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Create AccountProp Firm Challenge Calculator
Work out what a challenge asks of you: the target, the room, and how many good trades it takes.
Your Result
The calculation runs in your browser. Rates used for currency conversion are indicative — check your broker for the exact figure.
A challenge is two problems at once: reach a target, and never cross a line while doing it. Most traders size for the first and are removed by the second. This puts both on the same page, in money, along with the number of trades the target actually takes at your own edge.
The two lines at the bottom are the ones that decide it. The number of full stops the drawdown allows, and the losing run the account can survive at your win rate. If a normal run of losses is longer than the account can take, the challenge fails on ordinary trading rather than on a mistake, and the only fix is a smaller risk per trade.
When to use it
- Before buying a challenge, to see whether your risk setting can survive it.
- When choosing between a one step and a two step account.
- After failing one, to find which of the two limits actually removed you.
- When a firm offers a larger account at the same fee and the drawdown percentage stays fixed.
The target and the limits are percentages of the account; the trades needed come from your expectancy.
Target = Size × Target %
Risk = Size × Risk %
Expectancy per trade in R = (Win Rate × R:R) − (1 − Win Rate)
Trades = Target ÷ (Risk × Expectancy)- The trade count assumes your win rate and ratio hold. They will not hold exactly over a short run, which is why the losing streak line matters more than the trade count.
- A negative expectancy makes the target unreachable, and the calculator says so rather than printing a large number.
- Risk is treated as a fixed percentage of the starting size, not compounded, which is how most challenge accounts are traded.
- Minimum trading days are not modelled here. If a firm requires them, the trade count is a floor and the calendar is a separate constraint.
A $100,000 two step account: 8% target, 5% daily, 10% overall, risking 0.5% at two to one with a 45% win rate.
Working: at 45% and two to one the edge is 0.35 R per trade, so $8,000 takes about forty-six trades at $500 of risk. The 10% drawdown covers twenty full stops, and at a 45% win rate a run of twenty losses is far beyond normal — so the risk setting fits. At 2% risk the same account would survive only five, which a normal run would break.
How many trades should a challenge take?
However many your edge needs, which is what this counts. Traders who try to pass in a week are choosing a risk per trade that a normal losing run will break, and the drawdown line here shows exactly where that point is.
Which limit fails most accounts?
The daily one, because it can be hit on an ordinary day. The overall drawdown usually takes a sustained run to reach; the daily limit takes one session of trying to recover a loss.
What if my expectancy is negative?
Then the target is not reachable by trading it out, and no amount of size fixes that — larger positions only reach the drawdown faster. The figures to change are the win rate and the ratio, and they change through the journal, not the calculator.
Is a one step challenge easier?
It has one target instead of two, but usually a tighter drawdown or a stricter consistency rule. Enter both versions here and compare the losing run each one survives; that is the comparison that matters, not the number of steps.
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