Take Profit Trader Rules: What You Need to Know
8 min read
If you're evaluating a futures prop firm, understanding the take profit trader rules before you buy a test account can save you time, money, and a blown evaluation. Take Profit Trader (TPT) is a futures-only prop firm with a one-step evaluation. The rules change as you move from the test to a funded PRO account and then to a live-market PRO+ account. This article breaks down every rule across all three phases.
Take Profit Trader Test Rules
The Test is Take Profit Trader's one-step evaluation. You trade in a simulated environment, hit a profit target, and follow a set of risk rules. You pay a monthly subscription fee for as long as the test is active, and there is no time limit to pass. You must trade a minimum of 5 days. The daily loss limit has been removed across all account sizes, and there is no news trading restriction during the Test.
Permitted products include futures listed on CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX. Platform options include CQG (NinjaTrader, Tradovate, and TradingView) and Rithmic (R|Trader, Quantower, MotiveWave, and others).
Here are the rules for each account size:
Account Size | Profit Target | Max Position Size | EOD Trailing Drawdown | Consistency | Min Days to Pass |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
$25,000 | $1,500 | 3 Contracts / 30 Micros | $1,500 | 50% | 5 |
$50,000 | $3,000 | 6 Contracts / 60 Micros | $2,000 | 50% | 5 |
$75,000 | $4,500 | 9 Contracts / 90 Micros | $2,500 | 50% | 5 |
$100,000 | $6,000 | 12 Contracts / 120 Micros | $3,000 | 50% | 5 |
$150,000 | $9,000 | 15 Contracts / 150 Micros | $4,500 | 50% | 5 |
EOD Trailing Drawdown
The take profit trader drawdown rule is what trips up traders the most during the evaluation. Your trailing drawdown is calculated at the end of each trading day (5 PM Eastern), not during open trades.
The drawdown follows your highest end-of-day balance upward. If you start a $25,000 account with a $1,500 drawdown, your minimum account balance begins at $23,500. If your end-of-day balance rises to $26,000, the minimum account balance moves up to $24,500. This trailing continues until the minimum reaches your original starting balance ($25,000), at which point it stops and stays fixed.
If your account drops to the minimum account balance at any point, through realized or unrealized losses, the account is immediately liquidated.
Consistency Rule
The consistency rule has two parts:
Minimum 5 trading days. You must trade on at least five separate days before you can pass the test. A trading day counts if you place at least one trade.
No single day can exceed 50% of total net profits. This is calculated using the formula: Highest profit day / Net P&L = Consistency Percentage. This percentage must be below 50%.
If you have a big winning day early on, you don't fail. You just need to keep trading until your total profit grows enough that the big day falls below the 50% threshold. For example, if your best day was +$2,000 and your net P&L is $3,100, your consistency percentage is 65%, which is too high. Your updated profit goal becomes $3,100 × 2 = $6,200, because at that point $2,000 / $6,200 is below 50%.
Tools like Tanto let you auto-sync your trades, making it easier to monitor your daily P&L against the 50% threshold during the take profit trader evaluation.
PRO Account Rules: What Changes When You're Funded
Once you pass the test, you move to a PRO account. There is a one-time activation fee, though TPT frequently runs promotions that discount or waive it. The PRO account is still a simulated environment, but the profits you withdraw are real money. You can request withdrawals starting on day one. The profit split is 80/20, meaning you keep 80%.
Several take profit trader rules change at this stage. Here's what's different:
Drawdown Changes to Intraday
This is the biggest change. In the Test, the drawdown is calculated at the end of the day. In the PRO account, the trailing drawdown is calculated intraday, meaning it follows your peak balance in real time, including unrealized gains. The maximum drawdown amount stays the same as your test account, and it still stops trailing once it reaches your starting balance.
For example, on a $25,000 PRO account your drawdown is $1,500, so your minimum account balance starts at $23,500. If your balance hits $26,000 during the day, the minimum immediately trails up to $24,500 ($26,000 minus $1,500). If your balance then drops back to $25,000, the minimum stays at $24,500. You now only have $500 of room before liquidation, not the $1,500 you started with.
Consistency Rule Removed
There is no consistency rule on PRO accounts. Your profits do not need to be spread evenly across trading days.
News Trading Restrictions
All PRO and PRO+ accounts must be flat (no open positions, no open orders) one minute before, during, and one minute after prohibited news events. The restricted events for all products are:
FOMC statements/announcements (Wednesdays at 2:00 PM ET; note that FED speakers and FOMC meeting minutes are allowed)
Non-Farm Payroll (monthly, Fridays at 8:30 AM ET)
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Additional product-specific restrictions apply: Crude Oil Inventories reports are prohibited for crude oil, and Bond Auctions are prohibited for 10-Year Note and 30-Year Bond.
