Trading Policy

Forbidden Trading Practices

Our model works because traders profit from real skill and real risk. A small number of strategies attempt to game that model — this is the full list of what we don't allow, and why.

At PNL we believe that as long as your trading is legitimate — in line with proper risk management, based on real market conditions, and does not resemble the practices described below — we have no reason to limit or restrict your strategy. We welcome manual traders, algorithmic traders, swing traders, scalpers, and systematic traders alike.

However, because we operate a simulated-trading environment that mirrors the real market and we pay out real capital on behalf of a regulated broker, certain strategies expose us (and ultimately our entire trader community) to unacceptable risk. These strategies are not about skill — they're about exploiting a specific setup at the firm's expense.

The following list describes the practices we consider forbidden. If any of your trades resemble these patterns — whether you intended it or not — your account may be reviewed, restricted, or closed without payout.

The List

Every forbidden practice, explained plainly.

01

Group Hedging & Opposing Positions

Opening opposing positions on the same, correlated, or inversely correlated instruments — whether on a single account, across multiple PNL accounts, or across accounts held with other prop firms that share liquidity providers — is strictly forbidden. This includes splitting a single trade idea across accounts to artificially distribute profit and risk, and any attempt to create a risk-free profit scenario at the firm's expense.

Why it's forbidden: This pattern is not a trading strategy — it's arbitrage against our funding structure. One account wins, the other loses, and the trader walks away with a guaranteed payout while the firm absorbs the full loss.

02

Tick Scalping & Ultra-High Frequency Trading

Strategies that rely on hundreds of near-simultaneous trades with millisecond holding times, exploiting tick-level price variations rather than taking positional risk, are forbidden. This includes approaches that rely on sub-second execution advantages, order-book manipulation, or patterns that would be impossible to replicate on a retail execution feed.

Note: Normal scalping with holds of seconds to minutes is fine. What we're flagging here is HFT-style tick exploitation — dozens to hundreds of orders per minute designed to extract fractional pips from pricing noise.

03

Latency & Reverse Arbitrage

Latency arbitrage — exploiting the small time delay between our simulated price feed and a faster external data source — is forbidden. So is reverse arbitrage, where a trader exploits a slower feed by front-running an expected price move. These strategies are not based on market view or timing skill; they're based on a technical asymmetry between two data feeds.

Why it's forbidden: Latency arbitrage is a technology contest, not a trading one. It's also not replicable on a real brokerage feed, so funding it would never produce a viable live trader.

04

Copy Trading & Coordinated Group Trading

Copy trading — whether via commercial copy-trading services, signal groups, or informal coordination — is not allowed across PNL accounts or between a PNL account and any other funded account you control. Coordinated group trading (multiple traders taking the same trade at the same time across accounts they collectively control) falls under the same prohibition.

Note: You are free to trade your own strategy on multiple PNL accounts you own. What is not allowed is having one person (or one signal) drive decisions on accounts belonging to multiple registered traders, or using account resets as a form of "unlimited attempts" via copy-trading.

05

Use of Non-Public or Insider Information

Trading on non-public information — including leaked economic data, pre-release central bank decisions, or market-moving news not yet disseminated to the public — is a violation of both our terms and applicable securities law. We cooperate fully with regulators and liquidity providers on any such incident.

Why it's forbidden: Obvious.

06

Exploiting Pricing Errors or Server Outages

Trades that exploit clearly erroneous prices (off-market quotes, feed glitches, weekend gap anomalies, or mid-outage execution opportunities) will be reversed. Knowingly trading on a price you understood to be erroneous — even if our system accepted the order — is considered an attempt to extract profit from a system failure rather than the market itself.

Note: Good-faith trades placed during normal price movement (including news spikes) are not affected by this rule — only trades that correspond to a verifiable feed error or system outage.

07

Account Sharing, Identity Misuse, and Third-Party Management

Every PNL account must be operated by the individual who registered it. Allowing a third party to trade your account, selling account access, or registering accounts under another person's identity are all forbidden. This includes professional account-management services, challenge-passing services, and any arrangement in which the profits of "your" account belong to someone else.

Why it's forbidden: We fund traders. We don't fund middlemen, shell accounts, or identity passthroughs — that's fraud, and we treat it as such.

08

Strategies Not Replicable on a Live Brokerage

Any strategy that only works because it is executed against a simulated feed — and would not survive on a regulated live broker with real slippage, real spreads, and real liquidity constraints — is not something we will fund. Our entire model depends on traders eventually transitioning to live capital with a regulated broker.

Why it's forbidden: If a strategy's edge disappears the moment it meets a real market, the edge wasn't real. We don't pay out on artifacts of the simulation.

How We Handle Violations

Transparent, proportionate, and reviewable.

Detection

All PNL accounts are monitored for patterns that match the forbidden practices listed above. This includes trade timing analysis across accounts, position-correlation checks, and periodic review of accounts that pass challenges or approach payout thresholds. Reviews are triggered by patterns, not by profit size — profitable traders are not targeted for being profitable.

Review

When a potential violation is flagged, your account is paused pending a trade-by-trade review by our risk team. You will be notified by email within 24 hours of a review being opened, and you may submit additional context (trading journals, strategy documentation, execution logs) to help the review.

Outcomes

Depending on the severity and whether the pattern appears intentional or incidental, outcomes range from:

  • No action — the flag was a false positive and the account resumes normally.
  • Warning — the pattern is borderline; the account resumes with guidance on what to avoid.
  • Trade reversal — specific exploit-derived trades are voided and the account balance is adjusted.
  • Account closure without payout — for clear, willful violations or repeated warnings.
  • Permanent ban & regulator notification — for identity fraud, insider trading, or other unlawful conduct.

Appeal

Any decision can be appealed within 14 days by replying to the review email. Appeals are handled by a different senior reviewer than the original decision. If you believe a decision was incorrect after the appeal, our support team can escalate further.

The Principle, in One Sentence

If you're trading the way you would trade your own money, in a way that would work on a real broker feed, under reasonable risk management — you have nothing on this page to worry about.

This policy is intentionally open-ended. We reserve the right to add to this list if new exploit patterns emerge. Any additions will be announced at least 30 days before enforcement begins, and existing trades will not be retroactively penalized.

Questions About a Specific Strategy?

We'd rather answer upfront than review after the fact. If you're not sure whether something is allowed, ask us.

Contact Risk Team See FAQ