Everything you need to know about the Free 8K Promotion account.

What is this account?

The Free 8K Promotion is a two-phase simulated evaluation account. You get $8,000 in virtual capital to trade with. If you complete both phases without breaching the rules, you become eligible to request a performance payout. There is no entry fee — it is yours for free when you qualify through the claim process.

Phase targets at a glance

The 30-day phase clock

Your phase clock starts the moment you place your first trade — not when your account is activated, and not when you log in. From that day you have exactly 30 calendar days to hit the profit target and complete the minimum valid trading days. Weekends count as calendar days even though you cannot trade on them. If 30 days pass without completing the phase, the account is considered failed whether you made progress or not. This rule applies to both Phase 1 and Phase 2.

What is a valid trading day?

Not every day you trade automatically counts as a valid trading day. For a day to count toward your minimum of four valid days, you must close that calendar day with a net gain of at least 1% on the $8,000 account — that is $80 or more in profit on that specific day. Days where you break even, finish flat, or finish at a loss do not count, even if you were active.

The 50% margin rule — explained simply

Margin is the deposit your broker holds as collateral when you open a trade. Free margin is what remains available after that deposit. The rule is simple: at no point should your free margin fall below 50% of your total margin. In plain language — you cannot use more than half of your available margin at once. This is the firm's way of preventing over-leveraged positions that could wipe an account in a single trade. If you open too many trades at once or use very high lot sizes, your free margin can drop below this 50% threshold.

• Open fewer trades simultaneously if you are unsure.
• Lower your lot sizes — bigger is not always better.
• The system may issue a warning strike for a first violation.
• A second strike may still not breach the account, but a third violation can.
• The safest habit is to keep more breathing room than you think you need.

Drawdown rules — how you breach

There are two drawdown limits you must respect every single trading session. Breaching either one immediately fails the account.

• Daily drawdown: You cannot lose more than $320 (4% of $8,000) in a single calendar day. If your equity drops that far, your account is breached for the day regardless of current open positions.
• Maximum drawdown: Your total losses from the starting balance cannot exceed $800 (10%). This is a rolling balance check — the account is breached if cumulative losses hit this level at any point.
• Both limits apply from the very start — not just after you reach the profit target.

Weekend trading — not allowed

The Free 8K account does not allow weekend trading. All positions must be closed before the market closes on Friday. Leaving trades open over the weekend is a rule violation and may result in a strike or breach. Weekend gap risk is one of the most common reasons traders lose accounts they were close to passing — the rule protects you as much as it protects the firm.

Instruments you can and cannot trade

The Free 8K account is designed for forex and selected instruments supported by the OpenBook Terminal. Cryptocurrency instruments are not permitted on this account. If you are unsure whether a specific instrument is supported, check inside the OpenBook trading terminal before trading it.

• Forex pairs: Allowed.
• Commodities (where available on the terminal): Allowed.
• Indices (where available): Allowed.
• Cryptocurrency instruments: Not allowed on this account type.

Strategies and behaviors that breach your account

These are hard prohibitions. Any of the following can fail the account immediately or result in all phase results being invalidated:

• News trading: Opening or closing a trade within a restricted window around high-impact economic news events.
• High-frequency trading (HFT): Opening and closing many trades within seconds, regardless of profit or loss.
• Bots and expert advisors (EAs): Any automated strategy that opens or manages trades without manual input.
• Copy trading and signal copying: Mirroring another account's positions or using external signals to enter trades.
• Minimum trade duration: All trades must be open for at least 30 seconds. Trades closed faster are flagged for review.
• Account sharing: Allowing another person to trade or access your account. All trades must come from the registered account holder.
• Martingale and grid strategies: Stacking progressively larger positions to recover losses. These produce unstable risk curves and are not permitted.
• Toxic execution behavior: Exploiting price feed delays, spread anomalies, platform errors, or unusual market conditions to generate artificial profits.

What happens when you complete Phase 2

When you hit Phase 2's 4% profit target with at least four valid trading days completed, the account moves into a funded account review. This review takes 24 to 48 hours. During this window, your account remains live — data keeps syncing and the same risk rules still apply.

The funded phase — trading continues

After the review is approved, your account advances to the funded phase. You keep trading. The same daily drawdown (4%), maximum drawdown (10%), margin requirement (50% free), and minimum trade duration (30 seconds) all apply. The important difference for the free account in funded phase: there is no 30-day calendar deadline. The phase clock that ran during Phase 1 and Phase 2 no longer applies.

• Same 4% daily drawdown limit — still active.
• Same 10% maximum drawdown limit — still active.
• Same 50% free margin requirement — still active.
• No weekend trading — still prohibited.
• No crypto instruments — still prohibited.
• No 30-day calendar deadline — the phase clock does not reset or run in funded phase.

Payout eligibility — 14-day funded wait

Once your funded phase begins, a 14-day countdown starts automatically. After 14 days, your account becomes eligible to request a payout. You request the payout through the dashboard, subject to trading behavior review, identity verification, and compliance approval. On the Free 8K account, this payout is a one-time event: the maximum eligible amount is $200, and you receive 80% of that — about $160. The moment you submit the payout request, the funded account automatically closes. There is no second 14-day cycle and no repeat payout on a free account — this differs from Gravity 2 Step and Pay After Pass, where funded accounts keep trading on ongoing 14-day payout cycles instead of closing after one payout.

What happens if you breach

If the account is breached at any point — during Phase 1, Phase 2, or the funded phase — through drawdown, a margin violation, an expired phase clock (Phase 1 and 2 only), or a rule violation, the account is immediately write-locked. You cannot place new trades. Gravity retains your trading data for seven days to allow for any review or dispute. After those seven days, all trading records are permanently deleted. The account will still appear in your dashboard showing the account number and size, but all balance and trade data is cleared.