0.25 lots is the budget and 0.30 lots is a raise
Daily loss is a fixed 5% of the initial $10,000, which is $500, reset at 17:00 New York. The static maximum is $1,000, so equity at $9,000 ends the challenge. Half a percent is $50. At $10 per pip on 1.00 lot, 0.25 lots with a 20-pip stop cost $50. Gold at $10 per 0.10 move needs 0.10 lots on a 50-pip stop for that same $50.
A nudge to 0.30 lots on the 20-pip FX stop is $60. Eight full losses would be $480, still inside the day on paper, and the ninth widened fill is the breach. Stay on $50. Bot controls can reject the order when computed cash risk is above $50, which is a better brake than remembering the lot during the London open.
Phase 1 is $800 and Phase 2 is one full day
Phase 1 is 8%, or $800. Phase 2 is 5%, or $500, the same figure as the daily loss. Three minimum trading days still apply. At 1R the $50 unit returns about $50, so the Phase 1 target is on the order of sixteen net winners. Spending the $500 day twice would also equal $1,000, and it would also equal the entire maximum. That path passes nothing.
The $499 fee quoted on the $100,000 challenge is not this account's problem, and neither is a $5,000 mental model of the day. Register with Venasri and write $500 on the same line as the balance. Classic 2-Step has no consistency score, so a $300 green day is legal. A $500 red day is the end of the session and half of the account's life.
A position held through 17:00 spends the next allowance
The reset is 17:00 New York, server midnight on MT5. A trade opened at 16:50 that is still losing at 17:10 is a new-day loss. Because the challenge allowance is a fixed slice of the initial balance, a floating winner does not expand the $500. It also does not give you permission to hold a full-size runner into the snapshot and hope the next day inherits nothing.
Weekend holding is allowed. A 40-pip Sunday gap on 0.10 lots of gold is about $40, small alone and serious if Friday already used most of the day. High-impact news blocks new opens and closes for two minutes on either side, and a slipped stop still debits $500. Tight spreads on the OANDA book are a cost advantage, not a gap guarantee.
The flatten belongs at $425
Equity Guard on this challenge should cut the book near $425 of daily loss, 4.25% of $10,000, with $75 left before the official $500. Do not import a $4,250 figure from a $100,000 article. The guard will sit idle while this account is already finished. After funding, replace the static $9,000 floor with the end-of-day 10% trail.
A funded close that lifts the balance also lifts the trail. The $10,000 challenge math and the Signal Provider math are different jobs. Keep the $50 unit until the balance actually changes, then rebuild it as 0.50% of the new starting figure. The quarter-lot that was correct here is not a personality. It is arithmetic.
