These rules apply to both Challenge and Reward Accounts.
Regular Trading Hours: 6:00 PM to 4:55 PM the following day (ET)
Holiday Trading Hours: Please refer to the announcements for details on holidays.
While you can trade normally on holidays when the market is open, shortened trading days with early closures are not treated as full trading days; instead, they are combined with the following regular trading day.
All positions must be closed within the same trading day, as carrying them over to the following day—overnight positions—is not permitted.
For your convenience, the system automatically closes all open positions after 4:55 PM (ET).
On early closure days, you must manually close all open positions before the market closes. The user bears full responsibility for any losses or consequences resulting from unclosed positions.
Right before the market closes, trading volume may drop sharply, or quotes may fluctuate significantly. This can lead to the following situations:
The system attempts to close the position, but the order is not filled, leaving the position open.
The trade is executed at an unfavorable price (slippage), resulting in a larger loss.
The user is fully responsible for all consequences arising from these situations. Therefore, we strongly recommend manually closing your positions before the market closes whenever possible.
The maximum number of contracts allowed for your account size is listed below:
Account Size | Miximum Contracts |
$25,000 | 2 Minis (20 Micros) |
$50,000 | 4 Minis (40 Micros) |
$100,000 | 6 Minis (60 Micros) |
$150,000 | 8 Minis (80 Micros) |
If your balance (including open positions) falls to the liquidation threshold due to accumulated losses, the account is automatically liquidated and can no longer be traded. This applies equally to both Challenge accounts and Reward accounts.
The initial liquidation threshold for each account size is listed below:
Account Size | Initial Liquidation Threshold |
$25,000 | $24,000 |
$50,000 | $48,000 |
$100,000 | $97,000 |
$150,000 | $145,500 |
The liquidation threshold follows these rules:
The threshold is not fixed. When you make a profit, the threshold rises by the same amount.
Once the threshold has risen, it never moves back down, even if you take losses.
The threshold does not rise indefinitely. It can only rise up to your account size + $100.
Account Size | Maximum Liquidation Threshold |
$25,000 | $25,100 |
$50,000 | $50,100 |
$100,000 | $100,100 |
$150,000 | $150,100 |
The threshold rises based on your end-of-day (EOD) balance.
For example, here's how the daily trailing threshold changes for a $50,000 account, based on profit/loss:
Day 1: Starting from the initial trailing threshold of $48,000, the day closed with a +$1,000 profit, so the Day 2 threshold rises to $49,000.
Day 2: The day closed with a −$500 loss. Once the threshold has risen, it does not move back down even after a loss, so the Day 3 threshold stays at $49,000.
Day 3: The day closed with a +$1,200 profit, so the Day 4 threshold rises to $49,700.
Day 4: The day closed with a +$1,500 profit. However, the threshold never rises above {account size} + $100, so the Day 5 threshold is locked at $50,100.
Please refer to the Instruments & Commissions page.
For the Basic Plan, if your losses reach a specific amount, all open positions will be liquidated, and your account will be temporarily suspended for the day. You can resume trading when the market opens the next day.
The Daily Loss Limit based on your account size is listed below:
Account Size | Daily Loss Limit |
$25,000 | $750 |
$50,000 | $1,250 |
$100,000 | $1,750 |
$150,000 | $2,750 |
If your unrealized loss reaches the Daily Loss Limit, your positions will be forcefully liquidated at the market price. Therefore, the exact loss amount is not guaranteed, and you may experience a loss greater than the amounts listed above.
Tip: The Daily Loss Limit rule does not apply to the Expert Plan.
The following activities are strictly prohibited to maintain a fair trading environment. Violating these rules may result in permanent account suspension without prior notice.
Hedging Across Accounts: Simultaneously holding buy and sell positions for the same instrument across multiple accounts (this also applies to combining Mini and Micro contracts for the same instrument).
Account Sharing & Proxy Trading: Lending your account to others or trading on someone else's account.
Unrealistic Trading Exploitation: Engaging in trading patterns that cannot be consistently replicated in live markets to exploit payouts (e.g., if 50% or more of your cumulative profit is generated from such trades).
Use of Scalping Programs (HFT): Using High-Frequency Trading (HFT) programs that repeatedly enter and exit positions in extremely short timeframes.
Use of Unauthorized Programs: Using any third-party programs not approved by LifeUpTrading or NinjaTrader.
If a violation is detected, LifeUpTrading may request an explanation from the user. If you wish to appeal a penalty resulting from a rule violation, please contact help@lifeuptrading.com within 5 days of receiving the penalty.
The Challenge Account is an evaluation program designed to verify a trader's skills. If you reach the profit target while adhering to all the rules, the review process will begin. Upon successfully passing the final review, you will be eligible to receive a Reward Account.
Once you achieve the profit target on your Challenge Account, the review process will automatically begin after the market closes. The review takes up to 6 hours.
The profit target based on your account size is listed below:
Account Size | Profit Target |
$25,000 | $1,500 |
$50,000 | $3,000 |
$100,000 | $6,000 |
$150,000 | $9,000 |
Tip: The Challenge Account has no consistency rules and no minimum trading days requirement. You can pass even if you hit your profit target in just one day.
If the review finds no rule violations, you will successfully pass and can start trading on your Reward Account.
For the Basic Plan, you can start your Reward Account after passing and paying the Reward Account activation fee.
The Reward Account activation fee based on your account size is listed below:
Account Size | Reward Account Activation Fee |
$25,000 | $89 |
$50,000 | $99 |
$100,000 | $119 |
$150,000 | $149 |
For the Expert Plan, you can start your Reward Account without any additional payments after passing.
