The flagship asks for 5% and then asks for 0%
The flagship path lists a 5% first target and a 0% second target. On $100,000 the first number is $5,000 and the second number is $0 of additional profit. The second stage is not a second grind for another $5,000. It is continued time in the risk engine after the first target has printed. The published minimum is still 10 trading days.
A 0% target is easy to misunderstand as a free pass. The attributes keep scoring. A second stage with no profit hurdle can still lose seed if the lot becomes erratic or the giveback threatens the $10,000 reference. Profit was the first test. Stability is the second.
Pass odds sit in the behavior, not in a wider loss box
When two products share the loss percentages, the easier path is the one whose profit demand matches your sample. The flagship wants $5,000 and then no further profit target, across at least 10 days. At $500 risk, that first target is ten clean 1R winners, or fewer if some pay more than 1R, spread over the calendar so the 10 days exist.
Speeding it into two sessions fails the day count even if the dollars are there. Spreading $2,000 risk to finish in a week fails the spirit of Risk Stability and can fail the $3,250 day on the second loss. Bot controls that cap the unit at $500 make the 10-day path the default.
Use the same $2,500 flatten on either path
Equity Guard at 2.50% is $2,500 on $100,000. Because the official daily reference does not change between 1-step and flagship, the guard does not change either. A trader who sets a looser guard on the 1-step has invented a rule the firm did not publish.
The listed fee at this size is $38, so the cost of restarting your own discipline is trivial and the cost of a damaged D-Score is the seed you do not receive. Pick the path whose target you can explain in one sentence. Then trade it as if the loss box is shared, because it is.