Challenge Terms and Conditions

Nature of Service

The Challenge is a professional evaluation and skills assessment designed to assess trading strategy, discipline and risk management within a simulated trading environment. These Challenge Terms govern that simulated, skill-based evaluation. They make no statement about, and no conclusion is drawn here regarding, the classification of the Challenge under gambling or money-games legislation in any jurisdiction.

Participation in the Challenge is based exclusively on the participant's trading decisions and performance within a simulated environment. No element of randomness or chance is introduced by ZoneX.

Participation Fee

The participation fee is a one-time service fee determined by the selected Challenge configuration and any purchased optional add-ons, as disclosed before purchase. It provides access to the applicable software tools, data and evaluation process and is non-refundable except as provided in the applicable Refund Policy or required by applicable law. The fee:

• does not constitute a stake, wager, or bet;
• is not risked in exchange for the prospect of a gain;
• is not pooled with fees of other participants;
• is not redistributed;
• is not used as trading capital; and
• does not itself create an entitlement to trading capital, cash prizes or performance remuneration.

Payment provides access to the purchased evaluation services; it does not purchase a right to trading capital or performance remuneration. Any qualifying free retry is governed by Section 12.

No Prize or Monetary Gain

During the Challenge:

• no monetary prize is offered;
• no prize pool exists;
• no performance-based cash refund, cash credit or cash bonus is awarded;
• no ranking or competitive reward is provided; and
• no simulated Challenge profit is withdrawable or payable to the participant.

Successful completion of the Challenge does not entitle the participant to any payment, prize, or monetary gain.

The limited free retry described in Section 12 provides additional evaluation access only. It has no cash value, does not pay out simulated profits, does not refund the participation fee and does not guarantee approval for any subsequent account.

No Competition

The Challenge is not a competition between participants. Participants are not ranked against one another, and no comparative rewards are offered. Performance thresholds are objective criteria designed solely for evaluation purposes.

Separate Contractual Relationship

Successful completion of the Challenge does not automatically activate a Funded Trader Account and does not itself create any entitlement to capital, engagement, Performance Remuneration or another monetary or economic benefit. Passing makes the participant eligible for a separate funded-stage review, subject to:

• a Challenge-integrity review, eligibility review and compliance review;
• a separate admission decision by ZoneX;
• confirmation of that decision by a second ZoneX approver; and
• acceptance of the Funded Trader Services Agreement, applicable Account Schedule and Funded Trader Rules before funded-stage activation.

If ZoneX separately approves admission to the Funded Trader Programme, the participant must accept the Funded Trader Services Agreement, the applicable Account Schedule and the Funded Trader Rules before the funded-stage Account Configuration is activated. ZoneX determines whether the trading environment is simulated or, where ZoneX separately elects, uses ZoneX-owned proprietary capital. The participant does not own or control the underlying capital.

Any Performance Remuneration is governed by the funded-stage documents, not these Challenge Terms. Full identity verification and identity-based sanctions screening must be completed no later than before the first Performance Remuneration payment, unless earlier checks are required.

The Challenge and any Funded Trader Arrangement are separate contractual stages and relationships.

No Automatic Rights

ZoneX determines, acting reasonably and on defined grounds, whether to admit a participant to a Funded Trader Arrangement, and each admission decision is confirmed by a second ZoneX approver. The grounds are the published Challenge requirements, eligibility requirements, identity verification and sanctions screening, fraud, manipulation or abuse concerns, platform, trading-integrity or security concerns, capital availability and material breach of the applicable agreement. Completion of the Challenge does not create a claim, entitlement or expectation of payment. Eligibility for review is personal, cannot be sold, transferred or redeemed, and has no cash value. Any decision may be challenged through the Complaints Procedure and remains subject to mandatory law.

No Pooling of Funds

Participation fees are not pooled or redistributed among participants. ZoneX does not operate any prize fund or redistribution mechanism in connection with the Challenge.

