Dual Step gives you $4,000 today and $8,000 in total
Dual Step and Nexus use a 4% day and a static 8% maximum, reset from the higher of day-start balance or equity at 00:00 ThinkMarkets server time, GMT+2 or GMT+3. On $100,000 that is $4,000 and $8,000. FTMO's 2-step is $5,000 and a static $10,000, reset at 00:00 CE(S)T from day-start balance plus floating PnL. A 0.50% idea is $500. Dual Step holds eight of them. FTMO holds ten. Equity at $92,000 ends ThinkCapital. Equity at $92,000 is still $2,000 inside the FTMO floor.
Because ThinkCapital takes the higher of balance or equity, a $2,200 open winner held through midnight can lift the next day. FTMO includes the float in a different formula and does not automatically adopt the higher mark as the new balance. Partial the ThinkCapital runner. The $141 you saved on the fee does not replace that $2,200 if Monday gives it back.
Lightning dies on three 1% losses
Lightning is the 1-step: a 3% day and a 6% end-of-day trailing maximum. Three consecutive losses of 1%, or $1,000 each, are $3,000 and the day is over. The lifetime trail is only $6,000, so a second bad day after a winner may already be living inside a smaller hole. FTMO's 1-step is also a 3% day, and its maximum is a 10% end-of-day trail, $10,000 of lifetime room against Lightning's $6,000. Same daily headline. Different obituary.
Dual Step Phase 1 is 8% and Phase 2 is 5%, so $8,000 then $5,000, with three minimum days and no best-day cap. Lightning carries a best-day cap. FTMO's 2-step is $10,000 then $5,000 with four minimum days and no hard cap. The split at ThinkCapital runs from 80% to 90%, bi-weekly or on a 7-day add-on. FTMO pays 80% to 90% starting 14 days after the first funded trade. Open a Venasri account and refuse to let Lightning and Dual Step share a lot size.
The EA is a Dual Step tool, not a Lightning default
Expert Advisors are allowed on MT5 Dual Step and Nexus when the add-on or the rules say so, inside 2,000 messages a day. They are prohibited on Lightning unless you bought the add-on. ThinkTrader, with TradingView built in, is the other platform. FTMO allows EAs on MT5, MT4, cTrader, and DXtrade inside 2,000 requests, without a separate Lightning-style ban on the 1-step.
Evaluation news is allowed. Funded accounts pick up a two-minute window, close to FTMO Standard. Overnight holding is allowed. Weekend holding on a funded ThinkCapital account needs the swing add-on. Bot controls should be enabled only on the Dual Step or Nexus login you paid to automate. A Lightning account without the add-on should reject the same EA at the door.
Flatten Dual Step near $3,250 and Lightning near $2,400
Equity Guard on Dual Step should flatten near $3,250 of the $4,000 day. Lightning should flatten near $2,400 of the $3,000 day, and you should stop the session after two $1,000 losses so the third one is not the exam. FTMO's 2-step flatten stays near $4,250. Copying that number onto Dual Step means the firm has already closed the account when your alert fires.
Eight $500 losses are the Dual Step day. They are also the entire distance from $100,000 to the $92,000 maximum if they are not offset by wins, because the maximum is only $8,000. You cannot have a bad week and a bad day in the same evaluation and expect the static floor to forgive both. FTMO's extra $2,000 of lifetime room is the actual product difference, and it costs $141.
