How to Pass FTMO Challenge: Beginner Guide for 2025

FTMO Challenge is one of the most popular gateways for traders seeking to prove their skills and gain access to funded trading accounts. In 2025, thousands of traders worldwide are attempting FTMO prop trading challenge to trade with real capital—without risking their own money.

However, passing the challenge is not as simple as hitting a profit target. Many participants fail because they focus only on making profits while ignoring FTMO challenge rules and regulations.

To successfully pass the FTMO Challenge, you must:

• Follow FTMO rules precisely, including daily and overall risk limits.
• Hit the FTMO profit targets based on your account size (10k, 25k, 50k, 100k, or 200k).
• Understand FTMO’s account requirements, trading conditions, and evaluation stages.
• Maintain a disciplined trading plan and avoid common prop firm mistakes.

In this blog, you will learn how to pass the FTMO Challenge in 2025, including rules, account types, common mistakes, and step-by-step strategies to maximize your chances of success.

What is FTMO Prop Firm?

FTMO is a globally recognized proprietary trading firm that funds skilled traders with virtual capital to trade Forex, indices, commodities, and crypto. Instead of risking their personal money, traders can access funded accounts ranging from $10,000 to $200,000 and keep up to 90% of profits, while FTMO absorbs potential losses.

FTMO stands out because of its evaluation program, which identifies disciplined and consistent traders. FTMO Evaluation Program consists of two steps

1. FTMO Challenge: where traders must hit profit targets while respecting strict rules.
2. Verification Phase: a second stage with more relaxed profit targets to confirm consistency.

Traders who complete both phases earn a funded trading account with professional conditions and one of the highest profit splits in the industry.

FTMO Prop Firm Details Overview

What is FTMO challenge?

The FTMO Challenge is the first step in FTMO’s two-step evaluation program, where traders trade a demo account with a profit target and risk management rules called Trading Objectives. This challenge is a mandatory entry requirement to qualify for an FTMO-funded account.

After passing the Challenge and Verification stages, traders receive real capital to trade, keeping a share of profits and scaling their career without risking personal funds.

How Does FTMO Challenge Work?

FTMO Challenge is designed to test your consistency, risk management, and trading discipline under real market conditions. Passing this challenge allows you to move to the Verification phase and a funded account.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the FTMO Challenge and the entire evaluation process:

• Pay for the Challenge: You pay a fee to start the FTMO Challenge, which gives you access to a demo account with virtual funds.
• Trade with FTMO Trading Objectives: You must trade on the demo account while following the specified Trading Objectives, which include a profit target and strict rules for daily and overall losses.
• Meet Minimum Trading Days: You must trade for a minimum of 4 trading days to complete this phase.
• Pass the Review: FTMO reviews your performance to ensure you’ve met all the Trading Objectives.
• Proceed to Verification: If successful, you advance to the Verification phase, which involves another demo account with easier rules.
• Get Your FTMO Account: After passing the Verification, you get access to your own FTMO Account with real simulated capital and can start earning a profit share on your simulated profits.

Why Traders Take the FTMO Challenge?

Traders participate FTMO challenges because FTMO gives them access to capital, profit-sharing opportunities, and a path to becoming a successful prop firm trader. Instead of spending years trying to grow a personal account, they can secure substantial funding and demonstrate their skills in a structured evaluation process.

Key reasons why traders choose the FTMO prop firm trading challenge:

• Access to Funded Capital: Traders can start with funded accounts ranging from $10,000 to $200,000, which is often much larger than what most retail traders can afford to risk.
• Profit Sharing Up to 90%: One of the biggest attractions of FTMO is its industry-leading profit split of up to 90%. Traders keep the majority of their profits while FTMO takes on the financial risk. This makes the challenge highly rewarding compared to trading solo.
• Low Risk, High Reward: Unlike retail trading, where traders risk their own savings, FTMO absorbs potential losses once a trader is funded. The only upfront cost is the evaluation fee, which is far less than the risk of losing personal capital in live markets.
• Flexibility Across Markets: FTMO doesn’t restrict traders to one asset. FTMO allows traders to trade forex funded accounts, indices, commodities like gold, or crypto, depending on their expertise.
• Professional Trading Conditions: FTMO provides access to MT4, MT5, and cTrader, with real market conditions, tight spreads, and institutional-grade execution. This helps traders gain experience in a professional prop trading environment.
• Scaling & Career Growth: Traders can scale their accounts to $400,000+, creating a career path from retail trading to professional prop firm trading. Many see it as the fastest route to building a trading career without outside investors.

Why Traders Fail in FTMO Challenge?

While the FTMO Challenge offers an incredible opportunity, approximately 85–90% of traders fail to pass it on their first attempt. Only a small percentage of participants reach the funded trading account stage.

