How to Pass The5ers $100K High Stakes (Step-by-Step From Someone Who Did It)

The High Stakes plan has these rules at the time of writing. Confirm with The5ers since plans change.

• Profit target. 8% (Phase 1), 5% (Phase 2)
• Maximum daily drawdown. 5%
• Maximum overall drawdown. 10%
• Minimum trading days. None
• News trading. Allowed
• Weekend holds. Allowed
• Time limit. 60 days for Phase 1, 60 days for Phase 2

The two numbers that kill traders are the daily drawdown (5%) and the overall (10%). On a $100K account, that's $5,000 daily and $10,000 total. Sounds like a lot until you risk 1% per trade and lose three in a row. That's $3,000. One bad day and you're halfway to your daily limit.

The single biggest mistake on High Stakes is over-risking. Most traders coming from retail accounts are used to 1% to 2% per trade. On a prop firm challenge with a 5% daily and 10% overall drawdown, that math breaks.

Here's what I used.

• Risk per trade: 0.5% of account. $500 on a $100K account.
• Maximum daily loss: 1.5%. $1,500. Three losing trades and I'm done for the day.
• Stop trading after 1 win on any day where I'm up 2R+. Lock the win, walk away.

At 0.5% risk per trade with a 1:3 reward target, each winner makes 1.5%. To hit the 8% Phase 1 target, I need ~6 winners over the entire phase. With a 50% win rate, that's 12 trades. With a 60% win rate (where my historical performance lands), that's 10 trades. The 1% rule explained with math goes deeper into why this works.

You don't have the budget for B-grade setups during a challenge. C-grade setups are how you blow it.

I trade support and resistance. That's the whole framework. Other traders use FVG, order blocks, or smart money concepts; those frameworks work for the people who use them, but my edge is in clean S/R levels and how price reacts to them. An A-grade setup for me has all of these.

• Higher timeframe S/R levels. Daily and 4H charts both show a clear support or resistance zone where price has reacted at least twice before. The more historical reactions, the stronger the level.
• Price arriving at the level fresh. Not after grinding sideways for hours. Clean approach with momentum into the zone.
• Reaction at the level. A clear rejection wick, an engulfing candle, or a structure shift on the 15m or 5m. Without confirmation I sit on my hands.
• Session timing. Trigger during the NY session window (8 AM to noon ET) when liquidity is highest. NY session times covers why this matters.
• Risk-reward 1:3 minimum. Stop goes beyond the level (where the level is invalidated), target is the next major S/R zone. If math says 1:2 or worse, I skip.

If a setup is missing any of these, I don't take it. Period. The discipline to skip a B-grade setup is what separates funded traders from blown accounts.

Three rules I never break, even when I'm tempted.

• If I lose two trades in a row, I'm done for the day. No revenge trades. Revenge trading is the most reliable way to blow a challenge.
• If I hit -2R on any single trade due to slippage or news, I'm done for the day. Big losses cluster. One unexpected loss usually means I'm off-read on the market.
• If I win 2R+ on the first trade, I take 50% off and trail the rest. Don't give back the win.

These rules feel artificial when you're hot. They're what keep an account alive through the bad days. The High Stakes time limit is 60 days. That means you have 60+ chances to be in the market. You don't need to win today.

I've seen enough funded traders fail to know the patterns.

• Trading the open. The 9:30 AM ET equity open is volatile, news-driven, and stops out clean setups. I wait until 9:45 minimum, often 10:00.
• Increasing size after a win streak. Wins make you confident. Confidence makes you reckless. Hold size constant through Phase 1.
• Trading XAUUSD without the right SL discipline. Gold moves big. A 0.5% risk on a 50-pip stop is a 0.10 lot. A 0.5% risk on a 200-pip stop is a 0.025 lot. Calculate first, place second. Use the lot size calculator for every trade.
• Chasing the target on the last week. If you're at +6% on day 50, don't force the last 2%. Reset and try again on a fresh challenge if needed. Forcing it is how you turn a +6% week into a -10% week.
• Skipping the journal. If you don't track your trades, you don't learn. Use a free journal from day one.

Once Phase 2 is done, you receive the funded account email within a few business days. From there:

• Profit split. Starts at 80% on the funded account. Scales to 90% with the High Stakes program.
• Withdrawals. No fixed payout cycle on most plans. Request when you have profit. Reliable processing in my experience.
• Scaling. Hit 10% profit and the account scales by 25% (so $100K becomes $125K). Repeat indefinitely.
• Rules on the funded account. Same drawdown rules apply (5% daily, 10% overall). The framework that got you here is the framework that keeps you here.

The hardest part is keeping discipline once the account is real. The same rules that pass a challenge keep a funded account alive. If you want me to walk you through it live during NY, that's what my mentorship Discord is for.