The coast rule

Most traders plan how to reach the target. Far fewer plan what to do once they are near it or past it, and that is where a surprising number of evaluations fail. The coast rule is the answer: once the target is reached, or once the day's or the rules' profit cap is reached, you stop pressing and switch to protecting the pass.

Three situations that call for coasting

1. Target reached but minimum days not met. You hit the $3,000 target on day 3 of a 5-day minimum. Two more trading days are required, and a "trading day" needs at least one executed trade. Every trade you take now can only hurt you: a win is not needed, a loss reduces your cushion and, under a trailing drawdown that has not locked, a big win followed by a giveback moves the line.

2. Consistency cap reached for the day. Under a 40% rule with a $3,000 target, any day above $1,200 raises the total you need. You are at $1,150. One more winner makes the day count against you.

3. Target within one normal trade. You are at $2,850 of $3,000 with a $200 risk per trade. Sizing up to "finish it" is the last-day gamble from lesson 4 in miniature.

What coasting means in practice

The minimum-size trade to satisfy a "trading day" is not cheating. It is what the rule literally asks for. Check the firm's definition of a trading day; if it requires a minimum profit or loss (some do, such as $50 either way), size to just clear it.

The arithmetic of a coasting day

Suppose you sit at $3,100 against a $3,000 target with two required days remaining, a $2,000 drawdown that has locked at the starting balance, and you take one MES trade per day at 1 contract with an 8-point stop ($40 risk).

• Worst case over two days: -$80. Balance $3,020. Still passed.
• Worst case with two days at your normal 5 contracts: -$400. Balance $2,700. Not passed; now you need $300 more and are back to trading.
• Worst case with a "finish strong" 10 contracts: -$800. Balance $2,300, with $700 of your cushion gone.

The coast is not about fear; it is about which of those three outcomes you would rather explain to yourself.

Key idea: After the target, or at the profit cap, every additional dollar of risk buys nothing you need. Coast: minimum size, best setup only, one trade, stop.

Coasting under a trailing drawdown

If the trail has not locked when you reach the target (it usually has on a 1.5-ratio account, but not always on a 2.0), the coast has an extra purpose: not adding new equity highs that you then give back. Two adjustments:

• Use fixed profit targets rather than runners on coasting trades.
• Do not hold coasting trades into volatile moments; a spike to a new high that reverses raises your line for no benefit.

Coasting on the funded account

The same rule transfers directly. Funded accounts often require a buffer above the starting balance before the first payout, plus a minimum number of profitable days, plus a consistency check at payout. Once the payout conditions are met, the days between "met" and "paid" are coasting days, and they are the days on which traders most often lose the payout by getting bored. Module 5 returns to this.

The rule in one line

Write it on the rules sheet exactly like this:

When closed profit >= target, or day profit >= consistency cap: one trade, minimum size, best setup only, then close the platform.

Try it: Compute, for your evaluation, the minimum-size trade that satisfies the firm's definition of a trading day. Write the coast rule on your rules sheet with that size filled in. Then decide today, before you need it, whether you will take the coasting trade at the open or wait for the best setup of the session.

Recap

• After hitting the target, or the consistency cap for the day, additional risk buys nothing; switch to coasting.
• Coasting means one trade per required day at minimum size, best setup only, then stop.
• The arithmetic: minimum-size coasting days cannot un-pass you; normal-size ones can.
• Under an unlocked trail, coast with fixed targets and avoid new equity highs you may give back.