Your first payout comes from everything you have built up. From the second onward, each payout also has to be earned by new trading since the last one. Three things change once a payout is approved.
Half of each request has to be new profit
From the second payout onward, at least half of the amount you request has to be profit you made since your last approved payout. Your first payout has no such condition.
Say your first payout left $3,000 of profit in the account, and you have made $600 since. The most you can request is $1,200: $600 of new profit, matched by $600 of what was already there. The other $2,400 stays in the account and comes out in later payouts as you keep trading.
Put simply, every $1 of new profit lets $1 of older profit out with it.
It exists so a single strong run is not withdrawn in instalments over months without trading. Nothing is lost or forfeited along the way.
Your winning days start again
Your winning day count returns to zero after each approved payout. You need five more before the next one. What counts
Consistency starts again
If your program has a consistency requirement, it is measured on the profit made since your last approved payout. A big day before that payout does not count against the next one, and the days that balanced it out do not carry over either. Consistency
The cap rises
The most you can take per request goes up on your second payout and again on your third on most account sizes. Caps by account size
Everything else stays the same
The buffer, the payout windows and the $500 minimum apply to every payout, first or fifth.