Here are some reasons for the high FTMO challenge failure rate-

• Ignoring FTMO Challenge Rules: Many traders focus solely on profits and ignore FTMO’s strict daily loss limit and maximum loss rules, which leads to automatic disqualification.
• Poor Risk Management: Failure to consistently manage risk, such as risking too much per trade (recommended 1-2%) or failing to use stop losses, frequently leads to hitting daily or overall loss limits.
• Psychological Pressure: Trading under the FTMO Challenge rules can create stress. Traders may chase losses, close trades early, or make impulsive decisions due to fear of failure. Emotional trading is one of the leading causes of challenge failures.
• Unrealistic Trading Strategies: Some attempt scalping robots, martingale strategies, or grid systems. While these may generate short-term gains, they rarely comply with FTMO’s consistency and risk rules, leading to failure.
• Ignoring Market Conditions: Not all strategies work in every market environment. Traders often fail to adapt during high-volatility news events (like NFP or FOMC), which can cause unexpected losses.
• Lack of Discipline and Patience: FTMO requires a minimum of trading days (at least 10 per phase). Traders rushing to meet profit targets often violate rules or overtrade, increasing their chances of failure.
• Insufficient Preparation: Many traders jump straight into the Challenge without practicing on a demo account or studying FTMO rules thoroughly. Lack of preparation significantly increases the risk of failure.

What Happens If You Fail FTMO Challenge?

If you fail an FTMO Challenge, you are removed from the FTMO Premium Program, which means you won’t get a funded account. However, it doesn’t mean the end of your trading journey. In fact, most traders fail at least once before they succeed. So, FTMO has created a flexible process to promote learning and second chances.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Forfeiting the Purchase: The Challenge fee you paid is non-refundable if you failed FTMO challenge.
• No Access to Funding: You cannot progress to the Verification stage or receive a funded account.
• Free Retry Option: If you respected all risk management rules but didn’t reach the profit target, FTMO may offer a free retry, allowing you to try again without extra cost.
• Start Over Anytime: You can purchase a new Challenge whenever you’re ready to retest your skills.
• Learning Curve: Failure often reveals weaknesses in risk management, psychology, or strategy. Treat it as a practical lesson to refine your trading before your next attempt.
• No Reputation Damage: Your results remain private, and failing won’t affect your trading record outside of FTMO.

FTMO Challenge Pass Rate in 2025

FTMO does not publicly release an overall Challenge pass rate. However,  based on data from prop trading communities and industry sources, the FTMO Challenge pass rate is estimated to be around 10–15% in the initial Challenge phase.

The subsequent Verification phase has a much higher success rate, estimated at 30–50%, since the profit target is lower and the rules are slightly more relaxed.

The overall success rate of passing both the FTMO Challenge and Verification phase is estimated to be around 4–7%.

FTMO Challenge Rules & Requirements (2025 Update)​

Traders must strictly follow FTMO rules and trading objectives to pass the FTMO Challenge in 2025. FTMO enforces these rules to ensure fairness, consistency, and disciplined trading.

Here are the updated FTMO rules & requirements for 2025:

How Can I Pass FTMO Challenge in 2025?

Whether you are an expert or a beginner, passing the FTMO Challenge in 2025 is possible if you follow a structured approach. Experts rely on backtested strategies and discipline, while beginners can benefit from copying signals or expert guidance.

Let’s break down the 2 different roadmaps to pass the challenge and secure your funded account.

1. Roadmap to Pass FTMO Challenges as Expert Traders

Expert traders with years of trading experience approach the FTMO Challenge systematically. They rely on their experience, backtested strategies, and meticulous preparation to maximize their chances of success.

If you wish to tackle the challenge independently, here’s how you can approach it like a pro:

• Understand the FTMO Challenge Rules: Before starting, you need to thoroughly review the FTMO rules, including daily loss limits, maximum drawdowns, and profit targets. Understanding these rules ensures trades remain compliant and prevents disqualification.
• Master Your Trading Strategy: You should focus on strategies that are consistent across different market conditions. It can be trend following, using different indicators, or adapting any trading style. But make sure your setups are high probability and rule-compliant.
• Backtest Your Strategy: I recommend backtesting your strategy using at least 2 years of historical market data. It might take a month, but it’s essential to know your strategy works in different market environments before attempting the challenge.
• Create a Trading Plan: A strong trading plan includes entry and exit rules, position sizing, risk per trade, and trade management protocols based on your backtesting data. Following this plan strictly will help you avoid impulsive decisions and stay disciplined.
• Market Monitoring and Analysis: You should analyse the market to develop a market analysis SOP to track trends, volatility, and news events. This ensures informed decisions aligned with FTMO trading rules.
• Maintain an Entry Checklist: Create a checklist to verify that each setup aligns with strategy rules, risk parameters, and market conditions. This prevents errors and improves your FTMO Challenge pass rate.
• Risk Management: Before entering a trade, always calculate your stop-loss, take-profit, and trade size according to your account balance and FTMO rules. Experts risk no more than 1–2% per trade. Proper risk management prevents unnecessary drawdowns.
• Trade management: Monitor trades, adjust for volatility, and avoid impulsive decisions. Proper trade management increases your FTMO Challenge pass rate.
• Trade journal: Recording every trade, including outcomes, mistakes, and lessons, helps experts refine strategies and reduce FTMO challenge failure rate over time.
• Practice on a Demo Account: Before participating, practice your strategy on a demo account that mimics FTMO rules. This helps you prepare mentally and refine your approach.
• Take the FTMO Challenge: After thorough preparation, step into the challenge. Stick to your plan, follow the rules, and execute your strategy with discipline. 

