📕 Rulebook - Nostro Markets Trading Guidelines

Introduction

The Nostro Rules are designed to ensure a fair, transparent, and sustainable trading environment for all participants.

Nostro operates a performance-based trading program. All trading activity takes place on simulated accounts, however payouts are real. For this reason, strict risk management, consistency, and behavioural rules are required to protect the integrity of the platform and ensure long-term sustainability.

These rules are not designed to prevent profitable trading. They exist to encourage responsible, repeatable, and controlled trading behaviour, and to prevent practices that expose the platform to excessive risk.

By purchasing or participating in any Nostro challenge, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to abide by the rules outlined in this document. Failure to comply with these rules may result in warnings, payout reductions, or account termination, depending on the severity of the breach.

Rules may be updated, refined, or adjusted from time to time. It is your responsibility to review the rules regularly and ensure your trading remains compliant. Continued use of the platform constitutes acceptance of the most current version of the rules.

If you are ever unsure whether a strategy or behaviour is permitted, we strongly recommend contacting support before trading.

Breach Types (How Rule Violations Are Handled)

To keep everything fair and consistent, Nostro uses three breach types. These explain what happens when a rule is broken, or when something needs clarification.

Hard Breach

A Hard Breach is an instant fail of any account (evaluation or funded).
It is triggered when a rule listed as a Hard Breach is broken. When a hard breach occurs, the account is considered failed immediately.

Consequences of a Hard Breach:

• All open trades will be immediately closed

• All trading privileges will be automatically disabled

• The account will be moved to a Breached state

• The account is considered failed and permanently closed

• Any pending or future payouts linked to the account are void

Soft Breach

A Soft Breach is a warning that your trading behaviour is not compliant with the rules.

Soft breaches are tracked and handled differently depending on the stage of your account.

During Evaluation

• Soft breaches during the evaluation stage do not immediately fail your account.

• You can receive up to 3 Soft Breaches per phase

• As long as you have no more than 2 Soft Breaches, you can still progress through phases and move to the funded stage.

• Your 3rd Soft Breach automatically converts into a Hard Breach, and the evaluation or funded account will fail.

• Soft breaches reset after each phase during evaluation.

Transition to Funded

• When you move from evaluation to funded, all soft breaches are reset.

During the Funded Stage

Soft breaches have greater consequences once you are funded. At this stage, you are considered an experienced trader who understands the rules.

• 1st Soft Breach: Your payout is reduced by 25%

• 2nd Soft Breach: Your payout is reduced by 50%

• 3rd Soft Breach: Converts into a Hard Breach, any existing payouts are voided, and the funded account is closed

• Soft breaches reset after each successful payout

Consequences of a Soft Breach:

• All open trades will be immediately closed

• Trading can resume immediately after the breach

• 1 Soft Breach will be added to your Soft Breach counter in your dashboard

• The dashboard will display:

  • The time of the breach

  • The event that triggered it

Action Required

Some restricted events may be allowed only if you can provide valid evidence explaining why the event occurred.

When Action Required is triggered:

• A ticket will be created in your dashboard

• You will have 48 hours to respond with the requested evidence

• If evidence is not provided within 48 hours, the ticket automatically converts into a Hard Breach, and the account will be breached

Consequences of Action Required:

• No trades will be closed

• All trading privileges remain enabled

• A ticket will be created in your dashboard requesting evidence

• You will have 48 hours to respond with the required documentation or explanation

If evidence is not provided within 48 hours:

• The Action Required will automatically convert into a Hard Breach

• All open trades will be closed

• Trading privileges will be disabled

• The account will be moved to a Breached state and closed

Calculations & Key Metrics

This section explains how Nostro calculates the key metrics used across the platform. Understanding these calculations will help you manage risk correctly and avoid unintentional breaches.

All calculations are performed automatically by the system and are visible within your dashboard.

Daily Drawdown

Daily drawdown is calculated using your End of Day equity from the previous trading day, measured at market rollover.

• Your daily drawdown limit is recalculated every 24 hours

• The allowed daily drawdown amount is deducted from your previous day’s End of Day equity

• This creates a new daily drawdown limit for the next trading day

On a fresh account, daily drawdown is calculated from your starting balance.

