Applies to: CFD and Futures. Some rules, such as hedging and automated trading, are different for each product.
Short answer
Trade the way you would on a live account. Any strategy that exploits the simulated environment, platform errors or our risk rules is prohibited. Breaking these rules can lead to profits being removed, payouts being denied or your account being closed.
Prohibited on both CFD and Futures
Exploiting platform or server errors, or trading on delayed data feeds or charts
Any strategy designed to exploit demo or simulated conditions, such as the absence of slippage
Hedging between separate accounts, whether they belong to you or to someone else
Coordinated trading with other people, such as placing identical or opposing trades across different accounts
Letting someone else trade your account
Hedging and automation at a glance
Rule | CFD | Futures |
Hedging within one account | Allowed | Not allowed |
Hedging across accounts | Not allowed | Not allowed |
Fully automated trading (bots, AI) | HFT, tick scalping and arbitrage bots not allowed | Not allowed. Semi-automated trading is allowed only if you actively monitor and manage it. |
CFD rules
Not allowed
Tick scalping, high-frequency trading and arbitrage bots
Reverse arbitrage, latency arbitrage and hedge arbitrage
Trade emulators
Gambling rule
Using more than 80% of your margin on open trades counts as "all or nothing" gambling. It can lead to payout rejection, profit removal or account termination.
Futures rules
Automated trading
Fully automated systems, AI and bots are not allowed on any account.
Semi-automated trading is allowed only if you actively monitor and manually manage your trades.
Automated ultra-high-frequency scalping is limited. Systems that place more than 200 trades a day are not allowed.
Hands-off, round-the-clock automated trading is not allowed.
Copy trading
Allowed, including with third-party copier software, but only between accounts you legally own. This includes your own Blue Guardian Futures accounts and your own external accounts. Copying other traders, signal providers or trade groups, or letting anyone trade for you, is not allowed.
Hedging
Not allowed. You can't hold opposing positions in the same or closely related instruments, in one account or across several, to offset risk or get around the rules.
Microscalping
Scalping is allowed. Microscalping is restricted: less than 50% of your total profit may come from trades held for under 10 seconds. This applies in both the evaluation and funded phases.
Martingale
Not allowed. You can't increase position sizes after losses to try to win back what you lost.
Order placement and market conduct
Placing multiple limit orders at the same price to manipulate fills is not allowed.
Exploiting isolated fills in gapped or illiquid markets is not allowed.
Using tight brackets to take advantage of the simulated market's lack of slippage is not allowed.
All trading must follow CME Group rules.