Your drawdown limit is the balance (or equity) your account must never touch. Firms describe it as max loss, max drawdown, Maximum Loss Limit or trailing threshold. The names vary; what matters is what the floor is measured against and when it moves.
1. Static drawdown
The floor is fixed at a set amount below your starting balance and never moves. Example: FTMO's 2-Step uses a static 10% Maximum Loss. On a $100,000 account, equity can never drop below $90,000, no matter how much you make first.
Why it's friendly: profits widen your cushion permanently. Watch for: static max loss often comes with a separate daily loss limit (5% on FTMO 2-Step, reset at midnight CE(S)T).
2. End-of-day (EOD) trailing drawdown
The floor follows your highest end-of-day balance, moving up only once per day at the close. Intraday spikes don't drag it up. Example (Tradeify): a 100K account with $3,500 drawdown starts with a $96,500 floor. End day one at $103,000 and the floor becomes $99,500; end day two at $101,000 and it stays at $99,500.
The trap: calculated at the close doesn't mean checked at the close. Apex, Tradeify and Alpha Futures all state that the EOD floor is enforced in real time. If your equity touches it mid-session, the account fails, even if you'd have finished green.
3. Intraday (real-time) trailing drawdown
The floor follows your equity high-water mark during the day, including unrealized gains. A trade that runs $1,500 in your favour and comes back to breakeven has used up $1,500 of room. Example: MyFundedFutures' Rapid plan switches to intraday trailing drawdown once funded; Take Profit Trader's PRO accounts use intraday trailing too.
4. Closed-balance trailing ("dynamic") drawdown
A middle ground: the floor trails your highest closed balance, so it moves when you bank profit, not on floating gains. Example: E8 Markets' Dynamic Drawdown. A $100,000 account with 6% starts at $94,000; after +$7,000 in closed profit it locks at $100,000. FTMO's Instant account also trails the highest closed balance in real time.
Locks: when trailing stops
Most trailing drawdowns stop trailing at some point, which turns them into a static floor:
- Alpha Futures: the EOD Maximum Loss Limit stops trailing at the starting balance.
- Tradeify Sim Funded: locks once EOD balance exceeds the drawdown by $100 (e.g. $52,100 on 50K), or when you request a payout. The floor then stays at $100 above start.
- MyFundedFutures Rapid funded: locks permanently once the floor reaches $100 above the starting balance.
- E8 Markets: locks at the initial balance once closed profit equals the drawdown amount.
Same numbers, different risk
| Type | Floor follows | Moves | Hurts most |
|---|---|---|---|
| Static | Nothing (fixed) | Never | Fast early losses |
| EOD trailing | Highest closing balance | Once a day | Big green day, then a red one |
| Intraday trailing | Highest equity incl. open P&L | Continuously | Trades that run, then reverse |
| Closed-balance | Highest closed balance | When you close a winner | Banking small wins then a loss |
Practical takeaways
- Know which type applies to each stage. Take Profit Trader uses EOD in the test, intraday in PRO and EOD again in PRO+.
- On any trailing type, your real room is the distance from current equity to today's floor, not the original drawdown number.
- Use your platform's live drawdown column. Tradeify's help center shows how in Tradovate and NinjaTrader.
Sources
Official pages we used, reviewed October 2026. If anything here disagrees with the firm's current page, the firm's page wins.