By Fajar Febriansyah · Updated September 2026 · Firm rules checked July 2026
In one line: A consistency rule caps how much of your total profit may come from your best single day. Divide your best day by your total profit and the answer has to sit under the firm's threshold, usually somewhere between 20 and 50 percent. At most firms breaking it holds your payout until further profit dilutes the ratio. It does not end your account.
Also appears as consistency score, profit distribution rule, or a consistency requirement.
Table of Contents
What the Rule Measures
Every other prop firm rule asks how much you made or how much you lost. This one asks how the profit arrived. You can hit your target, stay well inside every drawdown limit, and still be told you are not eligible, because too much of the total came from one session.
The calculation is short. Take your best profitable day, divide it by your total profit, multiply by 100. If the answer is above the firm's threshold, you are outside the rule.
The reason firms use it is capital allocation rather than punishment. A proprietary trading firm is funding thousands of accounts at once, so what it needs is a predictable return stream. A trader who makes 10,000 in one afternoon and nothing else gives no evidence the result repeats. A trader who makes 500 a day for twenty days is something a firm can budget around. It is the same instinct behind the Sharpe ratio in institutional finance, where a return is judged against the variability that produced it rather than on its size alone. The rule is a filter for luck, and if your position sizing is already flat you will never notice it exists.
Why 30 Percent at Two Firms Is Not the Same Rule
The percentage is the part firms advertise and the least informative part of the rule. Four other things decide what the number does to you, and none of them appear in the marketing copy.
| Variable | What it can be | Effect on you |
|---|---|---|
| The numerator | Your best trading day, or your best single trade. Some firms apply both. | A per-trade cap is much tighter. Three good trades in one session can pass a daily rule and fail a per-trade one. |
| The denominator | Total realised profit, the sum of profitable days only, or the profit target. | Against the target the limit is fixed and cannot be diluted. Against realised profit it moves as you earn, which is what makes a violation curable. |
| The stage | Evaluation only, funded only, at payout request only, or all of them. | Decides whether the rule shapes how you pass or how you get paid. Several firms drop it entirely once you are funded. |
| The consequence | Payout hold, excess profit excluded, profit target raised, split reduced, or account failed. | Decides whether a violation is an inconvenience or the end. See the next section. |
Two firms can both print "30 percent consistency" and hand you completely different accounts. Get all four answers in writing before you buy, and re-check them if you switch account type inside the same firm.
What Actually Happens When You Break It
Most explanations of this rule say you fail. For most firms that is wrong, and the mistake causes real damage, because a trader who thinks the account is gone stops managing it properly.
| Consequence | What it means | How bad |
|---|---|---|
| Payout or pass held | You keep trading until further profit brings the ratio back under the threshold. Nothing is lost. | The most common outcome. An inconvenience. |
| Excess excluded | The profit above the limit is stripped from the payout, but the account is untouched and keeps trading. | You lose money, not the account. |
| Profit target raised | Instead of failing you, the firm lifts the target so your big day becomes a smaller share of the required total. | Longer evaluation, same account. |
| Profit split cut | Your share of future profits drops, sometimes permanently, for the remaining life of the account. | Serious. The account survives but the economics do not. |
| Account failed | The evaluation ends or funding is withdrawn for a badly skewed profit curve. | Worst case, and a minority of firms. |
Find your consequence before you find your threshold. A 20 percent rule that only holds a payout is a far better account than a 40 percent rule that fails you, and no comparison table sorted by percentage will tell you that. Our firm reviews record the consequence alongside the threshold for exactly this reason.
The Maths of Fixing a Violation
Where the denominator is your realised profit, a violation is arithmetic rather than a verdict. You need enough additional profit that the big day shrinks as a proportion of the total.
| Your best day | Under 20% | Under 30% | Under 40% | Under 50% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | 5,000 | 3,334 | 2,500 | 2,000 |
| 2,500 | 12,500 | 8,334 | 6,250 | 5,000 |
| 4,500 | 22,500 | 15,000 | 11,250 | 9,000 |
| 8,000 | 40,000 | 26,667 | 20,000 | 16,000 |
Read the 20 percent column and the problem becomes obvious. A single 8,000 dollar day on a tight rule commits you to 40,000 in total profit before you see a payout. On a 100,000 account that is a 40 percent return, which is not a dilution plan, it is a different career.
Before committing to a dilution plan, sanity-check it against the thresholds at other firms. A best day that needs 40,000 to legalise at one firm may sit comfortably inside a 50 percent rule elsewhere.
There is also a trap inside the fix. Every additional day has to stay smaller than the day you are trying to dilute. Make a new, bigger best day chasing the target and the requirement moves further away. Fixing a consistency violation means deliberately trading smaller than the trade that caused it, at exactly the moment most traders want to press.
Worked Example
100,000 account, 10,000 profit target, 30 percent consistency rule
| Day | Profit | Running total | Best day as % of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 1,200 | 1,200 | 100% |
| Tuesday | 800 | 2,000 | 60% |
| Wednesday | 4,500 | 6,500 | 69% |
| Thursday | 1,500 | 8,000 | 56% |
| Friday | 2,000 | 10,000 | 45% |
Target hit exactly, the daily loss limit never threatened, and the rule is still failed. Wednesday is 45 percent of the total against a 30 percent cap. To bring Wednesday inside the rule this trader needs 15,000 in total profit, so another 5,000 spread across days that each stay under 4,500.
