Take Profit Trader Rules: Test, PRO & PRO+ Accounts
15 min read
Understanding the Take Profit Trader rules before you buy a test account can save you from a blown evaluation and a denied payout. TPT's rulebook is lighter than most futures prop firms: no daily loss limit, no time limit on the evaluation, and payouts from day one of a funded account. The catch is the drawdown, which is one of the most common reasons accounts fail here. This guide covers every Take Profit Trader rule across the Test, the funded PRO account, and the live-market PRO+ account.
How Take Profit Trader Accounts Work
Take Profit Trader (TPT) is a futures-only prop firm with a one-step evaluation. Permitted products are futures listed on CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX. Platform options include CQG (NinjaTrader, Tradovate, and TradingView) and Rithmic (R|Trader, Quantower, MotiveWave, and others).
Every trader follows the same path, and it runs through three phases:
Test. The evaluation. You trade a simulated account, hit a profit target, and follow a set of risk rules. You pay a monthly subscription for as long as the test is active.
PRO. Your funded account, unlocked by passing the test and paying a one-time activation fee. Still a simulated environment, but the profits you withdraw from it are real money.
PRO+. A live account. TPT invites you, and the decision is entirely theirs.
Take Profit Trader's drawdown rules are what change most as you move through the phases. Every account has a trailing drawdown, and the amount is fixed by your account size: $1,500 on a $25,000 account, up to $4,500 on a $150,000 account. What changes is how it trails. The test and PRO+ both use an end-of-day (EOD) trailing drawdown, while a PRO account switches to intraday.
The drawdown is not the only rule that changes: the consistency rule disappears when you get funded, news restrictions appear, and the profit split improves if you reach PRO+. Here is how the rulebook shifts across the three phases.
Rule | Test | PRO | PRO+ |
|---|---|---|---|
Trailing drawdown | End-of-day | Intraday | End-of-day |
Consistency rule | 50% | None | None |
News restrictions | None | Yes | Yes |
Weekly trading requirement | None | One day per week | One day per week |
Profit split | None | 80/20 | 90/10 |
Buffer before withdrawal | None | Required | None |
Resets | Unlimited | Up to three | None |
Each phase is broken down in full below, along with the rules that apply no matter which account you are on.
Take Profit Trader Test Rules: The Evaluation Explained
The Test is Take Profit Trader's one-step evaluation. You pay a monthly subscription fee for as long as the test is active, and there is no time limit to pass. You trade in a simulated environment, hit a profit target, and follow a set of risk rules. You must trade a minimum of 5 days, and there is no daily loss limit or news trading restriction.
Here's what the rules look like 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 |
To pass, hit your profit target, trade at least five separate days, and keep your biggest day under 50% of your net profit.
Three things end a test account immediately: hitting your trailing drawdown, holding a position you cannot exit before the market closes, or opening counter positions. Counter positions also forfeit the profit in the account. The consistency rule is the only one that does not end your test, because breaking it raises your profit target instead of failing you.
EOD Trailing Drawdown
The trailing drawdown is one of the most common reasons test accounts fail. 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.
Take Profit Trader 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, once your balance clears the buffer zone. The profit split is 80/20, meaning you keep 80%.
Hitting your intraday trailing drawdown liquidates a PRO account on the spot. So does a price limit hit while you are holding, or opening counter positions, which also forfeit the profit in the account. Breaking any of the other rules below can cost you your profits, the account, or your place on the platform.
Here's what changes:
PRO Intraday Drawdown Rules
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. Consider it the trade you make for the harder drawdown: the rule that governed how you passed the test disappears the moment you are funded.
News Trading Rules and Restrictions
All 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 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
Futures markets have daily price limits, which are circuit breakers that cap how far a product can move up or down in a single session. 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. Current daily price limits can be found on the CME website.
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.
PRO 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. A reset carries a fee.
Take Profit Trader 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)
Buffer: None. There is nothing to clear before you can withdraw
$5,000 frozen from PRO: When your PRO+ account is created, $5,000 in profit from your PRO account is frozen and must remain there while PRO+ is active. Any PRO profit above it can be withdrawn before you transition. 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
How the PRO+ Upgrade Works
There is no profit target, no time requirement, and no threshold you can hit to trigger an upgrade. TPT reviews your trading and makes the call. The review looks at consistency, risk management, execution patterns, and discipline over time, and the decision is entirely at TPT's discretion. If you are selected, the invitation arrives by email.
The upgrade takes one to three business days. Your PRO account is placed on hold while the PRO+ account is set up. The final step switches your market data to a professional feed. That switch can take up to 12 hours, and while it happens you cannot trade your PRO or test accounts. TPT notifies you before it starts.
