge when you're holding a position through the daily reset.
Pro 8%/10% and Swing (balance-based): The daily loss limit is calculated from your starting balance at the daily reset. Open positions don't change the calculation. On a $100,000 Pro 10% account with a 5% daily limit, your floor is $95,000 for the day. If you're holding an open trade that's down $1,000 at the reset (equity of $99,000), the floor is still $95,000, but you only have $4,000 of room before you hit it instead of $5,000.
Pro 6%, One, and Three (higher of balance or equity): The daily loss limit is calculated from whichever is greater at the reset: your balance or your equity. This means open positions can affect the calculation.
For example, say you have a $100,000 account with a 4% daily limit. If you're holding an open winner worth $1,000 at the reset, your equity is $101,000. The calculation uses $101,000 (the higher number), setting your floor at $96,960 for the next day.
Now imagine the opposite: you're holding an open loser of $1,000 at the reset. Your equity is $99,000, but your balance is still $100,000. The calculation uses $100,000 (the higher number), setting your floor at $96,000.
On all plans, daily drawdown breaches are hard breaches. If your equity falls below the daily minimum at any point during the trading day, the account is closed and all trades are automatically liquidated.
Maximum Total Loss
On plans with static drawdown (Pro, Swing, Three), your max loss is a fixed percentage of your initial balance. It never moves, even if your account grows. On a $100,000 Pro 10% account, your floor stays at $90,000 whether your balance is $100,000 or $115,000.
On Alpha One, the trailing drawdown follows your high-water mark upward until it locks. This means if you profit early and then give those profits back, you have less room than you started with. The floor moves up with your gains but doesn't come back down.
Breaching the max total loss is also a hard breach, resulting in account closure.
Alpha Capital Funded Account: Qualified Analyst Rules
Once you pass the evaluation, you receive a Qualified Analyst account (Alpha Capital's funded account). This is still a simulated account, and the same drawdown, daily loss, and leverage rules from the evaluation carry over. There are no profit targets, so you're free to trade at your own pace.
Profit Split
Qualified Analysts earn an 80% performance fee on profits generated.
Payout Types
The available payout method depends on your plan:
On-demand only: Alpha One and Alpha Swing
Biweekly or on-demand: Alpha Pro (all variants) and Alpha Three
On-demand payouts require you to meet two conditions. First, the 40% Best Day Rule: no single trading day can account for more than 40% of your total profits. If your best day was $1,000, you need at least $2,500 in total profits before you can request a payout. Second, you need a minimum of 2% gross profit on your account balance.
Biweekly payouts follow a 14-day cycle starting from your first trade on the qualified account. The minimum payout amount is $100 in gross profits. For your first biweekly payout, a minimum of 5 trading days using the same strategy is required. Using minimal lot sizes just to meet the trading day requirement is not allowed.
You choose one payout method per account. On-demand and biweekly cannot be mixed on the same account.
Scaling Plan
Qualified Analysts who achieve a 10% gain on their account balance can request scaling. The scaling amount is 10% of the initial account balance, and you request it at the withdrawal stage alongside your performance fee. The maximum cumulative scaling across all accounts is $2 million.
Alpha Capital Live Account: Alpha Prime
Alpha Prime is Alpha Capital's live account program, where qualified traders transition from simulated accounts to trading real funds. Traders qualify for review by reaching a $40,000 profit on a single simulated payout, achieving five payouts from a single Qualified Account, or reaching $100,000 in lifetime payouts. Traders can also be selected early for exceptional performance.
Alpha Prime accounts start with a $10,000 balance with scaling options, a 30% daily loss limit, and a static (non-trailing) drawdown. Traders earn a 60% profit split, with the option for a monthly salary. A few rules from the standard funded accounts don't apply here: there are no consistency rules, no news trading restrictions, and no cap on withdrawals. Top performers can receive increased salary and larger fund allocations, with the opportunity to work from Alpha Capital's trading floor in London.
Traders who decline the Alpha Prime offer receive a final payout and end their relationship with the firm.
Whether you're working toward Alpha Prime or trying to pass an evaluation, tracking your performance against all of these rules matters. Tools like Tanto can help by auto-syncing trades from supported brokers and platforms, making it easier to monitor metrics like daily drawdown usage, consistency score, and average trade duration before requesting a payout.
Alpha Capital Trading Restrictions
The alpha capital group rules include several trading restrictions that apply across all accounts. Knowing these before you start trading can save you from an avoidable breach.
News Trading
During evaluation phases, you can trade freely around all news releases on every plan.
