Prop Firm Evaluation Time Limit: None on Classic and Spark

An evaluation, also called a challenge, is the paid stage where you trade a simulated account toward a profit goal without breaching a drawdown. A time limit is the deadline a firm sets for reaching that goal. Some firms set one, and some leave the evaluation open.

What a time limit does to an evaluation

A fixed window turns every slow week into pressure. Late in the window, a trader who is behind the goal is tempted to trade bigger to catch up, and larger size is how a drawdown gets used up. This is general risk reasoning, not trading advice.

A profit goal is the amount of profit you must reach, and a drawdown is the loss limit that ends the attempt if you breach it. With no deadline, only the drawdown is a hard edge. You can pass in a quiet week with a few trades or a busy week with many, and the pass is the same pass.

Before you pay for any evaluation, put three questions to the firm.

• Is there a deadline, and is it written on the rules page?
• If the evaluation is open ended, what do you pay while you wait?
• What does a reset cost if you breach the drawdown?

The time limit at Phoenix, account by account

Classic and Spark challenges have no time limit. Nobody sets a date by which you must reach the profit goal, and the challenge stays open while you trade it. Merit is the exception: it is a 30 calendar day assessment, and it has no profit goal to reach.

Classic costs $89 for the 25K Starter, $128 for the 50K Growth and $269 for the 100K Scale, billed monthly. Spark costs $44 for the 10K Seed and $74 for the 25K Starter, paid once. Merit costs $69, paid once.

What waiting costs on Classic and on Spark

No deadline does not mean no cost, and the two accounts differ. Classic is the only Phoenix account that bills monthly, so a slow pass on Classic is paid for month by month. You can cancel anytime.

Each renewal of a Classic challenge that has not failed earns one Reset Coupon. A Reset Coupon is a free reset, and coupons are cumulative, so they stack. The renewal is still the monthly charge. The coupon is a free reset you can use later.

Spark is paid once, so a slow month costs nothing more on the challenge itself. A one-time $29 activation fee is due when you pass, and it does not change with how long you take.

A deadline charges you in pressure. A subscription charges you in months. A one time payment charges you for neither.Three ways an evaluation can price your time

How fast a pass can go

You can still pass quickly. On Classic, a pass can come in as little as 2 trading days. On Spark, it can come in as little as 1 trading day, and the payout stage can be reached 5 trading days after you start, at the earliest.

Reaching the profit goal inside the drawdown is still the work, and it takes the time it takes. Profit above the goal does not carry into the funded account, so there is no prize for overshooting it.

What actually ends an attempt: the drawdown

A trailing drawdown is a loss limit that trails your account's high point upward and stops rising at your starting balance. In an evaluation it is measured at the end of the day. With no countdown, this is the number that decides how long an attempt lasts.

The room differs by account and size. Classic carries $1,500 on the 25K, $2,000 on the 50K and $3,000 on the 100K. Spark carries $400 on the 10K and $1,000 on the 25K.

If you breach the drawdown, a reset restarts the challenge for a fee set by account and size. On Classic, a reset costs $89 on the 25K, $128 on the 50K and $269 on the 100K. On Spark, a reset costs $29 on the 10K and $39 on the 25K. So the drawdown is both the limit on an attempt and the cost of restarting one.

That is why pace and size are linked. With no clock, a trader can wait for a setup and size it so one bad day uses a small share of the room. A trader who takes a trade only because a deadline is close does the opposite. This explains how the rule works and is not trading advice.

Before you start a challenge at your own pace:

• Write down your drawdown room in dollars
• Decide the most one day may use before you place a trade
• Check whether you are on Classic or Spark, because their billing differs
• Check what a reset costs on your size

Merit runs on a 30 calendar day clock

Merit is the exception. It is a 30 calendar day assessment, and an assessment is a review of how you trade, not a race to a number. There is no profit goal. You trade your own way for the 30 calendar days, and the Phoenix risk team and an AI review every trade.

After the window, a person decides whether to fund the account on Live. A large profit can still be turned down for Live funding while a small one is funded, because only the quality of the trading counts. There is no guarantee of funding.

Merit costs $69, paid once. It is one attempt for the life of the account, and there is no reset at any price.

Who a no-deadline evaluation suits

It suits a trader with a day job, a trader who trades one session, or anyone who would rather skip a week with no setup than force one. It also suits a trader still learning how much of the drawdown a normal day uses, since a deadline leaves no time to find out.

The full rules for each account are on the evaluations page, the Classic rules are on the Classic page, the Spark rules are on the Spark page, and general questions are answered in the FAQ.