Minimum Hold Time
Also known as: minimum trade duration, holding time rule, no-scalping rule, trade duration minimum
What is it?
A minimum hold time is a rule setting how long a position must stay open to count as a valid trade - anything closed faster is voided, stripped of its profit, or treated as a breach. Thresholds of 30 seconds, 60 seconds and two minutes are the common ones. Under a 60-second rule, a EUR/USD long opened at 09:31:04 and closed at 09:31:38 lasted 34 seconds, so its $180 gain is removed when the account is reviewed - the losing trades of the same length usually stay.
| A winning trade | Time open | Under a 60-second rule | Counts toward trading days? |
|---|---|---|---|
| +$180 on EUR/USD | 34 seconds | Profit removed | No |
| +$95 on EUR/USD | 65 seconds | Kept | Yes |
| +$310 on XAU/USD | 26 minutes | Kept | Yes |
| +$120 on GBP/USD | 17 seconds | Profit removed | No |
The rule frequently reaches further than the profit, too: a sub-threshold trade often does not count toward your minimum trading days, and at some firms a large enough share of them counts as a breach of the whole account rather than a per-trade adjustment. The reason is that the fastest closes are not usually a trading edge on a real book. They are latency and feed arbitrage, tick scalping against a demo price, and news-spike grabs - results the firm cannot hedge and cannot reproduce with real capital behind them.
The practical consequence is blunt: if your edge exits inside a minute, no amount of position sizing makes it compliant, so check the threshold before paying for the evaluation. Your capital is at risk. See /risk-warning.
Why it matters: Trades closed faster than the threshold can have their profit removed even when they won, and they often do not count toward your minimum trading days either.
It rules out the fastest execution styles completely and can strip profit from winning trades after the fact, while the losses of the same length still stand.
Real-world example
Under a 60-second rule, a EUR/USD long opened at 09:31:04 and closed at 09:31:38 lasts 34 seconds, so its $180 profit is removed from the account at review.
How SignalBots handles it
SignalBots signals carry a stop and a target rather than a scalp exit, so a position normally runs well past a 30 or 60 second threshold instead of tripping it. See /risk-warning.
Pro tip
If your edge closes trades inside a minute, check the threshold before buying the evaluation - a sub-threshold style cannot be resized into compliance.
Common pitfalls
Closing a fast winner manually to lock it in. The trade is voided at review, so the account keeps the risk it took but not the gain it made.
Frequently asked questions
Are losing trades voided too?
Usually not. Most firms remove the profit from sub-threshold winners and leave the losses in place, so the rule is asymmetric by design - it removes the benefit of the style without refunding its cost.
Does a stop-loss hit inside the window count?
It is generally treated as a valid exit because you did not choose the timing. The firms that do count it usually say so explicitly, so read whether the rule is about duration or about manual closes.
How is the hold time measured?
From the fill timestamp of the opening order to the fill timestamp of the closing one, on the firm's server clock. Partial closes are normally measured per fill, not on the position as a whole.
Can I still scalp on a funded account?
Scalping over minutes is fine at most firms; scalping over seconds is what the rule targets. If your average hold is close to the threshold, the distribution matters more than the average.
Do sub-threshold trades count toward minimum trading days?
Usually not, because they are not counted as qualifying trades at all. A day filled only with fast closes can therefore leave you short of the day requirement without any warning at the time.
Trading involves substantial risk of loss. Historical and backtested results do not guarantee future performance. Read the full risk warning.
