Part 2: My Exact Plan for a $10K FTMO Prop Trading Account

Oct 7

11 min read

So you picked your challenge. You paid your $99, the login email came through, and there it is: a brand new account with $10,000 in it. Now what?

In Part 1 I walked through how I finally understood the difference between the FTMO 1-Step and 2-Step. The moving floor, the daily loss, why percentage risk stops making sense in a prop account. If you haven't read it, start there, because this one won't make much sense without it.

But understanding the rules and actually trading them are two different things. Once I got it, my very next question was, okay... so what do I do? What lot size do I put in on the first trade? When do I take money out? How much do I leave in? Do I ever get to size up, or am I stuck at 0.33 lots forever?

So I made myself a plan, and I just signed up for a new account to run it. I'm starting with the $10,000 account on purpose. It's $99, which is a cheap way to prove the process before putting more on the line. And honestly, after blowing my first 1-Step in three trades, I'd rather earn my way up than buy my way in.

I'm using the 2-Step because that's the one I'm leaning toward. There's a short 1-Step version near the end if that's what you picked.

How to use this post: read it once all the way through. Then keep it open while you trade. The checklists are there to tick off, and the tables are there to look things up without doing math with a setup in front of you.

The numbers on a $10K 2-Step

These are the only numbers the account cares about. Write them on a sticky note and put it on your monitor.

What	Amount	What it means
Starting balance	$10,000	Every phase and the funded account start here
Floor (max loss)	$9,000	Fixed forever. Your equity can never touch it, open trades included
Daily loss limit	$500	Measured from where the day starts. Open losses count
Phase 1 target	$11,000 (+$1,000)	10%
Phase 2 target	$10,500 (+$500)	5%, on a fresh $10,000 account
Minimum trading days	4 per phase
Time limit	None
Challenge fee	$99	Refunded with your first funded payout

The trading day resets at midnight Prague time. That's around 6 p.m. New York, or noon to 1 p.m. Hawaii time depending on the season.

One number matters more than all of these: room. Room = your balance minus $9,000. At the start, you have $1,000 of room. Every rule in this plan runs off that one number.

My standard entry for the FTMO trading plan: $50 a trade

During the challenge I risk $50 a trade. That's 0.5% of the starting balance. Not 0.5% of whatever the balance is today. $50, every trade, until the plan says otherwise.

Why $50 and not $100? At $50:

A full losing day, 3 trades and 3 stop-outs, is -$150. That's less than a third of the $500 daily limit.
It takes 20 straight losses to hit the floor.
You can't blow this account in three trades. I checked.

The risk is fixed. The lot size changes with the stop. On EURUSD, 1 standard lot is about $10 a pip, so 0.01 lots is about $0.10 a pip:

Formula on a white background: Lots = $50 / [Stop (pips) × $10]

Here's the math so you don't have to do it live.

Stop (pips)	Lots for $50 risk
10	0.50
12	0.42
15	0.33
20	0.25
25	0.20
30	0.17

My usual stop is 15 pips, so my default entry is 0.33 lots. If a setup needs a wider stop, the lots shrink. The stop goes where the structure says. The size fits the stop. Never the other way around.

The pip values above are for pairs quoted in USD, like EURUSD and GBPUSD. Other pairs have different pip values, so check before you trade them.

The daily checklist

This is the part you'll actually look at every day. Same steps, every session, whether you up or down.

Before the session

Note the balance from the platform.
Work out the room: balance minus $9,000.
Look up today's risk per trade in the step-down table for the phase we're in.
Write down today's lot size for the usual 15-pip stop.
Check the economic calendar for high-impact news.
Mark the levels and know what setup you're waiting for. No setup, no trade.

During the session

Stop loss goes in with the order. Every trade. No mental stops.
Lot size matches what was written down this morning- not what feels right in the moment.
Maximum 3 trades today.
2 losses in a row: It's good to take a break before the third.
3 trades taken, or down 3 times today's risk ($150 at $50)then done for the day. Win or lose.
No moving stops further away. Ever.

After the session

Log every trade in the trade log (template below).
Write down closing balance and new room.
One line on what went well and one on what could change.
Check whether tomorrow's room puts us in a different row of the step-down table.

The daily stop is my rule, not FTMO's. Their limit is $500. Mine is three full losses at today's risk: $150 at $50, $300 at the $100 cap once I'm funded. Either way I still have room left under the firm's limit, and that buffer is the point.

Phase 1 and Phase 2: passing

In the challenge, passing is the only goal.

Phase 1: get to $11,000

The target is +$1,000. At $50 a trade, that's 20R of net profit. If you win half your trades at 2R, that's roughly 40 trades. At up to 3 trades a day, call it a few weeks, maybe more. That's fine. There's no time limit.

