Contents
- Getting an account
- The two tracks
- Standard: the plans
- Standard: sizes and fees
- The two limits
- Passing an evaluation
- Upgrades
- The funded account
- The profit split ladder
- Payouts, step by step
- Fee Back
- Intraday: how a sprint works
- Intraday: sizes, windows and fees
- Intraday: multipliers and published odds
- The Free Trial
- Prohibited activity
- Breaches, resets and appeals
- Identity and eligibility
- Changes to this rulebook
1. Getting an account
Northbook issues accounts manually. There is no self-service checkout. You submit your details through Request access, we review them, and if you are eligible we contact you by email with the next step.
Review covers identity, jurisdiction and sanctions screening. We may decline an application without giving a reason. Nothing is charged, and no account opens, until we offer one and you accept it.
2. The two tracks
Northbook runs two separate products. They share an account and an identity check, and nothing else.
| Standard | Intraday | |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | A funded account with a profit split | A fixed payout on a fixed clock |
| You pay | A one-time evaluation fee | A ticket fee per sprint |
| Time limit | None | 1, 2, 4 or 8 hours |
| Upside | 80% → 90% of profit, repeatedly | Ticket fee × 2, 5 or 10, once |
| If you fail | Reset at a flat fee | The ticket closes, nothing further owed |
Neither track requires a deposit and neither can put you into debt. Both are simulated environments priced against live venue data.
3. Standard: the plans
Three plans. They differ only in how much room you get and how many phases you clear.
| Plan | Phases | Profit target | Max daily loss | Max drawdown | Split |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Step Alpha | One | 9% | 3% | 3% static | 80% → 90% earned |
| 1-Step | One | 10% | 3% | 5% static | 80% → 90% earned |
| 2-Step | Two | 8% then 5% | 4% | 8% static | 80% → 90% earned |
1-Step Alpha is the cheapest way in and the tightest to trade. 1-Step is the middle ground: one phase, more room. 2-Step gives the most room of the three, at the cost of clearing two phases.
4. Standard: sizes and fees
Five account sizes. The fee is one-time and covers the entire evaluation, however long it takes.
| Size | 1-Step Alpha | 1-Step | 2-Step |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5,000 | $35 | $65 | $60 |
| $10,000 | $70 | $125 | $110 |
| $25,000 | $160 | $290 | $260 |
| $50,000 | $300 | $550 | $480 |
| $100,000 | $550 | $1,000 | $900 |
These are list prices. A launch discount of 35% is currently applied to every challenge fee; it changes the price and nothing else about the rules.
5. The two limits
The whole rulebook is two numbers. Stay inside both and you cannot fail.
Maximum daily loss
Measured on end-of-day equity against the previous day's closing balance, resetting at 00:00 UTC. Open positions count: unrealised losses are included at the daily close. On a $100,000 1-Step, a 3% daily loss limit is $3,000.
Maximum drawdown
Static. It is set from your starting balance when the account opens and it never moves. It does not trail your equity, so profit you make becomes buffer that is yours to keep, rather than something that drags the floor up behind you.
6. Passing an evaluation
Reach the profit target for your plan without touching either limit. On the 2-Step, clear 8% in phase one and 5% in phase two; the limits are identical in both phases.
There is no review queue and no minimum number of days. The account promotes automatically once the target prints. You do not submit anything, and nobody at Northbook approves it by hand.
7. Upgrades
Optional add-ons chosen when the account is issued. Each paid upgrade costs 50% of the base challenge fee. They change one line of the rules each; everything else stays identical.
| Upgrade | Effect | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Split 90 | 90% profit split from day one | Instead of starting at 80% and earning up to 90% |
| Room+ | A wider static drawdown floor | Alpha 3→4% · 1-Step 5→7% · 2-Step 8→9% |
| Fee Back | 100% of your challenge fee back with your first payout | Free during launch. See section 11. |
Upgrades are fixed at purchase. They cannot be added to a running account, and they do not carry across to a reset.
8. The funded account
The funded account carries the same two limits as the evaluation, with no additional conditions. Your split starts at 80% unless you took Split 90.
Funded accounts are simulated environments mirroring live venue pricing. Northbook manages the firm's market exposure separately. You are not trading the firm's book directly, you do not owe money on a losing account, and you cannot lose more than the fee you paid.
9. The profit split ladder
The split begins at 80% and is earned up to 90% through sustained performance on the funded account. The ladder is a function of results over time, not of buying anything, and it never moves backwards once a step is reached.
