AquaFunded Rules 2026: Payouts, Drawdown, Automation

AquaFunded doesn’t run one rulebook. It runs several, and which one applies to you depends on which account model you bought. That single fact causes more confusion than the drawdown math itself. A trader reading a forum post about “AquaFunded’s trailing drawdown” might be on a static-drawdown model and not know it until they’ve already broken a rule they didn’t think existed.

This post covers what AquaFunded’s help center says about drawdown, payouts, and the question PickMyTrade gets asked constantly: can you automate execution or run a trade copier on an AquaFunded account, and does that change between your own accounts versus someone else’s?

Key Takeaways
• AquaFunded’s drawdown rule depends on the model: 2-Step Standard uses a static 8% cap, 2-Step Pro trails at 10%, Instant Standard trails at 3% of your highest balance, and 1-Step Flex mixes a static 12% max with a 3% trailing daily limit.
• Profit split is 90% by default across models, upgradeable to 100% at checkout; payouts run bi-weekly (every 14 days), with a paid add-on for a 7-day first payout.
• AquaFunded’s help center explicitly allows EAs and trade copiers, and permits copy trading between a trader’s own funded, evaluation, and external accounts.
• [ORIGINAL DATA] AquaFunded says it has paid out more than $8M to over 300,000 traders, per its own site.
• AquaFutures, the firm’s futures-focused sister brand, lost its ProjectX-based execution path in early 2026, which matters if you’re planning TradingView automation on the futures side.

What Is AquaFunded, and How Does It Actually Work?

AquaFunded is a proprietary trading firm selling access to simulated, and eventually live, trading capital across forex, indices, crypto, and futures. Marketing runs through Aqua Funded FZCO in Dubai; the trading relationship sits with AquaFunded LTD, a Saint Lucia entity. You either pass a one-step or two-step evaluation, or buy an “instant funding” account and skip evaluation entirely.

Under the hood, it’s a menu, not one product: Instant Standard, Instant Pro, 1-Step Standard, 1-Step Pro, 1-Step Flex, 2-Step Standard, 2-Step Pro, 3-Step, and AquaMan, each with its own drawdown mechanic and cost. [UNIQUE INSIGHT] Reviews describing “AquaFunded’s rules” as a single set are almost always describing one model, not the firm.

AquaFunded operates as a multi-product prop firm, not a single rule set. Marketing is handled by Aqua Funded FZCO in Dubai, while the trading relationship runs through AquaFunded LTD in Saint Lucia. Traders choose among nine-plus account models, each carrying its own drawdown type, profit target, and cost, before any evaluation begins.

Is AquaFunded’s Drawdown Trailing or Static?

Here’s what matters before you buy an account, not after. A trailing drawdown moves up with your highest balance and never drops back, so a good week permanently raises your floor. A static drawdown stays fixed to your starting balance, more forgiving after a strong run but a hard line from day one. Neither is objectively “safer.” It depends on how you trade.

AquaFunded doesn’t pick one. Pulling directly from its own help center for four of the account models (Instant Standard, 1-Step Flex, 2-Step Standard, 2-Step Pro):

1-Step Flex isn’t purely one or the other; it pairs a fixed 12% ceiling with a daily limit that trails, a hybrid most reviews gloss over. Don’t assume a model’s name tells you the mechanic. Check the specific model page before funding it.

AquaFunded’s drawdown rule isn’t fixed firm-wide. The 2-Step Standard model uses a static 8% cap from your starting balance, while 2-Step Pro trails 10% off your highest balance or equity. Instant Standard trails at 3%, and 1-Step Flex blends a static 12% ceiling with a 3% trailing daily limit, a mechanic worth checking model-by-model, not firm-wide.

How Much Do AquaFunded Payouts Actually Pay, and How Often?

Across the models checked, AquaFunded’s baseline profit split is 90%, with a paid add-on bumping it to 100%. Payouts run bi-weekly by default, every 14 days, and a separate paid add-on moves the first payout up to 7 days. Some models also carry a consistency rule; 2-Step Pro terms note that for accounts purchased on or after August 31, 2026, no single trading day can account for 50% or more of total profit in a payout period.

On its own homepage, AquaFunded states it has paid out more than $8 million to over 300,000 traders, with an average reward of $2,450 and a reported highest individual payout of $119,175. [ORIGINAL DATA] Those figures come from AquaFunded’s own marketing page, not an independent audit. Treat them as a company-reported claim, the same caveat that applies to nearly every prop firm’s “total paid out” number.

If you’re comparing AquaFunded’s payout terms against other firms, PickMyTrade’s supported prop firms list is a reasonable starting point.

AquaFunded’s standard profit split is 90%, upgradeable to 100% at checkout, with payouts processed bi-weekly and an optional 7-day first-payout add-on. The firm claims over $8M paid out to 300,000+ traders on its own site, a self-reported figure rather than an independently audited one.

Does AquaFunded Allow Automated Trading, EAs, and Trade Copiers?

Short answer: yes. AquaFunded’s help center article on EAs and trade copiers states plainly, “Yes, EAs are allowed, provided they are used as part of your own personal trading strategy,” and adds that “trade copiers are also permitted if you are using them to manage your own AquaFunded accounts.” Neither tool needs pre-approval. The catch matches manual trading: whatever the EA or copier does still has to stay inside AquaFunded’s drawdown, daily loss, and consistency rules. An automated system that blows through a daily limit closes the account exactly like a human would.

