Which strategies are not allowed (hedging, arbitrage, HFT, martingale)?

At OFP Funding, we want traders to showcase real, consistent skills. To keep evaluations fair, certain strategies that exploit the system instead of showing ability are strictly prohibited.

❌ Prohibited Strategies

The following are not allowed under any circumstances:

• Hedging / Straddling → opening opposite positions on the same asset, account or multiple accounts to eliminate risk.

• Arbitrage → exploiting price feed delays, external data sources, or latency differences.

• High-Frequency Trading (HFT) / AI Bots → using automated systems, mass-order entry, or latency-based scalping to create unfair advantage.

• Martingale / Grid Systems → massively increasing position sizes after losses to “recover” quickly.

• Trading around news events to exploit gaps (e.g., placing both buy/sell pending orders before announcements). 

  You must avoid trading from 2 minutes before until 2 minutes after the release of any high-risk volatility news. Stay informed by following our dashboard or on https://www.investing.com/economic-calendar/.

• Copy Trading / Account Mirroring → duplicating trades across multiple OFP accounts or copying signals to artificially boost performance.

• Third-Party Account Management → trading on behalf of someone else or allowing others to trade your account.

• Abnormal Risk Practices → using irregular or excessively large lot sizes inconsistent with account size and risk rules.

• One-sided betting → This rule limits the number of trades in the same direction to promote balanced risk management and fairness:

  • Maximum of 2 active trades in the same direction and asset/pair at any given time.

  • Trades on different days are exempt from the restriction.

  • If you close a trade, you may open another in the same direction after a pause of several minutes — for reference, this can be considered 30 minutes or more to allow for market variability.

  Examples:

  • Violation: Opening 3 BUY trades within 10 minutes while others are still active.

  • Allowed: Open 2 BUY trades, close one, wait 30 minutes, then open a new one.

  • Allowed: One SELL trade on Monday and another on Tuesday

• Exploiting Platform Errors → taking advantage of price display glitches, order execution issues, or technical delays.

• Gambling → Gambling in trading involves excessive risk-taking and poor risk management. It's characterized by:

  Using excessive leverage and risking a large portion of your account on a limited number of trades.

  Using over 3.5 times your most used lot size on a certain pair.

  Risking over 50% of your daily drawdown on running positions.

  Not presenting a clear trading strategy.

  Closing profitable trades quickly while letting losses run.

  Risk management: It is crucial to strictly adhere to the established risk management guidelines. If your losing positions significantly exceed your winning trades, it indicates a lack of consistency in risk control, which may lead to a denial of your payout or a formal warning. To ensure the integrity of your trading strategy, please make sure that your daily trading activities consistently align with the required risk management practices.

  Having losing trades that have a higher loss amount compared to most of your winning / profitable trades. Essentially, review all winning trades and determine their profit. Then, analyze the biggest losing trade and make a comparison of the risk. For example, you cannot risk 1% on a particular trade when most of your profitable trades are earning 0.8%.

  We consider these practices as gambling because they significantly increase the risk of large losses and account depletion. If we detect gambling, it may result in the denial of payout for the month or account closure.

⚠️ Consequences of Breaching

• Immediate closure of your account.

• Forfeiture of payouts or rewards.

• Possible ban from the platform for repeated or severe violations.

✅ What Is Allowed

You’re free to use legitimate trading styles such as:

• Swing trading

• Day trading

• Scalping (within normal execution limits)

• Trend following / reversal strategies

• Risk-managed discretionary trading

As long as your strategy reflects genuine trading skill and respects risk limits, it’s permitted.