Simulated Funds

All trading during the Challenge occurs in a simulated environment using notional funds. No real capital is provided to participants during the Challenge. Simulated balances are not money, have no monetary value and are not owned by the participant.

Characterisation of the Service

The parties acknowledge that the Challenge is structured and offered as a professional evaluation service delivered in a simulated environment. This document makes no statement regarding the classification of the Challenge under gambling or money-games legislation in any jurisdiction.

10.1 Purchased Challenge Configuration

Your Challenge is governed by these Terms, the applicable Challenge Rules and the configuration recorded for your purchase. Available selections include simulated initial account balance, maximum total drawdown, maximum daily loss, profit target, maximum leverage and performance split, within the supported configuration limits. Your purchase also records whether the optional Pre-Violation Warning is included. Customization takes place before purchase and does not permit these parameters to be freely changed during an active Challenge.

Where preset configurations are offered, they are optional starting points. The final parameters recorded for your purchase govern your Challenge.

10.2 Single-Phase Evaluation and Completion

Every ZoneX Challenge consists of one simulated evaluation phase. There is no second trading evaluation phase, no minimum number of trading days and no maximum completion time. The evaluation may be completed once the selected profit target and all applicable published Challenge requirements have been satisfied and verified.

A separate funded-stage eligibility and integrity review, ZoneX admission decision and second approval, acceptance of the funded-stage documents and any required verification are not a second trading evaluation phase.

10.3 Static Maximum Drawdown

The Initial Account Balance is the simulated starting balance allocated to your Challenge. The Maximum Drawdown Floor is calculated from that balance and your selected maximum drawdown percentage. It remains fixed throughout the Challenge and does not trail balance or equity, rise with profits, or recalculate at the daily reset.

Maximum Drawdown Floor = Initial Account Balance × (1 − Selected Maximum Drawdown Percentage)

Illustration only: a $100,000 initial balance with 10% maximum drawdown produces a fixed $90,000 floor. If the account grows to $105,000, the floor remains $90,000, including after the daily reset. The percentage used in this example is not a universal setting.

10.4 Daily Loss Is a Separate Control

The daily-loss limit uses the selected daily-loss percentage and the applicable daily reference specified in the Challenge Rules. Its daily reference resets at 02:00 Europe/Zurich. This reset does not change the static Maximum Drawdown Floor.

The treatment of realized losses, unrealized losses, fees and committed risk is as set out in the Challenge Rules. Static total drawdown and daily-loss controls use different reference mechanics; not every percentage-based limit is calculated from the initial balance.

10.5 No Profit-Distribution Consistency Rule

There is no best-day profit cap or requirement to spread Challenge profits across a minimum number of trading days. The selected profit target, applicable risk limits and prohibited-practice rules must still be satisfied.

10.6 Selected Performance Split

The performance split selected for a Challenge may be used as the remuneration percentage recorded in an Account Schedule if ZoneX later approves admission. It does not make simulated Challenge profits withdrawable or create an automatic entitlement to an arrangement, capital, engagement or payment.

10.7 Optional Pre-Violation Warning

Where included in your purchase, the optional Pre-Violation Warning provides notifications designed to flag potentially rule-breaching actions before you proceed. It does not change the applicable rules or guarantee protection against every breach. The absence of a warning does not confirm that an action is compliant. The add-on price is the price disclosed to you before purchase.

Additional Controls

A stop-loss remains mandatory on every position, and the trading controls published in the applicable Challenge Rules continue to apply to your Challenge alongside the parameters recorded for your purchase.

Challenges purchased under earlier published parameters continue to be governed by the terms applicable at the time of that purchase.

All other terms and conditions set forth in these Challenge Terms apply equally to every Challenge configuration. Successful completion does not create any entitlement to trade company capital or receive remuneration, as described in Sections 5 and 6.

