These rules apply to Era Trade challenges and funded accounts, unless otherwise specified in a particular rule. They are designed to ensure fair conditions and controlled risk.
Risk and Loss per Trading Idea
- The maximum total loss per trading idea is 2% of the account's starting balance, including floating and realized loss.
A trading idea is one or more trades on a single instrument in the same direction, opened as part of a single trading decision.
You cannot split one position into multiple orders to bypass the risk limit.
Example: on a $100,000 account, the maximum loss per trading idea is $2,000. If a trader opens multiple BUY trades on EURUSD as part of one idea, the total loss on these trades must not exceed $2,000.
Trading Robots, EA, Copy Traders, VPS/VPN
- Trading robots, advisors, EA (Expert Advisors), signal bots, trade copiers, and automated trade management services are prohibited.
The trader must make trading decisions independently and trade each account individually.
copying trades between your own Era Trade challenges;
- copying trades between evaluation and funded accounts;
- copying trades of other traders or using signal services;
- transferring account management to third parties;
- passing challenges synchronously with identical trades or a single group strategy.
VPS and VPN are allowed only for stable and secure access to the account. They cannot be used to bypass rules, mask connections between accounts, or copy trades.
Example: manually opening a trade from a VPS is allowed. Connecting a robot or copier that automatically opens trades instead of the trader is not allowed.
Holding Positions Over the Weekend / Weekend Holding
- By default, holding positions over the weekend is prohibited.
For Forex, Metals, Indices, and Commodities, this rule applies both during the challenge phase and on the funded account. Positions must be closed before the market closes on Friday.
For Crypto / Bybit, weekend holding is allowed during both the challenge stage and the funded stage, provided all other Era Trade and Bybit platform rules are followed.
Example: if a trader is completing a Forex challenge or trading a Forex funded account, positions must be closed before market close on Friday. If a trader is trading on Bybit, positions may be held over the weekend on both challenge and funded accounts.
News Trading and Red News
- During the challenge phase, news trading is allowed if it does not violate other Era Trade rules.
On the funded account, it is prohibited to open or close trades 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after red news on the affected instrument.
Red news is news marked in red in the calendar on the Forex Factory website.
For Forex, Metals, Indices, and Commodities, red news on the relevant currencies and instruments is considered.
For Crypto / Bybit, only US red news is considered, as it has the strongest impact on overall crypto market risk.
First violation: profit earned during the prohibited news window is voided without closing the account.
Repeated or systematic violations: the account may be closed without the right to a payout.
Example: if a red news event on USD is released in the Forex Factory calendar, on the funded account, you cannot open or close trades on instruments related to USD within 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after the news.
Additional Rules for Bybit
- For Bybit challenges, additional rules of the Bybit platform apply: the API key and assigned sub-account cannot be deleted, modified, or used for another challenge; one sub-account = one challenge; you cannot request or add demo funds; you cannot manually change the balance in USDT.
On Bybit, only Era Trade supported USDT-margined futures pairs are allowed. Spot trading, options, USDC pairs, inverse contracts, and unsupported instruments are not counted and may lead to rule violations.
Trades on low-liquidity assets, low-capitalization assets, instruments from the Bybit Innovation Zone, or trades with unrealistic execution in the demo environment may be subject to manual review and adjustment of the financial result.
Detailed rules are described in the "Bybit Platform" section.
Hedging
- Hedging is prohibited if it is used to bypass Era Trade rules or artificially hide risk.
Within a single account, it is prohibited to simultaneously open opposite positions on the same instrument.
It is also prohibited to open opposite or mutually offsetting positions on different accounts if they are linked to the same trader.
Example: opening BUY EURUSD and SELL EURUSD simultaneously on the same account is not allowed. Opening BUY EURUSD on one account and SELL EURUSD on another account to hide risk or bypass drawdown is also not allowed.
Martingale
- Martingale is prohibited. You cannot increase risk or position size after a losing trade on the same instrument.
A trader can hold a maximum of 3 losing positions on one trading instrument, provided the position size is not increased and the overall risk remains within the 2% per trading idea rule.
Example 1 — allowed:
- EURUSD Buy
- Position 1 — 2 lots
- Position 2 — 2 lots
- Position 3 — 2 lots
- The position size is not increased, so this is not considered martingale.
Example 2 — prohibited:
- EURUSD Buy
- Position 1 — 2 lots
- Position 2 — 2.5 lots
- Position 3 — 3 lots
- The position size increases after a losing entry, so this is considered martingale.
Consequences: on the first violation, profit earned using martingale is voided. On the second and subsequent violations, the account is closed without the right to a payout.
High-Frequency Trading
- High-frequency trading is prohibited.
opening 3 or more trades within one minute;
- using HFT, latency arbitrage, tick scalping, or strategies that exploit execution speed, quote delays, or features of the demo environment;
systematically closing trades faster than 3 minutes without proper risk management.
Scalping is allowed if the trader uses a Stop Loss, adheres to the 2% risk limit per trading idea, and does not violate the trade frequency limit.
If a trade closes at Stop Loss faster than 3 minutes, this in itself is not considered a violation.
Example: a trader manually opens a trade with a Stop Loss and closes it after 4 minutes — this is allowed. If a trader opens 3–5 trades per minute or systematically closes trades within seconds, this is considered high-frequency trading and a violation.
Account Inactivity
- Each trading account must have at least one trade every 30 days.
If there is no trading activity on an account for more than 30 days, the account is considered inactive and may be closed.
Example: if a trader has not opened a single trade within 30 days, the account may be blocked as inactive.
Gambling Prohibition
- Era Trade prohibits a gambling approach and "all-or-nothing" trading.
It is prohibited to use margin of 50% or more of the challenge's starting balance in a single trade or a single trading idea.
Such trades are considered excessive risk and a violation of risk management rules.
Example: on a $100,000 challenge, you cannot open a single trade or a single trading idea where the used margin is $50,000 or more.
You can fully review the trading rules at the link: https://help.eratrade.club/ru/general-trading-limitations/