What Happens If You Fail a $69 Merit Evaluation?
Merit has no profit target, and even the evaluations it does not fund still pay something back.
A failed Merit evaluation does not leave a trader with nothing. Phoenix Trader Funding sends a Performance Review either way: a 20+ page report written by real traders from the trades you actually made.
On top of that, tiered rewards follow: a 30 percent discount on any challenge for completing the attempt, a free new challenge for a trader who generated at least $2,000 in profit, and a lifetime Thor licence worth $250 for a Review whose Benchmark section comes back clean.
- What Merit actually grades
- The 30-day window and the one-attempt rule
- What a passed evaluation unlocks
- What a failed evaluation still pays
- Who Merit fits
Classic, Daily and Spark evaluations all set a profit goal. Merit does not. It is graded on how the month was traded, not on a profit line, and the criteria behind that decision are published. Only trading quality decides who gets funded.
What Merit actually grades
Every Merit evaluation is read against measures published on Phoenix Trader Funding's own Merit page, not against a dollar target. Five of them are listed below, and the page is explicit that the list does not stop there. The risk team and an AI review every trade the account takes, then a human makes the funding call from what those measures show.
- Consistency. Merit carries no consistency rule, so nothing auto-fails a trader for one outsized day. The reviewer still reads how much of total profit came from a single day, and the Merit page names keeping that share under 50 percent as essential.
- Winning days against losing days. How the average winning day compares with the average losing day. Phoenix Trader Funding names 5 times as a very high figure.
- Expectancy. The account's daily expectancy, and it needs to sit above zero.
- MAE and MFE. Maximum Adverse Excursion and Maximum Favorable Excursion, how far a trade moved against a trader and in their favor before it closed. Together they show whether stops and targets are placed with any discipline.
- Maximum drawdown and recovery time. How deep the account's worst dip ran, and how long it took to trade back out of it.
None of the five is a pass or fail line by itself, and clearing all five only raises the odds of funding. That is also why a trader can post $30,000 in profit built on one wild day and still be denied, while a trader with $500 built across five clean measures gets funded instead.
The 30-day window and the one-attempt rule
A Merit evaluation runs for up to 30 calendar days on TFeed, Phoenix Trader Funding's own low-commission execution feed, the only feed a Merit account trades on. There is no minimum beyond one day, and no second attempt: Merit allows exactly one purchase for the life of the account, and it can never be reset, at any price.
Buying another Merit account later requires holding a different Phoenix Trader Funding account type first. A failed or funded Merit account cannot be reset or repurchased directly.
What a passed evaluation unlocks
Clear the review and Merit skips the staged path Classic and Spark follow, where four payouts come before a live account. Merit goes straight from a passed evaluation to a live, $2,000 funded account, with the Performance Review delivered either way.
What a failed evaluation still pays
Not being funded still comes with the Performance Review: 20+ pages built from the trader's own trades and written by real traders, printed on Phoenix Trader Funding's own page as worth at least $300 by itself. It goes out on every Merit attempt, funded or not, and the full evaluation FAQ carries the rest of the terms.
Three tiers sit on top of that Review, and they widen depending on how the month went. Completing the attempt earns a 30 percent discount on any Phoenix Trader Funding challenge, whatever comes next.
Generating at least $2,000 in profit, the same size as the account's own live funding balance, earns a new challenge free of charge. A Review whose Benchmark section shows no red values earns a lifetime Thor licence, the firm's own trade copier, worth $250 on its own.
A trader who does not get funded and generates nothing still keeps the Performance Review and the discount. The other two tiers are earned, not guaranteed, and none of them requires being funded to collect.
Who Merit fits
- Fits: a trader who wants to be judged on process rather than chasing a dollar target in a hurry
- Fits: someone comfortable with one attempt and no second try if it goes wrong
- Does not fit: a trader who wants to keep resetting the same evaluation after a loss
What can you trade inside a Merit evaluation?
Up to two minis or twenty micros, on TFeed only, with no overnight or overweek holding. Commissions on TFeed run as low as $2.18 round turn for one mini.
What is in the Performance Review?
A report of 20+ pages built from the trader's own trades and written by real traders, stated on Phoenix Trader Funding's own page as worth at least $300 by itself, whether or not the evaluation is funded.
Can a profitable trader still be denied funding on Merit?
Yes. Funding is decided on trading quality, not on the profit total, so a trader can generate $30,000 and still be denied while another is funded on $500.
What do the consolation rewards require?
Completing a Merit attempt earns a 30 percent discount on any challenge. Generating at least $2,000 in profit earns a free new challenge. A Performance Review with a clean Benchmark section earns a lifetime Thor licence worth $250.
Is the $69 Merit fee a subscription?
Merit is paid once, with no subscription and no activation fee, unlike the Spark accounts that charge $29 on top when a trader passes.
A Performance Review goes out on every Merit attempt regardless of outcome. Nobody finishes a Merit attempt and walks away with nothing to show for the $69.
See the full Merit rules and start a $69 evaluation.
Start a Merit evaluationNew funded-account types are trialled at Phoenix Labs as real, tradable accounts before they join the permanent offer. The ones that work graduate; the ones that do not are retired.