Alpha Futures rules

Alpha Futures rules depend on the plan. Zero, Standard and Advanced are evaluations billed monthly, and Direct is instant funding with a one-time fee. Every plan has a maximum loss limit (MLL) that trails your end-of-day balance and stops at your starting balance, and every trade must be closed by 4:20 p.m. ET. The Daily Loss Guard, consistency rule, news rule and contract cap change from plan to plan.

An evaluation is a paid service with simulated trading. When you pass, you get a Qualified Account, Alpha's name for its simulated funded account. Alpha Futures Limited is a company in England and Wales, and its Terms of Use say it is not registered with any US federal or state financial regulator.

Rules on every Alpha Futures plan

• Closed by 4:20 p.m. ET. Trades left open are closed automatically, so you cannot hold overnight or over the weekend on simulated accounts. Live accounts may hold overnight.
• Maximum loss limit (MLL). The lowest your account may go. It trails your end-of-day balance, stops trailing at the starting balance, and is breached on floating equity (open trades) or on closed balance. A payout does not move it.
• Daily Loss Guard. Alpha's daily loss limit. Hitting it is a soft breach, which does not fail the account. On Zero it is 2% of the starting balance; Advanced has none.
• CME Group products only. CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX. Micro Bitcoin (MBT) and Micro Ether (MET) futures each count as a full mini contract.
• No bots. Bots and fully automated trading are prohibited on all accounts. Semi-automated signals are allowed only if you place and manage each trade by hand. High-frequency trading, meaning 100 or more trades a day, is prohibited.
• Account limits. One person per household. Up to 5 Qualified Accounts each on Zero, Standard and Direct, and 3 on Advanced; holding an active Advanced Qualified Account limits you to 3.
• Platforms. AlphaTrader, WealthCharts, Deepchart and Quantower, with TradingView through AlphaTrader and Plus500US. You cannot switch platform after purchase. Older Alpha pages also name Tradovate and NinjaTrader; the current platforms article does not.

Plans and targets

Zero, Standard and Advanced are monthly subscriptions: a failed evaluation can be reset for a fee or waits for the monthly rebill. Direct is a one-time fee. No plan charges an activation fee; on Advanced that applies to accounts bought after July 8, 2026. Qualified Accounts can also be reset for a fee, for example $399 on a Zero 25K and $999 on a Standard 150K.

Rules by plan

Zero

Zero can be passed in one trading day, with no consistency rule in the evaluation. The Daily Loss Guard ($1,000 on a 50K) applies in the evaluation and in the Qualified Account. Once qualified, a 40% consistency rule applies, and on the 50K and 100K a scaling plan sets how many contracts you may trade as the balance grows. The 25K has no scaling plan.

Standard

Standard needs at least two trading days and a 50% consistency rule in the evaluation: no single day may be more than half your profit. There is no Daily Loss Guard in the evaluation; the Qualified Account adds one ($1,000 on a 50K), a 40% consistency rule and a scaling plan. Alpha relaunched Standard in July 2026.

Advanced

Advanced has the largest targets and a tighter MLL: a $4,000 target and a $1,750 MLL on a 50K. It has no Daily Loss Guard, no news restriction and no scaling plan. The evaluation has a 40% consistency rule and the Qualified Account has none. The Alpha pages we read do not state a minimum number of trading days for Advanced.

Direct

Direct launched on July 7, 2026. You pay once and trade a Qualified Account from the start. It has a Daily Loss Guard ($1,000 on a 50K), a 20% consistency rule for each withdrawal, the news restriction and no scaling plan.

Worked example: the MLL on a 50K Standard account

You start at $50,000 with a $2,000 MLL, so the floor is $48,000. The MLL trails your end-of-day balance: finish a day at $51,000 and the floor moves to $49,000. It stops trailing at the starting balance, so once you end a day at $52,000 or higher, the floor stays at $50,000. Because the MLL is also checked on floating equity, an open trade that dips below the floor breaches the account even if it recovers before you close it.

What breaks an Alpha Futures account

• Touching the MLL, on floating equity or on closed balance.
• Repeated news violations on Zero, Standard or Direct Qualified Accounts. The first violation is a warning.
• Bots, fully automated trading or high-frequency trading, which Alpha prohibits on all accounts.
• Trading while travelling through a country on Alpha's limitations list, which Alpha bans.

Recent rule changes

• July 8, 2026: Advanced accounts bought after this date pay no activation fee. Before, passing Advanced cost a $149 activation fee.
• July 27, 2026: the limit on Standard Qualified Accounts rose from 3 to 5.

The Direct plan and the relaunched Standard plan are not in the log, because no official page gives earlier values to compare. All dated changes are in our log of prop firm rule changes. Split, caps and payout timing are on the Alpha Futures payout rules page.

Know the riskAn Alpha Futures evaluation is a paid service with simulated trading. Most people who buy one do not pass it, and firms change their rules, pause payouts and close. Not investment advice.

Questions

Sources

• Alpha Futures: Trading rules and parameters
• Zero account overview
• Standard account overview
• Advanced account overview
• Direct account overview
• Maximum loss limit (MLL)
• Daily Loss Guard
• Consistency rule
• News trading policy
• Scaling plan
• Maximum allocation
• Activating your Qualified Account
• What and when you can trade
• Prohibited trading practices
• Trading platforms
• Countries with limitations
• Alpha Futures homepage (prices and resets)
• Alpha Futures Terms of Use

All checked on September 26, 2026.