Challenge Rules & Regulations

Last Updated: 13 March 2026

Regulatory Notice

The ZoneX Challenge is a skill-based evaluation conducted exclusively in a simulated environment using notional funds. No monetary prizes, rewards, or disbursements are available during the Challenge. The participation fee is a non-refundable service fee for access to software and evaluation services. Completion of the Challenge does not create an automatic right to receive an incentive-eligible account.

See Challenge Terms and Conditions for the full legal framework.

No Hidden Rules

At ZoneX, we keep things simple and clear. What you see is what you get. If you meet the rules, you move forward. No surprises, no hidden conditions, no arbitrary rejections.

Disbursement requests are reviewed regularly through a structured and transparent process, subject to eligibility and compliance requirements.

See How The Challenge Works

Risk Management Rules (Applies to All Challenges)

These rules apply equally to every ZoneX challenge type and to every incentive-eligible account:

Stop-loss required on every position
No time limits
Daily and overall drawdown limits apply
All other platform-wide rules apply equally to every challenge

Critical: Stop-Loss Wider Than Remaining Drawdown = Immediate Breach

Placing a stop-loss wider than your remaining Daily Drawdown or Total Drawdown is itself a breach — the challenge fails the moment the order is accepted, even if price has not moved against you.

The system evaluates each order at submission. If the worst-case loss implied by your stop-loss would push equity below the Daily Drawdown or Total Drawdown floor, the position is treated as a rule violation and the account is closed immediately. Always size positions so that your stop-loss sits comfortably inside your remaining drawdown headroom.

Compare the Three Challenge Types

Three challenge types, three trading styles. Pick the one that matches how you trade.

Challenge	Profit Target	Daily / Total Drawdown	Best For
Your Own Style	10% (1-Step) / 8% + 5% (2-Step)	2.5% / 10%	Flexible discretionary traders
Disciplined Trader	10% (1-Step) / 8% + 5% (2-Step)	2% / 10%	Disciplined, risk-adverse, institutional-style traders
High Conviction	1-Step: 20% / 2-Step: 15% + 10%	5% / 15%	Aggressive high-conviction traders

Quick Reference: Challenge Types

"Your Own Style"

• 1-Step: 10% profit target / 2-Step: 8% + 5% profit targets
• 2.5% daily / 10% total drawdown
• For flexible traders — balanced rules, maximum flexibility

"Disciplined Trader"

• 1-Step: 10% profit target / 2-Step: 8% + 5% profit targets
• 2% daily / 10% total drawdown
• For disciplined traders — more disciplined risk management, lower pricing

"High Conviction"

• 1-Step: 20% profit target / 2-Step: 15% + 10% profit targets
• 5% daily / 15% total drawdown
• For aggressive traders — higher targets, wider risk limits

Quick Reference: Verification Levels

1-Step Verification

• Profit target: 10% (Your Own Style / Disciplined Trader) — 20% (High Conviction 1-Step only). Single phase.
• Min 14 trading days, no maximum time limit
• Faster path to eligibility, higher price

2-Step Verification

• Profit target: 8% + 5% (Your Own Style / Disciplined Trader) — 15% + 10% (High Conviction 2-Step)
• Phase 1: Min 14 trading days (YOS/DT) or 7 (HC), no maximum time limit
• Phase 2: Min 14 trading days (YOS/DT) or 7 (HC), no maximum time limit
• More time overall, lower price

Critical Rule: Liquidation

Liquidation ends the challenge. A liquidated or auto-deleveraged position fails the account immediately — no warning, no appeal.

1. Challenge Overview

The ZoneX Trading Challenge is an evaluation program designed to assess trading skill within a simulated environment. Successful completion of the evaluation may, subject to separate approval, compliance review, and execution of a separate agreement, make a participant eligible to apply for a funded trading arrangement. Any such arrangement is governed by a separate contract.

Challenge fees are non-refundable participation fees. During the Challenge phase, you trade in a simulated environment with virtual funds.

No monetary prize, reward, or financial gain arises from participation in or completion of the Challenge itself.

Both challenge types require: Minimum trading days (14 for YOS/FP, 7 for High Conviction), with at least one trade opened and closed per day held for 3+ minutes, profit target achieved, all risk limits respected. There is no fixed time limit for completing the challenge.

