Tradeify Rules Overview: The Definitive Guide to Every Rule That Matters

The single fastest way to fail a Tradeify account isn't a catastrophic trade.

It's misunderstanding a rule you thought you knew. I've been inside Tradeify since launch, pulled verified payouts across Growth, Lightning, and Select Flex, and watched traders post in Discord convinced they'd been wronged by the platform — when the system did exactly what it documented. This guide exists so that doesn't happen to you. Every rule that matters, explained from the inside.

Why I trade with Tradeify: I've been running Tradeify accounts across Lightning, Growth, and Select plans—passed evaluations, activated funded accounts, withdrawn profits through Rise and Plane, and dealt with their support team across multiple issues. This assessment is based on real money in, real money out.

That said, no prop firm is perfect. Tradeify has clear strengths (EOD trailing drawdown, no minimum days on Growth eval, Select Flex's DLL-free funded environment, 7-day-a-week payouts) and real weaknesses (Lightning consistency rules get brutal by cycle 5+, Select Flex payout caps limit big months, no Rithmic support) that I've documented honestly. For a complete breakdown of their account types, pricing, and what to expect at each stage, read my complete Tradeify review. For the absolute latest, check Tradeify's website.

The Rule That Kills Most Accounts: EOD Trailing Drawdown

Every current Tradeify account type — Growth, Select, Lightning — uses end-of-day (EOD) trailing drawdown. The legacy Advanced plan used intraday trailing. If you're on any current account, EOD is your reality.

Here's what EOD trailing actually means, stated plainly:

Your drawdown floor updates once per day at the 5:00 PM ET session close, based on your highest end-of-day balance ever recorded. During trading hours, your floor is frozen — it does not move upward in response to intraday profits. A position that runs $2,000 in your favor before pulling back changes nothing about your current drawdown floor. Only closing the session at a new balance high moves the floor.

The critical misunderstanding — and I see this every week in the Discord — is that EOD structure doesn't protect you from hitting your current floor during the day. If your floor sits at $48,400 and your balance drops to $48,399 at 2:17 PM, your account fails immediately. The EOD structure prevents your floor from chasing intraday highs. It does not give you a buffer to trade below the current floor and recover.

The practical implication: manage your risk based on where your floor currently sits, not where it might sit after today's session close.

Drawdown Lock: When the Trailing Becomes Static

This mechanic is one of the most underappreciated parts of the Tradeify structure. Once your EOD account balance reaches your starting balance, plus your maximum drawdown amount, plus $100 — the trailing drawdown permanently locks as a static floor.

On a $50K Growth account with $2,000 EOD drawdown: once your EOD balance hits $52,100, the floor permanently locks at $50,100. From that point, the floor never moves again regardless of how high you run the account. You can't fail the account unless you lose the entire balance minus $50,100.

For Select Flex accounts, there's an additional trigger: the drawdown locks permanently on your first payout request, regardless of whether you've hit the $100-above-start threshold. Select Flex was deliberately designed to give traders a permanent floor from their first withdrawal.

This mechanic is why I tell traders who stay disciplined on Tradeify's structure that funded status becomes effectively permanent once you clear that initial buffer. The traders who fail accounts are almost always doing it before they ever reach this milestone.

Consistency Rules Across Every Account Type

Consistency rules are the most-discussed topic in the Tradeify community — and with good reason, because they work completely differently depending on which account you're trading.

The Lightning cycle 5+ constraint is the sneakiest in the entire lineup. When your best day must be exactly 30% — not more, not less — you need to actively manage both your upside (don't let one session blow past 30% of total) and your downside (don't trade so many micro-sessions that your best day drops below 30%). I completely restructure my sizing approach on Lightning accounts when they enter cycle 5. It's deliberate and it works, but you have to plan for it.

Managing the Growth 35% Rule

Here's a real example of why the 35% rule matters and how to respect it:

Say you're on a $50K Growth funded account targeting $4,500 per 5-day cycle. Monday is exceptional — you make $2,200 in clean trend conditions. Tuesday through Friday you're grinding: $500, $400, $300, $200. Total cycle: $3,600. Monday's $2,200 is 61.1% of cycle profit. Payout rejected. You keep trading into the next cycle, carrying Monday's outsized day in the calculation the entire time.

