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Flex Prohibited Trading Practices

Applies to Flex accounts only. Speedy, Pro and Instant Funding have their own rule sets — see the articles for those programs.

Flex carries the same 16 prohibited practices as Speedy. The differences between the two programs sit in the account rules — drawdown type, minimum days and the consistency rule — not in the prohibited practices. Flex has no consistency rule.

16 practices.


Before you read on

The examples show how rules are applied. They are not trading advice and they are not pre-approval of any strategy. Support can explain these rules and submit cases for review, but cannot recommend lot sizes or risk percentages, or confirm in advance that a method is acceptable.

A completed profit target or an all-green Trader Area does not confirm payout approval. The Trader Area tracks objectives and loss limits; it does not run the compliance review.

The Dealing Team reviews your complete trading history in context. A single trade is never assessed in isolation.

A violation may result in: profit adjustment · payout rejection · profit forfeiture · account suspension · account breach · removal from the program.

Quick answers

Your question

Go to

My Trader Area was all green — why was my payout reviewed?

How reviews work

Can I add to a position that's losing?

§6

Can I add to a position at all?

§6 — the scaling allowance

I used a stop loss. Why was my trade still flagged?

§15

Can I trade the same idea on two of my accounts?

§6, §8

Can I use an EA, bot, or copier?

§10

What happens if a trade closes in under two minutes?

§11

Can a family member trade my account?

§14


1. Arbitrage Trading

The rule: You may not use price differences, delays, or technical inefficiencies to gain an execution advantage. This includes latency arbitrage, triangular arbitrage, cross-platform price exploitation and execution-delay manipulation.

Example of a breach. A trader notices the Traderscale feed updates roughly 300ms behind another broker's on XAUUSD. They watch the faster feed and enter on Traderscale whenever it moves, taking 12 trades in an hour, each closing in profit as the price catches up. The profit didn't come from a market view — it came from knowing the price before the platform did.

Common question — what if the price on another platform was genuinely different? Normal price differences occur between providers all the time, and trading on one platform while watching another isn't itself an issue. What's prohibited is deliberately trading to exploit a mismatch, delay or infrastructure limitation.

What may be reviewed: execution timing, price-feed differences, platform activity, repeated patterns.

Possible outcome: profit adjustment, payout rejection, or account breach.


2. High Frequency Trading

The rule: You may not use ultra-fast execution designed to capture very small price movements within milliseconds, whether by algorithm or by hand.

Example of a breach. 40 EURUSD positions in one session, average hold 3 seconds, average result +0.4 pips, each entered within milliseconds of a tick moving. The pattern only works because of execution speed.

Common question — is every short trade high frequency trading? No. No single factor decides it. The Dealing Team reviews speed, frequency, purpose and the full pattern together. The separate two-minute minimum (§11) applies to every position regardless.

What may be reviewed: execution speed, trade count, repeated duration, EA use, overall pattern.

Possible outcome: profit adjustment, payout rejection, or account breach.


3. News Bracketing

The rule: You may not place opposing pending orders around price immediately before a major news event to capture movement in either direction.

Example of a breach

  • 13:28 — buy stop GBPUSD at 1.2720, sell stop at 1.2680, ahead of a 13:30 CPI release

  • 13:30 — price spikes up, buy stop fills, sell stop cancelled

  • Result: +$1,400

No directional view was taken. The structure was built to profit whichever way price moved.

The compliant version. A single buy stop at 1.2720, based on an expectation that the release favours the pound. No opposing order.

Common question — is all news trading prohibited? No. You may trade news directionally. All other account rules — drawdown, exposure limits, stop-loss requirements — continue to apply during volatile conditions, and spreads widen.

What may be reviewed: order timing, order direction, event timing, whether the setup captured either direction.

Possible outcome: profit adjustment, payout rejection, or account breach.


4. Martingale Strategy

The rule: You may not increase position size or total risk after a loss in order to recover it.

Example of a breach ($100,000 account)

Time

Trade

Size

Result

09:00

EURUSD buy

1.0 lot

−$400

09:20

EURUSD buy

2.0 lots

−$800

09:45

EURUSD buy

4.0 lots

+$1,600

Size doubles after each loss and the sequence stops the moment the losses are recovered. The review reads this as one recovery sequence, not three independent decisions — and the +$1,600 is at risk even though the day finished flat.