Your daily drawdown:

• Can be clearly seen on the Daily Drawdown card in your dashboard

• Is also displayed visually via the drawdown progress graph

Daily drawdown is monitored continuously throughout the trading day.

Maximum Drawdown

Maximum drawdown is a fixed, static calculation taken from your starting balance.

• Your maximum drawdown allowance is calculated by applying the max drawdown percentage to your starting balance

• This value does not change, regardless of profits or losses

As your account moves into profit:

• Your equity moves further away from the fixed max drawdown level

• This places you in a stronger position to continue trading successfully

Maximum drawdown acts as the absolute loss limit for the account.

Profit Target

Profit targets apply only to evaluation phases.

• Funded accounts do not have a profit target

• In the funded stage, you are free to withdraw any profit you generate, subject to payout rules

For evaluation phases:

• Profit targets are calculated using your starting balance

• The target is a static value that does not change

The profit target is calculated by:

• Taking the profit target percentage

• Applying it to your starting balance

• Creating a fixed profit amount that must be reached to pass the phase

Balance

Your balance is taken directly from the trading platform.

It represents:

• The result of closed trades only

• Your account value excluding any open trades or floating profit/loss

Balance updates only when trades are closed.

Equity

Your equity is your balance including any floating profit or loss from open trades.

• If you have open trades in profit, equity will be higher than balance

• If you have open trades in drawdown, equity will be lower than balance

Equity is the value used for:

1. Drawdown calculations

2. Risk monitoring

3. Real-time account protection

Important Notes

• All calculations are performed automatically by the system and tracked continuously.

• Dashboard values should be treated as a reference, not a real-time execution feed.

• Your Nostro dashboard updates periodically and should not be relied upon as the sole source of truth for the live position of your account.

• Real-time account information comes directly from the trading platform (for example, MT5), and this is where your account should be closely monitored while trading.

• Nostro communicates with the trading platform via APIs, which may experience latency or update delays. As a result, there may be a short delay between activity on the trading platform and what is displayed in your Nostro dashboard.

• It is your responsibility to manage trades based on real-time data available within the trading platform itself.

Attempting to exploit dashboard latency or system delays may result in enforcement action under other platform rules.

1. Risk Management

Rule 1.1 – Maximum Risk Per Symbol (2% Rule)

To promote responsible and sustainable trading, Nostro enforces a strict maximum risk limit of 2% per symbol.

Rule
You must not risk more than 2% of your initial account balance on any single symbol at any time.

This rule applies to:

• Individual trades, and

• Multiple trades on the same symbol, where the risk is aggregated

What This Means in Practice

A breach will be triggered if:

• The potential loss on one or more trades for the same symbol exceeds 2% of your account balance, or

• Your open or realised losses cause you to go into more than 2% drawdown on a single symbol, or

• You place any trade without a stop loss

Risk is assessed based on:

• Entry price

• Stop loss price

• Position size

• Total exposure across the same symbol

Example
Account size: $10,000
Maximum allowable risk per symbol: $200

• Trade 1 on EURUSD risks $120

• Trade 2 on EURUSD risks $100

Total EURUSD risk = $220 (2.2%) → Breach

Even though each trade individually may appear acceptable, the combined risk on the symbol exceeds 2%, which is not allowed.

Consequences

Breaching the 2% risk rule results in a Soft Breach.

As outlined in the Breach Types section:

• All open trades will be closed immediately

• Trading may resume straight away

• A Soft Breach will be recorded in your dashboard with the time and event that triggered it

• Repeated soft breaches may escalate to a Hard Breach, depending on your account stage

Purpose of This Rule
This rule exists to:

• Prevent overexposure to a single market

• Encourage disciplined position sizing

• Reduce one-sided or “all-in” trading behaviour

• Protect both traders and the integrity of the platform

Consistent traders manage risk first — profits come second.

Rule 1.2 – Consistency Score

The Consistency Score is a core component of Nostro’s risk framework and replaces the need for multiple subjective rules around “gambling”, “lucky trades”, or strategy restrictions.

