Frequently asked
questions.

To become funded by Meridian, you need to successfully complete our two-phase evaluation process. This involves demonstrating your trading skills and respecting our risk management framework over both phases. Once you pass, you receive a funded account to trade with our capital and earn a profit share on every payout.

Alternatively, you can skip the evaluation entirely with our Instant Funding program — see Section 02 for details.

You can trade up to 20 accounts simultaneously with Meridian. Once funded, you can also merge eligible accounts into a single larger account if it suits your strategy.

Each registered profile is for one individual. Multiple challenges are allowed under that single profile, but creating multiple identities to circumvent rules will result in permanent suspension.

Once funded, you automatically receive one free reset after your first payout. Before your first payout, we don't offer free retries — but we provide a 30% discount on the evaluation fee on request.

You can also add the Free Challenge Reset add-on at checkout, giving you the right to one free reset during your evaluation phases.

Yes. Through our scaling program (Meridian Pro), you can grow your account up to a maximum of $2,000,000. To scale, you need to achieve a 10% profit within a 3-month window. Each time you hit that target, we increase your account size by 25% of your initial balance — designed to reward consistent, deliberate performance over time.

To keep your account active, you must place at least one trade every 30 calendar days. We send an email reminder 5 days before the inactivity threshold so you have time to act.

Yes, due to international sanctions and compliance requirements, we cannot offer accounts to residents of: North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and certain regions of Russia. We're funded across 92 other countries — see our list at signup if you're unsure about your jurisdiction.

The evaluation starts as soon as you complete registration and payment. You receive your account credentials within minutes and can begin trading immediately — there's no time pressure since the evaluation has no time limit.

No. Meridian absorbs all losses incurred on your funded account. The only thing you put at risk is your evaluation fee — and even that's refundable on conditions. Your downside is capped, your upside is your profit share.

Yes. You're free to leave profits in your account to compound and grow your balance. Doing so also helps you demonstrate consistency, which can qualify you for our scaling program and unlock larger capital allocations faster.

Yes. We offer a 150% Fee Refund structure:

• 100% in cash on your first successful payout, refunded to your original payment method.
• 50% in Meridian Credit, redeemable for future evaluations, account upgrades, or add-ons. Credit expires 6 months after issuance.

This means you receive more value back than your initial investment — our way of acknowledging that you've earned your seat at the table.

Standard funded accounts go up to $500,000 per account. Through our Meridian Pro scaling program, traders can grow up to $2,000,000 in allocated capital.

If you breach a hard rule (daily drawdown, max drawdown, or prohibited strategies), your account is closed immediately and the evaluation fee is forfeited. For lesser issues, our risk team contacts you first and works toward a resolution. Our rule book is public and version-controlled — nothing is rewritten retroactively.

Please be advised that some violations are not automatically identified and will only be verified by our risk team during account review at the time of payout request.

Yes. With the Meridian Challenge Reward, you keep 50% of the profit you generate during the evaluation phases, paid out alongside your 3rd successful funded payout.

How it works:

• We track the cumulative profit across all your evaluation phases (Phase 1 + Phase 2 combined).
• 50% of that combined challenge profit is reserved as your Challenge Reward balance, visible in your dashboard from day one of your funded account.
• The Challenge Reward is unlocked and paid out alongside your 3rd successful funded payout.

The Challenge Reward is forfeited if your funded account is breached before reaching the 3rd payout, or if you violate prohibited strategies during the evaluation phases.

First Loss Insurance protects you on your very first day as a Meridian funded trader. If you breach your funded account during Day 1, your evaluation fee is refunded as Meridian Credit, redeemable for future evaluations or add-ons.

