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The three setfiles, explained

FTMO challenge, TopStep futures, personal live: the same EA, three different risk profiles. Here’s what changes between them.

Liquidity Labs · Desk·

Funded accounts have rules. Personal accounts have appetite. Same engine, different guardrails.

The FTMO setfile caps daily loss at 4.5% and overall at 9% — both inside FTMO’s 5/10 thresholds with a safety margin. Risk-per-trade is 0.5%, three concurrent positions max, news halt fires 5 minutes ahead of high-impact releases.

TopStep / futures-prop is harder. The dollar limits are absolute (USD 900 daily, USD 1,900 overall on a 50K), trading day cuts off at 20:00 UTC, and we widen the news halt to 10 minutes because futures gap further on the release.

Personal live runs hotter: 1% risk-per-trade, 6% daily, 15% overall, five concurrent positions, overnight holds allowed. It’s the same engine — you just decide how much rope it gets.

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