The compliant version. The same three trades at 1.0 lot throughout, regardless of the previous outcome.

Common question — I increased my size once. Is that automatically martingale? No. A single size change isn't assessed in isolation. The review considers the order of trades, previous losses, timing, exposure, and whether the increase formed part of a recovery pattern.

What may be reviewed: sequence of wins and losses, lot-size changes, amount risked, timing, total exposure.

Possible outcome: profit adjustment, payout rejection, or account breach.


5. Grid Trading

The rule: You may not place multiple layered orders at fixed price intervals without a clear directional basis.

Example of a breach. Eight pending orders on USDJPY at 20-pip intervals — four buy stops above price, four sell stops below — with no directional thesis. The structure profits from movement in either direction.

Common question — are multiple entries always prohibited? No. Entries aren't judged by number. The review looks at spacing, purpose, direction, timing and risk structure. If you're adding to a position you already hold, see the scaling allowance in §6.

What may be reviewed: order spacing, layering, direction, timing, total risk.

Possible outcome: profit adjustment, payout rejection, or account breach.


6. Excessive Risk and Drawdown Recovery

The rule: You may not open additional positions on the same asset while an existing position or sequence is in floating loss. This applies within one account and across all your Traderscale accounts.

The scaling allowance — how to add to a position correctly

You may add to an existing position if either condition is met:

  • the new entry is placed within two minutes of the original entry, or

  • the new entry is within five pips of the original entry

Outside both, adding while the first position is in floating loss is drawdown recovery, regardless of what you intended.

Example of a breach

  • 10:00 — buy GBPUSD 1.0 lot at 1.2700

  • 10:40 — price at 1.2650, position floating −$500

  • 10:41 — buy a second GBPUSD 1.0 lot at 1.2650

41 minutes and 50 pips from the original, opened while the first was losing. Neither condition met.

The compliant version

  • 10:00 — buy GBPUSD 1.0 lot at 1.2700

  • 10:01 — buy GBPUSD 1.0 lot at 1.2697

Within two minutes and within five pips. Either alone would be sufficient. This is scaling into a planned position and it is permitted.

Common question — I was scaling in. Why was I breached? Scaling is judged by what the trading history shows, not by what it's called. If positions were added on the same asset while an earlier one was in floating loss, outside the allowance, the review may classify it as drawdown recovery even if it was a planned entry method.

Capital Allocation Manipulation

You may not distribute, transfer, or offset risk across multiple Traderscale accounts in a way that circumvents the limits applying to a single account. This includes:

  • entering the same or a correlated instrument on another account to recover losses from the first

  • structuring one account to absorb loss while another is positioned to benefit

  • using multiple accounts to recreate exposure that would not be allowed on one

Example of a breach

  • Account A: buy XAUUSD 3.0 lots, floating −$2,000, close to the daily limit

  • Account B, 15 minutes later: buy XAUUSD 3.0 lots, same direction

Account A can't carry more exposure without breaching, so the position continues on Account B. Combined exposure is 6.0 lots — a size that would have breached on one account.

What may be reviewed: open-position P&L, account equity, entry timing, symbol, direction, combined size, activity on your other accounts.

Possible outcome: profit adjustment, payout rejection, or account breach.


7. Exploiting System Errors

The rule: You may not profit from a known or apparent technical issue, pricing error, feed delay, or platform malfunction.

Example of a breach. A trader sees US30 quoted 400 points away from the real market during a feed fault. They open a position, close it as the price corrects for +$3,200, then repeat on the next mispriced quote.

What to do instead: stop trading the affected instrument and contact Support with a screenshot, the time, the symbol and your account number.

What may be reviewed: platform logs, price feed, execution records, and your activity after the issue became apparent.

Possible outcome: affected profits removed, with further enforcement possible.


8. Trade Coordination and Copy Trading

The rule: Every account must be traded manually and independently by the registered trader.

What is permitted: you may trade the same setup by hand across your own Traderscale accounts, placing every entry yourself on each account.

What is prohibited: any copier, bridge, script or tool that replicates trades between accounts automatically, and coordinated execution between different people.