Eligibility conditions (all must be met):

• Available only on Funded Accounts obtained through completing the 2-Step or 3-Step Challenge. Instant Funding accounts are not eligible.
• Valid only during the first 24 hours after the funded account is activated, measured from credentials delivery timestamp.
• The trader must place at least 10 valid trades during the Day 1 window. A valid trade is held for a minimum of 2 minutes, closed before end of window, and opened during active market hours.
• No single trade may exceed 25% of available margin at the time of opening.
• Total margin usage across all open positions may not exceed 60% at any single moment.
• The trader must trade across at least 3 different instruments during the Day 1 window.
• Coverage does not apply to breaches occurring within ±30 minutes of high-impact news (NFP, FOMC, CPI, ECB, BOE, BOJ rate decisions).
• Coverage does not apply outside primary market sessions (London open to NY close), nor within ±30 minutes of the daily rollover at 5:00 PM New York time.
• Only accounts breaching from a net loss position are eligible. Profitable accounts that breach via volatility are subject to standard rules.
• Coverage is void if any prohibited strategy is detected (cross-account hedging, disallowed EAs, latency arbitrage, gambling-style trading, etc.).

Important details:

• Refund is issued exclusively as Meridian Credit, redeemable for future evaluations or add-ons. Credit expires 90 days from issuance and has no cash value.
• First Loss Insurance is granted once per trader, identified by KYC verification.
• All claims are subject to manual review by the Meridian Risk Team. Review may take up to 5 business days. The Risk Team's decision is final.

Sign up through the Affiliate Program page on the website. As an affiliate, you earn up to 25% commission on every referred trader's evaluation fee, plus access to cash bonuses for top performers. We provide marketing assets and a real-time dashboard to track your performance.

The Meridian Instant Funding model gives traders immediate access to a funded account — no evaluation phase, no profit target to clear. In exchange, accounts run on a tighter trailing drawdown structure and require strict discipline to preserve.

It's built for traders who already know their edge and don't want to spend weeks proving it.

All Instant Funding accounts operate with a trailing drawdown structure. A hard breach occurs when you exceed either of these limits:

• The maximum daily loss, or
• The total trailing drawdown limit

If either is hit, the funded account is closed immediately and cannot be reopened.

The maximum total drawdown is 5% of your highest account equity. Because it's trailing, the threshold increases as your equity reaches new highs — but never decreases.

How is it calculated? The drawdown is anchored to the peak equity your account has reached, including unrealized floating profits. As that peak grows, the 5% trailing limit moves up with it.

Breach monitoring is real-time on equity. If account equity reaches or falls below the trailing floor at any time, the account is breached, even if equity later recovers.

The trailing daily drawdown limits your daily losses to 2% of your highest end-of-day balance. This rule protects the account from outsized one-day losses.

How is it calculated? At 5:00 PM New York time (the daily market rollover), the system records the higher value between your account balance and equity. Your next day's maximum daily loss is then set at 2% below that snapshot.

Breach monitoring is real-time on equity throughout the trading day.

Yes. On Instant Funding accounts, we apply a 20% consistency rule: no single trading day can represent more than 20% of your total profit during the payout period. The threshold is visible in your dashboard.

This is not a breach — your account remains active. You simply continue trading until the consistency requirement is met before requesting a payout.

No. First Loss Insurance is available only on Funded Accounts obtained through completing our 2-Step or 3-Step Challenge. Instant Funding accounts are not eligible for this program.

The Profit Target is the trading objective for each evaluation phase. Once it's reached after all positions are closed, you're offered a funded account.

2-Step Challenge:

• Phase 1: Reach an 8% profit target without breaching any rules.
• Phase 2: Reach a 5% profit target without breaching any rules.

The Maximum Daily Loss is 4% of your initial account balance. We calculate it as follows: at the 5:00 PM New York time daily rollover, we take the higher value of either your account balance or account equity, then subtract a fixed 4% of the initial balance to set the daily floor.

Breach monitoring is real-time on equity. If your equity reaches or falls below the daily floor at any point during the next trading day, the account is breached, even if equity later recovers.

The Maximum Total Loss is the overall amount you can lose on your account. On 2-Step Challenges, it's 8% of your initial account balance, applied as a static floor that does not move with profits.

Breach monitoring is real-time on equity. If your equity (including any floating positions) reaches or falls below the static floor at any time, the account is breached, even if equity later recovers.

It depends on the account model:

• 2-Step Challenge: the max drawdown is static — anchored to the initial balance and never moves, regardless of profits. Floor stays fixed at initial balance minus 8%.
• Instant Funding: the max drawdown is trailing — anchored to the highest equity reached. As equity grows, the 5% floor moves up with it. Once locked, it does not move down.

