10 Hours After Passing FTMO 1-Step, a 'One-Sided Betting' Notice Arrived: The Condition Is 1% Risk per Trade Idea on Every Account (October 2026)

※ This happened on this site's operator's real account on October 15, 2026. The notice email says it is for the recipient only and may not be shared, so it is summarized here rather than quoted. Clause quotes come from FTMO's public General Terms and Conditions. Check the FTMO official site for the latest information.

What happened

The pass was not revoked. The account moves on to the next stage (the FTMO Account) if I accept a condition.

What the notice said (summary)

• Looking at the overall trading, it reads less like genuine trading and more like one-sided betting: a few large positions aimed at hitting the target or reward on the luck of a few outcomes.
• That falls under the undesired practices in the public article "Gambling is not the right way to make money" and is forbidden by General T&C Clause 7 and FTMO Account Agreement 5.9 and 5.10.
• Still, if I commit to keeping risk per trade idea within 1% of the initial balance on every account, at every stage, they will advance the account. The basis is General T&C 7.6.6.
• Doing it again, or trying to get around the condition (for example by splitting into correlated symbols), can lead to removed positions, reduced leverage, account termination or ending the cooperation.
• Nothing proceeds until you reply confirming receipt and acceptance.

How a trade idea is counted

The 1% is counted more broadly than you might expect.

So repeating 1%-stop trades several times an hour, adding positions by averaging down, or buying the Nikkei and the Dow at the same time all count together, and break the rule once the total exceeds 1%.

The clauses behind it (public General T&C)

FTMO's terms already allow this response.

• 7.4: FTMO may, at its discretion, take any measures it considers appropriate to prevent activity analogous to gambling.
• 7.5: You must follow market-standard risk management, the kind a reasonable person would use with their own money. As examples, avoid:
  • 7.5.1: opening substantially larger positions than your other trades, on any of your accounts
  • 7.5.2: opening a substantially smaller or larger number of positions than in your other trades
  • 7.5.3: repeated trading that raises risk per trade idea through cumulative exposure in a symbol or correlated symbols
• 7.6: what FTMO may do if it finds a breach, including treating it as a failure to meet the Trading Objectives, cancelling trades, ending the services, reducing leverage, and 7.6.6: enforcing a limit on risk per trade idea as a percentage of the initial capital, which must not be exceeded by realised or unrealised loss (drawdown).
• 7.9: no compensation is owed for these measures.

This notice applied 7.6.6. As 7.5.1 and 7.5.2 say, the judgement compares trading across all your accounts, not just one.

Other cases found online

Looking for reports from others who got the same notice turned up the following (as of October 15, 2026).

• FTMO's official prohibited-practices page (Forbidden Trading Practices, updated October 12, 2026) says to avoid overleveraging, overexposure, one-sided bets and account rolling, but gives no numeric threshold. FTMO's blog recommends 0.5–1% risk per trade (How much should you risk on one trade?).
• An overseas review site (propfirmgrades) cites reports of "a 1% cap applied at a payout request and carried over to every future account". It says these are a small share of accounts but the main source of 2026 complaints.
• Another review site (passproptradingfirms) says "after your first payout, FTMO enforces a 1% rule" for everyone. However, FTMO's public terms contain no such blanket rule; 7.6.6 is a measure FTMO may apply when it decides to. No source is given, so this site treats it as unverified.
• On X, an overseas trader reported a similar sequence (a June 2025 post). After passing several challenges in quick succession, they were flagged for one-sided betting and given a "1% per hour" cap across all accounts. Before that, they had already been given per-symbol lot caps (200 lots on Nasdaq, 80 on US30), which matches 7.6.7 (volume limits per symbol).
• A common complaint is that FTMO doesn't point to specific trades. The notice I received didn't mention any trade details either.

In short, the pattern matches other cases: at the pass or payout review, few trades, large lots and a fast pass together trigger a notice.

How I replied

I accepted and moved on. The prize is a $100K funded account, and declining leaves nothing. The reply said only four things:

1. I received the notice
2. I understand and accept the conditions
3. From now on, every account keeps risk per trade idea within 1% of the initial balance
4. I understand how a trade idea is counted (drawdown, correlated symbols, 1 hour, splitting all add up)

When The5ers sent a similar warning, a reply acknowledging it was enough to activate the account (The5ers one-sided bets warning). Reply briefly with receipt and acceptance only, with no excuses or arguments. That's the fastest way through.

Why it got flagged

My FTMO accounts all ran EAs that trade once a day in a fixed time window, risking several percent of the account. That did not break the challenge rules. From FTMO's side, though, it matches 7.5.1 and 7.5.2, "a few large positions", exactly:

• Few trades (for example, one window a week)
• Large risk per trade (well above 1%)
• The pass decided by a handful of wins

When all three line up, assume that even if the challenge rules don't forbid it, the post-pass audit can flag it. A warning doesn't necessarily come during the challenge; the whole picture is reviewed once you pass and go to review.

How this relates to this site's expected-value table

The expected values on this site's comparison page are calculated at 1% per trade. So FTMO 1-Step $100K's numbers (+$751 a year with no edge, +$29,446 at a 55% win rate) don't change under a 1% cap.

What changes is sizing up to the rule limits to pass faster. In a prop firm the loss stops at the fee, so normally risking as much as the rules allow raises expected value. At FTMO, that can be judged one-sided betting after you pass, and every account can end up capped at 1%.

For EA traders using FTMO

• Keep risk per trade within 1% from the start. Size the lot so the loss to the stop plus the worst drawdown stays within 1%.
• Space the same or correlated symbols by an hour, or keep the total within 1%. EAs that add positions through averaging or grids count in total.
• Don't size one account very differently from the others. 7.5.1 compares against your other trades, so one heavily sized account stands out.
• If a notice comes, resize every account's EA to 1% before the next window. The condition covers all accounts from now on.

Summary

• FTMO audits your overall trading after you pass. A few large positions can be treated as one-sided betting.
• The response wasn't an instant fail: committing to 1% per trade idea on every account was enough to move on (in this case).
• A trade idea adds up drawdown, correlated symbols, re-entries within an hour, and split positions.
• This site's expected-value table already uses 1% per trade, so FTMO's rating there doesn't change. Plan on not being able to size up to the limit at FTMO.

Related: FTMO expected value (all plans) / The5ers one-sided bets warning / All FTMO plans and rules