HFT / latency arb / external feed / system error exploitation: definitions

Program Instant Funding One Phase Two Phase
Severity Critical

TL;DR

This is the “making money from plumbing, not trading” playbook. If your edge is feed delay, execution glitches, or ultra-high frequency, it’s prohibited.

How it works

PropXP flags and can terminate accounts for high-frequency/unethical methods such as:

  • HFT (abusive): extremely high order frequency designed to exploit microstructure, not price discovery.
  • Tick-scalping: repeatedly opening/closing positions for tiny moves (ticks) as a routine, often relying on speed/short holding times rather than directional edge. When it’s systematic, it overlaps heavily with abusive HFT behavior.
  • Latency arbitrage: acting on delayed prices (e.g. one feed updates later, you hit stale quotes).
  • External/slow feed trading: using outside pricing feeds to exploit mismatches.
  • System error exploitation: profiting from platform glitches, price freezes, off-market quotes, or execution anomalies.

Related enforcement: 2-minute minimum holding time (Funded + Instant Funding)

For Instant Funding Program accounts and Funded Accounts only, each position must remain open for at least 2 minutes before it may be closed or reduced by you (including your bots/EAs).

  • This rule is assessed based on behavior and patterns.
  • Isolated accidental early closes may be treated differently.
  • Repeated/systematic closes under 2 minutes (or attempts to circumvent intent) may be treated as tick-scalping behavior, and can lead to actions like trade exclusions/adjustments, restrictions, reward denial, and/or account termination.

Common gotchas

  • “But my EA is just fast.” Fast execution is fine; abusive frequency / stale-quote logic / tick-scalping patterns are not.
  • Spamming orders (modify/cancel like crazy) can look like platform manipulation.
  • If your strategy needs the broker to be wrong (stale price, freeze, glitch), it’s not a strategy and it will be flagged.
  • If you find a platform bug: report it. Exploit it and you’re volunteering for a permanent ban.

Example

You run a bot that watches an external feed and instantly opens trades when PropXP’s quote lags by a few milliseconds. That’s latency/external feed exploitation. Not allowed.

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