Consistency Rule

A consistency rule limits the share of total profit a trader can earn on any single trading day. Common thresholds are 30%, 40%, or 50% — meaning if the threshold is 40%, no single day can represent more than 40% of cumulative profits at the time of payout.

The rule exists to prevent traders from passing evaluations or triggering payouts on the back of one outsized day. A 5% gain on a single news event followed by ten flat days might technically clear a profit target, but it suggests luck rather than skill — and the firm extending capital is betting on skill.

In practice, the consistency rule shifts how traders pace size. Hitting an early-week home run can lock a trader into smaller positions for the rest of the cycle just to stay under the consistency ceiling at payout. Some firms apply the rule only at payout request; others enforce it continuously throughout the evaluation.

Proprietarytrading.com reviewed the published rulebooks of 15 major prop firms in June 2026. None of them had no consistency rule. The industry-default shape is payout-only enforcement with a 30–50% best-day cap. The strictest verified firm in the sample was Earn2Trade at 30%, applied across all P&L during evaluation. The most generous documented model is the soft-breach approach used by FTMO 1-Step and The5ers, where exceeding the threshold blocks the payout rather than failing the account. See the full research at /research/consistency-rules.