Example of a breach. Three accounts open EURUSD buys at 09:14:02.1, 09:14:02.1 and 09:14:02.2 at identical lot sizes, and all close within the same 200ms window. Human execution doesn't produce that timing.

Important — manual mirroring is not unrestricted. Trading the same instrument in the same direction across your accounts still engages §6 (no same-asset additions while one account is in floating loss) and §12 (no opposing directions).

What may be reviewed: matching symbols, directions, entry times, exits, lot sizes, repeated patterns across accounts.

Possible outcome: profit adjustment, payout rejection, or account breach.


9. One-Sided or Speculative Exposure

The rule: Repeated unbalanced directional exposure without controlled risk or a consistent rationale may be reviewed as speculative behaviour.

Example of a breach. Three trades across a week, each risking close to the full daily allowance on a single directional bet, no stop-loss discipline, no repeatable method. The account either passes on one outcome or fails.

Common question — does Traderscale require a specific strategy? No. No strategy is recommended or required. Trading must show controlled risk and must not rely on reckless or purely chance-based exposure.

What may be reviewed: consistency of risk, repeated directional exposure, the rationale visible from the pattern, overall account behaviour.

Possible outcome: the account or payout may be affected where behaviour is structurally unsound.


10. Expert Advisors and Automation

The rule: Expert Advisors, bots, scripts, trade copiers and any tool that places, modifies, closes or manages trades automatically are prohibited. All trading must be executed manually by the registered trader.

Example of a breach. Positions open at exactly 15-minute intervals with identical 0.75 lot sizing and stops placed to the tenth of a pip. The regularity is not achievable by hand.

Common question — can I use a tool only for trade management? If it places, changes, closes or manages trades automatically, it falls under this rule. That includes trailing-stop scripts and auto-breakeven tools. Charting, alerts and analysis tools that don't touch orders are fine.

What may be reviewed: platform logs, order timing, repeated execution patterns, software-linked activity.

Possible outcome: the account or payout may be affected.


11. Tick Scalping and Minimum Trade Duration

The rule: Every position must be held for at least two minutes. Profit from positions closed sooner is removed.

Example

  • 11:14:20 — buy US30 2.0 lots

  • 11:15:07 — closed, +$300

Held 47 seconds. The $300 is removed from your profit.

Where it escalates. If your sub-two-minute profits exceed your payout share, the payout is rejected and the account is reset with a seven-day delay before the next payout window.

  • Payout share due: $1,800

  • Profit from sub-two-minute trades: $2,100

$2,100 exceeds $1,800 → payout rejected, account reset, seven-day delay.

Common question — does one short trade breach my account? Not by itself. The profit is removed and the outcome depends on your account terms, trade result, frequency and the complete review.

What may be reviewed: server-side entry and close times (not your platform's display), trade result, frequency, repeated duration pattern.

Possible outcome: profit removed and payout rejected; further action depending on the finding.


12. Hedge Trading

The rule: You may not hold opposing positions on the same instrument at the same time, including across separate Traderscale accounts, where used to offset exposure or exploit pricing inefficiencies.

Example of a breach

  • 14:00 — Account A: buy XAUUSD 2.0 lots

  • 14:02 — Account B: sell XAUUSD 2.0 lots

Net exposure is zero. One account books a gain and the other a loss whichever way price moves. Splitting the hedge across accounts doesn't change the finding.

Common question — the positions were opened minutes apart, not simultaneously. The review considers overlap, purpose, timing, instrument and account activity. It isn't limited to positions opened in the same second.

What may be reviewed: direction, entry and close times, overlap, exposure, activity across all your accounts.

Possible outcome: profit adjustment, payout rejection, or account breach.


13. Risking the Full Daily Loss Limit

The rule: You may not deliberately structure a trade or layered sequence to use your full daily loss allowance.

Maximum allowable daily exposure on Flex: 3%.

Example of a breach ($100,000 account)

A single EURUSD position sized so that its stop loss, if hit, costs $2,950 — 2.95% against a 3% allowance. The stop sits deliberately just inside the limit.

Common question — staying under the limit means it's fine, doesn't it? No. The review considers whether risk was structured to consume the full allowance, not only whether the final number stayed below it.

