FTMO consistency rule

What the FTMO consistency rule actually measures

A consistency rule is a ratio test, not a profit limit. The firm divides your single largest winning day by the total profit in the withdrawal request. If that share is above the cap, the payout is held — not cancelled — until you add enough smaller winning days to bring the ratio back inside the limit. Nobody takes the big day away from you; you simply cannot cash it out on its own.

On FTMO there is no such ratio test: None on the evaluation. No consistency rule on the evaluation, and none applied retroactively to payouts. That is a genuine structural advantage for concentrated styles, and it is one of the reasons the firm scores 96/100 on our payout-evidence scale — fewer discretionary gates means fewer disputes.

What gates a FTMO payout instead

Without a consistency check the withdrawal chain on FTMO is short: reach the minimum funded days (~14), stay inside the static drawdown, clear KYC once, then request inside the bi-weekly on demand window. Processing is same day to 48 hours after approval with a $100 minimum.

The remaining discretionary risk is trade-level, not ratio-level: news trading is conditionally allowed (Allowed on the evaluation. On funded accounts the restriction applies to the two minutes either side of high-impact releases for swing-restricted account types.). Those are the clauses that hold a FTMO withdrawal, not your distribution of daily profits.

• Withdrawal method: Bank wire
• Withdrawal method: Deel / Rise
• Withdrawal method: Crypto (USDT/USDC)

How to fix a failed consistency check

A failed check is a timing problem, not a breach. Keep trading your normal size and let ordinary winning days dilute the outsized one; the ratio improves every session you add profit without a new record day. Do not deliberately lose money to "even out" the account — most rulebooks, FTMO's included, treat intentional loss-making as manipulation and it is one of the few things that voids a balance outright.

If you are close to the cap, request a smaller withdrawal. Many traders forget that the ratio is measured against the requested amount at some firms and against total account profit at others — where it is the request, a partial withdrawal both passes the check and gets money out of the firm's hands sooner, which is always the safer posture.

• Add smaller winning days rather than cutting the big one
• Never take an intentional loss to balance the ratio
• Request a partial payout when the ratio is borderline
• Recalculate before submitting — not after the hold email

Rule stability on FTMO

FTMO appears 2 times in our rule-change register, including at least one change applied retroactively to accounts that were already open. Consistency clauses are among the most frequently revised in this industry, so re-read the current rulebook before every payout cycle.

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