At Nostro, we recognise that traders use many different strategies, each with its own characteristics. Rather than limiting how you trade, we use the Consistency Score to ensure that your performance is well-managed, repeatable, and not a risk to the platform.

The Consistency Score is used to:

• Determine whether you can progress through evaluation phases

• Determine how much of your profit you take home in the funded stage

How the Consistency Score Is Calculated
The Consistency Score measures how evenly your profits are distributed across trading days, rather than coming from a single large day.

Formula:
Consistency Score (%) = (1 − (Highest Profit or Loss Day ÷ Absolute Sum of All Trading Days)) × 100

Where:

• Highest Profit or Loss Day = the single trading day with the largest absolute profit or loss

• Absolute Sum of All Trading Days = the sum of the absolute values of each day’s profit or loss

Example Calculation

• Highest single-day profit: $400

• Absolute sum of all trading days: $1,000

Consistency Score = (1 − (400 ÷ 1000)) × 100 = 60%

This means 40% of the performance came from a single day, and the remaining 60% was distributed across other days.

Interpreting the Score

• 0% – All profit came from one trading day (very high risk)

• 50% – Half of the performance came from one day

• 80% – Profits are well distributed across multiple days

• 100% – Perfectly even distribution (rare in practice)

Consistency Score During Evaluation
The Consistency Score is a core part of the evaluation process and is determined by the specific challenge you choose.

Meeting the required Consistency Score is a mandatory condition to:

• Progress through evaluation phases

• Move to the funded stage

• Continue participation within the evaluation framework

Each challenge defines its own Consistency Score requirements. These requirements must be met in order to advance.

If the required Consistency Score for your selected challenge is not achieved, you will not be able to progress to the next phase or move to the funded stage until the requirement is satisfied.

Consistency Score During the Funded Stage

Once funded, your Consistency Score directly determines your profit share.

Your payout percentage is equal to your Consistency Score.

Example:

• 80% Consistency Score → You receive 80% of your payout

• 65% Consistency Score → You receive 65% of your payout

Consistency Score Reset

• Your Consistency Score resets after each payout

• Each payout cycle is a fresh opportunity to improve your consistency and maximise your profit share

Rule 1.3 – Maximum Account Allocation

Each client is permitted to have a maximum total active allocation of $100,000 USD across all Nostro accounts combined, regardless of the number of accounts, account size, or account phase.

This rule exists to prevent:

• Excessive capital exposure

• Platform manipulation

• Risk circumvention through account structuring

• Unmanageable multi-account trading behaviour

Strategy Separation Requirement
Each of your active accounts must be traded using a fully independent strategy.

Strategies must not be:

• Copied across accounts

• Slight variations of the same strategy

• Synchronized or mirrored in execution

This applies across all active accounts, including evaluation and funded stages.

The intent of this rule is to ensure fair usage of the platform. We believe no serious trader can manually trade more than three accounts at a high level while maintaining proper risk control, discipline, and execution quality.

Consequences of Exceeding the Maximum Allocation

If you purchase an additional account that causes your total active allocation across all Nostro accounts to exceed $100,000 USD, the following will occur automatically:

• The oldest active account will be closed by the system

• The closed account will receive a Hard Breach for exceeding the maximum account allocation

• All open trades on that account will be immediately closed

• If the account was funded, any profits on that account will be forfeited and deemed null and void

• The account will be permanently closed, regardless of phase, balance, performance, or payout eligibility

Important Notes

• The system will not block the purchase of an account that causes your total allocation to exceed $100,000

• Purchasing an account that takes your total allocation over $100,000 is treated as an explicit instruction to close your oldest active account

• This action is automatic, irreversible, and cannot be appealed

• Once the purchase is completed, the account closure cannot be undone

If you do not wish to close your oldest active account, you must ensure that your total active allocation remains within the $100,000 USD limit before purchasing another challenge.

Rule 1.4 – News Trading Rule

Overview

To ensure fair trading conditions and to protect both traders and the firm from extreme market volatility, specific restrictions apply around high-impact economic news releases.

High-impact news events can cause sudden price spikes, spread widening, slippage, and execution irregularities. As a result, trading activity during these periods is strictly regulated on funded stage. Users can trade high news on evaluation phases.

