How to Pass a Prop Firm Challenge: It Took Me 2 Days!
How to Pass a Prop Firm Challenge
Passing a prop firm challenge is often seen as a difficult milestone for Forex traders, but with the right approach, it can be done quickly and efficiently. I recently passed Phase 1 of a $50K TradeXMastery challenge in just 2 days, and in this post, I’ll break down exactly how I did it, my strategy, and key lessons to help you succeed.
Of course, I still need to complete Phase 2 and officially secure my funded account, but this isn't my first time passing a prop firm challenge. I've previously passed a $200K and a $10K challenge with TradeXMastery, and now I’m sharing the strategies that helped me do it.
My Prop Firm Challenge Strategy
To pass Phase 1, I had to grow my $50,000 account by 10% while following the prop firm's rules. This means I needed to reach $55,000 while avoiding exceeding the firm’s daily and overall drawdown limits. Here’s what I did:
✅ Used Overleveraging – I took on high-risk trades with multiple positions open at the same time.
✅ Managed Risk Per Trade – I used a consistent 0.25% - 0.5% stop loss on each trade, meaning I risked $125 - $250 per trade.
✅ Stacked Many Trades at Once – I had 18+ trades open at one time, strategically managing exposure. (for instance $125 risk or .25% of account X 18 positions = $2,250 total risk -- which left room for unexpected trade fees. This keep the loss limit below the daily drawdown of $2,500 in this case)
✅ Used the Daily Drawdown Rule to My Advantage – Since my first day ended with a $2,500 drawdown, I had more room to trade on the next trading day before hitting limits.
✅ Leveraged Akashx Trade Ideas – One of the Akashx Tap to Trade educators made a buy call on gold (XAUUSD), which I used as the basis for my trade setup.
✅ Moved Trades to Break Even – When trades moved into profit, I quickly adjusted stop losses to remove risk.
✅ Closed All Trades at the 10% Profit Mark – Once my account hit $55K, I used TradeLocker's 'Close All' button to secure profits instantly.
(Note: While I used an Akashx trade idea, I did not execute the trades using the Tap to Trade automation tool, as that is currently hooked up to my separate $100K account for a dedicated case study.)
Day-by-Day Breakdown & Screenshots
📅 Day 1:
Overleveraged with multiple trades (18+ open at once with a .25% risk each)
Experienced close to a $2,500 loss, hitting near the daily drawdown limit
Stopped trading for the day immediately UNTIL next trading day allowed for the reset of the daily drawdown limit.
Adjusted my risk management for the next day to account for slightly smaller daily drawdown due to the lost funds.
📅 Day 2:
Overleveraged again, recovering a large portion of the loss (almost as many open positions as day 1 - some trades that I moved SL to break even got stopped out and re-entered at lower positions until won enough to be back over my original starting amount)
More margin was available due to the extra drawdown still being within the same trading day.
Some prop firms may have a trailing drawdown, while the one I used with TradeXMastery allows the daily drawdown to expand with the wins and will reset on the next trading day.
Increased trade count to 20+ open trades at one time (I took advantage of the extra margin and increased my .2 trades at .25% risk to .4 with .5% risk since my $2,500 daily drawdown amount was now a little over $5,000 allowable daily drawdown for same trading day - I was willing to risk the entire account basically)
Using staggered trading allowed for staggered stop losses so that if a trade got stopped out, others may still be active and would just have to hold trade for more pips to reach the same profit goals (or would have closed some remaining trades once in profit and then re entered).
Used an Akashx trade idea for gold buys (XAUUSD) as the basis for my positions. (note: gold may be bearish at the time you are reading this. In general, I passed other challenges based on gold buys - it has become one of my favorite trading pairs).
Moved SL to break even on winning trades
Closed all trades at $55K (10% profit) to instantly pass Phase 1
(Then did the "passed the prop firm - phase 1 challenge" celebration)
Key Takeaways: What You Can Learn from My Prop Firm Phase 1 Challenge Pass
(The red wick had my SL hanging on by a thread!)
🚀 Overleveraging CAN Work - But It’s VERY Risky
While overleveraging helped me pass Phase 1 quickly, it’s a high-risk approach. If done incorrectly, it can lead to blowing the ENTIRE account sometimes in minutes or seconds.
*This is NOT a recommendation to over-leverage - just proving that it can work if someone has a higher risk tolerance, and possibly more personal capital to re-buy back into a challenge in the event it doesn't work. This worked for me because I was looking to cut the months of trading to pass the non-funded phases of the challenges, down to a handful of days - and I didn't mind the added level of high risk (it was either going to work, or not). Once funded, I will probably practice better risk management.
💰 Daily Drawdown Limits Can Be Used Strategically
Since daily drawdown is based on the day's starting equity, a trader can leverage more margin when they rack up wins in the same day using same aggressive recovery strategies.
For instance, if you can grow an account by a certain amount in a day and close the trades. In the same day, you can now have more margin for that trading days daily drawdown.
📈 Trade Ideas from Experts Can Help
I leveraged an Akashx Tap to Trade educator’s buy call on gold to build my trade setup. This shows how using expert analysis can be valuable in prop firm challenges.
📌 Break Even is Your Friend
Managing multiple trades is tough, but moving SL to break even as soon as trades move into profit is crucial to preserving gains. (note: having multiple positions can make it tougher to update the SL or TP's at the same time, and can cost extra time - be prepared for that)
📲 TradeLocker is a Powerful Tool
The Close All Positions button on TradeLocker helped me secure my profits in seconds once I hit my target.
