// after the breach
The dashboard says failed, the fee is gone, and you are somewhere between furious and numb. This page is not going to tell you it is fine. It is going to walk through what mechanically happened, the one autopsy worth doing before you spend another dollar, and what to change so attempt two is not a rerun of attempt one.
Your equity crossed a floor. That is the whole event. Either your account dipped past the daily loss line for that trading day, or it fell through the maximum drawdown floor. The firm's server watches both continuously, open positions included, and the moment equity touches the line the account is closed. There is no review, no appeal, and recovering later in the day does not undo it.
The fee is not coming back under standard terms. That money bought the attempt, and the attempt is over. Some firms offer a free retry under specific conditions, so read your firm's exact rules before assuming either way. If you are not sure which floor got you, or how close you were running all along, the breach calculator shows the arithmetic on your numbers.
Right now there are two urges, and they are the same urge wearing different clothes. One says buy the next challenge immediately. The other says open your personal account and win it back tonight. Both are the loss talking. The mechanism is documented in addiction research as chasing losses: the loss itself creates the urge for the next bet, and it peaks in the minutes and hours right after, exactly when your judgment is at its worst.
There is no deadline on you. Challenges do not sell out. The only decision that benefits from being made tonight is the decision to not decide anything expensive tonight. If the urge to get it back is loud right now, read how to stop revenge trading first. It is the same wiring.
Here is the uncomfortable question that saves the next fee: did your strategy fail, or did one trade kill the account?
Most breaches are not thirty bad trades grinding an account down. They are one position sized far beyond normal, or one chase session after a loser, usually late in the day, usually within an hour. Pull up the day you breached and look at the last three trades: their size against your normal size, and the minutes between them. If the account died fast, your edge was probably never the problem. The exit from your own rules was.
That distinction decides everything about attempt two. A strategy problem means back to testing. A discipline problem means the same strategy with a structure that holds when you cannot.
Run the trade that killed the accountSix questions · no signup · see which gate would have stopped itGet the verdictWhatever you change, decide it on a calm day and make it something that does not rely on you being calm later. Four changes cover most breaches:
You can hold those rules in your head, where the version of you that breached the last account also lives. Or you can put them somewhere that does not renegotiate under pressure.
Put the rules outside your headAll eight gates free on your own setups · no card · built for exactly thisCreate your free accountProp firms earn their margin on failed attempts, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is the deal both sides signed. But it means the reset button is always one click away, always discounted somewhere, and always more appealing the worse you feel. Buy the next attempt when your plan has changed, not when the sting is loudest. The firm will still be there next week. The question worth sitting with is whether the same trader is showing up to the new account.
Do I get my challenge fee back?
Under standard terms, no. The fee bought the attempt and the breach ended it. Some firms offer a free retry under specific conditions, so read your firm's rules before paying for a fresh one.
Should I buy the next challenge straight away?
The urge to buy right now is the same mechanism as revenge trading. There is no deadline, and an attempt bought in the first hour after a breach is usually funded by frustration rather than a changed plan.
Was it my strategy or one trade?
Look at the size and timing of the final two or three trades. If the account died in under an hour on outsized positions, the strategy probably was not the problem. The exit from your own rules was.
Can software stop me breaching the next one?
Software can enforce the rules you set while calm: a daily loss line below the firm's, a cooling-off after losses, a hard cap on risk per trade. That is what EXIT CODE does. It cannot make a strategy profitable, and nothing here is a promise you will pass.