On your funded account, restrictions apply. The rules differ by plan:
Pro 8% and Pro 10%: You cannot open or close trades on affected instruments within 2 minutes before or 2 minutes after high-impact news releases.
Pro 6%, One, and Three: The restricted window is 5 minutes before and 5 minutes after.
Swing: You can trade around news, but if a trade is opened within 2 minutes before or after a news release, it must stay open for at least 2 minutes to be valid.
One detail that catches traders off guard: if your take profit or stop loss gets triggered during the restricted window, that still counts as a violation. Alpha Capital publishes a full list of restricted instruments and affected news events in their help center. They recommend checking the Myfxbook or Forex Factory economic calendars before trading.
Weekend Holding
During evaluation, weekend holding is allowed on all plans.
On funded accounts, it depends on the plan:
Pro (all variants: 6%, 8%, 10%): Weekend holding is not allowed
One, Three, and Swing: Weekend holding is allowed
Holding trades over the weekend on a Pro funded account results in a soft breach (profits from those trades are removed, but the account remains active as long as the balance doesn't breach drawdown limits).
Inactivity
All accounts have a 30-day inactivity limit. If you don't place a trade within 30 days, the account will be closed.
2-Minute Average Trade Duration
All accounts on all plans are subject to the 2-minute average trade duration rule. Your average trade duration must exceed 2 minutes, and at least 50% of your profits must come from trades lasting longer than 2 minutes.
Some individual trades under 2 minutes are fine. The rule targets the overall pattern, not every single position. But if more than half your profits come from sub-2-minute trades, you'll breach.
The consequences depend on when you breach. During evaluation: you're required to restart from Phase 1. On a funded account: all profits are removed and the account resets to its initial balance.
Hedging, Stacking, and Copy Trading
Hedging within the same account is allowed. Hedging across two Alpha Capital accounts is prohibited, and this includes correlated instruments. For example, going long EURUSD on one account and long USDCHF on another could be flagged as cross-account hedging since those pairs are inversely correlated.
Stacking (3 or more open trades on the same instrument) is allowed.
Copy trading is allowed from your own external accounts, but you need to provide proof of ownership. Copy trading from other groups or duplicating trades from other traders is prohibited. Copy trading functionality is currently only available on MT5.
Expert Advisors (EAs)
EAs are allowed on MT5 only and must be pre-approved by emailing Alpha Capital with the EX5 and MQ5 files. HFT bots are not permitted. If you want to use an EA on your funded account, it must also have been enabled and used during your evaluation.
Lot Size Limits
Each plan has maximum lot exposure limits based on account size. Pro, One, and Three share the same scale. Swing accounts have lower limits.
Account Size | Pro / One / Three | Swing |
|---|---|---|
$5,000 | 2.5 lots | 1.25 lots |
$10,000 | 5 lots | 2.5 lots |
$25,000 | 10 lots | 5 lots |
$50,000 | 20 lots | 10 lots |
$100,000 | 40 lots | 20 lots |
$200,000 | 80 lots | 40 lots |
Lot size violations are reviewed at the withdrawal stage. First violation: profits earned while exceeding the limit are not eligible for withdrawal. Second violation: your performance fee is forfeited and the account is deactivated. Violations are counted per position, not per trade idea, so two overlapping trades that together exceed the limit count as two violations.
Prohibited Strategies
Alpha Capital explicitly prohibits the following:
Arbitrage trading
Latency trading
High-frequency trading (HFT)
Reverse trading or group hedging
Order book spamming (placing many small orders instead of one appropriately sized order)
Group trading or signal following from other traders
Account management services (someone else trading your account)
Using a prohibited strategy on any account may result in account termination and a potential ban on services.
Gambling Policy
Alpha Capital has a strict policy against "all or nothing" trading strategies. Specific behaviors they flag include sudden changes in lot size compared to your account average, unusual trade durations that deviate significantly from your history, and trades that appear to be purely speculative around high-impact news events without consistent strategy behind them.
This is reviewed on a case-by-case basis and accounts for your overall trading history. If identified, profits may be removed and the account may be closed.
Bottom Line
The alpha capital group rules are detailed, but they're consistent and well-documented once you know where to look. The biggest things to watch are daily drawdown resets (especially if you carry floating losses overnight), news trading windows that differ by plan, and the 40% Best Day Rule on funded accounts. Before starting any evaluation, read through the Alpha Capital Help Center for the most current version of every rule, as policies can update over time.
Last updated: March 23, 2026