Managing a Funded Account.

Here is a feeling almost every trader has after passing: relief, then a quiet itch to go bigger. You proved yourself. The account is funded. Surely you can loosen up a little.

That itch is the most expensive thought in prop trading. Practitioner write-ups and forum threads tell the same story again and again: a trader passes with tight, boring risk, raises size in the first funded weeks, and gives the account back. Nothing about the market changed. The trader changed.

So start with a simple frame. The evaluation asked you to reach a target without touching a floor. The funded stage asks you to keep doing the exact process that got you there, cycle after cycle, while the floor stays in the same place. The skills are the same. The temptation is new.

A reminder on what the account is. On OA Funded every account, evaluation and funded, uses simulated capital. Funded traders keep 80% of profits as standard. None of that means profits or payouts are guaranteed. They depend on how you trade, cycle by cycle.

After you pass Phase 2 and complete identity verification, your funded account follows in under 3 business days. Your rules are versioned when you buy, and OA Funded makes no retroactive adverse changes.

The same 5% daily loss limit and static 90% equity floor apply on the funded account. There is no time limit and no consistency rule. You need at least five traded days in each payout cycle.

Two things change. First, the news window. On funded accounts, you cannot open or add to positions from two minutes before to two minutes after a designated high-impact event. Second, the duration rule resets: you get two warnings in each phase (Phase 1, Phase 2 and funded), and the third trade closed in under 2 minutes in that phase is a breach.

Everything else from the account rules still applies: an account breaches if no trade is taken on it for 7 days, weekend holding is not allowed, and hedging, grid and martingale are banned.

Your equity, including open trades, must stay above 90% of your initial balance, and that floor never moves up with your profits. On a $10,000 account the floor is $9,000. On a $25,000 account it is $22,500.

Now add payouts. After a payout, your balance is reduced by the profit paid out. Your static equity floor stays the same.

Think about what that means. Profit you build up in a cycle is a cushion between you and the floor. A payout takes that cushion away and you start the next cycle closer to the floor than you ended the last one. That is not a problem. It is just arithmetic. But if you keep trading the size you were comfortable with on a big cushion, you are taking more risk relative to your room than you think.

The habit: after every payout, recalculate room to the floor and reset your size to fit it.

On OA Funded, your first 14-calendar-day cycle starts with your first trade on the funded account. You need at least five traded days in the cycle. You can request a payout once per 14-calendar-day cycle, and each later cycle starts from your last payout payment. The minimum payout is 1% of the account or $100, whichever is higher. Payouts are paid by bank transfer, and requests are approved in under 48 hours. Your dashboard shows the amount available to request when you meet the payout conditions.

Planning is about removing pressure. Five traded days across 14 calendar days is a light requirement if you spread it out. It becomes a heavy one if you trade twice in the first week, wait, then realise on day 12 that you need three more days. That is when traders take setups they would normally skip.

A simple plan: aim to trade on two or three days in each week of the cycle, only on your setups. That gets you past five traded days with room to spare, without inventing trades. Write the cycle start date and the 14-day mark on paper the day you place your first funded trade.

And plan for the cycle that does not end in profit. Some will not. That is a normal part of trading, not a sign you need to press. The next cycle starts the same way: same size rules, same setups.

During the evaluation, news trading is unrestricted under the ordinary risk rules. On a funded account, you may not create or increase exposure from two minutes before to two minutes after a designated, directly relevant high-impact event. You can still hold, close or reduce positions. Your stop loss and take profit can still execute. A pending order that triggers inside the window counts as new exposure. On a funded account, the first trade opened in a window is a warning. The next one is a breach.

If you traded news during your evaluation, this is the habit you most need to rebuild. Make it a morning routine. Check the designated events for the day. Write the window times on a sticky note next to your screen. Look at every pending order and ask whether it could fill inside a window. If it could, cancel it or move it.

Many funded traders go further and simply stand aside for a few minutes on either side of the biggest releases. Spreads widen and fills get worse around them anyway. That is a personal choice, not an OA Funded rule, but it removes a whole category of mistakes.

On OA Funded there is no consistency rule. Not in the evaluation, and not on the funded account. One big day does not stop you passing or getting paid.

That freedom is real, and it deserves respect. A rule-free big day is fine when it comes from your normal size catching a big move. It is a warning sign when it comes from size you would not normally use. The rules also list 'all-in' position sizing that puts a disproportionate share of your account equity at risk in one trade or series of trades as a prohibited practice.

So keep your own consistency, of process rather than profit. Same risk per trade. Same setups. Same daily stop. Your journal should look boring from one cycle to the next. Boring is what a repeatable process looks like.