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Mr.Lark

On today’s menu:

• Why are firms introducing new rules? ❌ 

• Will The Funded Trader be back? 🤔 

❌ Why Firms Keep Introducing New Rules

The tightening of rules across the industry has begun.

Like when somebody turns 18, traders are realizing that things are only going to get more difficult from here.

There’s been rumblings online of firms introducing new rules (or making unknown rules clearer), and traders are beginning to pay attention.

This is what we know:

1. 2% rule on Funded Peaks

2. 2 minute rule on Alpha Capital Group

3. MyFundedFX news restrictions

Let’s break these down and explain what they mean for traders.

1/ Funded Peaks > 2% Rule

Funded Peaks, a newer firm, has a 2% max risk rule per trade idea.

This means traders:

• Can’t risk more than 2% per trade idea.

• They are not limited to risking more than 2% on their account.

This is interesting because it lowers the firm’s risk/exposure, but not that much.

You see, at Lark, we’ve considered implementing a max % risk rule, but it would be a flat percentage across the board.

It would not be a per-trade idea rule.

And that’s because:

• If a trader wants to execute five different trade ideas, all at 2% risk, they’re still massively exposed.

• No professional trader would expose themselves to risk above 2%.

And we’re working towards Lark Traders doing the same. We only want to work with risk-managed traders.

So this rule is directionally correct, but we would even take it a step further.

Alpha Capital Group > 2 Minute Rule

Traders at Alpha Capital now need to hold their trades for at least 2 minutes.

From the Lark Perspective, this is to:

• Limit high-frequency trading.

• Reduce traders trying to find demo feed latencies.

• Prevent scalping news events.

At Lark, we don’t have a rule like this.

But I can see how it could make sense for some firms.

Unless you’re a scalper, this one really doesn’t impact you.

3/ MyFundedFX > News Restrictions

This one made a lot of noise as MyFundedFX is one of the largest firms in the industry.

What’s the new rule?

• As stated on their website, “Any trade opened or closed 3 minutes before or after a Red Label/High Risk news release will result in the removal of any profits made on all applicable trades in violation.”

• A violation is considered a soft breach, and traders won’t lose their account.

• It only applies to Simulated Funded Accounts and not challenge accounts.

What’s the reaction been to this?

Not great…

Again, here’s the Lark Perspective:

• Limits gamblers. This rule stops traders from going full margin on their accounts right before a big news event. This is good.

• Forced professional approach. Do professional traders who are funding a personal account take on large positions right before a news event? Not likely. Now, funded traders can’t either.

• Annoying but not deadly. FTMO had a similar rule when I was trading with them back in 2021. Ensuring you didn’t break the rule was annoying, but it only took a few extra minutes. It’s definitely not a dealbreaker.

👀 Will The Funded Trader Return?

We’re now only two days out from April 18th, the original date that TFT said they would be returning.

But since they ceased operations several weeks ago, we’ve received next to zero updates on their situation.

Here’s what we know:

• They haven’t posted on social media since April 5th.

• Many traders, if not most, are still waiting for refunds and payouts to be processed.

• There have been no details on what a potential “relaunch” will look like.

• The CEO, Angelo, updated his LinkedIn and Instagram bio to no longer include “CEO of TFT.”

Considering TFT was one of the biggest firms in the industry, this story is still far from over, and we’ll be keeping a very close eye on how things unfold.

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