Prop Firm Drawdown Calculator

How prop firm drawdown works

Prop firms use one of three drawdown models to decide when to blow up your account:

• Trailing EOD drawdown (Apex, Topstep): after market close each day, the firm measures your end-of-day balance. The drawdown threshold trails upward with your peak EOD balance but never goes down. Hit the threshold during the next day's session and the account's gone.
• Intraday trailing drawdown (older model): the threshold trails your peak balance tick-by-tick during the session. Brutal — a profitable day where you give back can blow the account even if EOD balance is positive.
• Static drawdown (FTMO, some others): fixed maximum loss from initial balance. Doesn't trail. Most forgiving.

Daily loss limit — the silent killer

Almost all firms stack a separate daily loss limit on top of the trailing DD. This is usually 3-5% of account size, measured from today's starting balance. Hit it and the account is terminated even if you're still above the main DD.

Most evaluation failures come from the daily loss limit, not the main drawdown. Traders hit two or three losing trades in a row, revenge-trade to recover, and breach the daily limit — even though their account was still well above the trailing threshold.

How to NOT blow your account

• Risk 0.3-0.5% per trade on prop accounts, not the 1% you'd risk on personal capital. The daily limit makes the effective risk budget smaller.
• Stop trading after 2 consecutive losses. You're now emotional. One more loss hits the daily limit and the account is done.
• Close positions before 4pm ET. Holding into close can push your EOD balance lower, which sets a permanent lower peak if it happens on a down day.
• Don't trade news. FOMC, CPI, NFP create slippage beyond any stop. One bad fill on a prop account can end the challenge.
• Use Journali's Prop Firm Mode to track all three thresholds in real-time and get alerts 80% of the way to any limit.

Per-firm rule quick reference

• Apex Trader Funding: $2,500 trailing EOD drawdown on $50K, $3,000 profit target. No daily loss limit in evaluation.
• Topstep: $2,000 trailing EOD drawdown on $50K, $3,000 target, $1,000 daily loss limit.
• MyFundedFutures: $2,000 trailing EOD DD on $50K, $3,000 target, $1,500 daily limit.
• FTMO: 10% static max drawdown, 5% daily loss limit, 10% profit target (Phase 1 / 5% Phase 2).
• TradeDay: Trailing DD varies by plan, 3% daily loss limit on most plans.
• E8 Funding: 8% total DD, 4% daily loss, 8% profit target Phase 1.

Always verify against the firm's current rules — firms update these regularly. This calculator uses defaults that match the most recent published rules at time of writing.