> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://tbignite.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Challenges

> Create and manage every product configuration your firm offers - the blueprint every account inherits.

The **Challenges** tab is where you create and manage every product configuration your firm offers. A challenge (The evaluation program an account is created under - its starting balance, profit target, and risk rules.) is the complete blueprint for a kind of account - its balance, drawdown rules, data entitlements, tradable symbols, broker/OMS (Order management system - the engine that receives orders and routes them to the market.), and phases. Every account created under a challenge inherits its settings.

```mermaid theme={null}
flowchart LR
    C["Challenge (the blueprint)"] --> P["Phases (per-stage rules & targets)"] --> A["Accounts (inherit every setting)"]
```

> [!NOTE]
>
> **Where it lives:** Sidebar → **Proptech Configuration** → **Challenges**.

![Challenges list](https://mintcdn.com/tbignite/OlHmB8MlUnxshCJj/images/challenges/challenges-list.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=OlHmB8MlUnxshCJj\&q=85\&s=d902372a68dadb145615f840aa2bbd9c)

The Challenges grid - every challenge, with the ability to add new ones.

Open a challenge (or click **Add new**) to edit it. The editor has two sub-tabs: **Settings** (below) and [Challenge phases](https://tbignite.mintlify.site/challenge-phases.md).

![Challenge Settings](https://mintcdn.com/tbignite/OlHmB8MlUnxshCJj/images/challenges/challenge-settings.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=OlHmB8MlUnxshCJj\&q=85\&s=70fca4081a0fda0b5ca03407c83625e7)

Challenge Settings - Settings, Balances, Commercial Rules, Flags, and Configuration.

## Settings

Core challenge details.

| Field | What to enter |
| - | - |
| Title | A **descriptive** name so your team instantly knows the account type - this is the firm's challenge name. |
| Short code | A suffix appended to every account number (about a 15-character limit). Make it descriptive, e.g. `50K-EOD-P1`. |
| Description | The challenge rules, or any notes your team should remember. |
| Swap mode | **Normal** (overnight fees apply) or **Swap free** (no overnight fees). Most prop firms run swap-free. |
| Product ID | Optional - leave blank, or set it if you are mapping the challenge to your checkout. |
| Broker type | With Tickblaze you get the **Tickblaze OMS** - select **TickblazeOMS**. |

> [!TIP]
>
> **Why the short code matters:** most trading platforms only show an account *number*, not the challenge type. A descriptive short code (e.g. `50K-EOD-P1`) rides along on the account so your team and your traders can pick the right account in the platform's dropdown and avoid trading the wrong one.

## Balances

Initial balance and drawdown references.

| Field | What to enter |
| - | - |
| Initial balance | The default starting balance for accounts under this challenge. A phase can set its own **Initial balance**, and the phase value is the one the account actually gets - see [Challenge phases](https://tbignite.mintlify.site/challenge-phases.md#basics). |
| Max trailing drawdown | The challenge-level default for the same value the phase calls **Global DD threshold** - the most an account may lose before it fails, measured down from the account's anchor. **Which anchor, and whether it moves at all, is decided by the Global drawdown type set on the phase** - the initial balance, fixed forever (Static); the highest **equity** ever reached, including unrealized P\&L (Trailing); or the highest **closing balance** (End of day). It never moves back down. This is the challenge-level default; the per-phase drawdown settings on [Challenge phases](https://tbignite.mintlify.site/challenge-phases.md#drawdown) take precedence. See [The three types](https://tbignite.mintlify.site/drawdown-and-failure.md#the-three-types). |
| Default max order size | Optional cap on a single order across the account. |
| Max position size account | The cap on total open positions across the account. On **futures**, enter the **mini** value - `5` means **5 minis = 50 micros** (a 1:10 ratio). On **stocks**, the value is the maximum **number of shares** the trader may hold at one time. |

## Commercial Rules

> [!WARNING]
>
> **Activation fees are not live yet.** Neither **No activation fee** nor **Activation fee product ID** does anything on the Tickblaze side today - switching the toggle either way, or filling in a product ID, changes nothing about whether a trader can trade. Set them to record what you want, and treat the behaviour described below as what will happen once the payment gate ships. If your firm needs to gate an account behind a payment right now, handle it on your own checkout and tell the Tickblaze team.

Fees, profit, and payout settings.

### No activation fee

**Read the name carefully - this toggle is stated in the negative.**

| Toggle | Meaning |
| - | - |
| **On** - "No activation fee" | There is **no** fee. A trader who passes a phase moves straight to the next one and can trade it immediately. |
| **Off** | There **is** an activation fee. The trader must pay before they can trade. |

**Once the payment gate ships**, turning it **off** will mean the firm collects the fee on its own checkout and trading opens after that payment is confirmed. Two shapes:

* **Between phases.** A trader passes Step 1. Step 2 is gated, so they pay the activation fee first; once payment is confirmed, they can trade the Step 2 account.
* **On a single-phase challenge.** The trader must purchase before they can trade the only account on that challenge.

