> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.upscale.trade/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.upscale.trade/how-to-join-upscale/participation_requirements.md).

# Challenge & Trading Rules

## 📅 Profitable Day

For a day to qualify as a **Profitable Day**, the following conditions must be met:

* The **balance change** between the start and the end of the day must be **≥ 0.5%** of the initial balance.
* This value remains fixed at **0.5% of the initial balance** throughout the entire trading period.

**How it works in practice:**

Your balance is affected by the unrealized PnL of open positions. If you have accumulated unrealized profit on an open position:

* This profit is **gradually reflected in your balance** each day as it grows
* If the position remains open — it continues to affect the daily balance change
* When you close the position — unrealized profit becomes realized, but this does not affect the balance itself (the balance has already accounted for that profit)

**Example:**

* Initial balance = $10,000
* Day 1: You opened a position, unrealized profit +$500 → balance = $10,500
* Day 2: Position closed with realized profit of $500 → balance remains $10,500

Accordingly:

* Day 1 was profitable (delta +$500)
* Day 2 was neutral (delta 0, the position already produced profit on Day 1)

📌 **Key point:** *a profitable day is calculated regardless of whether the orders are open or closed. What matters is how much your balance increased over the day*.

> 🕐 **Trading day:** The day count is based on **UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)**. A new trading day starts at **00:00 UTC**. All daily balance change calculations — including the determination of a profitable day — are tied to this time.

***

## 🚀 Challenge Stages

### 🟠 Basic — standard two-stage challenge

#### Stage 1

* **Goal:** Reach **5% profit** (realized PnL)
* **Profitable days:** At least **3 days**
* **Maximum daily loss:** 5%
* **Maximum total loss:** 10%

#### Stage 2

* **Goal:** Reach **8% profit** (realized PnL)
* **Profitable days:** At least **5 days**
* **Maximum daily loss:** 5%
* **Maximum total loss:** 10%

### ⚡ Accelerated — fast-track challenge (1 stage)

#### Single stage

* **Goal:** Reach **10% profit** (realized PnL)
* **Profitable days:** At least **3 days**
* **Maximum daily loss:** 3%
* **Maximum total loss:** 6%

### 🚀 Turbo — instant funding (funded phase from day one)

#### No evaluation stage

* **Minimum profit goal:** none
* **Profitable days:** At least **5 days**
* **Maximum total loss:** 6% of the **maximum balance**
* You start trading on a funded account from the very first day

***

## 📉 Risk Parameters

{% hint style="info" %}
**How "balance" is calculated in risk parameters**

All limits below (daily loss, total loss — both during the challenge and on the funded account) are calculated from the **same balance value** as for the profitable day — that is, **including unrealized PnL of open positions**.

This means:

* Drawdown is registered **at the moment it occurs**, not when the position is closed
* An open position in the red reduces your balance **in real time** and may breach a limit even if you have not closed it yet
* Conversely — unrealized profit increases your balance immediately and can move you further away from the disqualification threshold

📌 For more on how unrealized PnL affects the balance, see the [Profitable Day](#-profitable-day) section above.
{% endhint %}

### 🔋 Maximum Daily Loss

#### For Basic challenge (5%)

* Maximum daily drawdown: **5% of the initial capital** (counted from the balance at the start of the day)
* This limit is independent of previous days — each day is evaluated separately

**Example:**

* Initial balance = $10,000
* Maximum daily drop = $500 (5%)
* If the balance drops to **$9,500** or below at any moment during the day, the account will be **immediately disqualified**

#### For Accelerated challenge (3%)

* Maximum daily drawdown: **3% of the initial capital** (counted from the balance at the start of the day)

**Example:**

* Initial balance = $10,000
* Maximum daily drop = $300 (3%)
* If the balance drops to **$9,700** or below at any moment during the day, the account will be **immediately disqualified**

> Loss from the previous day **does not affect** the limit of the next day — each day is calculated independently. A new trading day starts at **00:00 UTC**, and the daily drawdown resets to zero.