If you do not activate your Reward Account within 7 days of passing the Challenge Account, your pass status will be automatically revoked, and the account will be deleted.
For the Challenge Account, you must reach your profit target within 30 days from the date of purchase, including weekends and holidays. You can check the exact expiration date on the Challenge Account page in your dashboard. If you fail to achieve the target within 30 days, the Challenge Account will automatically fail and be deleted.
You can extend your Challenge Account by an additional 30 days before it expires, subject to an extension fee. You can apply for an extension on the 'Account Overview' page in your dashboard. Any discount rates from ongoing promotions will be automatically applied to the extension fee.
All trading data from the Reward Account is automatically shared with LifeUpTrading. If you achieve your targets through trading, you can request a payout as compensation for providing this trading data.
Once you achieve the profit target through trading, you can request a payout.
The profit target based on your account size is listed below:
Account Size | Profit Target |
$25,000 | $1,500 |
$50,000 | $3,000 |
$100,000 | $4,500 |
$150,000 | $6,700 |
For subsequent payout requests (Nth payout), you can only request a payout if your account balance is equal to or greater than the starting balance of the current period (which is the balance remaining after your previous payout deduction).
Example of Target Balance for Subsequent Payouts
Requesting the 1st payout after reaching an account balance of $55,000.
After the payout is processed, approximately $1,400 is deducted, making the starting balance for the 2nd period $53,600.
Note: Even if your account balance exceeds the initial profit target requirement (e.g., $53,000), you cannot request a payout until your balance reaches or exceeds the starting balance of the current period ($53,600).
Achieving the profit target alone does not qualify you for a payout. To be eligible to request a payout, you must strictly adhere to the Consistency Rule and the Minimum Trading Days Rule while reaching your target amount.
The Consistency Rule is designed to verify your ability to generate stable, steady profits. To request a payout, your highest daily profit must remain under 40% of your total profit.
Exceeding 40% of your profit target in a single day does not cause your account to fail. You can still request a payout by generating additional profits on other days, thereby bringing your highest daily profit below 40% of your newly accumulated total profit.
Tip: If your daily profit exceeds 40% of the original profit target, your adjusted new profit target can be calculated as: (Highest Daily Profit) ÷ 0.4.
After a payout is issued, the consistency rule is reset for the next payout period.
Example 1: When the Consistency Rule is Met
The profit target for a $50,000 account is $3,000. Trader A achieved profits as shown below.
Since Trader A achieved the profit target while keeping all daily profits strictly under 40% of the total profit, they are eligible to request a payout.
Example 2: When the Consistency Rule is Violated
Trader B achieved profits on a $50,000 Basic Plan account as shown below.
Although the $3,000 profit target was reached, Trader B cannot request a payout because the profit on Day 6 exceeded 40% of the total profit.
Violating the consistency rule does not cause the account to fail. You can still request a payout by generating additional profits to adjust your highest daily profit to 40% or below of your newly accumulated total profit.
In Example 2 above, Trader B generated an additional $1,000 in profit on both Day 7 and Day 8. Because this brings the profit of every single day to 40% or below of the new total profit, Trader B can now request a payout.
Tip: If your daily profit exceeds 40% of the original profit target, your adjusted new profit target can be calculated as: (Highest Daily Profit) ÷ 0.4.
(Important) When a new period starts after a payout is issued, the Consistency Rule is reset. Profits and losses from the previous period are not carried over, and the consistency rule ratio is newly calculated based on the starting balance of the current period. In other words, the profit and loss for each period are calculated independently within that specific period.
The required minimum daily profit to be counted as a valid trading day based on your account size is listed below:
Account Size | Minimum Daily Profit for a Valid Day |
$25,000 | $100 |
$50,000 | $200 |
$100,000 | $250 |
$150,000 | $300 |
You must complete a minimum of 7 valid trading days to be eligible to request a payout.
After a payout is issued, your accumulated valid trading days will reset for the next period.
There is a limit on the payout amount. This limit increases as you accumulate more successful payout requests.
The payout limits based on your account size are listed below:
Account Size | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th+ |
$25,000 | $700 | $800 | $1,000 | $1,200 | Live Account Review |
$50,000 | $1,300 | $1,500 | $1,700 | $1,900 | Live Account Review |
$100,000 | $1,700 | $1,900 | $2,100 | $2,300 | Live Account Review |
$150,000 | $2,100 | $2,300 | $2,500 | $2,700 | Live Account Review |
Traders who successfully request 5 or more payouts may have their maximum payout limits further increased or be provided with a live trading account, depending on their performance (*Further details to be announced later).
Once your review is finally approved and the payout is confirmed, the payout amount will be deducted from your Reward Account balance. The exchange rate will be applied based on the market closing time on the day you requested the payout.
Note: Even though your account balance decreases due to the payout deduction, your drawdown limit does not change. Please trade carefully and always keep your drawdown limits in mind.
Trading on the corresponding account will be suspended until the payout review is complete. You cannot submit additional payout requests during the review period.
You can hold a maximum of 5 Reward Accounts simultaneously.
Tip: You can use copy trading for free at LifeUpTrading. Please refer to the following link: [Setting Up Copy Trading in Tradovate].
A Reward Account will automatically fail if there is no trading activity for 14 consecutive days.
However, if you are unable to trade for more than 2 weeks due to unavoidable circumstances, you can apply to switch your account to dormant status for up to one month. If you wish to request a dormant account switch, please contact us at help@lifeuptrading.com.