# LyTrade

> LyTrade is a platform a proprietary trading ("prop") firm runs on. It has two sides: a trader app, where traders buy an evaluation challenge, trade a simulated account, watch their rules tracked live, pass or fail, and request payouts once funded; and an operator console, where the firm's staff configure challenge plans and rules, monitor traders and breaches, review payouts and see firm-wide risk. AI acts as a risk and behavior coach for traders and a risk analyst for operators. It never gives trade signals, price predictions or buy/sell recommendations. This page explains how it works, in plain text, for people and AI assistants.

Site: https://lytrade.lycore.com
Animated walkthroughs: https://lytrade.lycore.com/how-to
Three-minute tour of the whole platform: https://lytrade.lycore.com/how-to/tour
How every actor works together, start to payout: https://lytrade.lycore.com/how-to/workflow

Everything is simulated: no real funds are traded or paid out, and checkout uses sandbox payments, so no real money is charged. LyTrade is the software a prop firm runs on, not a prop firm itself.

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## 1. Core concepts

- **Firm**: the prop firm operating the platform. The example firm in the walkthroughs is Aurora Vale Trading Co. (invented).
- **Plan (challenge)**: what a trader buys: an account size, a price, one or two evaluation phases, and a rule set. Example plans: Starter 25K ($155), Standard 50K ($295), Pro 100K ($495), Rapid 10K one-step ($99).
- **Account**: a simulated trading account created when a plan is bought. It starts at the plan's size and goes through Phase 1, Phase 2 (two-step plans) and Funded.
- **Rules snapshot**: each account stores a copy of the rules it was bought with. When an operator changes a plan, only new purchases get the new rules; existing accounts keep theirs.
- **Status**: every account is Active, Passed (phase complete), Failed (a hard rule was breached) or Funded.
- **Trading day**: the day ends at 5:00 PM New York time (a common FX boundary). The daily loss limit restarts from that point, and the change is correct across daylight saving time.
- **Engine**: the server-side simulation that fills orders, computes P&L and evaluates rules. It is the single source of truth: the app only sends requests and shows results, and it never calculates anything that affects rules.
- **Money**: all amounts are in US dollars and stored as whole cents, never as floating-point numbers.

## 2. Actors

| Actor | What they do | Lands on |
|---|---|---|
| Trader | Buys a challenge, trades the simulated account, follows the rules dashboard and coach, works through the phases | Rules dashboard |
| Funded trader | A trader whose account passed every phase; requests payouts of profit above the starting balance | Rules dashboard |
| Rules engine (automatic) | Evaluates every account on each price tick and fill; force-closes positions and fails the account on a breach; runs the daily reset; moves accounts to the next phase | (runs on the server) |
| AI risk coach (automatic) | Rephrases deterministic warnings, tags closed trades, writes journal entries, daily summaries and weekly reports; refuses any request for trade ideas | Coach page |
| Operator admin | Full console access: plans and rules, market data source, payout decisions, manual account actions | Firm dashboard |
| Risk analyst | Console read access plus breach review and staff notes; runs AI payout reviews | Firm dashboard |
| Read-only viewer | Browses the whole console (traders, breaches, payouts, audit log) without being able to change anything | Firm dashboard |
| AI risk analyst (automatic) | Answers operators' questions using read-only queries of the firm's data, with links to the underlying records; summarizes payout requests | AI analyst page |

What each actor can and cannot do:

| Actor | Can | Cannot |
|---|---|---|
| Trader | Buy challenges, trade their own accounts, ask the coach, request payouts | See other traders, change rules, approve payouts |
| Rules engine | Fill orders, close positions on a breach, fail or pass accounts, run daily resets | Be overridden by the app: the app only displays its results |
| AI coach | Phrase warnings, tag trades, write journal entries and reports | Give trade signals, predictions or market views; invent numbers |
| Risk analyst | Read the whole console, review breaches, add staff notes, request AI payout reviews | Change plans or decide payouts |
| Operator admin | Everything in the console, including plans, market data source, manual account actions and payout decisions | Trade a trader's account |
| AI analyst | Run read-only queries of the firm's data and summarize payout requests | Change any data, or decide anything |
| Read-only viewer | Browse every console page | Change anything |

Two entry points on the home page open pre-made accounts without signing in: **Try as trader** (an active Phase 1 challenge close to its daily loss limit, so the risk coach is already warning) and **Try as operator** (the read-only console with the example firm's data). Both reset every night.