*TradeLocker really is THE premier trading app for traders, in my opinion. I was so used to MT4 and TradeLocker is just so much superior and newbie friendly. When it comes to MT4 vs. TradeLocker - give TradeLocker a try and you'll thank me later
A Smarter Way to Pass Prop Firm Challenges?
While my strategy relied on overleveraging and managing multiple trades at once, there is a more structured and risk-managed approach available for traders who want to pass prop firm challenges without excessive risk.
🔹 Tap to Trade (TTT) from Akashx is a tool that allows traders to execute instructor-led trades with precise stop loss and take profit levels automatically applied. Just tap the LIVE trade call within 2 minutes and the trade gets pushed to your trading account (or prop firm challenge account).
🔹 This tool helps traders manage risk effectively—for example, in my $100K case study, I’m only taking up to 3 TRADES MAX per day with a max risk of 0.25% per trade.
If you're looking for a lower-risk alternative to passing a prop firm challenge, check out my Tap to Trade Case Study to see how I’m testing a more consistent and controlled approach.
What’s Next? Completing Phase 2
While Phase 1 is done is mostly done (still have 3 days left to go), I still need to complete Phase 2 before getting my funded account.
The plan is simple, I'll:
Take small 0.01 lot size trades for the remaining 3 trading days of Phase 1 to meet the 5 DAY minimum day requirement. (since I passed it too fast - 2 days!)
Avoid unnecessary risk since the hard work is already done.
Pass Phase 2 by growing the account another 5% to verify to the prop firms that completing the challenge wasn't by accident. (also a 5 DAY minimum, can use same 0.01 lot size strategy if pass it early)
Then, once Phase 2 is passed, I’ll be officially funded with $50K and able to withdraw profits after 8 days, then DAILY after that!
I'm really excited about having passed my 3rd Phase 1 Challenge, and look forward to you being able to start your own journey and get funded as well. Let's get funded together!
🚀 Be sure to click here to follow my Tap to Trade 100K Case Study with much less risk
✅ Update: I Just Passed Phase 2! (In 3 Days)
I’m excited to share that I’ve now officially completed Phase 2 of the $50K TradeXMastery Challenge — and that means I’ll be receiving my funded $50,000 account very soon!
Just like in Phase 1, I used an overleveraged strategy — but this time based on a Tap to Trade sell signal on gold. The original TTT trade hit stop loss, but I had manually drawn trendlines on the chart and noticed that price reacted right at a key level.
I then entered up to 19 manual trades at 0.3 lot size each, using a $100 stop loss per trade, and as price moved into profit, I manually adjusted all stop losses to break even. That made the trades completely risk-free if price reversed — which it briefly did — stopping out a few, but I re-entered on the pullback and continued the move down.
As price approached the 5% Phase 2 target ($2,500), I started closing a few trades early to reduce exposure. Once the total equity crossed the 5% mark, I used TradeLocker’s “Close All” button to lock in the win.
📲 You can see the screenshots above which show the open trades, trendline I drew on the chart, SLs moved to break even, and the equity above $52,500 before I closed everything.
This strategy took me 3 trading days, so I’ll still need to place 0.01 lot size trades for 2 more days to meet the 5-day minimum. But the hard part is behind me!
It has essentially taken me 5 TOTAL trading days to complete the 2-Phase 50K Challenge with TradeXMastery. It took me 2 days to pass Phase 1, and another 3 days to pass Phase 2. I'm so excited to now be entering into another TradeXMastery funded account for my 3rd time!
REMINDER: Take this info with a grain of salt since past results do not dictate future profits. Also overleveraging is very risky. I am not a beginner trader and I am also willing to take higher risk than the average person because I have developed some skills and I know what I am looking for. Just know that faster success can be possible, however I still highly recommend to take the safer route with tap to trade strategies here.
🚀 Stay tuned to this blog — I may update once the funded $50K account hits my dashboard and start to have more success with the account (such as getting the PROMISED REFUND for this challenge, along with my first successful withdrawal)!
💼 Final Update: I Just Received My Funded Account — And Hit My First Payout Goal in 15 Minutes!
Today I officially received access to my $50,000 funded account — and within the first 15 minutes of logging in, I already qualified for my first payout!
When I saw the confirmation email, I immediately jumped into the markets because gold was at an all-time high. I placed 7 staggered 0.10 lot size sell trades, each with a $70 stop loss.
Within 10 minutes:
I closed 6 of the 7 trades for over $200 in profit.
I moved the stop loss of the final open trade to break even, keeping it risk-free.
That final trade closed soon after, bringing the total to about $260 in profit.
Since TradeXMastery only requires $100 minimum to qualify for a payout, I’ve already met the requirement. 🎯
What’s even better? When the first payout is processed after 8 trading days, I’ll also receive my challenge refund (about $250) at the same time. That means my total return will be over $500+ in the first 15 minutes of having the funded account.
I haven’t decided yet if I’ll continue trading aggressively before the payout. For now, I’m placing small trades daily just to keep the account active.
📲 The screenshots above show:
The gold chart with all 7 open positions
The break-even SL update on the last trade
The open positions screen showing equity gain
The final closed positions showing the $260+ result
Stay tuned — and if you’re on your own journey to get funded, know this: it’s 100% possible. (And again, past results do not dictate future profits)
*Disclaimer: All content and information provided on this website are for educational and informational purposes only, specifically relating to trading in financial markets. They should not be construed as specific investment recommendations, endorsements, or solicitations to buy or sell securities or any other investment instruments. It’s emphasized that trading in financial markets carries inherent risks, and potential traders are advised not to invest more than they can afford to lose.