Weekly Trading Requirement
To keep your PRO or PRO+ account active, you must trade at least one day per calendar week (Sunday through Friday). A traded day requires at least one round-trip on any permitted instrument.
Limit Up/Limit Down
You must exit all open positions before a price limit is reached. If a price limit is hit while you have an open position, you lose your account. This applies to both PRO and PRO+. Current daily price limits can be found on the CME website.
PRO+ Rules and the Upgrade Process
PRO+ is an invite-only, live-market account where your orders are routed directly to the exchange through Tradovate. Take Profit Trader manages the upgrade process at no cost to the trader. Once a PRO account is upgraded to PRO+, all trading and withdrawals for that account move to the PRO+ version.
Here's what changes in PRO+:
Profit split: 90/10, up from 80/20 in PRO
Drawdown: Reverts to end-of-day trailing (the same as the Test)
$5,000 frozen from PRO: When your PRO+ account is created, $5,000 in profit from your PRO account is frozen and must remain in the account while PRO+ is active. The PRO+ account starts with a $0 balance and an initial EOD drawdown equal to your original account's starting drawdown
Self-Match Prevention (SMP): Active on all PRO+ accounts. This is a CME compliance feature that automatically cancels one side of an order if a buy and sell from accounts under the same firm ID would match. It's rare and does not affect your account standing
Trading Rules for All Take Profit Trader Accounts
Regardless of which phase you're in, these take profit trader rules apply across the board.
Trading hours: All positions must be closed by 5 PM Eastern, Monday through Friday. The trading window runs from 6 PM Eastern to 5 PM Eastern. Holding a position past 5 PM results in account liquidation. Trades opened at or after 6 PM count toward the next trading day. Holiday schedules can change market hours, and it is the trader's responsibility to monitor them.
No counter positions: You cannot hold opposing positions in the same product or closely related products (e.g., ES/MES, NQ/MNQ, YM/MYM). This applies across all accounts you own or control, not just within a single account. Counter positions are detected automatically, and violations can result in profit forfeiture, account closure, or removal from the platform.
No trading bots or algos: All trades must be manually executed. Accounts traded using automated systems or bots on very short time frames will be considered unsuccessful.
Independent trading and trade copiers: All trading must be independent. Coordinated trading, third-party account management, and structured trading schemes designed to reduce or neutralize risk are prohibited. Trade copiers are allowed for managing accounts you personally own and control, but only approved copiers may be used. You cannot use a copier to synchronize trades between different users or identities.
Account limits: You can hold up to 5 active PRO and PRO+ accounts total (not 5 of each). You can activate up to 10 passed tests within a 30-day window. Test accounts are unlimited.
Take Profit Trader Payout and Withdrawal Rules
Understanding the payout rules is just as important as knowing the trading rules. Here's how withdrawals work on PRO and PRO+:
Rule | PRO | PRO+ |
|---|---|---|
Profit Split | 80/20 | 90/10 |
Buffer Requirement | Yes | None |
Withdrawals | Day one (after buffer) | Day one |
Max Withdrawal | No max | No max |
PRO Buffer Zone
To withdraw from a PRO account, you must first build a buffer. The buffer zone equals your starting balance plus your maximum drawdown amount. For example, on a $50K account with a $2,000 drawdown, you need to reach $52,000 before you can withdraw at 80%.
Withdrawing From Inside the Buffer
If your account is terminated while profits sit inside the buffer zone, you can still receive a portion. The split depends on how long the account was active:
60 trading days or fewer: you receive 50% of the buffer profits
More than 60 trading days: you receive 80% of the buffer profits
These are trading days (days you actually traded), not calendar days. The count ends on the last trading day of the PRO account.
Account Resets
If you lose a PRO account, you can reset it up to three times. A reset gives you a fresh account with the same rules, and you can start withdrawing from day one again. Reset fees vary by account size. PRO+ accounts cannot be reset. If you lose a PRO+ account, you must re-qualify through a PRO account.
Bottom Line
Take Profit Trader is a prop firm with rules that are relatively straightforward. The biggest things to watch for are the drawdown change from EOD (Test) to intraday (PRO), the news trading restrictions that kick in at the PRO level, and the buffer requirement before you can withdraw. If you keep those three differences in mind as you move between phases, the rest is standard risk management. For the latest rules, check Take Profit Trader's knowledge base.
Last updated: March 20, 2026