2. Account Sizes & Pricing

For current account sizes, challenge types, and pricing, please visit our pricing page.

View Pricing

Optional Add-on: Pre Violation Warning

The Pre Violation Warning is an optional add-on available at checkout that provides proactive UI notifications to help you avoid accidental rule breaches during your challenge.

How It Works

Before executing a trade, the system analyzes whether the trade could potentially cause a rule violation
If a trade would breach a drawdown limit (daily or total), you receive a warning notification
You can then choose to proceed, adjust your position size, or cancel the trade entirely

Example

Scenario: You're at 9.5% drawdown with a 10% total drawdown limit. If you attempt to open a trade with 0.6% risk, the system will warn you that this trade could breach your limit if it hits your stop-loss.

Note: A 0.5% risk trade would NOT trigger a warning in this scenario, because even if stopped out, you'd be at exactly 10% — not over the limit. The warning only appears when an action itself would cause a breach.

Pricing: This add-on is available for 10% of your challenge fee. Select it during checkout when purchasing your challenge.

3. Challenge Phases & Evaluation Period

There is no fixed time limit for completing the challenge.

"Your Own Style" / "Disciplined Trader"

One-Step Verification

Profit Target: 10%
Min Trading Days: 14
Pass → KYC → Incentive-Eligible Account (subject to successful completion of KYC)

Completion of the Challenge does not create an automatic entitlement to an incentive-eligible account. Any subsequent trading access is subject to independent review, AML verification, and execution of a separate written agreement.

Two-Step Verification

Phase 1: 8% profit target, min 14 trading days
Phase 2: 5% profit target, min 14 trading days
Min Trading Days: 14 per phase
Pass Both → KYC → Incentive-Eligible Account (subject to successful completion of KYC)

"High Conviction"

One-Step Verification

Profit Target: 20% profit target for 1-Step only, min 7 trading days
Min Trading Days: 7
Pass → KYC → Incentive-Eligible Account (subject to successful completion of KYC)

Two-Step Verification

Phase 1: 15% profit target, min 7 trading days
Phase 2: 10% profit target, min 7 trading days
Min Trading Days: 7 per phase
Pass Both → KYC → Incentive-Eligible Account (subject to successful completion of KYC)

Trading Day Definition

A trading day is counted when both of the following conditions occur during a calendar day:

At least one position is held for 3 minutes or longer
At least one trade has risk of 0.1% or greater

Day Boundary

Days are defined using the 02:00 Europe/Zurich daily reset. A day is assigned based on the date at the time the position is opened. At each 02:00 Europe/Zurich reset, the system evaluates activity and increments Trading Days Completed when the criteria are met.

Free Retry Eligibility

A free retry is granted if your realized profit reached at least 5% at any point during the challenge — even if the account subsequently breaches the daily loss limit, maximum drawdown, or otherwise fails to complete the challenge. Realized profit is measured on closed, filled trades; an unrealized equity high-water mark that is later given back does not qualify.

ZoneX reserves the right to deny a retry in cases of reckless, abusive, or non-systematic trading behavior.

The free retry will create a new challenge account with the same account size and rules. All trading history, profit, loss, and statistics from the previous challenge will be cleared.

Each challenge purchase is eligible for one free retry only.

The free retry applies only to the same challenge type and account size as the original purchase and is non-transferable.

The free retry is not available for challenge purchases where any promotional discount, coupon code, or other promotional offer was applied at the time of purchase.

4. Risk & Drawdown Rules

All limits include realized losses, unrealized losses, trading fees, and funding fees. Daily limits are fixed at the 02:00 Europe/Zurich reset and never trail intraday or ratchet to an unrealized high-water mark. Exceeding any limit constitutes a rule violation (see Section 9).

In practice this means your daily limit is measured on the risk you have taken, not the loss you have realized: your losses so far, plus the worst case still open on your book if every stop-loss were hit, including fees. Orders that have not yet filled count from the moment they fill. This is assessed continuously, whenever a position opens or a stop is changed. Note what is being reassessed: your committed risk, not your limit. The allowance itself is fixed at the 02:00 reset and never trails your equity intraday.

