Prohibited trading strategies include:
Taking advantage of unrealistic prices or trade opportunities, such as exploiting mispricing or front-running price feeds
Latency trading
Arbitrage trading
High-frequency trading
Reverse trading/group hedging
Position spamming
Group trading/signal following
Additionally, account management services are not allowed: all accounts and trades must be handled by the trader whose name is on the account.
Remember, if you are aiming to secure a qualified analyst account of up to $200,000, taking these rules seriously is essential. Invest the time to understand the rules, objectives, and requirements thoroughly.
More on Position Spamming
What is position spamming?
Position spamming refers to intentionally splitting the intended exposure for a single trade idea across multiple separate positions within a short period of time.
For example, rather than executing an intended 3-lot position as one 3-lot trade or two 1.5-lot trades, a trader may instead open three 1-lot positions, each opened within 60 seconds of the previous one, which is not permitted.
Why do we have this rule?
The purpose of this rule is not to restrict genuine trading strategies or prevent traders from scaling into positions. It is designed to maintain a fair and realistic execution environment for all traders.
When the total intended exposure for one trade idea is divided into numerous smaller orders and submitted at effectively the same time and price, each smaller position may be processed separately rather than representing the trader's complete intended exposure.
In live market conditions, available liquidity at a particular price is not unlimited. A trader requesting execution for a larger position may therefore experience different fills, partial fills or slippage depending on the liquidity available.
By separating one larger intended position into numerous smaller orders, the execution may not fairly represent how the trader's complete exposure would have been filled as a single larger order. It may also negatively affect the fair representation of execution for other traders requesting fills at the same price and time, particularly where those traders are submitting their full intended exposure as larger positions.
For this reason, we ask traders to consolidate their intended exposure where reasonably possible. This helps ensure that execution remains consistent, realistic and fair across the trading environment.
How do we identify position spamming?
To ensure the policy is applied consistently and transparently:
1-2 positions: Our recommended approach for executing the overall intended exposure of a single trade idea.
Scaling into a position: This is permitted. Where a trader wishes to add further exposure, we recommend allowing at least a one-minute interval from the previously executed position on the same asset.
3 or more positions, each opened within 60 seconds of the previous one: This will be classified as position spamming where the positions form part of the same intended exposure or trade idea.
The number of positions is considered alongside the overall execution pattern and trading context. The purpose of the policy is to identify intentional position splitting, rather than penalise genuine trade management or reasonable scaling.
Example of position spamming
A trader intends to take a total 3-lot position on NAS100.
Preferred execution: 1 × 3.0 lots - ✓
Preferred execution: 2 × 1.5 lots - ✓
Both approaches reasonably represent the trader's overall intended exposure.
Scaling into a position (permitted): 1.5 lots, then a further 1.5 lots more than one minute later - ✓
Execution that will be considered position spamming: 3 × 1.0 lots, each opened within 60 seconds of the previous one, as part of the same trade idea - ✗
The third position is opened 63 seconds after the first, but only 59 seconds after the second. Each position is measured against the previous one, so all three form a single chain.
Although the trader's total exposure remains 3 lots in each example, dividing that exposure across numerous rapidly submitted orders can result in a different representation of execution compared with submitting the intended exposure together.
Our objective
This policy is designed to encourage realistic execution practices while maintaining a fair and consistent simulated trading environment for everyone.
We fully recognise that traders may legitimately scale into positions or adjust their exposure as a trade develops. The policy is therefore not intended to prevent position scaling or normal trade management.
We simply ask that where a trader has already determined their intended exposure for a single trade idea, that exposure is not unnecessarily divided across numerous positions executed in rapid succession.
What happens if I violate any of these rules?
Alpha Capital Group holds the right to enforce strict consequences in the event of a policy violation:
Alpha Capital Group reserves the right to terminate agreements immediately in the event of any breach by the trader.
The profits from invalid trades, or the entire profits from that payout window (depending on the type of breach), will be removed, and the remaining payout will be postponed.
All passed evaluations are subject to review, and traders found guilty of policy ignorance or abuse will not advance to the Qualified phase.