2. Roadmap to Pass FTMO Challenges as a Beginner

As a beginner, if you want to participate in the challenge on your own, it takes months, sometimes even years, to adapt to all the trading rules, build a profitable strategy, and backtest those strategies. 

Moreover, beginners often need guidance and structured support to pass the FTMO Challenge. With the right tools and guidance, you can enter the challenge more confidently and maximize your chances of passing.

Here’s how beginners can approach the challenge effectively:

Traders Who Want to Copy Expert Signals:

Copying signals is one of the fastest ways for beginners to participate in the FTMO Challenge. By combining reliable signals, a signal copier, and SSF Guardian, beginners can safely participate in the FTMO Challenge, learn trading strategies, and gradually build confidence for independent trading.

• Follow signals from a reliable signal provider:

Choose a signal provider who shares signals with proper risk management and strictly follows all FTMO rules and regulations. Leading Forex signal providers like SureShotFX provide signals that align with FTMO requirements, helping beginners trade more confidently.

But one thing to remember: no signal provider can guarantee a 100% success rate. Markets are unpredictable, and losses are always possible.

When you first take part in the FTMO Challenge 2025, your main focus should be keeping your drawdown as low as possible. Once your drawdown increases, it becomes much harder to recover, and the added pressure can affect your trading decisions. So, it’s wise to set your risk percentage as low as possible.

Most signal providers share trades in pip-based signals. In prop firm trading, it is generally better to use fixed lot sizes rather than percentage-based lots. Using a fixed lot:

• Helps you control risk consistently
• Prevents large drawdowns
• Ensures trades stay within FTMO rules

Starting with lower risk also gives you the space to learn and adjust, making it easier to recover from small losses. Lot size depends on your account size and the number of signals you follow.

For example, if you have a $10,000 account:

Set lot → 0.05 for 3 different VIP channels (Forex, Gold, Indices)
Set lot → 0.08 for 2 different VIP channels (Forex & Gold, or Forex & Indices, or Gold & Indices)

By managing lot size carefully, you can follow expert signals while staying within FTMO limits, reducing risk, and gradually building your confidence as a beginner trader.

• Use a Signal Copier:

When following trading signals for a prop firm challenge, it is essential to use SureShotFX Trade Copier for automated signal processing.  This eliminates delays, minimizes execution errors, and ensures your trades match expert decisions exactly.

• Use SSF Guardian:

Even when copying signals, you need a safety net. SureshotFX Guardian helps monitor your trades and ensures you don’t cross FTMO’s strict daily (5%) and overall drawdown limits (10%). If things go wrong, Guardian will stop trading automatically, protecting your challenge account.

Traders Who Want Expert Monitoring:

If you don’t want to follow signals, using an Algo with expert monitoring is the best option for you. By selecting SureshotFX Algo, you don’t need to worry about manually managing trades. The SSF trading experts set up the Algo on their personal VPS, ensuring fast and accurate trade execution.

The best part is that when you use SSF Algo, you also get free SSF Guardian. This means you don’t have to spend extra money to purchase risk management tools separately. The SSF support team sets everything up in your account, including both the VPS and Guardian.

Once your account is set up:

• The expert team monitors your lot sizes, account balance, and your prop account.
• If the account closes to a drawdown limit, the experts act quickly to recover and manage risk, keeping your trading safe and FTMO-compliant.

Using SSF Algo with expert monitoring gives beginners the confidence to trade without stress, knowing that professional traders are overseeing every trade. It protects your account and allows you to learn how experts manage trades, handle drawdowns, and apply proper risk management while participating in the FTMO Challenge.

💡Bonus Tips: If you want to make the process even more effortless, you can simply contact the SureShotFX client support team. They will help you with any questions, clarify your doubts, and guide you through setup or any part of the FTMO Challenge process.

How US Clients Participate in FTMO Challenge?

US-based clients can participate in the FTMO Challenge by registering an account on the FTMO website and selecting the United States as their country of residence during the sign-up process. After completing the registration and email verification, they can then proceed to purchase and start the two-step FTMO Challenge to evaluate their trading skills.

Here are the following steps FTMO US clients can follow-

1. Register on the FTMO Website: Visit the FTMO website and initiate the registration process by entering your name, email address, phone number, and country of residence.
2. Verify Your Email: Open your inbox and click the verification link sent by FTMO to confirm your email address.
3. Access the FTMO Dashboard: After verification, you will be redirected to your FTMO dashboard, where you can explore the options for challenges.
4. Start the Challenge: You can configure your desired account parameters for the FTMO Challenge, purchase it, and then begin the trading evaluation process on your dashboard.

Conclusion:

Passing the FTMO Challenge in 2025 requires a combination of strategy, discipline, and the right tools. By understanding FTMO’s requirements, developing a robust trading plan, and utilizing tools like the SureShotFX Guardian, you can enhance your chances of success.

Remember, consistency and risk management are key. Use this guide to approach the Challenge with confidence and maximize your chances of earning a funded account.

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