## 3. How it all fits together: one challenge, start to payout

1. **Set up (operator admin).** The admin creates challenge plans: account size, price, phases, every rule and the profit split, plus the instruments and the market data source.
2. **Buy (trader, then rules engine).** The trader picks a plan and pays through sandbox checkout. The engine opens a simulated account at the plan's size and stores a snapshot of the plan's rules on it.
3. **Trade (trader, rules engine, AI coach).** The trader places orders. The engine fills them, applies spread and commission, computes P&L and checks every rule on each tick and fill. As a limit gets close, the engine raises a warning and the AI coach phrases it, using the engine's exact numbers.
4. **Breach (rules engine, then risk analyst).** If a hard rule is broken, the engine closes every position, cancels pending orders, marks the account Failed and records the breach. The breach appears in the live feed, where a risk analyst reviews it and adds a note.
5. **Pass (rules engine).** If the profit target and minimum trading days are met, the engine marks the phase Passed and opens the next phase automatically; after the last phase the account is Funded (simulated).
6. **Payout (trader, AI analyst, operator admin).** The funded trader requests a payout of profit above the starting balance. The AI analyst summarizes the account's trading and flags concerns. An admin starts the review, then approves and marks it paid, or rejects it with a reason.
7. **Oversight (everyone in the console).** Operators ask the AI analyst questions and follow the links to the records, viewers browse read-only, and every step above is written to the audit log with who and when.

Account lifecycle: Phase 1 (Active) → Passed → Phase 2 (Active) → Passed → Funded. At any Active stage a breach moves the account to Failed, which is final; an admin can reset an account or extend a phase, and both actions are logged.

## 4. Trader: start a challenge

- **Challenges** (`/#/t/plans`) lists the plans with their size, phases, profit targets, max daily loss, max drawdown, minimum trading days and profit split.
- Default rules (the operator can change them per plan): Phase 1 profit target 8%, Phase 2 profit target 5%, max daily loss 5% of the day's starting balance or equity (whichever is higher), max overall drawdown 10% of the initial balance (static, or trailing as an option), minimum 4 trading days per phase, max lot size, profit split 80%.
- Checkout uses sandbox payments. On success a simulated account is created with the starting balance and a snapshot of the plan's rules.

## 5. Trader: the trading screen

- **Trade** (`/#/t/trade`): instruments EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, XAUUSD, US30 and NAS100 (the operator configures the list), live bid/ask prices and a candlestick chart with 1m, 5m, 15m, 1h, 4h and 1D timeframes.
- Orders: market, limit and stop, with stop loss and take profit; partial close (close half), close, and close all.
- Position size is in lots. A risk calculator turns a risk (percent of equity or USD) and a stop distance into a lot size.
- Spread and commission are simulated per instrument; margin uses each instrument's leverage.
- Prices come either from a live feed or from market replay (recorded historical candles played back in real time). Replayed data is always labeled "Replayed market data". The operator switches between them without code changes.

## 6. Trader: the rules dashboard

- **Rules** (`/#/t/dashboard`) is the trader's home page. Each rule shows its current value, its limit and a progress bar, for example "Daily loss: -$2,056 of -$2,704 allowed", "Phase 1 profit target: $2,014 of $4,000", "Minimum trading days: 2 of 4".
- Balance, equity, today's P&L and total P&L are shown above the rules, with a countdown to the next daily reset.
- The account switcher at the top moves between a trader's accounts.

## 7. Breaches (automatic)

- Rules are evaluated on every price tick for accounts with open positions, and on every fill.
- When a hard rule is breached (daily loss or max drawdown), the server closes all positions, cancels pending orders, marks the account Failed and records the breach: the rule, the value and the limit, the time, and the trades involved.
- The trader is notified in the app, and the breach appears in the operator's live breach feed.
- This happens on the server, whether or not the trader has the app open. Positions and day-start balances are stored, so nothing is lost if the engine restarts.

## 8. Phases and funding

- Phase 1 passes when the profit target is reached and the minimum trading days are met. A new Phase 2 account is created automatically (two-step plans).
- Phase 2 passing makes the account Funded (simulated).
- **History** (`/#/t/history`): equity and balance curves, daily P&L, and the trade list with filters. Statistics: win rate, average win and loss, profit factor, expectancy, max consecutive losses, average holding time (wins vs losses), best and worst day.

## 9. Payouts (simulated)

- **Payouts** (`/#/t/payouts`): funded accounts can request a payout of profit above the starting balance. The trader's share follows the profit split (80% by default).
- Status flow: Requested, Under review, Approved, Paid (simulated), or Rejected with a reason.
- No bank details are collected; the payout method is shown as "Payout method on file".

## 10. AI for traders

- **Risk coach**: warnings are computed by deterministic rules on the server, such as "You're at 76% of your daily loss limit", a larger trade opened right after a loss (revenge pattern), or many trades in a short time after losses (overtrading). AI only phrases them and connects them to the trader's own history; every number comes from the engine and is checked against it.
- **Trade journal**: each closed trade is tagged with its session (London, New York, Asia), a holding-time bucket and behavior patterns. A trader's note becomes a structured journal entry.
- **Daily summary and weekly report**: what happened, behavior patterns (overtrading, time-of-day performance, holding losers longer than winners), rule usage, and two or three concrete process improvements. No market views.
- **Ask the coach** (`/#/t/coach`): questions about risk, rules and habits. Questions asking for trade ideas, such as "Should I buy gold now?", get the same refusal every time: "I can't give trade ideas or market views. I can help with your risk, rules and trading habits." The coach then offers to review the trader's own risk on that instrument.
- **Guardrails**: the AI is instructed never to give price predictions, buy/sell/hold suggestions, entry or exit levels, or opinions on instruments or market direction. Every response is checked for advice-like content before it is shown, and flagged responses are replaced with the refusal and logged for review.
- **Daily caps** per user, enforced on the server: 30 journal entries from notes, 100 coach messages, 2 on-demand weekly reports, 50 operator analyst questions.