### 🪫 Maximum Total Loss

#### For Basic challenge (10%)

* The **maximum allowed total loss** during the entire evaluation period is **10% of the initial balance**

**Example:**

* Initial balance = $10,000\
  → If the balance ever drops to **$9,000** or below, the challenge is **failed**

#### For Accelerated challenge (6%)

* The **maximum allowed total loss** during the entire evaluation period is **6% of the initial balance**

**Example:**

* Initial balance = $10,000\
  → If the balance ever drops to **$9,400** or below, the challenge is **failed**

#### For Turbo (6% of the maximum balance)

* The **maximum allowed total loss** is calculated from the **maximum balance** reached during the entire trading period

**Step-by-step example:**

* **Day 1:** Starting balance = $10,000
* **Day 5:** Balance grew to $12,000 → this becomes the **new maximum balance**
* **Maximum loss is now** = 6% of $12,000 = **-$720**
* **Minimum allowed balance** = $12,000 - 6% = **$11,280**
* If the balance drops to $11,279 or below → the account will be **closed**

After a profit withdrawal:

* **Day 15:** Withdrawal of $1,000 → remaining balance $11,000
* **New maximum balance** is now = $11,000
* **New minimum allowed balance** = $11,000 - 6% = **$10,340**
* Maximum drawdown is limited to **-$660** instead of the previous -$720

***

## 💼 Funded Account

### Risk parameters after passing the challenge

⚠️ **Important:** Risk parameters on the funded account depend on which challenge type you passed, or on the Turbo option!

| **Parameter**                        | **After Basic** | **After Accelerated** | **Turbo (instant)**   |
| ------------------------------------ | --------------- | --------------------- | --------------------- |
| **Maximum daily loss**               | 5%              | **3%**                | -                     |
| **Maximum total loss**               | 10% of initial  | **6% of initial**     | **6% of max balance** |
| **Profitable days for payout**       | 5 days          | 5 days                | 5 days                |
| **Minimum gain on a profitable day** | 0.5%            | 0.5%                  | 0.5%                  |

💡 **Important:** Profitable days can be accumulated without any time limit.

***

## ⚖️ Hedging

**Hedging** means holding opposite positions (long and short) on the same instrument to offset risk.

* ✅ **Within a single account — allowed.** You can open opposing positions on the same instrument on one account.
* ⛔️ **Across different accounts — prohibited.** You may not open opposite positions on the same instrument across two or more of your accounts.

> ℹ️ The ban on cross-account hedging applies to all of a single trader's accounts.

***

### 💰 Profit Split

After passing the challenge and receiving a funded account, profit is shared between the trader and Upscale.

#### Standard split (80/20)

By default, the following profit split applies:

* **Trader receives:** 80% of the profit
* **Upscale receives:** 20% of the profit

**Example:**

* Profit for the period: $1,000
* Your payout: $800 (80%)
* Upscale fee: $200 (20%)

#### 💎 Optional 90/10 upgrade

When purchasing a challenge, you can activate an option that increases your share of the profit:

* **Trader receives:** 90% of the profit
* **Upscale receives:** 10% of the profit

💡 This is especially advantageous for active traders with consistent profitability — the additional 10% significantly increases the final payout.

***

### Payment period and withdrawal conditions

The **payment period** is the time interval starting from:

* The purchase/launch of the account (for the first payout)
* Or the most recent successful withdrawal

To request a withdrawal, the trader must:

* Reach at least **5 Profitable Days** within the current payment period
* Comply with all risk parameters (daily and total loss)
* Meet the **30% rule** condition (for Turbo, see below)
* **No open positions on RWA markets during the market pause:** at the moment of the withdrawal request, all positions on paused RWA markets (Forex, Commodity, Indices) must be closed

⚠️ **Important for RWA traders:** If you have open positions on Forex, Commodity, or Indices pairs during the pause of the respective market, the withdrawal request will be **unavailable** until those positions are closed or the markets resume. Pause schedules for each category are listed on the [Trading Assets](https://github.com/Tsunami-Exchange/upscale-doc/blob/main/trading-assets.md) page: they are tied to New York time (America/New\_York) and are not fixed in UTC.

