Most explanations of a funded challenge cover the target and the drawdown. This one covers everything else, because a significant number of failed attempts never breach a loss limit at all: they end on a rule that was published, was not read, and had nothing to do with losing money.
Consistency rules
A consistency rule requires that no single day contribute more than a stated share of total profit. It is checked before a payout or before an evaluation is approved, and it can invalidate an account that is comfortably in profit because one session went unusually well. Funded Futures Family publishes that some of its plans carry no evaluation consistency rule at all, which is worth looking for precisely because this rule is applied unevenly across the market and is rarely on a landing page.
Minimum trading days and news restrictions
Firms commonly require a minimum number of days with activity, which stops a single session qualifying and quietly sets a floor on how long the process takes. Several also restrict trading around scheduled economic releases, or require positions to be flat before them. Both rules end attempts that were otherwise passing, and both live in the rules document. Neither is unusual or unfair; they are simply not where buyers look.
Prohibited strategies and account limits
Firms publish restrictions on approaches they will not fund, which commonly include latency arbitrage, coordinated trading across accounts, and using a third party to trade on your behalf. That last one matters: services offering to pass an evaluation for you breach the published terms of every firm in this index, which is why this site does not list or link to any of them. Firms also publish limits on how many accounts one person may hold and trade in parallel.
Questions people ask about funded challenge
Can I fail a funded challenge while making money?
Yes, on a consistency rule, a minimum day requirement or a prohibited strategy. All are published, and none involves a losing trade.
What is the most common rule people miss?
Consistency rules and news restrictions are the two most commonly overlooked, because they sit in the rules document rather than on the plan page.
Is using a passing service allowed?
No. It breaches the published terms of every firm in this index, and this site does not list such services.