A funded account is a demo with a rulebook. Pass the evaluation and the firm pays you a share of what the same rules let you keep. Signals fit this well, because a signal already has the two numbers the rulebook cares about: where the trade starts and where it stops. The work is making your sizing fit the rulebook, and reading the rulebook before you assume anything.
Read these rules before you trade a single signal
Every firm publishes them. Read the specific firm's page, not a summary, because the details decide your sizing.
- Daily loss limit. Commonly 4% to 5% of the starting balance, sometimes measured on equity (open trades count) and sometimes on closed balance. Which one changes everything below.
- Maximum overall loss. Commonly 8% to 12%. Some firms measure it from the starting balance (static), some from the highest balance reached (trailing). Trailing is harsher once you are in profit.
- Profit target and minimum trading days. Not a risk rule, but it sets how much time pressure you feel, and time pressure is what makes people oversize.
- News rules. Some firms forbid opening or holding trades in a window around high-impact releases. Signals posted into that window are signals you skip.
- Weekend holding. Some allow it, some close everything Friday. Our gold signals can run over a weekend; if yours cannot, switch Friday off in the copier's day settings so no new entries open that day, and close anything still open by hand before the Friday cut-off.
- Copy trading and EA rules. Most firms allow expert advisors and copiers on your own account. Some restrict copying between their own accounts, and a few restrict third-party signals during evaluation. Read the exact wording and, if it is unclear, ask their support in writing and keep the reply.
- Consistency rules. Some funded stages cap what share of total profit a single day can contribute. That punishes the one big TP3 day, and it means a hold-to-TP3 rule can breach even while making money.
The sizing that survives a bad day
The daily loss limit is the binding constraint. Work backwards from it.
Say the limit is 5% and the firm measures it on equity. You want a bad day to stay well inside it, so budget 3% for the whole day. Our VIP channel posts five or more signals on an active day, so the budget has to assume a maximum number of entries you will actually hold to: take five as the cap, and plan for the day where all five stop out, because the sizing has to survive it whether or not it happens this month. Five full stops at 0.6% each is 3%. So your risk per trade is 0.6%, not the 1% you might use on your own money. The cap is yours to keep: by hand, stop at five; on the copier, which has no cap of its own, either lower the per-trade figure to cover the most signals the channel has posted in a day, or accept that a sixth signal takes the day over budget.
Now the formula from the position sizing guide: lots = (balance × 0.006) ÷ (stop pips × pip value). On a $100,000 account, a gold signal with an 80-pip stop: 600 ÷ (80 × 10) = 0.75 lots. A EUR/USD signal with a 25-pip stop: 600 ÷ (25 × 10) = 2.4 lots.
Two things people get wrong:
- Sizing from the challenge's profit target instead of its loss limit. "I need 8% in a month, so I risk 2% a trade." Four stops and the challenge is over. The limit sets the size; the target is reached by the win rate doing its job over enough trades.
- Forgetting open trades count. If the limit is on equity, three open trades each 0.6% underwater is 1.8% of your day gone with nothing closed. On active days, cap the number of open signals, or lower the per-trade risk further.
What the copier should be set to
The Forexero Copier runs on MT4 and MT5 accounts, which is what most firms use.
- Risk % mode with the number from the calculation above, not the default.
- Lower per-trade risk, not a cap you hope for. The copier has no "maximum open trades" setting; if the firm measures on equity, the only protection against a burst of signals stacking is the per-trade number itself. That is why the budget above divides the day across five trades.
- Take-profit rule chosen with the consistency rule in mind. If one day cannot contribute more than a set share of profit, the 70/20/10 partial ladder spreads gains across more days than a hold-to-TP3 rule does. If there is no consistency rule, the take profit guide shows what holding is worth.
- Trading windows and day switches set to your firm's rules. The copier skips new entries outside the windows you set and on days you switch off, and keeps managing trades already open. If the firm bans trades around releases, the window is how you honour that; the copier does not know your firm's calendar.
The parameters guide lists every setting.
The maths of a normal month, funded
In the 30 days to 21 September 2026, replaying the VIP channel: 85 signals posted, 79 resolved, 3 hit the stop before any target, and two of those three came from signals posted 67 seconds apart on 2 September that both failed. That is the shape to plan for: correlated signals stopping together. It was also a good month, so budget on a worse one. At 0.6% of the starting balance per trade, nine full stops in a month would be 5.4%, and on a $100,000 account $5,400 of losses. Whether the winners covered them at the same sizing is a per-trade sum (the results page guide shows how). What the sizing does on its own is arithmetic, under stated assumptions: with no more than five entries open and no other exposure, three full stops at 0.6% cost about 1.8% of the starting balance before costs, well inside a 5% rule. Fees, slippage, earlier losses that day and any other open position all add to the day's total, and the rule is measured on your whole account, not on these trades alone.
At 2% per trade, the same three stops on one day is 6%, and the account is closed before the winners arrive. Same signals. The only difference is the number you typed in.
The first week
- Trade the first week at half the calculated size. You are testing your process (fills, suffixes, the copier's connection), not the signals.
- Screenshot the firm's rules page the day you start. Rules change; the screenshot is your record of what you agreed to.
- Keep a note of which signals you skipped and why (news window, weekend, too many open). The skips are part of the plan, not a failure to follow it.
The signals do not know they are on a funded account. You do, and that is the whole difference.
See the signals before you pay for anything
Every closed VIP signal is on the results page with its entry, stop, targets and outcome, losses included. The free channel posts a selection each week.