Restricted Trading Window

Traders are not permitted to open, close, or modify any trades, on Funded stage, within the following time window:

• 2 minutes before a high-impact news release

• 2 minutes after a high-impact news release

This restriction applies to all instruments affected by the news event and includes all trade actions such as partial closes, stop-loss or take-profit adjustments, and order modifications.

consequences

Any violation of this rule will trigger an account investigation. Nostro reserves the right to take one or more of the following actions:

• Removal of profits generated from the violating trade(s)

• Account breach or failure

• Account termination

All enforcement decisions are final and made at the Nostro’s sole discretion.

Rule 1.5 – Inactivity

Any account that does not place a trade for 28 consecutive days will be considered inactive.

We recognise that some trading strategies require patience and waiting for the right market conditions. Responsible trading — including waiting for high-quality setups — is encouraged.

However, we believe that 28 days is a fair and reasonable timeframe for an account to remain inactive. In practice, inactivity often occurs when users abandon an account due to losses, drawdowns, or a decision to move on to a new account. To keep the platform fair, efficient, and operationally clean, inactive accounts must be enforced.

How Inactivity Is Measured

Inactivity is measured from:

• The close time of your last trade, to

• The open time of your next trade

If a full 28-day period elapses without any trading activity, the account will be flagged as inactive.

Consequences of Inactivity

Inactivity is treated as a Hard Breach.

When an inactivity breach occurs:

• The account will be marked as breached

• All trading privileges will be disabled

• The breach will be recorded in your breach counter as Rule 1.4 – Inactivity

• The account will be permanently closed

Important Notes

• The inactivity rule applies to all account types and phases, including evaluation and funded accounts

• Placing minimal or token trades solely to avoid inactivity may still be reviewed under other platform rules

If you intend to keep an account active, you must ensure trading activity occurs within the 28-day window.

4. Restricted Trading Strategies

2.1 Expert Advisor (EA) Usage

Expert Advisors (EAs) are permitted on the Nostro platform only if the EA is your own work.

EAs that are:

• Purchased from marketplaces

• Bought online

• Publicly available

• Rented, leased, or licensed from third parties

are not permitted.

This rule exists to ensure the platform is made up of skilled, independent traders using their own strategies, rather than mass-market automated systems.

If you choose to code your strategy into an automated system, we encourage this as long as the strategy is entirely your own and complies with all platform rules.

EA Detection & Verification

If any trade is detected as being placed by an EA:

• An Action Required will be triggered

• You will receive an email and dashboard ticket requesting verification

You will be required to provide evidence that:

• The EA was developed by you

• You own the rights to the code

• The EA represents your own trading strategy

Copy Trading & Copier EAs

Evaluation Stage

Copy trading is permitted during evaluation.

We recognise that some users may operate multiple evaluation accounts and choose to copy trades from a single source account while attempting to pass challenges.

If a copier is used, you must still be able to:

• Prove ownership of the source account

• Provide a trading statement for the source account in your name

• Demonstrate that you own the rights to the original trades

Funded Stage
Once an account is funded, copy trading is strictly prohibited.

This includes:

• Copying trades from another one of your own accounts

• Copying trades from third-party signal services

• Using copier EAs or trade mirroring software

Funded accounts are expected to be treated as a priority account, traded directly by you, and not used as a feeder or receiver of copied trades.

Any copy trading activity detected in the funded stage will be treated as a rule breach and may result in account termination.

Compliance With Platform Rules

Even if an EA is approved:

• It must comply with all Nostro rules

• It must not bypass risk limits, stop-loss requirements, drawdown rules, or any other platform restrictions

An approved EA is not exempt from rule enforcement.

Enforcement & Discretion
Nostro management reserves the right to:

• Request additional verification at any time

• Approve or reject any EA at its sole discretion

• Remove EA permissions if an EA is deemed harmful to the trader or the platform

If requested evidence is not provided within 48 hours, the Action Required will convert into a Hard Breach, and the account will be closed.