What may be reviewed: planned exposure, combined open risk, layered trades, equity movement, repeated behaviour.

Possible outcome: account termination or other enforcement.


14. Account Sharing and Reselling

The rule: Only the registered trader may access, control and trade the account. Accounts cannot be sold, shared, transferred, or managed by anyone else.

Example of a breach. Logins from two countries within the same hour, on different devices, with trading activity from both.

Common question — can my spouse, friend, mentor or account manager trade for me? No. The registered trader must make and execute every trading decision. Nobody else may access or manage the account on your behalf.

What may be reviewed: login and access records, account activity, device IDs, evidence of third-party control.

Possible outcome: account suspension, breach, or removal from the program.


15. Toxic Trading Behaviour

The rule: Reckless or structurally unsound risk behaviour is prohibited. This covers failure to meet stop-loss requirements and negative risk-to-reward behaviour.

Negative risk-to-reward — how it's measured

A position is negative risk-to-reward when the pips risked at your stop loss exceed the pips between your entry and your close price.

  • Risk = the distance from entry to the furthest stop loss used at any point in the position's life. Moving your stop to breakeven or trailing it in does not reduce the measured risk.

  • Reward = the distance from entry to the close price.

Every closed position is assessed, winners and losers alike.

Example of a negative risk-to-reward position. Entry EURUSD 1.0850, furthest stop loss 1.0750 → 100 pips risked ($1,000 on 1.0 lot). Closed at 1.0870 → 20 pips gained, +$200. You risked $1,000 to make $200.

The two thresholds

Share of closed positions that are negative R:R

Outcome

Above 60%

Payout rejected and account breached

60% or below

Net positive P&L from those positions is deducted from your payout share

The deduction uses the net P&L across all negative risk-to-reward positions — profits and losses from that group are added together. Where the net figure is positive, it is deducted.

Worked example (20 closed positions in the payout period)

  • 9 positions are negative risk-to-reward → 45%, below the threshold, so no breach

  • Those 9 positions net to +$620

  • $620 is deducted from the payout share

Had 13 of the 20 been negative risk-to-reward (65%), the payout would be rejected and the account breached.

Stop-loss requirements

Positions must be opened with a stop loss. Without one, the system liquidates the position on execution and issues a soft breach.

If you hold the No Stop Loss on Entry add-on: you may execute without a stop attached, but a stop loss must be applied within five minutes of execution and before the position is closed — whichever comes first.

Example of a breach. Entry at 14:00:00 with no stop loss, closed in profit at 14:04:00. Inside the five-minute window, but the position never had a stop loss. That breaches the stop-loss requirement.

This position is excluded from the negative risk-to-reward calculation — with no stop loss, there is no risk distance to measure. The two rules are assessed separately, and the exclusion is not a reprieve.

Common question — I used a stop loss. Why was my trade still flagged? A stop loss addresses one part of risk control. The review may still consider the furthest stop distance, entry and close prices, total exposure, drawdown recovery, lot-size changes and the overall sequence.

What may be reviewed: entry price, furthest stop-loss distance, close price, risk-to-reward, exposure, full trade sequence.

Possible outcome: profit reduction, payout rejection, or account breach.


16. Account Churning and Non-Strategic Trading

The rule: You may not repeatedly cycle through accounts or rely on random, all-or-nothing outcomes in place of a defined and controlled approach.

Example of a breach. Six accounts purchased in eight weeks. Each is traded with a small number of maximum-size positions until it either passes or breaches. No consistent method appears across any of them.

Common question — can one failed account count as churning? No. The rule concerns the broader pattern across attempts and accounts, not a single normal loss.

What may be reviewed: account history, repeated patterns, risk behaviour, direction changes, activity across multiple accounts.

Possible outcome: payout rejection, profit forfeiture, suspension, breach, or removal from the program.


Monitoring and enforcement

  • Some prohibited behaviours cannot be confirmed reliably in real time. Assessment happens at payout review, or when a trader requests a manual review.

  • Traderscale uses a professional third-party Dealing Team to review trading activity at payout.

  • The review covers your trading history as a whole, including activity across all your accounts.

  • Enforcement may occur without prior notice, subject to your account terms and final review.

See also: How reviews work · Requesting a review · Enforcement outcomes explained


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