My solution: on any funded Growth account, I set a hard daily cap at 32% of my expected cycle total. If I'm targeting $4,500 over 5 days, that means $1,440 max per session. I won't push past it even on a setup that looks like it could run another $500. The consistency rule makes session discipline more valuable than position aggression.

Daily Loss Limits: Soft vs Hard, and Which Accounts Have Them

Not all DLLs on Tradeify work the same way. This distinction is enormous for day-to-day trading psychology.

Soft DLL (Growth and Lightning): When you hit the daily loss limit, trading pauses for the remainder of that session. The account does not fail. The DLL resets the following trading day. You come back fresh. This is the most trader-friendly DLL structure in the prop space — it turns what would be an account-ending bad day at other firms into a forced early close.

Hard DLL (Select Daily funded): DLL failure on Select Daily is more consequential. When the daily limit is hit on Select Daily, that trading day doesn't count toward your payout cycle and may trigger the continuity rule starting from payout 2 (you need to remain net positive between payout requests). It doesn't fail the account, but it has compounding effects on payout eligibility.

No DLL: Lightning $25K accounts have no DLL. Select Flex funded accounts have no DLL at all — which is one of the primary reasons I run Select Flex over Select Daily for serious funded trading.

One additional mechanic that activates after you've built account profit: once your Growth or Lightning account balance reaches 6% above starting balance (i.e., you've earned the equivalent of a full evaluation's profit target in the funded phase), the DLL automatically increases to match your current drawdown amount. On a $50K account, once you're at $53,000 balance, the DLL jumps from $1,250 to match the full $2,000 drawdown. This happens at the next session open after you cross that threshold.

Trading Hours, Sessions, and the 5:00 PM Window

Tradeify follows CME Globex exchange hours. The session structure:

• Trading runs 6:00 PM ET Sunday through 5:00 PM ET Friday (CME Globex schedule)
• 5:00–6:00 PM ET daily is mandatory maintenance — no trading permitted, positions must be flat
• All positions flat by 4:59 PM ET every trading day without exception
• US exchange holidays with early market closes shift the cutoff to 12:59 PM ET

The 5:00 PM ET timestamp is the most important moment in any Tradeify trading day. At that exact moment: your EOD drawdown floor updates based on the day's closing balance, your DLL calculation resets for the next session, and a qualifying trading day is recorded in your payout cycle. Everything downstream — your drawdown floor, your payout eligibility, your daily limit — runs off that single daily timestamp.

If you're holding a position with significant unrealized profit approaching 4:59 PM, you face a real decision: close and lock in the EOD floor update, or manage overnight and take the next session's open as your recorded balance. I close positions before EOD when I have meaningful unrealized gains. Locking in the EOD balance update is worth the slippage on the close.

Hedging, Micro/Mini Rules, and Multi-Account Conduct

Hedging is strictly prohibited across the Tradeify platform — and the rule applies at the household level, not just within a single account session.

The specific prohibitions:

• No opposing positions on the same instrument within a single account
• No simultaneously holding long and short positions across different Tradeify accounts in the same household (even on different platforms)
• No simultaneous trading of mini and micro versions of the same contract across accounts

There's a 10-second grace period if you accidentally open an opposing position — enough time to close the conflicting trade without triggering a violation. But intentional hedging strategies, including hedging across multiple accounts to reduce net directional exposure, are grounds for account termination.

Sequential trading between contract sizes is fine. Trading ES in the morning and MES in the afternoon on different accounts is allowed as long as you're not holding both simultaneously. The prohibition is about concurrent opposing positions, not about ever touching both contract types.

News trading, by contrast, is fully permitted. No blackout periods, no pre-event position restrictions, no post-event requirements. FOMC, NFP, CPI — all fully tradeable. This is one of the most permissive news policies in the futures prop space.

The Rules Most Traders Miss: A Reference Table

The KYC timing issue is avoidable and completely unnecessary to experience. The moment you go funded on any Tradeify account, submit your KYC verification through Rise before your first payout cycle even starts. It's a 10-minute process. Once verified, all subsequent payouts process without re-verification. Don't wait until you've earned money and want it — do it during the first week when you have nothing at stake.

Payout Rules: Cycles, Caps, and Profit Splits

The payout structure is where account types diverge the most from each other.

Growth funded: 5-day payout cycles with approximately 3 request windows per month. Payout caps escalate from conservative on your first withdrawal to $25,000/$50,000/$75,000 by the sixth payout (for 50K/100K/150K accounts). 100% split on the first $15,000 in cumulative lifetime payouts, then 90/10 permanently.

