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Prohibited Trading Practices

Upside Funding’s trading rules are designed to create transparency, and aid your trading success.

Overview:

At Upside Funding, trading strategies designed to exploit system weaknesses or execute trades at unrealistic speeds, such as High-Frequency Trading (HFT), are strictly prohibited. These include practices like stacking trades or leveraging latency arbitrage.

What Are HFT and Exploitative Strategies?
  • High-Frequency Trading (HFT):
    Using software or automated systems to execute hundreds (or thousands) of trades in milliseconds to capitalize on minor price movements.
  • Stacking Trades:
    Placing an unusually high volume of orders within a short timeframe to overwhelm the system or manipulate results.
  • Latency Arbitrage:
    Exploiting delays in the platform’s data feed to trade at outdated or incorrect prices.
  • Grid Trading and Flash Orders:
    Implementing algorithms to flood the system with multiple small orders to manipulate spreads or exploit execution delays.
Why It’s Banned:
  1. Abuse of the System:
    – These practices leverage system limitations rather than actual market insights or skill.
    – Such strategies distort the evaluation process, compromising its credibility.
  2. Unrealistic Trading Conditions:
    – HFT techniques and exploitative trades cannot be executed in live trading environments due to real-world market restrictions and system regulations.
  3. Fairness:
    – Allowing such practices would give an unfair advantage to those using automated exploits over traders relying on skill and analysis.
  4. Platform Stability:
    – High-frequency orders and stacking can strain the platform, negatively affecting other traders’ experience and data accuracy.


Upside Funding is designed to evaluate and fund skilled traders, not automated systems. Stick to strategies that can be replicated in real live markets. Exploiting the system doesn’t just breach our rules—it invalidates your trading performance.

Overview:

Trading during high-volatility periods caused by major news events is strictly prohibited at Upside Funding. This includes opening trades or placing stop/limit orders within 5 minutes before or after major news releases. Such practices, known as news gap trading or straddling, create unreplicable and unpredictable trading conditions that do not reflect fair market behavior.

What Is News Straddling?

News straddling involves setting up trades—typically with stop/limit orders—in both directions just before a news event. The goal is to exploit sudden market spikes or gaps caused by high-impact news releases. While it may sound strategic, it relies more on luck than actual skill.

The Risks of News Gap Trading:
  • Extreme Volatility: Major news releases can create rapid price movements, making execution highly unpredictable.
  • Poor Execution: Orders placed during volatile conditions may face slippage, leading to significant discrepancies between the expected and executed price.
  • Unreplicable Conditions: The irregular nature of news-driven market behavior cannot be reliably reproduced in live trading conditions, rendering such strategies invalid for evaluations.
Why It’s Banned:
  1. Unrealistic Trading Environment: News gap trading leverages extreme conditions that aren’t sustainable in real-world, live market environments.
  2. Platform Integrity: Such strategies undermine the purpose of the Evaluation Process, which is to assess trading skills under normal market conditions.
  3. Fairness: Allowing these practices would provide an unfair advantage to traders using risky, luck-based strategies rather than disciplined, skill-driven techniques.


Refrain from placing orders within the 5-minute window before or after a major news event to ensure compliance and maintain realistic trading conditions.

Overview:

At Upside Funding, trading strategies designed to exploit system weaknesses or execute trades at unrealistic speeds, such as High-Frequency Trading (HFT), are strictly prohibited. These include practices like stacking trades or leveraging latency arbitrage. 

What Are HFT and Exploitative Strategies?
  • High-Frequency Trading (HFT):
    Using software or automated systems to execute hundreds (or thousands) of trades in milliseconds to capitalize on minor price movements.
  • Stacking Trades:
    Placing an unusually high volume of orders within a short timeframe to overwhelm the system or manipulate results.
  • Latency Arbitrage:
    Exploiting delays in the platform’s data feed to trade at outdated or incorrect prices.
  • Grid Trading and Flash Orders:
    Implementing algorithms to flood the system with multiple small orders to manipulate spreads or exploit execution delays.
Why It’s Banned:
  1. Abuse of the System:
    • These practices leverage system limitations rather than actual market insights or skill.
    • Such strategies distort the evaluation process, compromising its credibility.
  2. Unrealistic Trading Conditions:
    • HFT techniques and exploitative trades cannot be executed in live trading environments due to real-world market restrictions and system regulations.
  3. Fairness:
    • Allowing such practices would give an unfair advantage to those using automated exploits over traders relying on skill and analysis.
  4. Platform Stability:
    • High-frequency orders and stacking can strain the platform, negatively affecting other traders’ experience and data accuracy.


