Alpha Futures rules explained: a percentage drawdown on a futures account
Alpha Futures is unusual among futures firms in stating its maximum loss as a percentage of the account rather than a dollar figure that changes with plan size — which makes it one of the few futures rule sets you can reason about without a table in front of you.
Prop firms change their terms, and rules differ by plan size, phase and promotion. Alpha Futures’s own rules page is authoritative — always check it against the plan you hold before you trade.
Alpha Futures at a glance
Where a row says “set per plan size”, the firm states that limit in dollars per account rather than as a single percentage — read it off your own account and enter it when you set the account up.
The maximum loss limit is 4% of the starting balance, and the floor trails your end-of-day balance. Both halves of that sentence matter. The percentage tells you how much room you have; the basis tells you what moves it. End-of-day trailing is the middle setting of the three the futures industry uses — more forgiving than an intraday trail that reacts to unrealized peaks, permanent in a way a static floor never is.
The practical difference is one you feel on a volatile day. A trade that goes deeply in your favor and closes near flat leaves the line untouched, because the line only reads the close. The same trade at an intraday-trailing firm would have raised your floor by the amount you briefly showed and never kept.
The floor stops rising once it reaches your starting balance, and everything you make above that is buffer you cannot lose back to the trail.
Why a percentage is easier to survive
A limit stated as a share of the account scales with the account, so the mental arithmetic you learned on a small plan still works on a large one: 4% is 4% whether the balance is $50,000 or $150,000. What does not scale is the dollar value of a normal mistake, and that is where traders who move up a plan size get hurt — the rule did not change, but the size of one bad trade did.
The consistency rule changes when you qualify
The rule set Edgekeeper loads caps any single day at 40% of total profit. That is deliberately the tighter of the firm's two figures: the evaluation allows a larger share than a qualified account does. Being warned against a rule slightly stricter than the one you are under costs you a day of patience; being warned against a looser one costs you the payout.
If you hold the evaluation plan and want the app to use the looser figure, the field is editable on the account — every rule here is a starting point, not a lock.
The daily loss limit
Alpha calls it the Daily Loss Guard, and it only exists once you are qualified: 2% of the starting balance, counting open positions. It is a soft breach. Hit it and your positions are flattened and the account is locked until the next trading day at 5:00 p.m. America/Chicago, but the account survives. The evaluation has no daily limit at all, so the first time a trader meets this rule is on the account they worked to get.
What a withdrawal asks for
5 winning days per withdrawal on this rule set. A day counts only if it books at least $200 in profit — a flat day, a losing day and a scratch day all count for nothing. The split is 90/10, and each withdrawal on the Standard plan is capped at half of the profit made since the last one, so the account keeps a cushion by design.
What most often ends an Alpha Futures account
- Sizing to the percentage instead of to the trade. A defined limit invites traders to use all of it. It is the distance to the floor, not the risk budget for one idea.
- Assuming end-of-day means forgiving. It is forgiving intraday and completely permanent at the close. A strong day raises the floor for the life of the account.
- Passing under one consistency figure and getting paid under another. The share tightens when you qualify, and the day that breaks it has usually already been traded.
Tracking a Alpha Futures account
The reason these rules are worth reading closely is that none of them are checked by your platform. Your broker shows you a balance; the firm is watching a floor, a daily limit and a share of profit that your balance alone does not tell you about. Edgekeeper loads this rule set onto an account and does the arithmetic on every trade you log: how much daily loss room is left right now, where the drawdown floor currently sits, how many qualifying days you have, and whether one big day has put the consistency rule between you and a payout.
It also warns you before you write the trade, not after. The point is not to be a scoreboard — it is to be the thing that says "this trade takes you inside the last third of your daily loss" while you can still decide something about it.
Prop firms revise their rules regularly, and they differ by plan size, by phase and sometimes by promotion. Everything above is the rule set Edgekeeper loads for Alpha Futures, checked against the firm's own published rules on the date at the top of this page — but Alpha Futures's own page is the authority, and every field is editable on your account, so if your plan differs you can change it and the app will judge you by your numbers rather than these.
Alpha Futures rules: common questions
What is the Alpha Futures maximum loss limit?
4% of the starting balance on this rule set, held as a floor that trails your end-of-day balance. The floor stops rising once it reaches your starting balance, and everything you make above that is buffer you cannot lose back to the trail.
Is the Alpha Futures drawdown intraday or end-of-day?
The floor trails your end-of-day balance, so an unrealized spike during the session does not move it — only the closing balance does. That is materially more forgiving than the intraday trail some futures firms use, and completely permanent once the close is in.
What is the Alpha Futures consistency rule?
Edgekeeper loads 40% of total profit as the cap on any single day — the tighter of the firm's two figures, since the evaluation and a qualified account differ. The field is editable if your plan uses the looser one.
How many trading days does Alpha Futures require?
The Standard evaluation publishes no minimum. A withdrawal needs 5 winning days. A day counts only if it books at least $200 in profit — a flat day, a losing day and a scratch day all count for nothing. The split is 90/10.
Track a Alpha Futures account in Edgekeeper — free
These are the exact rules Edgekeeper loads. Create the account and every trade you log updates your daily loss room, your live drawdown floor, your qualifying days and your payout eligibility — and warns you before a trade takes you past a limit. One prop account is free, forever, no card.
Track a Alpha Futures account freeOther prop firms
New to these limits? Start with daily loss vs. trailing max drawdown.