Instant Funding: HFT (≤60s), arbitrage, grid; martingale partly allowed
▶Instant Funding Banned Strategies: The 60-Second Rule That Voids — 48s explainer, decoded by FundedWiki
Prohibited: HFT (holding trades ≤60 seconds), latency/reverse/account arbitrage, gap trading, toxic order flow, tick scalping, grid trading, reverse/group hedging, one-sided gambling and day-padding. Martingale is ALLOWED on challenges, Micro and IF1; on the flagship you may add to losers but cannot continuously double lot sizes. Risk-per-trade caps also apply (~50% of the daily drawdown; flagship 3% of starting balance).
The gotcha
Martingale is unusually allowed — but on the flagship you can't keep doubling, and any trade held ≤60s counts as banned HFT.
What happens if you break it
Breaching this voids the account outright — the evaluation or funded account is terminated and any unrealised profit is forfeited. It's the most severe class of breach.
The numbers
| hftUnder | 60s |
| martingale | ALLOWED (no doubling on flagship) |
| forbidden | ["arbitrage","grid","group_hedging"] |
Source: support — official page . Confidence: verified.
How other prop firms handle prohibited strategies
Instant Funding's hft (≤60s), arbitrage, grid; martingale partly allowed is one approach. Here's how the rest of the field treats prohibited strategies — sorted by how hard a breach hits.
| Firm | Rule | If breached |
|---|---|---|
| Apex Trader Funding | No automation, HFT, hedging or exploitation | Voids account |
| AquaFunded | Tick scalping, HFT, arbitrage, gambling | Voids account |
| ATFunded | HFT, arbitrage, group hedging (pre-pause) | Voids account |
| Atmos Funded | Arbitrage, latency, cross-account hedging | Voids account |
| Audacity Capital | HFT, tick scalping, hedging, martingale, grid | Voids account |
| Blue Guardian | HFT, arbitrage, sub-2-minute scalping | Voids account |
| Blueberry Futures | Hedging, HFT, DCA cap, one-sided bets | Voids account |
| Breakout | Latency exploit, strategy switching, account sharing | Voids account |
| BrightFunded | Hedging rule | Voids account |
| City Traders Imperium | HFT, latency arbitrage, gap exploitation | Voids account |
| Crypto Fund Trader | Reverse-trade rule, HFT, arbitrage, martingale | Voids account |
| Finotive Funding | Hedging, arbitrage, gambling, late-night scalping | Voids account |
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Informational only — not financial advice, not affiliated with Instant Funding. Verify against official terms before relying on this. Last reviewed Jun 5, 2026.
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