Trade The Pool account sizes & per-size rules

The full Trade The Pool size ladder

Prop pricing scales sub-linearly with account size — roughly the square root of the size ratio — so the biggest account is almost never the best value per dollar of usable buffer. Each line below shows the modelled list price, the first-phase profit target and the loss buffer expressed as a percentage of the account.

Read the buffer column first. On a static drawdown, the dollar buffer is the only number that limits your position size; the account label is marketing. A trader risking 1% per trade on the 200k account is taking the same dollar risk as one risking 20× that percentage on the smallest.

• 10k — $90, 8% target = $800, 10% buffer = $1k of loss room
• 25k — $140, 8% target = $2k, 10% buffer = $2.5k of loss room
• 50k — $200, 8% target = $4k, 10% buffer = $5k of loss room
• 100k — $280, 8% target = $8k, 10% buffer = $10k of loss room
• 200k — $400, 8% target = $16k, 10% buffer = $20k of loss room

Which Trade The Pool size is actually the best value

Cost per dollar of loss buffer is the honest comparison. 10k costs 0.090 per dollar of buffer; 25k costs 0.056 per dollar of buffer; 50k costs 0.040 per dollar of buffer; 100k costs 0.028 per dollar of buffer; 200k costs 0.020 per dollar of buffer. The cheapest ratio is where the firm is subsidising you the most, and it is usually a mid tier rather than the flagship.

The second filter is your own stop distance. Work out the worst-case dollar loss of a normal trade at your usual size, multiply by five consecutive losers, and buy the smallest account whose buffer absorbs that without breaching. Buying above that point is paying for headroom you will never trade into; buying below it guarantees a reset fee.

What the 25k and 50k tiers mean in practice

The small tiers are where most traders start and where most resets happen, because the dollar buffer is small enough that a single mis-sized position ends the account. On a forex account, one standard lot on EURUSD moves about $10 per pip — on a 25k account, a 40-pip stop on two lots is already a meaningful share of your buffer.

The larger tiers change the psychology more than the maths. Same rules, same percentage targets, bigger dollar swings — which is why traders who pass consistently on a small account often breach the first week on a large one. Scale the account only after you have taken at least two payouts at the size below.

• Real stock and ETF execution via Interactive Brokers: Unlike CFD-based prop firms, positions here reflect actual market orders routed through a real broker, which removes CFD-specific slippage and requote concerns but also means you're subject to real market microstructure, including pattern-day-trader-style considerations on the day programs.
• Static drawdown across FLEXMAX plans: The maximum loss is calculated from the starting balance rather than trailing equity, giving banked profit permanent buffer value — a trader-friendly mechanic consistent with parent company The5ers' broader philosophy.
• Consistency rule on selected plans: Some FLEXMAX plan variants apply a consistency requirement at withdrawal; it is not uniform across all four programs, so check the specific plan (Day Flex, Day Max, Swing Flex, Swing Max) you're buying.

Rules that stay the same at every size

Firms rarely vary the rulebook by account size — they vary the dollar limits. On Trade The Pool the constants are the static drawdown, the 80% profit split, the bi-weekly payout window and the consistency position (applies on selected flexmax plans).

• News trading: allowed — No scheduled news blackout for standard equity trading hours.
• EAs: not permitted — Not applicable in the same sense as CFD firms — real stock/ETF execution via Interactive Brokers does not support MT4/MT5-style EAs.
• Weekend holding: not permitted — US equity markets are closed on weekends; no weekend holding applies.
• Time limit: none — No deadline on the single-phase evaluation.

FAQ