What are ThinkCapital's guidelines regarding gambling or reckless trading behavior on the platform?

Gambling/Punting - Consequences and Enforcement at ThinkCapital

At ThinkCapital, we prioritize responsible trading and prohibit any behavior resembling gambling or reckless betting. We expect traders to use sound risk management strategies, and we do not allow high-risk speculative trading that undermines long-term consistency.

What is Considered Gambling in Trading?

Gambling in trading includes a variety of high-risk actions aimed at quick wins, without considering proper analysis or long-term planning. These include:

Punting: Placing a small number of large, high-risk trades, hoping for a quick profit without any clear strategy.

Overleveraging: Using most or all of your margin in a single trade, leaving your account highly exposed to small market movements.

Overexposure: Betting heavily on correlated assets, falsely believing it’s diversified, increasing your risk on a single factor.

All-In Strategies: Placing a large portion of your account balance on one trade without using appropriate risk management tools like Stop Losses.

Doubling Down: Increasing your position size after a loss in an attempt to recover, further compounding risk (also known as Martingale).

Excessive High-Frequency Scalping: Opening and closing trades within seconds without a sustainable strategy, showing reckless trading behavior.

These behaviors expose your account to substantial risks, often breaching ThinkCapital’s rules and risking account suspension.

Gambling can manifest in various forms, some of which may not be explicitly listed in our examples. However, if it becomes evident that a client is engaging in high-risk strategies or behaviors that exploit our services in ways that are not aligned with our Terms and Conditions or FAQ, appropriate action will be taken to address such violations.

Examples of Gambling Practices

Overleveraging: Opening large positions that use the majority of your margin. Even small market movements can result in large losses, leading to breaches of ThinkCapital’s rules.
- Example: A trader uses 80% of their margin on one trade, causing a breach when the market moves slightly against them.
Overexposure: Betting on multiple correlated assets while mistakenly believing they are diversified. All trades rely on the same market factor, amplifying risk instead of mitigating it.
- Example: A trader opens long positions on USD/JPY, EUR/USD, and GBP/USD. All bets depend on the performance of the US Dollar, creating overexposure.
Excessive Scalping: Placing a large number of trades in very short periods with no real strategy other than trying to take advantage of quick price movements. This behavior shows a lack of risk management.
- Example: A trader places 100 trades, with over 50 of them closed in less than 60 seconds. This is considered excessive scalping.
Martingale Strategy: Continuing to open larger positions after losing trades to try and recover losses, which compounds risk and often results in breaching risk limits.
- Example: A trader opens five consecutive long positions after losing, increasing exposure without risk management, and breaching our rules.
All-in or Betting Behavior: Risking a large portion of your balance in a single trade without proper risk management, ignoring long-term trading principles.
- Example: A trader places 5% or even 10% of their account balance in one trade with or without a Stop Loss, putting the entire account at risk (in respect of daily & overall DD limits).
One-Sided Bets: Holding a large position without diversification or proper risk controls, such as ignoring Stop Losses.
- Example: A trader doubles down on a losing position, hoping the market will reverse, leading to significant risk exposure.
Account Rolling: Purchasing multiple evaluation accounts to engage in high-risk strategies, assuming you can simply switch accounts if one fails.
- Example: A trader buys multiple accounts and uses high-risk strategies on one, planning to continue on others if the first account fails. This practice is prohibited.
Punting: Taking on a few high-risk trades in the hope that one or two big wins will help pass the profit requirement for the account, without considering long-term consequences or showing any cosistant efforts to trade the account professionally.

Consequences for Engaging in Gambling or Reckless Trading

At ThinkCapital, we closely monitor trading behavior and impose strict consequences for gambling or reckless actions:

Initial Warning: Traders caught engaging in gambling-like behavior will receive a formal warning and be advised to adjust their strategies.
Escalation of Violations: Continued violations may result in account restrictions, progress resets, or limited access until the trader demonstrates responsible trading behavior.
Account Breach and Termination: Persistent non-compliance will lead to account suspension or termination, and the trader may be permanently barred from participating in ThinkCapital programs.

Misuse of Courtesy Warnings Will Not Be Tolerated

At ThinkCapital, our courtesy warning system is intended as a supportive measure to encourage traders to realign with responsible and professional trading practices when early signs of reckless behavior are detected. It is not designed to act as a guaranteed shield or buffer for high-risk strategies.

We have identified instances where traders attempt to deliberately “push the line”, expecting to receive a warning before facing any consequences. Let us be clear:
If, upon review, we detect a drastic shift in strategy, trade execution, risk exposure, or loss management, especially if it appears to be opportunistic or intentionally aggressive, we reserve the right to skip the warning entirely and issue an immediate reset or breach of the account.

This includes, but is not limited to:

Abruptly shifting from conservative to high-risk trades after an initial safe phase
Doubling or tripling risk without warning in an attempt to “pass quickly”
Treating early-stage risk adherence as a means to manipulate the system or delay enforcement

We will not entertain arguments or appeals in such cases, as this behavior is inconsistent with our values and undermines the integrity of the program. Our priority is to cultivate a professional trading environment based on discipline, risk awareness, and long-term thinking—not short-term exploitation of leniency.

By maintaining a strict stance, we aim to discourage deliberate edge-testing behavior and uphold our commitment to consistency, fairness, and responsibility across all trader accounts.

How ThinkCapital Flags Reckless Trading

Our system monitors for behaviors and thresholds that suggest gambling or reckless trading. These include:

Excessive Margin Utilization: Regularly risking large portions of your capital in a single trade (or multiple trades), surpassing 60-70% margin utilization overall.
High Exposure: Placing bets on correlated assets, amplifying your overall market risk.

High Risk Percentage: Consistently risking more than 2.5% of your account balance on individual trades is considered high risk and may result in disciplinary action, including account resets or disqualification. Our evaluation takes into account both realized and potential risk as part of assessing your overall risk appetite and trading discipline. Markets can be highly unpredictable, so setting a prudent SL is just as critical as when you choose to exit a trade manually. Excessively wide or poorly placed SLs—especially when combined with high leverage—may be viewed as indicative of reckless or gambling-like behavior, even if the trade is eventually closed with minimal loss.

Short Holding Times on High-Risk Trades: Engaging in rapid trades on volatile pairs or during volatile market conditions without a proper plan.

“Coinflip” Trading: A pattern of alternating gains and losses without a sustainable strategy, such as making $3K, losing $3K, and repeating the cycle.

Any form of gambling, punting, one-sided betting, or statistical arbitrage designed to exploit ThinkCapital’s platform for personal gain—without providing usable, replicable, and sustainable trading data—is strictly prohibited. We expect our traders to behave with the same level of professionalism as if they were managing their own funds.

No professional trader would risk 50% of their account on a single trade, hoping for a big win. Similarly, consistently risking more than 3% of your capital in hopes of quick payouts or taking excessive risks on volatile pairs or markets will not be tolerated.

ThinkCapital’s Commitment to Responsible Trading

ThinkCapital supports all traders who adopt disciplined strategies, effective risk management, and consistent, sustainable trading practices. We firmly believe that trading is not gambling.

High-risk, impulsive trades without a structured plan contradict our values and will result in strict consequences. If you fail to display professionalism and discipline, formal warnings will be issued, followed by further consequences for repeated misconduct.

Success comes from disciplined strategies, proper risk management, and consistency. At ThinkCapital, we support traders who take a professional approach and encourage long-term growth. Quick, high-risk bets without a plan are not tolerated.

Success is built on discipline and long-term strategy—not on reckless gambling.