# What is Minimum trading days?

> Minimum trading days is a prop firm rule requiring a trader to place trades on a set number of separate days before an evaluation phase can pass or a payout can be requested.

- Source: https://pipvalley.com/glossary/minimum-trading-days
- Publisher: PipValley - web design studio for prop trading firms
- Updated: 2026-10-03

In a prop firm, a minimum trading days rule stops a trader from hitting the profit target in one session and passing immediately. The trader must keep the account active, usually with at least one trade per counted day, until the minimum is met.

Firms define a trading day differently: some count any day with an opened trade, others any day with a closed trade, and futures firms often use the exchange session rather than the calendar day. Some programs set no minimum at all and rely on consistency rules instead.

The same idea is applied at payout stage as a minimum number of profitable days, sometimes with a minimum profit per day to count.

## Why it matters

A minimum days rule is a mild filter against one-session gambling and is easy for traders to understand. Its weakness is definition: if your site does not say what counts as a day and in which time zone, traders will argue the point after the fact. Spell it out once and reuse the same wording on the dashboard.