In both cases, breaches are monitored in real time using current equity, including floating PnL.

All drawdown breaches are monitored in real time using current equity, which includes floating PnL from open positions.

If your account equity reaches or falls below the applicable drawdown floor at any time, the account is breached, even if equity later recovers the same day.

This applies to all drawdown types: static, trailing, daily, and total.

Risk Per Trade Idea applies to Funded Accounts only. It prevents over-exposure on a single directional setup.

A Trade Idea is defined as:

• A single position, or
• Multiple positions opened on the same instrument in the same direction, or
• A position reopened on the same instrument in the same direction within 10 minutes after closing a previous position.

The combined realized and floating loss of a Trade Idea must not exceed:

• 3% of the initial account balance for accounts below $50,000
• 2% of the initial account balance for accounts of $50,000 and above

The first violation reduces the profit split to 50% for the current payout cycle. A second violation results in account termination.

The Meridian Shield is a funded-stage protection mechanism designed to prevent emotional overexposure and help traders protect funded accounts before deeper damage occurs.

If floating losses across all open positions reach:

• −2% of the initial account balance on 2-Step funded accounts, or
• −1.5% of the initial account balance on Instant Funding accounts

...the system automatically closes all open positions across all symbols. The account remains active and you can resume trading.

The first Shield event reduces the profit split to 50% for the current payout cycle. A second Shield event results in account termination.

The Meridian Shield does not run during evaluation phases — it activates only on funded accounts.

On Funded Accounts, the minimum holding time is 2 minutes (120 seconds). This rule prevents tick scalping and HFT-style behavior.

How it works:

• If a trade is closed in under 2 minutes and ends in profit, the profit is not counted at payout (no account breach)
• If a trade is closed in under 2 minutes and ends in loss, the loss is fully counted

This rule applies only on Funded Accounts. During evaluation, there is no minimum holding time.

If one trading event triggers multiple risk controls (for example, both a Risk Per Trade Idea violation and a Meridian Shield event), Meridian may assess each rule independently during account review.

The strictest applicable outcome may be applied depending on the severity, account history, and risk impact of the event. Our risk team always communicates the outcome before any action is finalized.

Yes, on most accounts. You can hold trades overnight and over the weekend without restriction during evaluation phases and on most funded accounts. Standard swap fees apply on rollover.

Weekend Gap Rule (Funded Accounts only): Trades opened in the last 3 hours of Friday market hours AND closed in the first 3 hours of Monday market hours are subject to review. Profits from these trades may be removed (without account breach), as we don't reward strategies that purely target weekend gaps. Holding through the weekend with a sound strategy is fully fine.

Yes. Custom EAs (Expert Advisors) are allowed — you can deploy any EA you've built or customized for your strategy. Trade copiers are also allowed within the limits described in our Copy Trading section.

What we don't allow:

• High-frequency trading (HFT) systems
• Gold arbitrage EAs
• Tick scalping bots
• Latency arbitrage and reverse arbitrage tools
• Off-the-shelf EAs publicly marketed as "challenge passers" or "guaranteed pass" tools

We may, at our discretion, request proof of your EA's authenticity (such as the source code) if usage patterns suggest a third-party tool.

Hedging within the same account is allowed. You can open opposing positions on the same instrument within a single account as part of your strategy.

Hedging between separate accounts is not allowed. This includes hedging across multiple accounts owned by the same trader, or between accounts owned by different traders working together. This rule prevents account-pair arbitrage where one account is guaranteed to profit at the expense of the other.

During evaluation: No lot size limits. Trade with the lot sizes your leverage allows.

On Funded Accounts: Reasonable lot size guidelines apply per account size to prevent gambling-style behavior.

These limits apply per pair per individual trade, not to your total account exposure. Full table available in your dashboard.

• Martingale strategies are allowed.
• Stop Loss is not required on any trade.

What's not allowed: gambling-style "all-or-nothing" trades where margin usage exceeds 80% of available margin on running positions.

During the evaluation phases: Yes, news trading is fully permitted without restriction.

