What is the Progression Ladder on the Trader Career Path® / Gauntlet Mini™?

The Progression Ladder limits the number of contracts that traders can open. Traders must self-regulate and limit the number of contracts that they open. As traders profit and increase their account balance, they may open more positions to take advantage of their additional capital, although it is not mandatory.

If traders open more contracts than their account size and profit levels allow, their evaluation will be blocked for the day. This does not require the evaluation account to be reset. During market close we will remove the block from the blocked account so that users can continue their progress the next trading day with the same evaluation account.

Important Notes/Examples:

Funding Trading tracks current account balance which includes open and closed equity intraday, on profit and on loss. Therefore, traders should build up a profit margin above the contract size they wish to trade, so that they have a buffer before they no longer can have a position of that size open. This will help prevent their account balance suddenly dropping to a level that doesn’t allow them to hold the number of positions they currently have open.

For example, if you have a $50,000 account, you are only allowed to open two contracts. It is possible to open a position with 2 ES contracts. It is also possible to open 1 ES and 1 CL positions. However, opening a third contract (of the same asset or other) will block the examination for the day immediately.

If you have a $50,000 account, you can open up to four contracts when you have $1,501 or more in profit in your account ($51,501 or more). However, you must make sure that your profits do not dip below this limit again while having these 4 contracts open, or or your evaluation will be blocked for the day immediately.

Please note that the following micro contracts: MES, MNQ, MYM, M2K, MGC, MCL, M6B, M6E, MHG can be traded for up to ten contracts and it'll only count as one contract towards the progression ladder. For example if the progression ladder allows you 4 contracts then you can either trade up to 4 ES, 3 ES & 10 MES, 2 ES & 20 MES, 1 ES & 30 MES or 40 MES.

Traders should maintain discretion and vigilance over their account capital so that they don’t get their examination blocked for the day and ensure that they are exposing themselves to a minimum level of risk.

Important notice:

1. Scaling up from one step of the Progression Ladder to the next is not real time, but happens during market close. That means that the maximum number of contracts you are allowed to trade stays static throughout the trading day. If/ when your realized profits surpass the required amount for scaling up, you must wait until the next trading day to trade the number of contracts that your updated account balance allows you. The maximum number of tradable contracts can be checked in your dashboard, under the Evaluation Overview tab, right after it updates during market close.
2. Users found to be in breach of this rule may undergo a review process within the evaluation. Depending on the severity and nature of the breach, manual adjustments to the user's account and progression status may be enacted at the discretion of the evaluation administrators.
3. Users who misuse or intentionally violate the Progression Ladder rule within the evaluation may have their evaluation removed without a refund and become ineligible for any funding opportunities provided by the evaluation.

Find more detailed information in the below charts.