PA & Live Funding Explained

There are three distinct phases in your journey with EdgeProp. Each has different rules and different goals.

1

Hit profit target, respect trailing threshold

2

Simulated account, real payouts, consistency rules

3

Real capital, API mirroring, the endgame

This is where everyone starts. Your goal is simple: reach the profit target without violating the trailing threshold. No consistency rules yet—just prove you can make money without blowing up.

This is where most funded traders spend their time. PA accounts are simulated—you're trading on a SIM feed with live market data. The fills aren't real, but the money you earn is.

Think of it as a proving ground. EdgeProp pays you on your net profits, but they're also watching to see if you can trade consistently. This is where the Safety Net, scaling rules, MAE limits, and consistency checks all apply.

The final stage. After you've demonstrated sustained consistency on PA, your orders can be mirrored to a live account via API. This means real capital, real fills, real market impact.

There's no fixed timeline for getting to Live. It depends on your track record. Some traders get there after 5 compliant payouts, others take longer. The Help Desk can't tell you exactly when—it's based on your performance.

What's API mirroring? It's a system where your PA trades are copied to a live account in real-time. You trade on your PA as usual, but your orders are being executed with real capital in the background. You won't even notice the difference on your end.

Whether you're on PA or Live, the numbers are the same:

The trailing works the same as evaluation—it follows your peak unrealized equity and never comes back down. But there's a key difference on PA: once you reach the Safety Net, the trailing stops forever.

Safety Net formula

Starting Balance + Trailing Threshold + $100

Safety Net = $50,000 + $2,500 + $100 = $52,600

Once your peak equity touches $52,600, the trailing threshold locks. It doesn't matter if you later drop to $51,000—the threshold stays fixed.

Safety Net = $150,000 + $4,500 + $100 = $154,600

Let's say you have $6,000 in realized profits but your peak equity never touched $154,600. The trailing is still active. It doesn't matter how much realized profit you have—the trailing only stops when peak equity reaches Safety Net.

You can't trade max size until you've proven yourself. The scaling works in two phases:

Half Size

Up to 50% of max contracts

Full Size

100% of max contracts

The upgrade happens at the start of the next session after you reach Safety Net. And once unlocked, you keep full scaling even if your balance later dips below Safety Net.

Violations are serious. Trading 8 contracts when you're only allowed 5 isn't a gray area. First offense: flatten immediately, potential payout denial, reset to prior EOD balance, and 8 compliant trading days required before next payout. Repeated violations: account closure.

Your floating loss on any single trade can't exceed 30% of your start-of-day profit cushion. This is per trade, not per day.

Start-of-day profit: $4,000

Max open loss per trade: $4,000 × 30% = $1,200

If any single position shows more than -$1,200 floating loss, you're in violation.

If your profit cushion is small or zero, the rule defaults to 30% of your trailing threshold. For a $50K account with no profits, that's 30% × $2,500 = $750 max loss per trade.

Once your end-of-day profit reaches 2× your Safety Net buffer, the MAE cap increases to 50% starting next session. This gives you more breathing room as your account grows.

Brief spikes vs. material breaches. If you briefly touch -$1,250 and immediately correct to -$1,100, that might not trigger action. But repeated breaches or sitting at -$1,500 for extended periods will get flagged. Don't push the limits.

When you request a payout, your best single day can't be more than 40% of your total profit. This prevents the "one lucky day and cash out" approach.

The check

Best Day ÷ Total Profit ≤ 40%

Best day since last payout: $1,500

Minimum total profit needed: $1,500 ÷ 0.40 = $3,750

If your total profit is $3,200, you're not eligible yet. Keep trading until you reach $3,750.

The rule resets after each approved payout. So you're always measuring against profits since your last withdrawal, not all-time.

These aren't guidelines—they're requirements. Break them and you'll have problems.

Every trade needs defined risk. A hard stop in the platform, or a mental stop that you actually honor (documented in your system). Using the liquidation threshold as your stop is not acceptable.

If your target is 10 ticks, your stop can be at most 50 ticks. This keeps losses proportional to gains and prevents absurd "risk 200 to make 5" setups.

Allowed—but only as part of a defined strategy. Adding to losers because you're hoping for a reversal isn't a strategy. It needs to be systematic, documented, and within your MAE limits.

You can't be long and short at the same time on the same instrument or correlated instruments. That includes micro/mini pairs across any of your accounts. Long ES on one account and short MES on another? Prohibited.

Fully automated bots, HFT strategies, or "set and forget" systems are not allowed. Semi-automation is fine if you're actively supervising. The human needs to be in the loop.

EdgeProp reviews accounts regularly. Here's what triggers closer scrutiny:

At any point, EdgeProp may ask you to document your strategy. They might request:

If you're trading a real system, this is easy. If you're winging it, this is where you get caught.

Probation is real. Accounts can be placed on probation with specific remediation steps. If you don't comply, it escalates to payout denial, profit removal, or account closure. Take compliance requests seriously.

There's no magic number of days or trades that gets you to Live. It's based on your track record:

Once you're being considered, your PA trades may start being mirrored to Live via API. You won't necessarily know when this happens—you just keep trading your PA as usual.

Long-term thinking wins. The traders who reach Live are the ones who treat PA like a job, not a lottery. Steady, consistent, professional. That's what gets you real capital.

PA = Performance Account. Simulated with live data. Real payouts.

Safety Net = Starting Balance + Trailing + $100. Once reached, trailing stops.

Scaling = Half size before Safety Net, full size after.

MAE = Max 30% of profit cushion lost on any single trade (upgrades to 50%).

Consistency = Best day ≤ 40% of total profit for payout.

Live = Real capital via API mirroring. Earned through sustained PA consistency.