Prop firm rules
What is a consistency rule and how do I pass it?
Updated June 2026
The short answer
A consistency rule limits how much of your total profit is allowed to come from your single best day — for example, no one day may be more than 50% of your total profit. It exists to stop a trader from passing on one lucky session. You can hit the dollar profit target exactly and still fail the evaluation if your profit is too lopsided.
One sentence to remember
The profit target tells you how much to make. The consistency rule tells you how evenly to make it. Both have to be true at the same time.
What it actually is
In RETICLE's catalog a consistency rule is a single percentage — commonly 40% or 50% during the evaluation, and often dropped entirely once you're funded. The percentage is the cap on your best day as a share of total profit. It usually applies to profit days only (not your losing days), and a few firms make it progressive (the cap tightens as the account grows). A firm with no consistency rule lets you pass however your profit is shaped.
The math (this is the whole rule)
If your cap is C%, then your best single day may be at most C% of your total profit. Turn that around and it tells you the minimum total profit your biggest day forces you to make: total profit must be at least (your best day) ÷ (C as a decimal). At a 40% cap, a single $1,500 day requires at least $1,500 ÷ 0.40 = $3,750 of total profit before you're allowed to pass — no matter what the dollar target is.
Worked example (50K eval, $3,000 target, 40% consistency cap)
You start with a big day, then grind. Watch the target and the consistency check disagree:
| Day | Day P/L | Total profit | Best day as % of total | Passing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +$1,500 | $1,500 | 100% | No — one day is everything |
| 2 | +$700 | $2,200 | 68% | No |
| 3 | +$600 | $2,800 | 54% | No |
| 4 | +$500 | $3,300 | 45% | Target hit, but still No (>40%) |
| 5 | +$500 | $3,800 | 39% | Yes — best day now under 40% |
Best day is $1,500. To satisfy a 40% cap, total profit must reach $3,750.
You crossed the $3,000 profit target on Day 4 — and still couldn't pass, because your $1,500 opener was 45% of the total. Only by trading two more modest days did you dilute that best day under 40%. This is the rule's whole point: it forces the profit to be spread out.
Why people hit the target but fail
Traders treat the evaluation as a dollar race and book one outsized day — a runaway winner, a news spike, an oversized position that happened to work. That single day balloons past the consistency cap, and now the target is the easy part: the trader has to keep trading, risking the account further, purely to dilute a day that already “won.” The dollar target is a floor; the consistency rule is a shape requirement, and the two are easy to satisfy individually but easy to violate together.
Consistency cuts both ways
Here's the thing about consistency. You can do something really good by doing it the same way all the time, or you can do something really bad the same way all the time. It is better to learn how to do it the right way in the beginning so you are not fighting bad behaviour the rest of your life. In trading you have to be consistently good, and good at living within the rules of your prop firm, piling up decent wins every day is the way to stay within the rules and stay alive in this industry.
How to pace to pass
- Compute your per-day ceiling up front: cap% × target. With a 40% cap and a $3,000 target, keep any single day under about $1,200 so no day can dominate.
- If you have an unusually big day early, expect to keep trading well past the dollar target to dilute it — plan for more sessions, not fewer.
- Spread profit across more days deliberately; consistency rewards a flat, repeatable equity curve, not a hero day.
- Confirm your exact cap (40% vs 50%, progressive or not) and whether it applies only to profit days — the math changes with the number.
Track your own drawdown
RETICLE journals every trade against your own rules so you see your trailing floor before you breach it — not after.
Free journaling — coming soon