Prop firm drawdown calculator: daily loss, static, trailing and end of day trailing

How to use it

1. Tap a preset under "Typical rules" if one is close to your account: 1-step, 2-step, Instant funding or Futures end of day. These are generic examples, not any firm's rules, so adjust them to match yours. 2. Pick your account currency and enter the starting balance. 3. Enter the maximum drawdown as a percentage of the starting balance, and choose its type: static, trailing or end of day trailing. 4. For trailing and end of day trailing, enter the highest balance so far, and tick the box if the floor stops trailing at the starting balance. 5. Enter the daily loss limit (0 if there is none) and choose what it is measured from: today's starting balance or the initial starting balance. 6. Enter today's starting balance and your equity now, which is your balance plus or minus open trades.

The result updates as you type. Copy result puts the answer on your clipboard, and Copy share link copies an address that holds only your inputs.

What the result means

Each limit sets a floor. Your account fails if equity touches either one. The calculator works out both floors, shows the higher one as the floor that binds today, and gives the room left: equity now minus that floor. A chart places the floors, the starting balance, the highest balance and your equity on one scale, with the breach zone shaded.

• Static: the floor is the starting balance minus the limit, and it never moves. On $100,000 with a 10% static limit, the floor stays at $90,000.
• Trailing: a trailing drawdown here is intraday. It follows equity as it happens, so if your equity now is above the highest balance you typed, the calculator treats it as the new high and lifts the floor.
• End of day trailing: an end of day drawdown moves only on closing balances. Today's equity never moves it, however high it goes during the session.
• The lock: with the box ticked, a trailing floor never rises above the starting balance.

Worked example: a $50,000 futures account

A futures account starts at $50,000 with a 4% end of day trailing drawdown, a floor that stops at the starting balance, and no daily limit.

1. The limit in money is 4% of $50,000, which is $2,000. 2. The highest closing balance so far is $51,200. The floor is $51,200 minus $2,000, which is $49,200. That is below $50,000, so the lock does not apply yet. 3. Earlier today equity touched $51,900, and it is now $50,300. End of day trailing ignores the intraday high, so the floor stays at $49,200. Room left: $50,300 minus $49,200, which is $1,100. 4. Under intraday trailing, the same session would set the high at $51,900 and the floor at $49,900, leaving only $400. 5. Next, a day closes at $52,100. The floor would be $52,100 minus $2,000, which is $50,100, but the lock holds it at $50,000. With equity at $50,300, the room is $300.

The same $50,300 of equity can mean $1,100, $400 or $300 of room, depending on the type and the history of the account.

Common mistakes

• Watching balance instead of equity. Most firms count open losses against the floor, so a trade that is still running can breach the account.
• Forgetting the intraday high. Under intraday trailing, open profit you give back still lifted the floor. Enter the highest equity reached, not the highest close.
• Measuring the daily limit from the wrong base. 5% of today's starting balance and 5% of the initial balance give different floors once the account is up or down.
• Watching only the maximum drawdown. After a good run the daily floor is often the closer one, because it starts from a higher balance each day.
• Assuming the day resets at midnight where you live. Firms reset the daily limit at a set time in their own time zone.
• Sizing the next trade without checking the room. A loss at your stop should fit inside today's room. The trade planner and the lot size calculator do that check.

What to check at your firm

• What the daily limit is measured from: the day's starting balance, the day's starting equity, or the higher of the two.
• When the day resets, and in which time zone.
• Balance or equity: whether the trailing floor follows closed balance or open equity.
• Where trailing stops: at the starting balance, at a set profit, or never.
• Whether open trades count against the floor or only closed ones.

Results depend on the inputs you enter, and firms' rules differ, so check your own firm's rules before you trade. To see how often a strategy survives these limits over a whole challenge, try the challenge pass probability simulator.

Running a prop firm? Read How to start a prop firm in 2026: tech, legal setup and a 90 day launch plan.