What AquaFunded restricts, regardless of who or what places the trade, are specific execution methods: tick scalping, high-frequency trading, latency arbitrage, hedge arbitrage, and reverse arbitrage. Trades held under roughly two minutes risk getting flagged as tick scalping. That’s a strategy restriction, not an automation ban.

Platforms like PickMyTrade exist for prop firm traders not to get around a no-automation rule, but because AquaFunded, and most firms in this space, never had one. The restriction sits on execution patterns risk teams treat as exploiting the funding model, not on automation itself. PickMyTrade’s guide on prop firms built for trading automation covers this pattern across other firms.

AquaFunded’s help center permits EAs and trade copiers outright: “EAs are allowed, provided they are used as part of your own personal trading strategy,” and copiers are “permitted if you are using them to manage your own AquaFunded accounts.” The restriction sits on execution style (tick scalping, HFT, arbitrage), not on automation itself.

Can You Copy Trades Between Your Own Multiple AquaFunded Accounts?

This is the question PickMyTrade’s support desk hears most from AquaFunded traders running several accounts at once. The answer is a qualified yes. AquaFunded’s copy-trading article states copying is allowed “at our client’s disposal and only from personal accounts that are legally bound to the account holder,” permitting copying between AquaFunded accounts, funded to evaluation and back, and between an AquaFunded account and an external account.

[PERSONAL EXPERIENCE] That “legally bound to the account holder” line is doing the real work. It’s how AquaFunded separates a trader running one strategy across their own three accounts (allowed) from execution feeding someone else’s account, whether informal signal-sharing or a paid service. To be direct about the limits of this research: AquaFunded’s help center doesn’t use the phrase “signal-selling,” and doesn’t spell out a separate policy for copying execution to other people’s accounts for a fee. It only states one condition: copied-to accounts must legally belong to the account holder. Anything beyond your own accounts is a gap worth closing directly with AquaFunded’s support, not something to infer from an article written for a different question.

One wrinkle for futures traders: AquaFunded’s futures-focused sister brand, AquaFutures, ran execution through ProjectX through late 2025. Per a third-party platform breakdown, ProjectX went exclusive to Topstep at the end of February 2026, pushing AquaFutures onto Volumetrica and Quantower, neither offering a Tradovate, Rithmic, or TradingView connection. That’s unconfirmed on AquaFunded’s own site as of this check, so verify with AquaFutures support before assuming a TradingView setup reaches a futures account there. It doesn’t affect AquaFunded’s CFD side, which runs on MatchTrade, TradeLocker, MT5, and cTrader.

For copying across multiple funded accounts more broadly, PickMyTrade has a walkthrough on copying trades across multiple prop firm accounts and a comparison of futures trade copier options.

AquaFunded permits copy trading only “from personal accounts that are legally bound to the account holder,” covering funded-to-evaluation and external-account copying. It does not separately name or address signal-selling to other traders; that scenario simply falls outside what the published policy covers.

What Happens If You Breach a Rule?

AquaFunded’s violation policy is blunt: “If you fail your evaluation or funded account at any stage, the account will be closed and all progress on that account will be lost.” There’s no retry on a single account. Worth noting: the same article says some violations “are not detected automatically and may only be confirmed during a manual account review by our risk team.” A breach doesn’t always trigger an instant shutdown; it can surface later, during a payout review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is AquaFunded’s drawdown trailing or static?

It depends on the model. 2-Step Standard uses a static 8% drawdown; 2-Step Pro and Instant Standard trail your highest balance at 10% and 3%; 1-Step Flex mixes a static 12% cap with a 3% trailing daily limit. Check your specific model’s page before funding it.

What profit split does AquaFunded offer?

90% is the default across the models checked, with a paid checkout add-on that raises it to 100%.

How often does AquaFunded pay out?

Bi-weekly, every 14 days, by default. A paid add-on moves the first payout to 7 days after your eligibility date instead.

Can I use an EA or trade copier on an AquaFunded account?

Yes. AquaFunded’s help center allows both, provided they serve your own trading strategy or manage your own accounts, and whatever they execute still respects AquaFunded’s drawdown, daily loss, and prohibited-strategy rules (no tick scalping, HFT, or arbitrage).

Can I copy trades between two AquaFunded accounts I own?

Yes, AquaFunded’s policy explicitly allows copying between your own funded, evaluation, and external accounts, provided all accounts are legally tied to you as the account holder. It does not address copying to accounts that aren’t yours.

Is AquaFunded the same company as AquaFutures?

They’re part of the same group. AquaFunded covers forex, indices, and crypto; AquaFutures, launched in November 2024, is the futures-specific division. Platform access differs between the two, so rules and execution paths that apply to one side don’t automatically apply to the other.

For the platform-level view of what AquaFunded supports for automated execution, see PickMyTrade’s AquaFunded FAQ. Rules and figures in this post were checked directly against AquaFunded’s help center and homepage on September 4, 2026; prop firm terms change often, so confirm current numbers on AquaFunded’s own site before funding an account.