Upside Funding is designed to evaluate and fund skilled traders, not automated systems. Stick to strategies that can be replicated in real live markets. Exploiting the system doesn’t just breach our rules—it invalidates your trading performance.

Overview:

Upside Funding prohibits account hedging practices that involve using multiple accounts or different firms to offset risks. While hedging within a single account is permitted to manage your trading strategy, cross-account or cross-firm hedging is strictly off-limits as it undermines the integrity of the Evaluation Process.

What’s Allowed vs. Prohibited?
  • Allowed Hedging Activities:
    • Hedging trades within a single account to manage your market exposure (e.g., opening positions in opposing directions on the same symbol in a controlled and strategic manner).
  • Prohibited Hedging Activities:
    • Cross-Account Hedging: Opening opposing trades in different accounts (e.g., one buy and one sell) to neutralize risk artificially.
    • Cross-Firm Hedging: Using accounts at other firms to offset or manipulate risk in your Upside Funding account.
    • Risk Pooling: Combining multiple accounts under the same or different identities to bypass the rules.
Why It’s Banned:
  1. Circumvents Risk Controls:
    • The Evaluation Process is designed to assess your trading skills under controlled conditions. Hedging across accounts negates these controls and invalidates the assessment.
  2. Unfair Advantage:
    • Cross-account hedging exploits loopholes, giving an unfair advantage over traders who follow the rules.
  3. Integrity of the Program:
    • Hedging across accounts creates artificial performance metrics, making it impossible to accurately evaluate a trader’s skill and consistency.


Focus on building your trading strategy within the parameters of a single account. Cross-account or cross-firm hedging violates Upside Funding’s rules and will result in immediate account termination.

  1. Integrity of the Program:
    • The Evaluation Process is designed to measure your trading skill. Outsourcing the process defeats its purpose and compromises the integrity of our funded trading program.
  2. Unfair Advantage:
    • Traders relying on external help undermine the efforts of those who put in the work themselves.
  3. Inconsistent Results:
    • A third party passing your evaluation won’t guarantee your ability to sustain performance when managing real funds, creating unnecessary risks for both you and the program.


The Evaluation Process is about your trading skills. Letting someone else take the reins not only violates Upside Funding’s rules but also cheats you out of proving your capabilities. Success is earned, not outsourced.

Overview:

At Upside Funding, traders are evaluated on their individual skills and strategies. Copying trades—whether manually or using automated tools like EAs or APIs—is strictly prohibited. Additionally, engaging in collaborative trading practices with other traders is not allowed. These restrictions ensure that every trader is assessed fairly and independently.

What Is Prohibited?
  • Copy Trading:
    • Using automated systems, such as Expert Advisors (EAs), APIs, or mirroring platforms, to replicate trades from another account or source.
    • Manually copying trades from another trader or a shared strategy across accounts.
  • Collaborative Trading:
    • Working with other traders to coordinate strategies or trades that align too closely, creating patterns of collusion.
    • Pooling resources with others to collectively pass an evaluation or manipulate performance metrics.
Why It’s Banned?
  1. Undermines Individual Performance:
    • The Evaluation Process is designed to assess your unique skills. Copying trades or relying on external inputs invalidates the accuracy of this assessment.
  2. Creates Unfair Advantages:
    • Collaboration or trade mirroring gives an edge to traders who bypass the system, putting rule-abiding participants at a disadvantage.
  3. Inconsistent Results:
    • Copy or collaborative trading often produces performance that cannot be sustained in real trading environments, defeating the purpose of Upside Funding’s program.


Your performance is meant to reflect your trading expertise. Copying trades or collaborating with others violates Upside Funding’s rules and will result in immediate disqualification. Show us what you can do on your own.

Overview:

Upside Funding values skill, discipline, and strategy in trading. Gambling-like behaviors—such as excessive risk-taking, reckless one-sided bets, or toxic trading flows—are strictly prohibited. Trading without proper analysis or relying on luck undermines the purpose of our program and the development of professional trading habits. 

What Counts as Gambling or Toxic Trading?
  • Excessive Risk-Taking:
    • Placing trades with unreasonably high leverage or outsized position sizes that can wipe out accounts in a single move.
  • One-Sided Bets:
    • Consistently trading in one direction (buy-only or sell-only) without considering market analysis or conditions.
  • Toxic Flow:
    • Engaging in strategies designed to create erratic or unnatural trading activity, often leading to platform instability.
Why It’s Banned?
  1. Skill Over Luck:
    • The Evaluation Process is designed to assess your ability to trade with discipline and strategy, not to reward blind luck.
  2. Program Stability:
    • Gambling-like behaviors disrupt the trading environment and fail to align with the professional standards of Upside Funding.
  3. Long-Term Success:
    • Toxic trading practices lead to inconsistent results and discourage the development of responsible trading habits necessary for sustainable success.


