Rules First: the course

A short course for prop firm futures traders: know the rules you’re buying, size against what you can actually lose, write rules you can check, and read your own record honestly.

No strategy, no signals, no market calls. Try it first: lessons 1 to 3 are free, and so is Lesson 7, a sample from the paid part.

What you walk away with

• A one-page rulebook: your firm’s rules, your fixed risk per trade and your own trading rules, each one written so it can be checked yes or no.
• A trade log that reads itself back: not just a place to record trades. The Journal works out what your record supports so far: an estimated range for your win rate, your results by setup, and the dollar gap between trades that kept your rules and trades that broke them.
• A dated weekly review: which rule you keep, change or drop, and why, decided on your record rather than on your last trade.

See the Journal with a filled-in example before you buy.

What did breaking your rules cost you?

Your log answers it in dollars. You mark each trade “Followed rules?” Yes or No, against the rules you wrote down before the trade. The Journal shows the gap between your average Yes trade and your average No trade, times the number of No trades. It compares two groups; it can’t prove a rule break caused the whole gap. Lessons 6 and 7 show you how to log it and how to read it.

Do I need a course to tell me to read my firm’s rules?

No. Lesson 1 walks you through that, and it’s free. Reading the rules is the first day. The course is every day after it:

• Turning “trade well” into rules you can check. Yes or no, before each trade, not a feeling afterwards (lessons 4 and 5).
• Keeping a record you can actually read. Every trade logged the same way, including the ones you’d rather forget, and what 20 or 50 trades can and can’t tell you (lessons 6 and 7).
• Asking for a payout that clears. Qualifying days, consistency, the buffer, and how much room you have after it’s paid (Lesson 8).
• Changing a rule only when your record gives a reason. A weekly review with a date on it, so a bad week doesn’t rewrite your plan (Lesson 9).

The tools on the site answer one question at a time. The course turns the answers into a routine you run every week, and the Journal and Workbook are where that routine lives.

How it fits together

Four stages. Each one uses what the one before it produced.

1. Know the account (lessons 1–3): its rules, your odds on your own numbers, and one fixed risk per trade.
2. Write rules you can check (4–5): a one-page rulebook, checked before every trade.
3. Read your record honestly (6–7): a full trade log, and what it does and doesn’t prove.
4. Get paid, then improve (8–9): a payout request that clears, and a weekly review that changes a rule only on evidence.

Seven things the course works through

Each one with example numbers:

• “Careful” sizing that isn’t. Risking 0.5% of a $50,000 account is $250 a trade. Against a $2,000 drawdown, that’s 12.5% of what you can actually lose: eight losses and the account is gone.
• A winning trade that costs you room. Under an intraday trailing drawdown, a trade that runs to $800 and closes at $200 permanently takes $600 of your room.
• Losing the account without breaking the daily limit. Three losing days, each under the daily limit, can still close it. Each morning your real limit is the smaller of the daily limit and the room you have left.
• A big day that moves the finish line. At some firms, one $1,800 day on a 55% consistency cap raises a $3,000 target to $3,273 ($1,800 ÷ 0.55).
• A 60% win rate that proves nothing yet. 12 winners out of 20 is consistent with a true win rate anywhere from about 39% to 78% (95% Wilson interval), including a losing setup.
• The winners that broke a rule. They can be the most expensive trades in your log, because they teach you the rule doesn’t matter. The Journal shows them next to the trades that kept your rules.
• Deciding in advance when a setup is finished. You write the result that retires it before you have the results, so it can’t be talked round later.

What’s inside

• The course book (24-page PDF): ten short lessons. Each one teaches one thing, uses labelled example numbers, and ends with a tool and a “Done when”, so you do the work on your own numbers.
• The Rules Desk Journal (Excel / Google Sheets): a trade log that tells you what your record supports. It shows an estimated range for your win rate (a 95% Wilson interval, a well-established method for small samples), says “nothing yet” until you have enough trades, and splits results by setup. It also shows the dollar gap between trades that kept your rules and trades that broke them: the difference between the two groups’ average results, times the number of rule breaks. That’s a comparison, not proof of what caused it.
• The Rules Desk Workbook (18-page printable PDF): the rulebook worksheet, six before-and-after rule rewrites, trade cards and the weekly review sheet.

The ten lessons

0. What this course is, and isn’t
1. Know what you’re buying: the four rules to read before you buy an evaluation
2. The maths of the attempt: your odds of passing on the numbers you enter (a simulation, not a forecast), and what every attempt (evaluations, resets, fees) really costs
3. Size against what you can actually lose
4. Write rules you can check: three tests and six rewrites, like “Don’t overtrade” becoming “Two trades a session; the third isn’t allowed”
5. Check before you click, with the free Desk, the site’s pre-trade rules checker
6. Log every trade honestly
7. What your record proves, and what it doesn’t: sample size, only counting trades under the same rules, and why a missing bad trade turns the numbers into fiction
8. Getting paid: qualifying days, consistency, the buffer, payout limits and your room after the payout. Each firm defines these its own way; the lesson shows you where to find yours.
9. The weekly review: change rules only on evidence

What it isn’t

• Not a strategy. It won’t tell you what to trade.
• No results shown, because none are promised. Every number is a labelled example or one you type in.
• No prop firm links, no chatroom, no monthly fee.
• No promise that you’ll pass an evaluation or get paid. Nobody honest can promise that.
• Not a teaser. The course is complete on its own, and nothing inside it is locked behind another purchase.
• It can’t read your firm’s rules for you. It shows you which lines to find and what they mean. Firms change their rules, so you always check their current page.

Good to know

• Works with any trading platform: the tools run in your browser, and the Journal in Excel or Google Sheets.
• Built for part-time traders too. Set up once: each lesson’s task is done outside market hours, in one sitting. Then trade as normal, log each trade as you take it, and do one review a week.
• Questions? Email support@rulesdesk.com. You’ll get an answer within 2 business days.
• One price, lifetime access. Instant download.
• 7-day refund. If it’s not for you, email support@rulesdesk.com within 7 days of buying and you get your money back.

Educational material only. Not financial, investment or trading advice, and not a signal service. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss and most people who attempt it lose money; you can lose more than you deposit. Nothing here promises or implies profit. See the Risk Disclosure.