***

### 📊 Maximum allocation

The maximum total capital available to a single trader on the funded stage is **$400,000**. This is a combined cap across all simultaneously active funded accounts.

You can purchase and pass challenges of any size — the limit only applies to the funded stage.

**Examples of valid combinations:**

* 2 × $200,000 = $400,000 ✅
* 4 × $100,000 = $400,000 ✅
* 1 × $200,000 + 2 × $100,000 = $400,000 ✅
* 1 × $200,000 + 1 × $100,000 + 2 × $50,000 = $400,000 ✅

{% hint style="info" %}
**What happens to passed challenges that exceed the cap?**

If your total capital across passed challenges exceeds $400,000, the additional accounts are not lost — they remain in a queue. When one of the active funded accounts is closed (for example, due to a drawdown breach), you can activate the next one from the reserve.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="warning" %}
The allocation cap is based on the **initial balance** of funded accounts, not the current one. For instance, if your $200,000 account has grown to $230,000, it still occupies $200,000 of the overall cap.
{% endhint %}

This approach allows the platform to maintain a sustainable model of risk management and trade execution, while letting traders run multiple strategies across several challenges simultaneously.

***

### ⚠️ The 30% rule (withdrawal limitation)

This restriction applies only to the Turbo challenge (instant funding). If **the most profitable day in the current payment period accounts for 30% or more of the total profit** — withdrawal will be **unavailable** until you accumulate additional profit.

**Step-by-step example:**

Suppose you completed 5 profitable days with the following closed profits:

* Day 1: +$200
* Day 2: +$300
* Day 3: +$1,500 ← **most profitable day**
* Day 4: +$300
* Day 5: +$200

**Calculation:**

* **Total profit** = $200 + $300 + $1,500 + $300 + $200 = **$2,500**
* **Share of the most profitable day** = $1,500 / $2,500 = **60%** ❌

⛔️ *Withdrawal temporarily unavailable*

Why? Because $1,500 makes up 60% of total profit, which is **above the 30% limit**.

**Solution: build up additional profit**

For the day with $1,500 to make up exactly 30% of the total, the following must hold:

* $1,500 / New\_total = 0.30
* New\_total = $1,500 / 0.30 = **$5,000**

**Additional profit needed:**

* $5,000 - $2,500 = **$2,500**

**After adding $2,500 in new profit:**

* New total profit = $5,000
* Share of the large trade = $1,500 / $5,000 = **30%** ✅

✅ *Withdrawal becomes available*

The rule works like this: the more balanced your trading is (without a single day of a sharp spike), the faster you can withdraw funds.

***

### Violations on the funded account

* **Failure to meet the Profitable Days requirement:**
  * The account **remains active**, trading can continue
  * **Withdrawal is not allowed** until the requirement is met
* **Breach of risk limits (Daily drawdown or Maximum drawdown):**
  * **Immediate account termination**
  * The trader **loses all accumulated profit**

***

### Examples for the funded account

#### After Basic challenge:

* Initial balance = $10,000
* Maximum daily loss = $500 (5%)
* Minimum allowed balance = $9,000 (10%)

#### After Accelerated challenge:

* Initial balance = $10,000
* Maximum daily loss = $300 (3%)
* Minimum allowed balance = $9,400 (6%)

#### For Turbo:

* Initial balance = $10,000
* Maximum loss = 6% of $10,000 = -$600 (calculated from the **maximum balance**)
* Minimum allowed balance = $9,400 (calculated from the **maximum balance**)

***

## 🔄 Transition between stages

When moving to the next stage (applicable only to the Basic challenge):

* **All open positions will be automatically closed** at market price
* **All pending limit orders are automatically cancelled**

***

## 🔒 Account termination

In case of account termination:

* **All open positions will be force-closed** at market price
* **All pending limit orders are cancelled**
* **Access to the account will be permanently revoked**