Lightning funded: 5-day cycles with sequential profit goals that escalate each payout. Cap per cycle: $1,000 flat for $25K, escalating through 4 payouts for larger sizes. Same 100% → 90/10 profit split as Growth.

Select Flex funded: 5-day cycles, 50% of net cycle profits per request, hard caps of $3K/$4K/$5K for 50K/100K/150K. 90/10 from payout 1, no 100% phase.

Select Daily funded: Daily payout requests. Caps of $1K/$1.5K/$2.5K per day. From payout 2, continuity rules apply — you must maintain a net positive balance between requests. DLL enforced daily. 90/10 from payout 1.

All payouts process via Rise (primary — ACH, instant bank, crypto) or Plane (international alternative). Rise operates 7 days a week including weekends, with most approvals completing within 24–48 hours and many same-day. Tradeify takes no fees on payouts — whatever Rise or Plane charges for currency conversion is the only cost.

Frequently Asked Questions About Tradeify Rules

What's the daily trading window on Tradeify?

Trading runs 6:00 PM ET (Sunday through Thursday) to 5:00 PM ET (Monday through Friday), matching the CME Globex schedule. Positions must be flat by 4:59 PM ET daily. The 5:00–6:00 PM window is mandatory maintenance and no trading is permitted during that hour.

Does EOD drawdown mean my floor only moves at end of day?

The floor updates upward only at EOD — it doesn't chase intraday profits. But the floor is enforced in real time throughout the trading day. If your balance touches your current floor at 1:00 PM, your account fails immediately regardless of where it might recover by 5:00 PM.

Is news trading allowed on Tradeify?

Fully permitted. There are no blackout periods, pre-announcement position restrictions, or requirements around economic release times. FOMC, NFP, CPI, and all other high-impact events can be traded freely on all account types.

What is the minimum hold time for trades?

There is no minimum hold time on current Tradeify accounts. Scalping in and out in seconds is permitted. Some older prop firms enforce 30-second or 2-minute minimums; Tradeify does not.

Can I hedge positions across multiple accounts?

No. Hedging is prohibited at the household level — you cannot hold opposing positions on the same instrument across different Tradeify accounts, even if those accounts are on different platforms. Sequential trading between contract sizes is allowed; simultaneous opposing positions are not.

What happens if I hit the daily loss limit on a Growth account?

Trading pauses for the remainder of that session. The account does not fail. The DLL is soft — it's a forced stop, not an elimination. Your account resets the next trading day and you continue normally. Three DLL hits in a row is a signal to review sizing, but it's not a rule violation by itself.

How does the drawdown lock work on Select Flex?

Select Flex triggers the permanent drawdown lock in two ways: when your EOD balance reaches starting balance + drawdown + $100 (same as all accounts), or when you submit your first payout request — whichever comes first. Once locked, the floor never changes regardless of future account equity.

What is the payout frequency on Growth accounts?

Growth funded payouts run in 5-day cycles with approximately 3 windows per month — typically the 1st–4th, 11th–14th, and 21st–24th of each month. You need 5 qualifying trading days and a positive cycle balance to submit a request. There's no cap on how many payouts you can receive annually.

Does Tradeify allow automated trading?

Automation isn't explicitly prohibited, but strategies that generate uniform trades across multiple accounts, operate at non-human execution speeds, or appear designed to exploit simulation mechanics rather than trade real market edge are flagged and reviewed. If you use automated strategies, keep them consistent with what a discretionary trader would execute and avoid coordinated multi-account patterns.

What's the profit split on Tradeify funded accounts?

Growth and Lightning: 100% on the first $15,000 in cumulative payouts from that specific account, then 90/10 permanently. Select (both Flex and Daily): 90/10 from payout 1. Elite Live: 90/10. The 100% phase on Growth and Lightning adds meaningful value for traders running smaller accounts — on a $50K Growth account, exhausting the 100% window represents roughly $1,500 in additional earnings compared to 90/10 from day one.

Can I reset a failed Lightning account?

No. Lightning Funded accounts cannot be reset. A breach means purchasing a new account. Growth and Select evaluations can be reset for $85/$169/$197 (50K/100K/150K) — the reset restores the account to starting conditions with a fresh payout counter and no carryover of previous progress.