How the prop firm consistency rule works, with the math

How does the consistency rule work at a prop firm? It caps how much of your total profit can come from a single day. Divide your best day by your total profit; if the share is above the limit (55% at Fullport), the pass waits until it is within it, even though the profit target is met.

The firm picks the percentage and checks it at the moment you would otherwise pass. If the share is above the limit, you simply keep trading until it is within it.

Why do prop firms have a consistency rule?

The point is to separate a repeatable process from one lucky trade. A trader who makes the whole target on one launch and then does nothing has shown that one launch went well.

A trader who makes it over several days has shown something closer to a method. Firms that fund on the result of an evaluation want the second kind of evidence, so they write a rule that asks for it.

At Fullport the limit is 55%, measured on UTC calendar days, and it applies only to passing the evaluation. Funded accounts have no consistency rule, and the optional 1-Day Pass removes it from the evaluation too. The exact wording is on the rules page.

Written out, the check is: best day ÷ total profit ≤ 55%. Rearranged, it tells you the total you need: total profit ≥ best day ÷ 0.55, which is about 1.82 times your best day.

That second form is the useful one, because it turns a percentage into a dollar figure you can trade towards.

• Best day is your largest single UTC day of realized profit. Only profitable days can be the best day.
• Total profit is the net of every day, losing days included. A red day lowers the total, which raises the share of your best day.
• Realized means closed trades after fees. Open positions do not count, and the evaluation only passes when the account is flat.
• The boundary passes. Exactly 55.0% passes; 55.1% does not. Fullport's engine compares the two numbers in whole units rather than rounding a percentage.

Do losing days count?

Yes, and this detail matters more than it looks. Many traders track the rule as "my best day against the sum of my green days", but the engine uses the net total.

If you had a +$900 day, a −$400 day and a +$1,000 day, your green days sum to $1,900 but your total is $1,500. $1,000 is 66.7% of the net total, not 52.6%.

The $25,000 account needs +6%, which is $1,500 of realized profit. Each row below is a separate evaluation that has just reached that $1,500 target.

What if one day is two-thirds of the profit?

The third row is the common case. One strong day of +$1,000 followed by a quieter +$500 reaches the target, but the big day is two-thirds of the total.

The fix is $318.18 more profit on any later day or days, as long as no new day beats $1,000. At $1,818.18 the best day is exactly 55% and the evaluation passes the next time the account is flat.

What if you make the whole target in one day?

The fourth row shows why a single huge day asks for more total profit under a consistency rule. Making the whole $1,500 at once means the rest of the account has to produce another $1,227.27 before the pass.

Every later day also has to stay below $1,500, or it becomes the new best day and the bar moves again.

A day that is too big just means the pass waits. The account stays open, your profit stays on the balance, and you keep trading.

The best next step is the same steady size that got you to the target. The 4% floor still applies, and there is no time limit, so there is no reason to rush the extra profit.

1. 1

   Work out the number

   Divide your best day by 0.55 and subtract your current total. That is the extra realized profit you need, and it is usually smaller than it feels: one +$1,000 day on a $1,500 total needs only $318.18 more.

2. 2

   Spread it over days

   Any day that beats your current best day becomes the new best day and raises the bar. Aim for several modest days, each clearly smaller than the record.

3. 3

   Keep the floor in view

   Your floor has probably moved up at the day close after the big day. On a $25,000 account, a close at $26,000 locks the floor at $25,000. Below that, room is measured from the floor, not from your balance.

4. 4

   Close positions to be checked

   The pass is evaluated on a flat account. Leave a position open and the check waits, even if the numbers are fine.

If your style genuinely produces one large day and long quiet stretches, a format without a consistency rule may suit you better.

That is what the 1-Day Pass is for: the same price, a +8% target instead of +6%, and no consistency rule at all. Everything else, including the floor, is identical.

The words "consistency rule" cover several different mechanisms, so read the exact clause rather than assuming. The questions that change the math:

• What percentage, of what? A cap on the best day as a share of total profit is the common form. Some rules compare the best day with the profit target instead of with actual profit, which behaves differently once you go past the target.
• Net or gross total? Whether losing days reduce the total decides how much a red day hurts. Fullport uses the net total.
• Which day boundary? UTC, a server time zone or the trader's local midnight. A trade held across the boundary can move profit from one day to another.
• Evaluation, payouts, or both? A rule that also gates each payout is a much bigger constraint than one that only gates the pass. Fullport's applies to the evaluation only.
• What happens on a miss? Some rules simply ask you to keep trading until the big day is diluted; others hold back a payout. The same percentage can mean very different things.

A tighter percentage is not automatically harder. A 55% cap that only gates the evaluation and simply asks you to keep trading on a miss can be easier to live with than a looser cap that applies to every payout. Compare the whole clause, not the number.

The rule rewards the habits that also make an account steady: consistent size, a daily stopping point, and not trying to finish the evaluation in one session.

A practical approach on a $25,000 account is to treat $1,500 as three or four days of $400 to $600 rather than one day of $1,500. None of those days dominates, and each fits comfortably inside the $1,000 of floor room.

How do you stay within the consistency rule?

Two habits help in particular. First, stop for the day once you are comfortably green, because a day that runs too big moves the consistency bar, and a calm finish keeps the green you already have.

Second, watch the UTC clock: a new day starts at 00:00 UTC, and a position closed a minute after midnight books its profit on the new day.

If you are used to other firms, Fullport's evaluation is one step with no daily drawdown, no time limit, and coins that trade 24/7. For the full pass plan, including sizing against the floor, see how to pass a crypto prop firm challenge.

For how the floor itself moves, see daily drawdown vs trailing drawdown and the trailing drawdown entry.