Notice the early column too. In the first few days your best day is always a huge share of a small total, which is normal and not a violation. Most firms check the ratio at the end of the period or when you request a payout, not daily, so an early skew has time to even out. Confirm that timing for your own account, because a firm that snapshots daily behaves very differently.
Three Ways Good Traders Breach It
1. Holding positions across sessions
A trade held for six days books its entire profit on the day it closes. The calendar sees one large number, and the calculation has no idea the work was spread over a week. Swing traders can breach a consistency rule while trading exactly the size they planned, which is why these rules suit day traders and scalpers far better than position holders. If you hold overnight, check the rule before the drawdown model.
2. Trading a scheduled news event
A single high-impact release can deliver a session return that would be a good month otherwise. A 4 percent day against a 10 percent target is 40 percent of the total on its own. Traders whose edge is event-driven are the most frequent casualties of this rule, and no amount of discipline changes the arithmetic. It is a strategy mismatch, not a mistake.
3. A losing day, oddly enough
Where the denominator is net profit, a loss shrinks your total and pushes your best day up as a percentage. Your ratio can deteriorate on a day you never placed an oversized winner. Check whether your firm nets losses or measures against profitable days only, because the two produce different numbers from identical trading.
How Firms Differ
Consistency rules are among the least standardised terms in the industry, and third-party comparison tables on this subject frequently contradict each other and the firms themselves. Treat any figure you have not seen on a rulebook as a rumour.
Maven Trading shows how much the answer can vary inside one firm. Rules below are from our review, data checked July 2026.
| Account | Rule | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Standard 1, 2 and 3-Step | No consistency score | Not applicable. Minimum profitable day requirements apply instead. |
| Instant Funding | 20 percent score, calculated as largest winning day divided by total profit | Withdrawal blocked until the score sits at 20 percent or below |
| OMO and Buy Now Pay Later funded | Separate 20 percent requirement before each withdrawal | Withdrawal blocked until met |
| Any account, payouts above 5,000 | Best day or best single trade cannot exceed 50 percent of total profit | The excess is contracted back to the 50 percent threshold. The account is not failed. |
That last row is worth studying, because it uses a different numerator, a different threshold and a different consequence from the row above it, at the same firm, on the same account. It also shows why the honest answer to "does Maven have a consistency rule" is that it depends which account and which payout.
To compare thresholds and stages across a wider set of firms, use the comparison tool or browse the full firm directory. Individual review pages carry each firm's current rule and the date it was verified.
How to Stay Inside It
None of this requires trading worse. It requires trading flatter.
FAQs About the Consistency Rule
What is a consistency rule in prop trading?
A consistency rule caps how much of your total profit is allowed to come from a single trading day, or at some firms a single trade. The calculation is your best day divided by your total profit, expressed as a percentage. Thresholds usually sit between 20 and 50 percent. The rule measures how your profit was distributed, not how much of it there is.
Does breaking the consistency rule fail your account?
Usually not. At most firms a violation holds your payout or your pass until the ratio comes back inside the threshold, which you fix by making more profit on other days. A minority of firms do fail an account for a badly skewed profit curve, and some exclude the excess from the payout instead. The consequence is set by your rulebook, so read it rather than assuming the worst.
How do you calculate the consistency rule?
Divide your best day's profit by your total profit and multiply by 100. A best day of 4,500 against a total of 10,000 gives 45 percent, which breaches a 30 percent rule. Check which total your firm uses, because some measure against realised profit and some against the profit target, and the two produce different limits.
How much more profit do I need to fix a consistency violation?
Divide your best day by the threshold to get the total profit you need. A best day of 4,500 under a 30 percent rule needs 15,000 in total profit, because 4,500 divided by 0.30 is 15,000. The catch is that you have to reach that total without creating a new, larger best day, so the extra profit has to arrive in modest increments.
Is a higher consistency percentage stricter or easier?
A higher percentage is easier, which catches people out. A 50 percent rule lets your best day carry half your total profit. A 20 percent rule means your best day can only be a fifth of it, so you need a much flatter profit curve and more trading days. When comparing firms, the bigger number is the friendlier rule.
Do losing days count toward the consistency rule?
In most implementations the calculation runs on your best profitable day against net or accumulated profit, so losing days reduce your total and therefore push your percentage up. That means a loss can worsen your consistency ratio without you placing a single oversized winning trade. Some firms measure against the sum of profitable days instead, which behaves differently.
Why do swing traders breach consistency rules so often?
A position held across several sessions books its entire profit on the day it closes. Six days of patient work lands as one large number on the calendar, and the calculation only sees the closing day. Traders holding multi-day positions can breach a consistency rule while trading exactly the size they planned, which is why the rule fits scalpers and day traders far better than swing strategies.
Find firms whose consistency rule fits your strategy
We read every firm's rule pages directly and record the threshold, the stage, the consequence and the date it was verified.
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