A Challenge is conducted with simulated funds: a liquidation event during a Challenge is a simulated liquidation of a simulated position, not an actual position liquidated by an exchange. For leveraged configurations, the applicable liquidation distance is derived from the execution venue's published margin requirements for that instrument, leverage and position size, and is not set by ZoneX. A stop-loss order may not be placed further from the entry price than 90% of that distance. Placement or modification of a stop-loss exceeding this limit, and any change of leverage causing an existing position to exceed it, constitute a breach, and the account is terminated. This liquidation-distance restriction applies to leveraged configurations; an unleveraged Spot configuration has no leveraged liquidation threshold. Where a venue does not publish its risk-limit ladder, a conservative estimate of the liquidation distance is applied and is identified as an estimate where displayed. A simulated liquidation of a position constitutes an independent and unconditional breach, irrespective of any drawdown threshold.

An immediate account failure does not prevent the participant from challenging an erroneous determination through the Complaints Procedure.

Activation and Validity Period

A purchased Challenge must be activated within thirty (30) days of the date of purchase by completing the ZoneX account setup required for the simulated Challenge. Challenges not activated within this window may be forfeited without refund. This is a deadline to activate an unused purchase; it is not a deadline to complete an activated evaluation. Every ZoneX Challenge consists of one evaluation phase only, has no minimum number of trading days and no maximum time to complete, but the account must remain in continuous compliance with all rules.

Challenge participation does not require connecting a personal exchange account or supplying personal exchange API keys. Trading takes place through the ZoneX Terminal in the simulated environment for the selected supported exchange.

Non-Transferability

Challenges, subscriptions, free retries, promotional discounts and any associated benefits are personal to the purchaser named on the order. They are non-transferable and may not be sold, assigned, gifted, sub-licensed, shared or otherwise transferred to any other person or entity, whether for consideration or otherwise. Any attempt to transfer is void and constitutes a material breach entitling ZoneX AG to terminate the account without refund.

Rule-Change Lock for Active Challenges

The Challenge rules in force on the date of your purchase (including Daily Drawdown, Total Drawdown, profit targets, and the Stop-Loss requirement) will govern that specific Challenge until it is passed, failed, or otherwise terminated under the applicable published terms, and no later rule change will apply retroactively to disadvantage you within that Challenge, save for changes required by applicable law, sanctions, or fraud, security, and market-integrity measures, which may take effect immediately. Rule changes announced by ZoneX AG apply to Challenges purchased after the effective date of the change. Rule changes affecting a Funded Trader Arrangement are governed by the Funded Trader Services Agreement and the Funded Trader Rules.

Free Retry Policy

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 may deny a retry for fraud, manipulation, exploitation, abuse or intentional rule circumvention.

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 purchased Challenge configuration and account size as the original purchase and is non-transferable.

The free retry has no cash value and cannot be redeemed, refunded, exchanged for money or credited against any other purchase.

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.

Funded-Stage Matters

These Challenge Terms govern only the Challenge stage. Passing does not create a funded-trader relationship. If ZoneX separately approves admission, the participant must accept the Funded Trader Services Agreement, applicable Account Schedule and Funded Trader Rules before activation. Funded-stage Performance Remuneration, verification, trading and termination matters are governed by those funded-stage documents, not these Challenge Terms.

Official documents control

These Challenge Terms & Conditions, together with the Challenge Rules, the Terms of Use, the Refund Policy and any other official ZoneX agreement or policy, constitute the binding terms governing your participation in the Challenge. Any Funded Trader Arrangement is governed by the Funded Trader Services Agreement, the applicable Account Schedule and the Funded Trader Rules.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), glossary entries, blog articles, marketing materials, emails and the AI Support Chat are provided for convenience and general guidance only and are not contractually binding.

In the event of any conflict, inconsistency, omission or ambiguity between such informational content and these Challenge Terms & Conditions or the Challenge Rules, these Challenge Terms & Conditions and the Challenge Rules shall prevail and supersede the FAQs and all other informational content.

The parameters recorded in the confirmed Challenge purchase form part of the terms for that Challenge. Generic examples or descriptions do not override those recorded parameters. The configuration does not displace the applicable eligibility requirements, prohibited-practice rules or other general contractual protections.