One bad day is the whole target, in reverse
Daily loss is 5%, $250, reset at 00:00 server time on live equity. The stage maximum is 10%, $500. Phase 1 in these rules is also 5%, another $250, and a second stage asks for $250 again. You also need about 20 trading days. Spread evenly, the first target is $12.50 a day, which is half of one $25 winner. There is no reason to risk the $250 line in a single afternoon to "get the month started."
The first print of the $500 hole pauses allocation for 2 weeks. On a book this small that pause is the whole project. Sign up on Venasri and label the card $5,000 so a $100,000 lot habit cannot load by default.
A $25 stop is a micro gold position
At $10 per 0.10 move, 0.05 lots of gold with a 50-pip stop risks $25. A 0.10 lot, which still looks tiny, risks $50 and is 1%. On FX, a 20-pip stop at 0.12 lots is about $24. The platform may not offer 0.125 lots, so round down, not up. Two rounded-up FX tickets are how a $25 plan becomes a $40 plan and eight losses become the day.
The Edge Score still applies. An outlier on a $5,000 book is a very small dollar number, and it can freeze the multiplier for a month anyway. Bot controls should cap cash at $25 and should refuse a second entry within five minutes of a loss. Expert Advisors are allowed on MT4 and MT5. A recovery double is not a feature you can afford when the day is $250.
Twenty days on a $250 goal is a patience test
Ten undefeated 1R winners at $25 equal the $250 target. You will not be undefeated, so the practical path is a few winners a week inside the 20-day minimum. Settlement of multiplier profit, up to 90%, waits for the 1st. Profit on your own deposit, which may be the entire $5,000 if no multiplier has attached yet, stays at 100%. The entry fee is $0. None of that pays a trader who spends $250 on day two.
There is no news blackout. A CPI slip on 0.05 lots is small in dollars and huge as a percentage if the stop doubles from 50 pips to 100, because that is $50, a fifth of the day. Weekend holding is permitted. A 40-pip gap on 0.05 lots is about $20. Skip the hold if you are already down $200.
Flatten near $212 and leave the last $38
Equity Guard should flatten near $212, 4.25% of $5,000. The official line is $250. The $38 gap is the slip on a micro gold ticket, and it is the entire margin of error. A guard imported from a $100,000 article, set at $4,250, will never fire. This account will be closed while the guard waits for a loss it cannot see.
If open equity is up $150 into 00:00, decide whether Monday, or the next server day, should inherit that float. A full giveback is most of the next $250. The score band from 50 toward 90 still judges the size of the mistake, not the fact that $25 feels too small to matter.