## 11. Operator console

- **Firm** (`/#/o/dashboard`): active challenges, funded accounts, pass rate per phase, challenge revenue (sandbox), payout liability, open exposure by instrument, accounts near breach, challenge sales over 30 days, and an AI risk summary.
- **Traders** (`/#/o/traders`): search and filter by status, plan, phase and country. Account detail shows the rules dashboard, equity curve, trades, breaches, AI journal summaries and staff notes. Manual actions (reset an account, extend a phase, mark a breach reviewed) are logged.
- **Breaches** (`/#/o/breaches`): a live feed of breaches and accounts near a breach. Each breach shows the rule, the values, the time and the trades involved.
- **Payouts** (`/#/o/payouts`): the payout queue with an AI review summary per request. Admins start a review, approve, mark paid, or reject with a reason. Every decision is logged.
- **AI analyst** (`/#/o/analyst`): natural-language questions over the firm's data, for example "Which funded traders had a drawdown over 6% this week?" or "Are many traders taking the same direction at the same time?" (a sign of copy trading or signal groups). Answers come only from read-only queries, and every answer links to the underlying records.
- **Payout review assist**: for a payout request, the AI summarizes the account's trading and flags rule-relevant concerns, such as a consistency issue (one day making up most of the profit) or possible hedging between accounts. A person makes the decision.
- **Plans** (`/#/o/plans`): create and edit plans: account size, price, phases, every rule, profit split, allowed instruments and leverage. Changes apply to new purchases only.
- **Audit** (`/#/o/audit`): every operator action, rule change, breach, payout decision and AI request, with who and when.
- **Market** (`/#/o/market`): switch between market replay and a live feed, and see each instrument's spread, commission and leverage.

## 12. Roles and access

- Traders see only their own accounts.
- Operator roles see their firm's data. Admins can change plans, settings and payouts; risk analysts can review breaches and add notes; read-only viewers can only look.
- AI provider keys and market data keys stay on the server and are never part of the app.

## 13. Platforms

- The web app is the main version and works best on a desktop browser. Android and iOS builds share the same code.
- Light and dark mode (dark by default).
- The simulation notice ("Simulated trading. No real funds are traded or paid out. Sandbox payments: no real money is charged.") is shown on every trader screen and at checkout.

## 14. Glossary

- **Daily loss limit**: the most an account may lose in one trading day, measured from the higher of the day's starting balance or equity.
- **Max drawdown**: the most an account may fall below its initial balance (static) or below its highest equity (trailing).
- **Profit target**: the profit needed to pass a phase, as a percentage of the starting balance.
- **Trading day (minimum days)**: a day in which the trader closed at least one trade.
- **Profit split**: the trader's share of a payout.
- **Breach**: a hard-rule violation that fails the account.
- **Near breach**: an account within 30% of a hard loss limit.
- **Consistency**: how evenly profit is spread across days; a single day above 40% of total profit is flagged for review.
- **Market replay**: recorded historical prices played back in real time, labeled as such.

## 15. Common questions

- **Is any of this real money?** No. Trading is simulated, payouts are simulated, and checkout uses sandbox payments.
- **Can the AI tell me what to trade?** No. It refuses every request for trade ideas, predictions or market views, and offers to review the trader's own risk instead.
- **Where do the numbers in AI messages come from?** From the engine. The AI only words them, and every message is checked against the engine's values.
- **What happens if I close the app with a trade open?** The engine keeps checking it on the server and enforces the rules either way.
- **If the firm changes a plan, does my challenge change?** No. Each account keeps the rules it was bought with.
- **When does the trading day end?** At 5:00 PM New York time, including across daylight saving changes.
- **Who decides on a payout?** A person (an operator admin). The AI only summarizes and flags concerns.

## 16. Main URLs

- Home, with Try as trader and Try as operator: https://lytrade.lycore.com
- How-to walkthroughs: https://lytrade.lycore.com/how-to
- This page: https://lytrade.lycore.com/llms.txt (also at /llm.txt)
- Trader app: `/#/t/dashboard`, `/#/t/trade`, `/#/t/history`, `/#/t/coach`, `/#/t/payouts`, `/#/t/plans`
- Operator console: `/#/o/dashboard`, `/#/o/traders`, `/#/o/breaches`, `/#/o/payouts`, `/#/o/analyst`, `/#/o/plans`, `/#/o/audit`, `/#/o/market`