Split 90 buys the top of that ladder immediately. It does not raise the ceiling above 90%.
10. Payouts, step by step
Request a payout at any time. There is no minimum holding period, no minimum number of trading days, and no cap on how often you withdraw.
- All open positions close at market. The estimate you see includes unrealised profit and loss.
- The account freezes. No trading until settlement confirms.
- The books settle. A final equity snapshot is taken and the split is applied.
- A smart contract pays your share in USDC to the wallet on your account. Execution is on-chain, not desk approval, and every settlement leaves a public transaction hash.
- The account resumes at its base balance, usually within a minute.
You are responsible for supplying a correct wallet address. On-chain transfers cannot be reversed, and settled payouts are never clawed back.
11. Fee Back
Fee Back returns 100% of your challenge fee with your first payout, paid as a bonus on top of your profit share rather than deducted from it. It covers the challenge fee only, not upgrades or add-ons. It is free during launch.
12. Intraday: how a sprint works
Intraday is a fixed-payout product, not a funded account. You buy a ticket, and if you reach the target before the clock or the max loss, you are paid the ticket fee multiplied by your chosen multiplier.
- The ticket opens immediately once paid. The clock has not started.
- Your first fill starts the clock. Nothing counts before it, so there is no penalty for waiting for a setup.
- Reach the target before the clock expires or the max loss is hit. The ticket closes either way.
- A pass pays out in USDC in under five minutes, or converts to Standard credit at +10% of its value.
There is no profit split on Intraday and no funded account at the end of it. A losing ticket costs the ticket fee and nothing more.
13. Intraday: sizes, windows and fees
Four sizes and four time windows. The ticket fee depends on both.
| Size | 1 hour | 2 hours | 4 hours | 8 hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $30 | $40 | $50 | $60 |
| $25,000 | $75 | $100 | $125 | $150 |
| $50,000 | $150 | $200 | $250 | $300 |
| $100,000 | $300 | $400 | $500 | $600 |
14. Intraday: multipliers and published odds
The multiplier sets your payout and, with it, how hard the target is. We publish the modelled pass rate and the break-even rate for each one, because a fixed-odds product that hides its edge is not one you should trade.
| Multiplier | Payout | Target (1h → 8h) | Max loss (1h → 8h) | Modelled pass rate | Break-even rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2× | Fee × 2 | 0.60% → 1.20% | 0.30% → 0.60% | 33.3% | 50.0% |
| 5× | Fee × 5 | 1.50% → 3.00% | 0.24% → 0.40% | 11.8–13.8% | 20.0% |
| 10× | Fee × 10 | 3.13% → 5.01% | 0.20% → 0.32% | 6.0% | 10.0% |
15. The Free Trial
A $5,000 simulated account, no fee, available on request. It runs the 1-Step rules: 10% target, 3% max daily loss, 5% static drawdown. There is no profit split, no payout and no funding at the end of it. It exists so you can test the platform and the rules before applying.
16. Prohibited activity
These are on the list because they extract money from a simulated price feed rather than from the market. They are the only behaviours we act on.
- Latency or feed arbitrage. Exploiting a quote that is stale relative to the underlying venue.
- Group or copy trading. Coordinating positions across accounts, or trading opposite sides across accounts to harvest the split.
- Cross-account hedging. Holding offsetting positions in the same instrument across two or more Northbook accounts.
- Identity misuse. Using another person's identity, wallet or funds to open or operate an account, or operating more than one account.
- Exploiting a defect. Using a bug in pricing, execution or accounting rather than reporting it.
This list is exhaustive and published so it can be checked. We do not close accounts for being profitable, for trading quickly, for using an API, for scalping, for holding through news, or for winning too often. None of those are on this list and none will be added quietly.
17. Breaches, resets and appeals
Breaching either limit ends that evaluation. You may reset and start again at a published flat rate: the same price every day of the year, with no urgency pricing and no countdown.
Where we believe an account breached section 16, we freeze it, tell you specifically what we observed, and give you an opportunity to respond before any final decision. Payouts already settled on-chain are not reversed.
18. Identity and eligibility
You must be at least 18, legally able to enter a contract, and resident in a jurisdiction we can serve. Identity verification is required before a payout is released, and the verified name must match the account.
We screen against applicable sanctions lists and may decline or close an account where we are legally required to.
19. Changes to this rulebook
Each account is stamped with the rulebook version in force when it was issued, and that version governs the account for its life. Changes apply to accounts opened afterwards. Material changes are announced by email.
Questions about anything here: desk@northbook.com.