The dollar cards are not interchangeable
Lightning daily loss is 3%. Dual Step daily loss is 4%. On $100,000 that is $3,000 versus $4,000. Lightning maximum loss is 6% and trails the end-of-day equity peak. Dual Step maximum loss is a static 8%, so $92,000 equity ends the account and a green week does not pull that number up. Nexus, the 3-step book, shares the static 8% maximum and the 4% day with Dual Step. It is not a third version of Lightning.
Dual Step Phase 1 is 8%, or $8,000, and Phase 2 is 5%, or $5,000, with three minimum trading days. The first target equals the static maximum in dollars. You are asked to make the same amount of money that would kill the account, and then to make another $5,000. Lightning skips the second phase and the best-day treatment is stricter: Lightning carries a best-day cap, and Dual Step does not.
Fewer phases is not the same thing as more room
A trader who wants one target often buys Lightning and then sizes as if the day were $4,000. Three losses of 1% are $3,000 and the evaluation is over, which is the entire Lightning day. The same three losses on Dual Step use $3,000 of a $4,000 day and leave $1,000, with an $8,000 static floor still $5,000 away if the account started the streak from the initial balance. The 2-step path asks for more profit. It also forgives a larger red day.
Automation follows the same split. An EA is allowed on MT5 Dual Step and Nexus with the add-on, and it is prohibited on Lightning unless that add-on is purchased. Both products share the 2,000 server-message day across MT5 and ThinkTrader. The message cap does not get larger because you chose the path with more loss room. Bot controls need the product name before they accept a lot.
News, weekends, and the trail survive the pass
News is allowed in the evaluation on either path. The funded stage restricts the two minutes before and after red-folder events. Overnight holding is allowed. A funded weekend hold needs the swing add-on. Wednesday triple swap and Sunday gaps count toward whichever daily percent you bought. None of that swaps a 3% day for a 4% day after you pass.
The split starts at 80% and can reach 90%, on a bi-weekly cycle or a 7-day cycle with the add-on. Those payout terms can sit on either product. The loss line underneath them cannot. A Lightning account that scaled its equity to a new end-of-day peak now trails 6% under that peak. A Dual Step account that did the same thing still dies at the original static floor until the firm actually changes the starting balance.
Choose the card, then set the flatten
Equity Guard on Dual Step belongs near $3,250 of daily loss on $100,000, inside the $4,000 day and well above the static floor only if you have already had one bad day. Lightning belongs near $2,250, inside the $3,000 day. Using the Dual Step flatten on Lightning means the firm ends the account while the guard is still $250 away from firing, because $2,500 would already be most of a $3,000 day and $3,250 is past it.
Open a Venasri account and write Lightning or Dual Step into the profile before the first order. The published Dual Step fee at $100,000 is $399, which makes it easy to add a second product later. When you do, give it a new risk card. The 0.50% unit that is $500 on both balances still fits a different number of times inside a $3,000 day than inside a $4,000 day.