Phase 2: get to $10,500

Phase 2 starts on a fresh $10,000 account with a fresh $9,000 floor. The target is +$500, which is 10R. Same $50 entry, same checklist, same everything. Half the distance of Phase 1, so it should go faster.

Step-downs during the challenge

If the account pulls back, the size comes down with the room. During the challenge, $50 is the ceiling. Don't go above it, no matter how far ahead you are.

Balance	Room	Risk per trade	Lots (15-pip stop)
$9,900 or more	$900+	$50	0.33
$9,600 to $9,899	$600 to $899	$35	0.23
$9,300 to $9,599	$300 to $599	$20	0.13
Under $9,300	Under $300	Stop trading this account (see "When it goes wrong")	-

I go back up a row as soon as my balance climbs back into it. Up one row at a time, same as down.

The minimum trading days

Each phase needs at least 4 trading days. If you hit the target on day 2, don't keep pushing at full size. On each remaining day take one small trade, 0.01 lots, just to log the day. Don't risk a passed phase to fill a calendar.

Once I'm funded: letting my size grow

This is the part to get excited about, and the reason I'm leaning 2-Step. The floor never moves. So when you make money and leave some of it in, the room actually gets bigger meaning the position size can too.

It's the scaled-risk idea I teach, just measured against the right number, instead of a percentage of my balance. Roughly 5% of my room, with a hard cap at $100.

The funded account starts at $10,000, so I start at $50, same as the challenge.

Balance	Room	Risk per trade	Lots (15-pip stop)
$11,000 or more	$2,000+	$100 (cap)	0.67
$10,500 to $10,999	$1,500 to $1,999	$75	0.50
$9,900 to $10,499	$900 to $1,499	$50	0.33
$9,600 to $9,899	$600 to $899	$35	0.23
$9,300 to $9,599	$300 to $599	$20	0.13
Under $9,300	Under $300	Stop trading this account	-

How it works in practice:

I check my row every morning in the daily checklist. Size changes happen at the start of the day, never mid-session.
Up one row at a time, down one row at a time.
$100 is the cap on a $10K account. Even at $12,000. If I want to risk more than $100 a trade, the answer is a bigger account, not a bigger lot on this one.

At $100 risk, three full losers is $300. That's still under the $500 daily limit, with room to spare. FTMO also says no single trade idea on a funded account should lose more than 3% of the account, which is $300 here. At $100 max per trade, we're nowhere near it.

One thing to check on the funded account: FTMO Standard funded accounts have restrictions around trading high-impact news. Read the current rules for your account type before your first funded trade.

Taking profits: the payout plan

On the 2-Step, money left in the account is cushion. Money taken out is mine. The plan is to build a cushion first, then take everything above it.

Payout 1: the first one

Wait until you're eligible which should happen 14 days after the first trade on the funded account.
If the balance is above $10,500, request a payout of everything above $10,500.
If below $10,500, wait. I'd rather you keep trading toward the buffer than empty the account.
Watch for the $99 challenge fee coming back with this payout.

Leaving $10,500 means you keep $1,500 of room. That's the $75 row in the sizing table.

Every payout after that

Build the buffer up to $11,000. That's $2,000 of room, which keeps us at the $100 cap.
Once you are there, withdraw everything above $11,000 each time you're eligible.
Never withdraw below $11,000 once you've built it, unless you are stepping away from the account.

After the first payout, check how often FTMO lets you request the next one.

What a payout actually looks like

Say you at $11,600 at payout time and so you withdraw $600 of profit. At the 2-Step's starting 80% split, you'd keep $480, and the account goes back to $11,000. Room stays at $2,000, and your size stays at $100.

Not huge on a $10K account. But it's real money from a process that works, and that's what lets you buy a bigger account and pass again with the same plan.

A few more things with FTMO

Partial withdrawals. On the 2-Step, FTMO lets you roll over some or all of a reward instead of withdrawing it. Take what's above the buffer and leave the rest in the account as room.
The scaling plan. The 2-Step has a scaling plan that can raise your split toward 90% and increase the account size. Check the current conditions so you know what you're working toward.
Close everything before you claim. All open trades and pending orders have to be closed before a payout request. So payout day is a flat day: Close out, then claim.
No weekend holds once funded. In the challenge you can hold over the weekend. On a funded Standard account you can't. Everything gets closed before the Friday market close.

When it goes wrong

It will. Losing streaks happen to everyone. The plan for a bad stretch has to be written down before it starts, because you won't make good decisions in the middle of one.