### Minimum profit

The profit a day must produce for that day to **count as a trading day**. It does not change P\&L; it changes the day count.

With **Minimum profit** set to `200`, a session must make **\$200 or more** to count toward [Minimum trading days](https://tbignite.mintlify.site/challenge-phases.md#targets):

| The day made | Counts as a trading day? | Counted in the account's P\&L? |
| - | - | - |
| +\$250 | **Yes** | Yes |
| +\$150 | **No** - under the minimum | Yes |
| A loss | **No** | Yes |

So a trader on a five-trading-day phase needs five **profitable enough** days, not just five days with a trade. Losing days and thin winning days still move the balance - they simply do not advance the count. **Minimum profit type** sets how the number is read (for example `Absolute` for a dollar amount).

Leave it blank and every day with an opening trade counts, whatever it made.

The remaining Commercial Rules fields:

> [accordion] Activation fee product ID
>
> The checkout product the activation fee will be billed against. Your Tickblaze contact configures this with you during setup. Like the toggle above, it is recorded but not yet acted on.

> [accordion] Profit split
>
> The share paid to the trader on a payout - e.g. `0.8` = **80% to the trader, 20% to the firm**. Used for payout accounts.
>
> > [!WARNING]
> >
> > The **payout system is still being built** - profit split is not usable yet. We'll let you know when the payout features go live on the CRM.

> [accordion] Maximum profit
>
> A cap on how much profit a **single trade** may make. Leave it blank for no cap. **Maximum profit type** sets how the number is read.

## Flags

Availability and trading state.

> [!WARNING]
>
> Of the three flags, only **Archived** works today - it retires a challenge from the active list. **Is free trial** and **News trading enabled** are **not functional yet** (they're part of features still in development). Leave them off for now.

## Configuration

Entitlements, exchanges, and symbol limits. Click **Edit configuration** to set them.

![Edit configuration](https://mintcdn.com/tbignite/OlHmB8MlUnxshCJj/images/challenges/config-edit.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=OlHmB8MlUnxshCJj\&q=85\&s=8e7617450f82c434347225de474a5e68)

Configuration - Market data entitlements, Tradable exchanges, and Individual tradable symbols.

![Add entitlement in Configuration](https://mintcdn.com/tbignite/OlHmB8MlUnxshCJj/images/challenges/config-add.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=OlHmB8MlUnxshCJj\&q=85\&s=15a067889754971f93cf5058a1a52c32)

In the Configuration section, click Add to attach a market data entitlement.

![Select entitlement](https://mintcdn.com/tbignite/OlHmB8MlUnxshCJj/images/challenges/config-add-entitlement.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=OlHmB8MlUnxshCJj\&q=85\&s=d8aaeb829ff3f33cdb7cc6935cd3e15e)

Selecting a market data entitlement.

1. **Add a market data entitlement (Permission for one user to receive a particular exchange's market data.).** Click **Edit configuration**, then **Add**, and choose an entitlement from the dropdown - CBOT L1/L2, CME L1/L2, COMEX L1/L2, NYMEX L1/L2, or Nasdaq L1/L2.
   * **Futures challenge:** add the **L1** data for **CME, CBOT, COMEX, and NYMEX** (the basic data most futures traders need).
   * **Stocks challenge:** add **Nasdaq L1** (or L2). Choosing Nasdaq makes this a stock challenge.
2. **Save and apply changes** to the challenge configuration.
3. **Add tradable exchanges** - the matching exchanges (CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX, and CME for a futures challenge; Nasdaq for a stocks challenge).
4. **Add individual tradable symbols.** Manually add the exact symbols this challenge allows. Even if a symbol is enabled firm-wide, you can exclude it here - and set a **per-symbol max position size** that overrides the account-level cap.

> [!TIP]
>
> **Per-symbol override example:** say the account's max position size is `5` (5 minis / 50 micros). For **GC (gold)** you may want less - set `2` on GC, and trades on GC are capped at 2 minis / 20 micros while the rest of the challenge keeps the account-level limit.

## One challenge with phases, or separate challenges?

Both work - it depends on your checkout:

* **One challenge, multiple phases** - the phases live under a single challenge. Each phase also has a **phase ID exposed via the API**, which you can map to checkout products.
* **Separate challenges per phase** - create one challenge (each with its own phase) per stage. Useful when each phase is a distinct checkout product, and required if you charge separately to advance (see [Commercial Rules](#commercial-rules)).

> [!NOTE]
>
> When we onboard your firm, we set the first challenges up with you - and you can create your own afterward. Every challenge should have at least one phase.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.