1-Step and 2-Step are not the same account
Both programs headline a 10% maximum loss. Underneath, they behave differently enough that carrying sizing habits from one to the other is a real way to fail:
- 2-Step — maximum daily loss 5%. Maximum loss 10%, static. It sits at 90% of your initial capital and stays there no matter how much you make.
- 1-Step — maximum daily loss 3%. Maximum loss 10%, end-of-day trailing, and FTMO note it only ever increases, never decreases.
The 1-Step is tighter on both counts. Its daily allowance is 40% smaller, and its max loss follows you up rather than staying put. Traders often pick the 1-Step because one phase sounds easier than two, then size as though the rules matched the 2-Step. They do not.
There is a third difference worth knowing on the 1-Step: the Best Day rule. A single best day cannot exceed 50% of the total gains across your profitable days. That is a consistency constraint, and consistency constraints are sizing constraints — one oversized winner can disqualify an otherwise passing account.
Static versus trailing, in money
Take a $100,000 account. Max loss is $10,000 in both programs.
2-Step, static. Your floor is $90,000 permanently. Make $8,000 and your floor is still $90,000 — you now have $18,000 of room. Profit genuinely buys you breathing space.
1-Step, EOD trailing. Your floor starts at $90,000 but follows your end-of-day highs upward. Make $8,000 and close the day at $108,000, and the floor moves to $98,000. You still have exactly $10,000 of room — no more than on day one. Profit buys you nothing in drawdown terms; it only moves the goalposts with you.
This is why the same nominal 10% is not the same risk. On a trailing structure your buffer never grows, so a losing streak after a good run is just as fatal as one at the start. Size accordingly and do not let a profitable week talk you into bigger positions.
Percent rules, not contract caps
FTMO is a CFD and forex program, not a US futures prop firm, and that changes the arithmetic in two ways.
There is no contract cap. Futures firms like Apex or Tradeify impose a hard ceiling on contracts regardless of your risk maths; FTMO does not. Your only limits are the percentage loss rules and available leverage, which means nothing external stops you from putting on a position far larger than your risk budget allows. The discipline has to come from you.
And lots are fractional. On futures the smallest unit is one micro contract with a fixed tick value, so sizing rounds to whole numbers. On FTMO you can trade 0.37 lots. That precision is genuinely useful — you can size exactly to your risk rather than rounding down and leaving budget unused.
Set the calculator to CFD / Forex mode for FTMO. Futures mode will size in contracts against a tick value, which is the wrong model here.
Worked example — 2-Step 100k
Balance $100,000. Daily loss 5% = $5,000. Max loss 10% = $10,000, static, floor at $90,000.
Allow five losing trades inside the daily limit and that is $1,000 per trade — a 1% risk per position, which is a defensible number. On EURUSD with a 25-pip stop, one standard lot risks roughly $250, so $1,000 allows about four lots.
Now check it against the account rather than the day. Five maximum losses would take you to $95,000, half your total buffer, in one session. And FTMO's daily loss resets at 00:00 CET/CEST off the opening balance — so a bad day does not reduce tomorrow's allowance. Two consecutive full-limit days puts you at the max loss and out.
The general shape: the daily limit is what you can lose today, the max loss is what you can lose in total, and the second number should govern your sizing far more than the first.
Open calculator
Both presets use the published percentage rules on a 100k account. FTMO offers other account sizes up to $200,000 — the percentages are the same, so scale the dollar figures proportionally, or enter your own balance directly in the calculator.
Common questions
Which FTMO program is easier to pass?
We will not tell you that, because it depends entirely on how you trade. What we can say factually: the 1-Step has one phase but a tighter daily loss (3% vs 5%), a trailing rather than static max loss, and an additional Best Day consistency rule. Fewer phases does not mean fewer constraints.
When does the daily loss limit reset?
At 00:00 CET/CEST, calculated from that day's opening balance. It is a percentage of your initial capital rather than of current equity, so it does not shrink after a losing day.
Does FTMO limit how many lots I can trade?
There is no contract cap in the way futures firms impose one. Your constraint is the percentage loss rules plus available leverage. This is more freedom than a futures account gives you, and correspondingly more rope.
Can I use the futures presets for FTMO?
No. Switch to CFD / Forex mode. Futures presets size in whole contracts against a fixed tick value, which does not describe a fractional-lot CFD account. See the prop firm rules guide for how the two models differ.