PRO+ Maximum Drawdown Rules
The drawdown goes back to end-of-day trailing, so intraday swings do not move it. One difference from the Test: your account balance including open positions must not reach or exceed the maximum EOD drawdown limit. The amount is the same one you carried through the Test and PRO.
Rules That Carry Over From PRO
News restrictions still apply. PRO+ accounts must be flat, with no open positions and no open orders, one minute before, during, and one minute after any prohibited news event. The weekly trading requirement still applies: at least one round-trip per calendar week. Price limits still apply, and a limit hit while you are holding will cost you the account. Counter positions are still prohibited. And like PRO, there is no consistency rule, so your profits do not need to be spread across days.
PRO+ Development Accounts
A PRO+ account can be moved to PRO+ Development if TPT sees a pattern it wants to correct, like aggressive sizing, rapid drawdowns, or repeatedly blown loss limits. It reviews your trading across both your PRO and live accounts, so it reflects habits over time rather than one bad day. It's the same live market with tighter guardrails.
Contract limits drop sharply, from 1 contract or 10 micros on a $25,000 account up to 5 contracts or 50 micros on a $150,000 account. The end-of-day drawdown shrinks, running from $750 up to $2,250 by account size. And it's the only account at Take Profit Trader with a daily loss limit, which runs from $500 up to $2,000. That limit is a soft breach: it stops you trading for the day rather than ending the account.
Payouts are unaffected. The split, the withdrawal schedule, and the absence of a buffer all work the same as a standard PRO+ account.
Development is not permanent. Around 60 days of disciplined risk management gets you back to a standard PRO+ account, and you can request a manual review at any point.
Losing a PRO+ Account
PRO+ accounts cannot be reset. If you lose one, you reset your PRO account and re-qualify from there.
You do not necessarily lose the money. Any remaining profits in the PRO+ account, plus your share of the frozen $5,000, are eligible for withdrawal. If the PRO+ account ends in the negative, that shortfall comes out of the frozen $5,000 and the remainder is withdrawable under the standard PRO split terms.
Take Profit Trader Payout and Withdrawal Rules
Take Profit Trader pays from day one. There is no minimum number of profitable days, no payout window to wait for, and no maximum on what you can take out.
Rule | PRO | PRO+ |
|---|---|---|
Profit split | 80/20 | 90/10 |
Buffer requirement | Yes | None |
Minimum withdrawal | None | None |
Maximum withdrawal | No max | No max |
Withdrawal fee | Free above $250, $50 on $250 or less | Free above $250, $50 on $250 or less |
No withdrawal cap on either account type means you can take out your full profit whenever you're ready. Most futures prop firms cap early payouts. Our futures prop firm comparison covers payout caps, frequency, and buffer requirements across 9 firms.
How Take Profit Trader Payouts Work
Getting paid takes two steps. First you request a withdrawal from your PRO or PRO+ account into your Take Profit Trader wallet. That request takes roughly 24 business hours to process, and your split is deducted automatically, so the amount you see is what you actually receive.
Once the cash is in your wallet, you request the payout itself. A TPT admin approves it, which can take up to 12 business hours and is usually faster. Payouts go out through Plaid for US bank accounts, or PayPal and Wise for everyone else. First-time withdrawals require a tax form.
You do not have to take the money out. Wallet funds can be spent at TakeProfitTrader on subscriptions, resets, and activations, so profits from one account can pay for the next one.
Withdrawal Fees
Withdrawals above $250 are free. If you withdraw $250 or less from your wallet, a $50 fee applies, and it is deducted automatically when you make the request. PayPal may charge its own fees on top of that.
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: The trading day runs from 6 PM Eastern to 5 PM Eastern the next day, Monday through Friday. You must be out of all positions by the 5 PM close, and TPT automatically flattens anything still open at 4:55 PM as a safety net. Some products close before 5 PM, and if you cannot exit one before its own market closes, the account is liquidated. Trades opened at or after 6 PM count toward the next trading day. Holiday schedules can shift these hours, and it is your 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. The account involved is liquidated and any profit in it is forfeited. If a trade copier is what created the opposing positions, it still counts as your violation.
No trading bots or algos: Automated systems, bots, and algorithmic execution tools are not permitted. Every trade must be placed manually.
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.
Commissions: TPT charges $5 per round trip per contract and $0.50 per round trip per micro on Test and PRO accounts. PRO+ runs on a separate commission schedule.
Bottom Line
Take Profit Trader keeps its rulebook simple, and the appeal is real: one evaluation, no daily loss limit, and withdrawals from day one. The rule that ends most accounts is the trailing drawdown, which tightens from end-of-day on the Test to intraday the moment you are funded on PRO, then relaxes back to end-of-day if you reach PRO+. Get that one right, respect the news windows and the buffer, and the rest is standard risk management. For the latest rules, check Take Profit Trader's knowledge base.
By Team Tanto · Last updated: July 16, 2026