Developing disciplined trading habits is why we provide 1:1 mentorship to funded traders. Gambling strategies go against this growth-focused philosophy. Professional trading requires discipline, analysis, and measured risk. At Upside Funding, reckless or luck-based trading strategies are not tolerated. Show your expertise, not your willingness to gamble.

Overview:

At Upside Funding, every trader is expected to participate as an individual. Using multiple accounts, identities, or emails to bypass rules is strictly prohibited. This ensures a fair and consistent experience for all participants in our Evaluation Process and funded trading programs.

What Constitutes a Violation?

Here are examples of actions that violate this rule:

  • Multiple Accounts:
    • Creating more than one account using different emails, names, or identities.
    • Using multiple accounts to manipulate trading metrics or evaluation outcomes.
  • Shared Accounts:
    • Allowing another person to trade on your account or using someone else’s account.
  • Identity Manipulation:
    • Registering accounts under false names or using fraudulent information to gain access to the platform.
Why It’s Banned?
  1. Preserves Fairness:
    • Allowing multiple accounts or identities would give some traders an unfair advantage, such as bypassing evaluation rules or exploiting system loopholes.
  2. Program Integrity:
    • One account per trader ensures that our evaluations are accurate and consistent across all participants.
  3. Prevents Abuse:
    • Restricting multiple accounts reduces the risk of system manipulation, collusion, or fraud.


Stick to one account, one identity, and one email. The Evaluation Process is designed to measure your individual trading skills. Violating this rule will result in immediate disqualification and account termination.

Overview:

To ensure an efficient and engaged trading environment, accounts that remain inactive for 30 consecutive days will be deactivated and cannot be restored. Active participation is essential for maintaining access to your evaluation or funded account.

How to Stay Active:
  • Log in Regularly:
    • Make sure to log in to your account at least once every 30 days.
  • Place Trades:
    • For evaluation accounts, engage in trades periodically to demonstrate progress.
  • Communicate:
    • If you anticipate an extended period of inactivity, contact our support team to explore options.
Why It’s Enforced:
  1. Operational Efficiency:
    • Deactivating inactive accounts ensures our resources and trading systems remain focused on active traders.
  2. Encourages Engagement:
    • Regular account activity promotes discipline and consistent participation, both critical traits for successful traders.
  3. Maintains Program Integrity:
    • Clearing inactive accounts ensures an optimized environment for all participants, free of clutter or stagnation.


Stay active by logging in and participating consistently. If your account becomes inactive for 30 consecutive days, it will be permanently deactivated, and any progress or access will be forfeited.

Trading Success Starts Here.

Stay compliant, trade smart, and unlock your full potential with Upside Funding. With real funding, 1:1 mentorship, and no gimmicks, we’re here to back your skills and help you succeed.

The rules are simple. The upside is all yours.

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© 2024-2025 Upside Funding. All rights reserved.

Upside Funding Limited (Business Registration Number: 77633523) (“We,” “Our,” “Us”) operates as a proprietary trading firm registered in Hong Kong. We do not provide brokerage services, financial advisory services, or investment management. Upside Funding does not accept client deposits, nor do we engage in real asset trading on behalf of traders.

All trading activities conducted through our platform during the evaluation phase take place in a simulated trading environment. The funds allocated in these evaluations are entirely virtual, hold no real monetary value, and cannot be withdrawn or converted into real assets. Traders should be aware that simulated trading may not replicate actual market conditions, and results achieved in this environment may not reflect real-world performance.
Participation in Upside Funding’s programs does not guarantee access to a funded account, nor does it ensure future profitability. Funded accounts are subject to specific performance criteria and compliance with our trading rules. Past performance in our evaluation programs is not indicative of future results.

The information provided on this website is for educational and evaluation purposes only and should not be considered investment advice, financial recommendations, or an offer to buy or sell any financial instruments. Trading financial markets carries inherent risks, and participants should only trade with funds they can afford to lose.

Hypothetical or simulated trading results have limitations. Unlike live trading, simulated accounts do not consider liquidity, slippage, execution delays, or external market conditions that impact real-world trading. Additionally, simulated trading results benefit from hindsight and may overcompensate for factors that could affect actual performance. No representation is made that any trader will achieve the same results in a live market.
Our services are not available in jurisdictions where proprietary trading programs are restricted or prohibited by law. Traders are responsible for ensuring compliance with local regulations before engaging with Upside Funding.
For inquiries, contact us at [email protected].