What are the MFC Stocks challenge rules?

MFC Stocks has one evaluation phase on 1,500+ US stocks and ETFs, then a funded account with the same risk limits and no target. Every figure below is the same on every account size; only the dollar amounts change.

The trading day is fixed too: 09:30–16:00 New York time; new entries stop at 15:45 and positions close from 15:50. You are flat every evening and every weekend.

The daily pause is 2% of your account size. On a $25,000 account that is $500. Lose that much in a day and your positions close and trading stops until the next trading day. The account stays alive, and you start again the next morning.

Two details matter. First, the pause is measured from the starting balance, so it is the same dollar amount every day; it does not grow after a good week. Second, the order ticket shows the room left before the pause in dollars, next to the loss at your stop. Read that line before every order, not after the trade goes wrong.

A pause is not a breach, but it is a signal. If you reach it twice in a week, cut your size before you trade again.

The max drawdown is 5% and it is the rule that ends the account. On a $25,000 account the floor starts at $23,750, which is $1,250 below the start.

The floor follows your highest closed balance and keeps the same dollar distance below it. An open gain does not lift it; only a closed result does. Once your highest closed balance reaches $26,250, the floor stops at the starting balance of $25,000 and does not move again.

In practice this means the early part of the challenge is the tightest. Every profit you close moves the floor up behind you until it locks, so a quick gain followed by a giveback leaves you with less room than you started with.

Turn the limits into a losing streak before you trade. At 0.5% risk per trade on $25,000, each loss costs $125. It takes 4 such losses to reach the daily pause and 10 in a row from the start to reach the max drawdown floor.

Double the risk to 1% and the floor is only 5 losses away. Losing streaks of that length are normal for most strategies, so a lower risk per trade is what keeps a bad week survivable.

After the evaluation you trade a funded account under the same pause, drawdown and session rules. Your first payout request opens 14 days after your first funded trade, then every 14 days; a payout add-on makes the cycle weekly. Each request is between $50 and $5,000, and you keep 70% of eligible profit.

Your evaluation fee comes back with your first approved payout, on top of the payout and outside the maximum. It is refunded once per evaluation fee and is lost if the account closes for a Prohibited Practice or after a chargeback. Your identity is verified before the first payout.