On Funded Accounts: News trading is allowed, but with one limit. Any trades opened or closed within 5 minutes before or after a high-impact (red folder) news event — including FOMC speeches, statements, and announcements — are subject to a profit cap of 1% of your initial account balance.

If your profits during the news window exceed 1%, the excess is removed automatically. This is not a breach — your account remains active and you continue trading normally.

Important exception: Trades opened more than 2 hours before the news event are fully protected, even if they close during the news window. This protects swing traders who hold positions through volatility.

We use Forex Factory as our news calendar source.

Yes — within boundaries. Copy trading is allowed only between accounts legally tied to the same holder. What we permit:

• Copy trading between Meridian accounts you own.
• Copy trading from your personal external broker accounts to your Meridian Funded account (you may be asked to provide proof of ownership: account number, investor password, server).

What we don't permit: third-party signal providers, external account management services, or copying trades from another trader's account that doesn't belong to you.

Yes — a minimum of 3 trading days is required on all accounts before you can complete a phase or request a payout.

No. The trading period is unlimited — take as long as you need to hit your target without compromising your discipline. We'd rather you pass slowly than rush and breach.

On standard 2-Step Challenges: no consistency rule, no hidden rules during the evaluation phases. Period.

On Funded Accounts, we apply a consistency rule:

• 2-Step Funded models: 25% maximum (no single day can represent more than 25% of total profit during the payout period)
• Instant Funding: 20% maximum

This is not a breach. Your account remains active — you simply continue trading until the consistency requirement is met before requesting a payout. The threshold is visible in your dashboard.

We allow virtually all legitimate trading strategies. The following practices are prohibited because they exploit demo environments rather than reflect genuine trading skill:

• Exploiting platform errors, server delays, or data feed issues
• Trading on delayed charts or external data feeds
• Latency arbitrage between brokers or feeds
• Hedge arbitrage (using multiple accounts to exploit execution differences)
• Reverse arbitrage and toxic trading flow
• Tick scalping bots and HFT systems
• Gambling-style "all-or-nothing" trades (margin usage exceeding 80% of available margin on running positions)
• Front-running, insider information, or any practice that creates regulatory issues for our broker partners

Some violations may not be detected automatically and will only be identified during account review by our risk team prior to payout. We reserve the right to review any account for compliance.

You're eligible for a payout every 14 days on Step funded accounts, and on-demand on Instant Funding accounts, starting from your first trade. To request a payout:

• Your balance must be above your initial balance.
• No rule violations on record.
• All positions flat — no open trades, no pending orders.
• Consistency rule requirement met (25% on Step, 20% on Instant).

Payouts are processed within 12 hours of the request. All requests go through the dashboard. Withdrawals available via Wire (SEPA/SWIFT), Stablecoins (USDT/USDC), Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Rise.

Minimum funded-account withdrawal: $100. Minimum affiliate withdrawal: $100.

Funded traders receive up to 100% of the profits they generate. The default split starts at 90% and scales up to 100% via add-ons at checkout (Pro split) or through the Meridian Pro program after sustained performance.

Yes — the Meridian Reward Pledge. Get paid in 12 hours, or we double your payout. No tickets to open, no support to chase — the bonus is applied automatically by our system.

Business hours run from 9am Monday to 5pm Friday (London time, UTC+0). The 12h timer is paused on weekends since payment rails (especially bank wires) don't process. Payouts requested over the weekend start their timer at 9am Monday.

Network and rail processing times on the receiving end (your bank, your wallet) are outside our control once funds leave Meridian.

Yes. The Meridian Challenge Reward lets you keep 50% of the profit generated during your evaluation phases, paid out alongside your 3rd successful funded payout.

Your Challenge Reward balance is visible in your dashboard from day one of your funded account, so you always know what's waiting to be unlocked.

The Challenge Reward is forfeited if the funded account is breached before reaching the 3rd payout, or if prohibited strategies were used during the evaluation phases.

We support four rails, all with zero fees from Meridian's side (only network/banking fees apply):

• Bank Wire — SEPA (1 business day) and SWIFT (1–2 business days)
• Stablecoins — USDT and USDC (same-day, gas fees only)
• Bitcoin & Ethereum — same-day, network fees only
• Rise — instant e-wallet, available in 100+ countries