Source: https://whitepips.com/blog/how-to-pass-a-one-step-challenge
Summary: A practical plan for a one-step evaluation: the three numbers to know, how to size, what pace to set and the rules that end most attempts.
Last updated: 2026-10-28

# How to pass a one-step prop firm challenge

A practical plan for a one-step evaluation: the three numbers to know, how to size, what pace to set and the rules that end most attempts.

- October 4, 2026
- 7 min read
- 7 sections
- Getting funded

**In this article 7**

1. Know the three numbers in currency, not percent
2. Size so a bad day cannot end the attempt
3. Set a pace the rules reward
4. What ends most attempts
5. Rules that catch traders who are winning
6. A plan you can write on one card
7. Questions traders ask

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October 4, 2026 7 min read Getting funded

## Key takeaways

1. **Know the three numbers in currency, not percent.** Percentages hide the size of the problem.
2. **Size so a bad day cannot end the attempt.** Work backwards from the Daily Loss Limit, not forwards from the target.
3. **Set a pace the rules reward.** At 0.5% risk and a reward of twice the risk, a winning trade adds 1% and a losing one takes 0.5%.
4. **Rules that catch traders who are winning.** A few rules have nothing to do with losing, and they tend to surprise people who are ahead.
5. **A plan you can write on one card.** Once funded, the same two loss limits apply, the three profitable days are needed again before each payout, the split starts at 80% (up to 95% as you scale).

A one-step challenge asks for one thing: reach the profit target without touching either loss limit. On our Edge 1 Step the target is 10% of the starting balance, the Daily Loss Limit is 4% and the Maximum Loss Limit is 7.5%, static and measured from the starting balance. There is no time limit, and you need three trading days that each close at least 0.5% up before the pass is confirmed.

Most attempts do not fail on the target. They fail on the loss limits, usually the daily one, and usually in the first two weeks, while the trader is still sizing as if the account were their own. The plan below is built around that fact: size so that a bad day cannot end the attempt, set a pace the rules reward, and know the handful of rules that catch traders who are already in profit.

Everything here uses the published figures of the [Edge 1 Step](https://whitepips.com/cfds) plan. The method carries to any one-step evaluation; the numbers belong to ours.

## Know the three numbers in currency, not percent

Percentages hide the size of the problem. Convert them once, on the account you actually bought, and keep the figures where you can see them during the session. On a $25,000 Edge 1 Step they are:

- **Profit target:** $2,500.
- **Daily Loss Limit:** $1,000, measured from the day's opening balance. Reaching it is a hard breach: the account is closed, the same as at the Maximum Loss Limit.
- **Maximum Loss Limit:** $1,875, measured from the starting balance and static, so it does not move up as you make profit. Reaching it is hard: the account is closed.

Both limits are measured on equity, so an open loss counts the same as a closed one. The gap between the two limits is the point to notice: $1,875 is less than two full daily losses. Two bad days at the limit, in any order and however far apart, end the account. That is the arithmetic the rest of the plan has to respect.

On a $10,000 account the same three figures are $1,000, $400 and $750; on $100,000 they are $10,000, $4,000 and $7,500. The ratio is identical on every size from $2,500 to $200,000, so the sizing rule below works on all of them.

## Size so a bad day cannot end the attempt

Work backwards from the Daily Loss Limit, not forwards from the target. Decide how many losing trades a normal bad day holds for you, say three, and make sure three full stops leave you well short of the daily figure. On the $25,000 account, risking 0.5% a trade is $125; three losers cost $375, a little over a third of the daily limit, and ten losers in a row cost $1,250, still $625 short of the Maximum Loss Limit. Ten consecutive losses is not a disaster scenario for a strategy that wins half its trades; it is something you should expect to see once during the attempt.

Risking 1% a trade looks modest and is not. Four losers is the daily limit; eight is the account. A string of eight losses over two days is ordinary variance, and at 1% it is the end of the evaluation. Halving the size roughly doubles the number of losses the account can absorb, and costs you nothing but time, which this plan gives you for free.

Convert the risk figure into lots using your actual stop distance, per instrument, and write the lot size down. The longer piece on [sizing against a loss limit](https://whitepips.com/blog/sizing-against-the-limit) walks through the arithmetic in detail.

Do the sizing once, before the first trade, on the dashboard's calculators or on paper, and do not revise it mid-session. Size that changes with conviction grows after winners and shrinks after losers, which is the wrong way round for an account with a floor.

## Set a pace the rules reward

At 0.5% risk and a reward of twice the risk, a winning trade adds 1% and a losing one takes 0.5%. A trader who wins half their trades nets roughly 0.25% a trade, so the 10% target is around 40 trades of work. At two or three trades a day that is three to five weeks, with losing weeks included. That is the realistic pace, and it is faster than it sounds because nothing is lost to a reset or a restart.

