Strategy Readiness Checker — See If Your Setup Can Pass a Prop Firm Eval

Enter your strategy stats and instantly see if your approach can realistically pass a prop firm evaluation. The checker calculates expected daily P&L, days to profit target, worst-case daily loss, and whether that loss risks breaching your firm's daily limit.

How to Interpret the Results

The Expected Daily P&L is the mathematical expectancy of your strategy per day: (win rate × avg win) minus (loss rate × avg loss), multiplied by trades per day. This is what your strategy should earn on an average trading day if it performs according to its historical statistics. It does not account for variance — some days will be much better, some worse.

The Days to Profit Target is your profit target divided by expected daily P&L. This is the theoretical average number of trading days required to complete the evaluation at your strategy's average performance level. In practice, expect more variance — you will have winning weeks that compress this estimate and losing weeks that extend it.

The Max Possible Daily Loss is the worst-case scenario for a single session: every single trade that day is a loser. This is calculated as trades per day multiplied by average loss. This number is critical — if it exceeds your firm's daily loss limit, your strategy can fail the evaluation in a single session of bad luck, even if the strategy is profitable on average.

The Daily Limit Status compares your max possible daily loss against your firm's daily limit for the selected account tier. A "Safe" result means your worst-case single session cannot exceed the daily limit. A "Risk" result means it can — this is a flag that your strategy needs a daily kill switch set well inside the firm's limit, or position sizing needs to be reduced.

What to Do If Your Strategy Fails the Checker

If your strategy gets a "Needs Adjustment" or "High Risk" result, the most common fixes are:

• Max daily loss too high: Reduce position size (fewer contracts per trade), add a daily kill switch that stops trading before reaching the firm's hard limit, or reduce the number of trades per day by adding a signal filter.
• Negative expected daily P&L: Your strategy is losing money on average. No amount of risk management fixes a negative expectancy strategy — the underlying edge needs to be improved. Consider the strategy audit to identify where the edge is being lost.
• Days to target too high (over 45 days): Your strategy may be too conservative for the evaluation window. Options: increase position size (carefully, without violating daily limits), or choose a firm with a longer evaluation window or no time limit (Apex has no time limit on evaluations).

Frequently asked questions

How accurate is the Strategy Readiness Checker?

The checker uses expected value math — win rate × average win minus loss rate × average loss — to project your daily P&L and days to target. It's a statistical model, not a guarantee. Real trading adds slippage, missed signals, and emotional variables the tool cannot account for. Use it as a benchmark, not a certainty.

What does "PASS READY" mean?

Pass Ready means your strategy stats produce a positive expected daily P&L, your maximum possible single-day loss (all trades stop out) stays below the firm's daily loss limit, and your projected days to target is under 60. All three conditions must hold simultaneously for a Pass Ready result.

What does "NEEDS ADJUSTMENT" mean?

Your strategy has a positive expected edge, but one or more risk parameters are too aggressive. The most common flag: your max daily loss (trades per day × average loss) exceeds or approaches the firm's daily limit. The fix is usually reducing contract size or tightening the stop-loss to lower per-trade dollar risk.

Can I use this tool for FTMO or forex prop firms?

Yes. Select FTMO from the dropdown and enter your account size in dollars. The tool uses FTMO's 5% daily loss limit and 10% total loss for the checks. For percentage-based firms, enter your starting balance and average trade sizes in dollar terms.

My strategy shows High Risk — what should I do?

A High Risk result usually means your expected daily P&L is negative (the strategy loses money on average) or your per-trade risk is so large that a normal losing day could breach the daily limit. Neither is fixable by sizing alone. Consider running a Strategy Audit to identify where the logic breaks down, or start with one of our pre-built scripts optimized for prop firm rule sets.