2.2 Copy Trading

Copy trading is strictly prohibited across all Nostro accounts, except evaluation— provided that you are copying trades from one of your own live, real-money trading accounts and can prove full ownership of both the account and the trades.

Copy trading from any other prop firm account, evaluation account, or third-party source is not permitted.

This rule exists to ensure that all trading activity reflects individual skill, decision-making, and responsibility, and to prevent coordinated or artificial trading behaviour.

Permitted Copy Trading (Exception)
Copy trading is only permitted if all of the following conditions are met:

• The source account is a live, real-money account (not a prop firm account)

• The source account is owned and controlled by you

• You can provide proof of ownership, trading statements in your name, and evidence that the copied trades originate from your own strategy

If ownership or control cannot be proven, the activity will be treated as prohibited copy trading.

Prohibited Copy Trading Activities

Third-Party Account Management
Trading accounts must be self-managed at all times.

The use of:

• Account management services

• PAMM or MAM arrangements

• Allowing any other person to trade on your account

  is strictly prohibited.

Copy Trading from External Sources
Copying trades from any external source is prohibited, including but not limited to:

• Signal services

• Social trading platforms

• Trade-copying software or services

• Other traders’ accounts not owned by you

Group Trading & Collusion
Coordinated trading between multiple individuals is prohibited.

This includes:

• Sharing trade ideas or execution details in real time

• Coordinating entries or exits across different users’ accounts

• Attempting to exploit firm capital through collective behaviour

Hedging Across Accounts
Opening opposing positions on the same instrument across multiple accounts is prohibited.

This includes:

• Intentionally profiting on one account while sacrificing another

• Using multiple accounts to eliminate market risk artificially

Enforcement
Nostro uses advanced risk management software alongside a shared, anonymised trade-data network with other proprietary trading firms to detect copy trading, group trading, and coordinated behaviour.

Any breach of the copy trading rules will result in an automatic Hard Breach, and the affected account will be immediately closed. Depending on severity and intent, this may also result in a full platform ban.

All trades must be your own, based on your own strategies, and executed independently by you.

2.3 Banned Trading Strategies

The following trading strategies are strictly prohibited on the Nostro platform.

These strategies exploit market structure, pricing latency, or platform infrastructure rather than demonstrating genuine trading skill.

Any use of the strategies listed below will result in an immediate Hard Breach.

• Latency Arbitrage

• Tick Scalping

• High-Frequency Trading (HFT)

• Server Spamming

• Hedging / Arbitrage

• Opposite Account Trading

• Toxic Flow

• Gap Trading

Enforcement
Use of any banned trading strategy will result in:

• An immediate Hard Breach

• All open trades being closed

• Trading privileges being disabled

• The account being permanently closed

• Possible platform-wide ban depending on severity

3. Payouts

3.1 The 14-Day Payout Cycle

At Nostro, we are committed to helping traders maximise their long-term profitability. One of the most powerful advantages available to prop traders is compounding.

Nostro operates a 14-day payout cycle, providing a clear, predictable structure for withdrawals while enabling traders to compound their returns if they choose.

What Is the 14-Day Payout Cycle?

• You are eligible to request a payout every 14 days

• Your payout date is fixed and displayed in your dashboard

• If you do not submit a payout request on your payout date, your profits automatically roll over

• A new 14-day cycle begins immediately

Where to Find Your Payout Date
Your dashboard displays:

• Your exact payout date

• Days remaining in the cycle

• Minimum trading days progress

• Payout eligibility

Auto-Rollover & Compounding
If no payout is requested:

• Profits roll over

• Balance increases

• A new cycle begins

Minimum Trading Days Requirement
Each payout cycle requires a minimum of 5 active trading days within the 14-day window.

Important: Requesting Your Payout
Ensure you request on your assigned payout date. Once missed, the cycle resets automatically.

Example Timeline
Day 0: Funded
Day 14: Payout eligibility

Frequently Asked Questions

• Missing payout date: profits roll over

• Early payouts: not allowed

• Auto-rollover cost: free

• Partial payouts: reset the cycle

Summary
The 14-day payout cycle is designed to provide predictable withdrawals, encourage discipline, enable compounding, and keep the platform fair.