"Your Own Style" Limits

Drawdown Limits

• Profit Target: 10% (1-Step) / 8% + 5% (2-Step)
• Daily Loss: 2.5%
• Total Drawdown: 10%

Position Limits

• Max Stop Distance: 90% of venue liquidation distance

"Disciplined Trader" Limits

Drawdown Limits

• Profit Target: 10% (1-Step) / 8% + 5% (2-Step)
• Daily Loss: 2%
• Total Drawdown: 10%

Trade Limits

• Risk per Trade: <0.6% (1-Step) / <1% (2-Step)
• Min Risk:Reward: 1:3
• Max Consecutive Losing Trades per Day: 4 (account terminated on 5th consecutive loss)
• Max Stop Distance: 90% of venue liquidation distance

"High Conviction" Limits

Drawdown Limits

• Profit Target: 1-Step: 20% / 2-Step: 15% + 10%
• Daily Loss: 5%
• Total Drawdown: 15%

Position Limits

• No risk-per-trade cap
• No minimum Risk:Reward requirement
• No consecutive loss rule
• Minimum Trading Days: 7
• Max Stop Distance: 90% of venue liquidation distance

How Maximum Drawdown Works

Maximum drawdown is calculated from the initial account balance and only moves upward at the end of the trading day (02:00 Europe/Zurich daily reset). Example: If the initial account balance is $100,000, the maximum drawdown is 10%, and you reach a 5% profit after day 1, the maximum drawdown level becomes $95,000 after the daily reset.

Liquidation Ends the Challenge

If a position is liquidated or auto-deleveraged (ADL) by the exchange, the account fails immediately — regardless of whether any drawdown limit was breached, and regardless of whether a stop-loss was correctly set. There is no warning and no appeal. All open orders are cancelled and all positions are closed.

Stop-loss must clear liquidation by 10%

Your exchange determines your liquidation distance, from its own margin rates for the symbol, leverage and position size you trade. Your stop-loss may sit no further from entry than 90% of that distance — the final 10% is reserved. A stop placed on the liquidation line may never fire: liquidation triggers off the mark price, your maintenance margin rises as the position grows, and funding and fees consume margin while the trade is open. This is checked when an order is placed, when it fills, when a stop is moved, and when leverage is changed on an open position. A breach ends the challenge.

5. Incentive-Eligible Account

The Incentive-Eligible Account arrangement is separate from the Challenge and is governed by a distinct agreement entered into only after successful evaluation and compliance review.

Upon passing the challenge and completing KYC and compliance review, eligible traders may be offered an incentive-eligible account. The risk limits of your incentive-eligible account are identical to those of the challenge you successfully completed — your rules do not change after funding.

Incentive-Eligible Account Risk Limits

Your incentive-eligible account inherits the exact risk parameters of the challenge you passed:

• Daily Drawdown — same percentage as your challenge
• Total Drawdown — same percentage as your challenge (trailing model preserved)
• Risk per Trade cap — same as your challenge (Disciplined Trader only)
• Minimum Risk:Reward — same as your challenge (Disciplined Trader only)
• Stop-loss required on all positions (applies to every account type)

Example: a trader who passes the One-Step $50K Disciplined Trader challenge continues on the same 2.5% daily drawdown, 10% trailing total drawdown, 0.6% (1-Step) / 1% (2-Step) risk-per-trade cap, and 1:3 minimum R:R after funding. High Conviction passers retain their wider drawdown profile with no R:R or risk-per-trade cap.

Disbursements

• Performance Incentive: 80% to you (up to 90% based on performance), subject to eligibility and compliance
• First Disbursement Eligibility: After 14 calendar days of incentive-eligible trading and minimum $50 in generated results
• Disbursement Cycle: Disbursement requests are reviewed and processed on a twice-daily cycle, subject to eligibility, compliance, and disbursement schedule requirements
• Minimum Withdrawal: $10
• Method: USDT/USDC

Withdrawal Frequency

Incentive-eligible traders may submit one (1) withdrawal request every seven (7) calendar days.

Withdrawal requests submitted before the seven-day interval has elapsed will not be processed.