A bad day

Daily stop: 3 trades, or three full losses. Close the platform, log the trades, and try to forget them. Don't open a chart again until tomorrow. No revenge trading. No "one more to get back to even."

A bad week

The step-down table does most of the work here. As the room shrinks, the size shrinks automatically. A losing streak at $20 a trade takes a long time to do real damage.

If you've stepped down two rows in one week, you need to review every losing trade before taking another one. Was it the setup, or were you forcing it?

Room under $300

This is the stop line, at a balance under $9,300. You are still in the account, but stop trading it live.

Stop live trading this account.
Go back through the trade log and look for the pattern. Wrong setup? Wrong session? Breaking my own rules?
Paper trade or backtest the setup for at least a week.
Come back at $20 a trade, the lowest row, and only after the review.

I'd rather sit at $9,250 for two weeks and figure out what's wrong than trade it down to $9,000 trying to fix it live.

If the account fails anyway

It's $99. That's the whole reason I started at $10K. I go back through the log, figure out which rule was broken or which rule was missing, update this plan, and buy the next one. The plan gets better every time it gets tested.

Basic trade log

Every trade goes in here the same day. It's how you'll know whether the plan is working, and it's what l go through if I ever hit the stop line. The first row is an example- add rows as you go.

Date	Phase	Pair	Setup	Stop (pips)	Lots	Risk ($)	Result (R)	P/L ($)	Closingbalance	Room	Followed the plan?
10/1	P1	EURUSD	Dealer Cycle, level 3 short	15	0.33	50	+2	+100	10,100	1,100	Yes

Weekly review

Every weekend, five minutes:

Total R for the week, and the balance and room I'm ending on.
How many trades followed the plan? How many didn't?
My best trade, and why it worked.
My worst trade, and whether it was the market or me.
Which row of the sizing table I'm starting next week in.

If you picked the 1-Step

The checklist, the trade log and the bad-day rules all work the same. Three things change: the floor moves, the daily limit is tighter, and you never size up.

The numbers on a $10K 1-Step

What	Amount
Floor	Starts at $9,000, then follows your best closing balance, staying $1,000 below it
Daily loss limit	$300
Target	$11,000 (+$1,000), one phase
Best Day Rule	Your best day has to be less than half your total profit
Split	90% from the first payout
Challenge fee	$99, not refunded

On the 1-Step, room = balance minus the floor, and the floor is your best close minus $1,000. So after a winning run, check where your floor is now. It's not $9,000 anymore.

Sizing: flat $50, never higher

Room to the floor	Risk per trade	Lots (15-pip stop)
$700 or more	$50	0.33
$400 to $699	$25	0.17
$150 to $399	$15	0.10
Under $150	Stop. Review, paper trade	-

Your room on the 1-Step never gets bigger than $1,000, so there's no row above $50. Even when you're up. Especially when you're up.

Three full losers at $50 is $150, half the $300 daily limit. And at $50, even a great 4R day is $200, so the Best Day Rule takes care of itself.

Payouts: take everything, every time

Request a payout as soon as you're eligible.
Withdraw everything above $10,000.
Your floor resets to $9,000 with the new account, so you start over with your full $1,000 of room.

Profit you leave in a 1-Step account doesn't give you more room. The floor just climbs up behind it. So there's no buffer to build. Take the money, reset, repeat. Want bigger lots? Pass a bigger account.

The whole plan on one screen

Risk $50 a trade during the challenge. 0.33 lots at a 15-pip stop.
Maximum 3 trades a day. Done at 3 trades or 3 full losses.
Check my room every morning. Size comes from the table, not from how I feel.
Step down as room shrinks. Never above $50 in the challenge.
Once funded, size grows with room, capped at $100.
First payout: take everything above $10,500. After that, build to $11,000 and take everything above it.
Room under $300: stop, review, paper trade.
Want bigger lots than this allows? Pass a bigger account.

That's it. It's not exciting. It's not supposed to be. I'm trading it starting this week, and I'll tell you how it goes, good or bad.

If you're doing this with me, drop your starting balance in the Tribe and let's hold each other to the plan.

Missed Part 1?

Start with FTMO 1-Step vs 2-Step: How to Choose (and Why I Blew My First One in 3 Trades).

It explains the moving floor and why the FTMO trading plan looks the way it does.

Small lots, big patience, and go get funded.

See you in the Tribe, E

The usual fine print: This is my own plan and how I'm choosing to trade, not financial advice. Trading involves real risk, and you can lose money, including challenge fees. Lot sizes and pip values are approximate and depend on your pair and platform. The dollar examples are illustrations, not results. FTMO's rules were current as of October 2026 and can change, so read the objectives on their site before you trade.