A real signal is allowed and a tick loop is not
MT5 Expert Advisors are permitted when they represent genuine signal logic. Tick-arbitrage is the named exclusion. In practice that means an advisor that waits for a setup, sends an order, and leaves it, rather than one that probes and cancels in a tight loop looking for stale prices. The platform list is MT5 only. An advisor you rely on at another firm, on another platform, is not automatically a plan here.
The challenge day on $100,000 is a fixed $5,000. A bot that risks $500 a trade can be inside the spirit of the rule and still end the account if it takes ten full losses. Bot controls should cap cash risk per idea and should refuse a second entry that is the same idea fired again because the first tick did not fill at the dream price.
Institutional modification limits do not publish a friendly number
The firm points at OANDA's institutional order modification limits rather than a round daily packet count you can tape to the monitor. That is harder to game and easier to violate by accident. A trail that changes the stop several times a second through the New York open looks like the behavior the rule is for, even when the strategy note says trailing stop. Space the changes. A breakeven move and a few partials are a different footprint from a stream.
Because the limit is institutional rather than a posted 2,000, do not import another firm's request budget and assume you are safe under it. Create a Venasri login and treat every modification as something you meant, not as exhaust from a loop. If you cannot explain the last ten changes, the bot is too busy for this book.
Automation does not get a larger day after a winning morning
Challenge daily loss is 5% of the initial balance. Profit does not expand it. An advisor tuned on a personal account, where a $3,000 morning means you can risk more in the afternoon, will overspend an OANDA Prop Trader challenge. The afternoon still has whatever is left of the original $5,000. On a $500,000 challenge the day is $25,000, and an advisor hardcoded to a $5,000 flatten will sit idle while that book is already in trouble, or the reverse if you point a large-account lot at $100,000.
The maximum stays static at 10% until you are a funded Signal Provider, when it trails. An advisor that assumes the floor rises during the challenge is wrong. An advisor that assumes the floor never rises after you are funded is also wrong. The promotion is a settings change, not a trophy.
Put the flatten outside the bot's opinion
Equity Guard should flatten a $100,000 challenge near $4,250 even if the advisor still likes the trade. The guard is the account rule. The advisor is the entry opinion. Mixing them, so the bot can veto its own flatten, is how a signal becomes a hold through the fixed day. News adds a separate constraint: do not send new opens or closes in the two minutes before a high-impact print or the two minutes after it. Arm the flatten before that band.
Weekend and overnight holding are allowed, so an advisor may carry a position through 17:00 New York. That reset is the daily boundary. A carry that is legal can still gap for more than the remaining allowance. Size the stop before the session ends. The bi-weekly payout, at 80% up to 90%, is not a reason to let the bot run hotter on Thursday because the treasury cycle feels close.