This rule is designed to maintain orderly disbursement processing and ensure stable platform operations.

Maximum Withdrawal per Request

Each withdrawal request may withdraw up to fifty percent (50%) of the available profit above the account's starting balance.

Example:

• Starting balance: $100,000
• Current balance: $104,000
• Available profit: $4,000
→ Maximum withdrawal permitted: $2,000

The remaining profit remains in the account and continues to be subject to normal trading rules and risk limits.

Monthly Withdrawal Limit

Total withdrawals from an incentive-eligible account may not exceed the starting account balance within any rolling thirty (30) day period.

Example:

A trader operating a $100,000 incentive-eligible account may withdraw a maximum of $100,000 within any thirty-day period.

This rule serves as a protective measure to maintain the long-term stability of the incentive-eligible trader program.

Withdrawal Processing Time

Withdrawal requests are reviewed and processed by the ZoneX operations team.

• Target processing time: within 24 hours
• Maximum review window: 48 hours

Withdrawal requests may be reviewed for compliance with trading rules, platform integrity checks, and operational verification before processing.

Account Balance Adjustment After Withdrawal

When a withdrawal is processed, the disbursement amount is deducted from the account balance.

Following a withdrawal:

• The remaining balance becomes the new account reference level
• Drawdown limits adjust accordingly
• The drawdown buffer recalculates from the new post-withdrawal reference balance

This ensures that risk exposure remains aligned with the trader's remaining capital.

Minimum Profitable Trading Days

Before a withdrawal can be requested, profits must be generated across a minimum of 1 profitable trading day.

A profitable trading day is defined as a trading day in which the account closes the day with a net positive profit.

This rule does not change the profit target or any other challenge rules, but ensures that profits are generated consistently across multiple trading days rather than from a single large market move.

7. KYC Verification

KYC is required after passing the challenge, before eligibility for an incentive-eligible account can be assessed:

Government-issued photo ID
Proof of address (dated within 90 days)
Selfie with ID for facial verification
Sanctions and PEP screening
Source of funds declaration

Failure to complete KYC or providing false information results in permanent disqualification from ZoneX services.

8. Account Scaling

Incentive-eligible traders may qualify for 25% account size increases (up to $400K maximum) after meeting:

10% profit on incentive-eligible account
Minimum 60 calendar days active
No rule violations or warnings

9. Rule Violations & Account Termination

Consequences of Rule Violation

Violation of the rules may result in one or more of the following actions, depending on the nature and severity of the breach:

Suspension or termination of the account
Reset or disqualification of the challenge
Forfeiture of fees paid
Cancellation of any pending disbursements

ZoneX reserves the right to take appropriate action in response to any rule violation, including immediate account termination in serious cases.

No refunds are provided, except where required by applicable law.

ZoneX actively monitors all accounts. Determinations regarding rule violations are made at ZoneX's reasonable discretion and are final, subject to applicable law.

10. General Terms

Modifications

ZoneX may modify these rules at any time. Changes apply to new purchases immediately. Active challenges follow rules in effect at purchase unless changes are required for security or compliance.

Contact

Questions about these rules: contact@zonex.pro

Acknowledgment

By purchasing a ZoneX Challenge, you confirm you have read and understood all rules, agree to comply, and accept that violations result in termination without refund.

11. Language and Prevailing Version

These Challenge Rules, the Terms of Use, and all related policies are drafted in the English language. Any translations are provided solely for convenience.

In the event of any inconsistency, discrepancy, or conflict between the English version and any translated version, the English version shall prevail and be legally binding.

By using the website or purchasing a Challenge, you acknowledge and agree that the English-language version governs your rights and obligations.

Revision History

Dated record of material changes to these Challenge Rules. The version in force at the time of purchase governs that challenge.

15 August 2026Clarified that daily loss limits are measured on committed risk and assessed continuously between 02:00 resets; restated the free retry as requiring 5% realized profit on closed, filled trades, one retry per purchase, excluding discounted or promotional purchases; aligned profit target, maximum drawdown and performance incentive figures across the site.
Earlier versionsNo dated revision log was maintained prior to 15 August 2026. Traders may request the rule set applicable to a specific purchase at legal@zonex.pro.