The pass also needs three profitable days of at least 0.5% each. At this size a single clean winner makes a profitable day, so the condition tends to meet itself. It only becomes a problem for traders who take one large trade a month, and they have a different problem anyway. [Profitable days, explained](https://whitepips.com/blog/profitable-days-explained) has the count for every plan, and the two-phase version of this plan is [how to pass a two-step challenge](https://whitepips.com/blog/how-to-pass-a-two-step-challenge) .

There is no deadline. That removes the one pressure that makes traders double their size in the final week, and it means a slow month costs nothing. The temptation is to race regardless; [why there is no deadline, and what to do with it](https://whitepips.com/blog/no-time-limit) is about why you should not.

## What ends most attempts

The daily limit catches far more accounts than the maximum one, and it catches them in a recognisable way: a loss, a larger trade to get it back, and a third trade that was never in the plan. The limit is 4%, and 4% is easy to reach with two trades at a size you adopted while annoyed. There is no second chance on the day: the limit is measured against the day's opening balance, and a 4% hole ends the evaluation whether it came from one trade or ten.

A practical defence is a personal stop well inside the published one. If you decide in advance that two losers end your day, you will rarely see the limit at all, and you will never see it on the day it matters. The other defence is to keep the day's realised and open loss in front of you: the dashboard's rule cards update live, and the terminal's equity figure tells you the same thing.

The patterns that end evaluations are described in [the five ways evaluations are actually lost](https://whitepips.com/blog/how-evaluations-are-lost) . Almost none of them is bad analysis.

## Rules that catch traders who are winning

A few rules have nothing to do with losing, and they tend to surprise people who are ahead.

- **Max Exposure.** The combined notional value of your open positions has a cap for each account size, $625,000 on $25,000. The first breach is a warning and, if you are in profit, your profit is reset to the starting balance; a second closes the account. It is reached by stacking positions, not by one trade.
- **Weekend holding.** Without the Weekend Holding add-on, positions still open at 4:45 PM New York time on Friday are closed by the system. The first time counts as a warning, the second closes the account. The add-on costs 20% of the account fee if you intend to hold.
- **Inactivity.** Thirty days without a closed trade ends the account. A long break between setups is fine; a month is not.
- **News.** Trading the news is allowed. Placing orders both ways around a high-impact release to catch the spike is reviewed by the risk desk.

The full list is in the [trading rules](https://whitepips.com/legal/trading-rules) ; the plan card on the dashboard shows the version that binds your account.

## A plan you can write on one card

1. Three figures in currency: target, Daily Loss Limit, Maximum Loss Limit.
2. Risk per trade of 0.5%, converted to lots per instrument, written down.
3. Two losing trades end the day, whatever the limit says.
4. No new positions on Friday afternoon New York time unless the account has Weekend Holding.
5. Count open positions against the exposure cap before adding one.
6. Expect four to six weeks and a losing week inside them.

Once funded, the same two loss limits apply, the three profitable days are needed again before each payout, the split starts at 80% (up to 95% as you scale). The fee is not refunded on Edge 1 Step; on Prime 1 Step it comes back once the account is funded and in profit after 30 days. The habits that pass the challenge are the ones that keep the funded account, so there is no reason to trade the two differently.

## Questions traders ask

**Is there a time limit on a one-step challenge?** Not on Edge 1 Step. Trading days are unlimited; the only clock is the 30-day inactivity rule, which needs one closed trade a month.

**What happens when I hit the Daily Loss Limit?** The account is closed. On CFD plans both loss limits are hard; only the futures Instant account has a soft daily limit that pauses trading for the day. The loss still counts towards the Maximum Loss Limit, which is why one such day should change how you trade the next.

**Do I get the fee back?** On Prime 1 Step, yes: the fee is refunded in full once the account is funded and in profit after 30 days. On Edge 1 Step it is not refunded, and neither is an Instant account's fee.

More in Getting funded [The WhitePips free trial: what it is and is not](https://whitepips.com/blog/free-trial-prop-firm) [How prop firms make money, explained plainly](https://whitepips.com/blog/how-prop-firms-make-money) [Prop firm or broker: what is the difference](https://whitepips.com/blog/prop-firm-or-broker) [Read next Edge, Prime or Instant: which funded account fits you Getting funded · 8 min read](https://whitepips.com/blog/edge-prime-or-instant)

Educational content, not financial advice. Trading carries risk and most people who attempt an evaluation do not pass it. Accounts are simulated; the rules that bind yours are the ones printed on your plan and in the trading rules.

[All articles](https://whitepips.com/blog)

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[See the plans](https://whitepips.com/#plans) [Trading calculator](https://whitepips.com/calculator)

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WhitePips provides skill-based trading evaluations on simulated accounts; payouts are real money based on simulated performance. Nothing here is financial advice or a promise of profit, passing an evaluation does not guarantee funding, payouts or income, and trading leveraged products carries significant risk. Not offered in the restricted jurisdictions listed at https://whitepips.com/legal/restricted-jurisdictions.