Should a prop firm offer a scaling plan?
Quick answer
A scaling plan increases a funded trader's account size after consistent profitable payouts. It rewards and retains your best traders, but it increases your largest payout liabilities. Offer one with clear criteria, such as a number of profitable payouts and a maximum drawdown, and cap the maximum size.
Detailed answer
Typical scaling terms:
- Eligibility: for example, profit over three or four payout cycles without a breach.
- Increase: a percentage of the current balance.
- Cap: a maximum allocation per trader.
- Reset terms: what happens if the trader later breaches.
Scaling is attractive in marketing, but each step raises the payout from the same percentage return. If you mirror your best traders to real markets, scaling those traders can be profitable; if accounts stay simulated, scaling is a cost to fund.
On PropExecutor a scale-up is a new trading account on a larger account type, assigned to the same trader record. Each account keeps its own frozen rule version and history.
Questions before launching one
- What is the maximum account size you can afford to pay out on?
- How many traders would qualify in a year?
- Will scaled accounts use the same rules?
A cautious start
Many firms launch without scaling, then introduce it once they have a year of payout data and know which traders qualify.
PropExecutor team · Updated
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