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Trailing Drawdown Calculator for Futures Prop Firms

Enter your starting balance, your maximum drawdown and each day's balances. The calculator shows where your floor sits, whether it has stopped trailing, and how much room you have left in dollars and in index points. It handles the three models futures prop firms use: end-of-day (EOD) trailing, intraday trailing and static.

5 min readChecked 14 October 2026

Trailing drawdown calculator

Load an example:

DayClosing balanceLow incl. open loss (optional)
Current floor
–
Room left
–
Room in points
–
Room today (DLL vs floor)
–
Balance needed to lock
–
Drawdown used
–

Solid line: closing balance. Dashed line: floor.

Intraday mode with only a daily high and low can't know which came first, so it assumes the high came first (the worst case). Your firm's own calculation always decides.

What is a trailing drawdown?

A trailing drawdown is a loss floor that moves up as your account makes new highs and never moves down. If your balance touches the floor, the account fails (evaluation) or closes (funded). Most futures firms also stop the trail at a lock level, often your starting balance, after which the floor is fixed.

Three things decide how yours behaves:

  1. What it trails from. EOD models use your closing balance. Intraday models use your highest balance during the session, including open profit.
  2. When it is checked. Even on EOD models the floor is usually enforced live, on unrealized P&L. Topstep says its Maximum Loss Limit "updates at the end of each trading day but is monitored in real time throughout the session." (Topstep)
  3. Where it locks. Topstep's MLL "locks permanently" once it reaches your starting balance. Other firms lock at starting balance plus a small amount, or have different rules after a payout.
EOD trailing drawdown: the floor rises from $48,000 with each new closing high and locks at $50,000$48k$49k$50k$51k$52kfloor locks at startStart123456BalanceFloor
End-of-day trailing, $2,000 drawdown, locks at the $50,000 start. The floor only moves up, and stops once a $52,000 close is reached.

EOD vs intraday trailing drawdown

End-of-day (EOD) trailing Intraday trailing Static
Floor moves from Highest closing balance Highest balance during the day, incl. open profit Never moves
A trade that runs up then comes back Doesn't move the floor unless you close higher Raises the floor even if you give it all back No effect
Checked against Live balance (usually) Live balance Live balance
Example (checked 14 Oct 2026) Topstep MLL; Apex EOD evaluations Apex Intraday evaluations Some firms' plans

Apex describes its intraday threshold as moving "dynamically with your account's highest balance (Peak Balance), including unrealized gains", and its EOD threshold as "calculated once per day at market close… enforced during the next session." (Apex Intraday, Apex EOD)

Why intraday trailing catches people out: a 50K account with a $2,000 intraday trail runs up to $51,200 on an open trade, then closes the day at $50,300. The floor is now $49,200, not $48,000. You banked $300 but lost $1,200 of room.

Same day, two models: EOD floor ends at $48,300, intraday floor at $49,200End-of-day trailingfloor $48,300closed at $50,300, floor follows the closeIntraday trailingfloor $49,200peak $51,200 open profit, floor follows the peak
A run-up to $51,200 that closes at $50,300. Intraday trailing keeps $900 less room.

The formulas

Let S = starting balance, D = max drawdown, L = lock level (or none).

  • Starting floor = S − D
  • EOD trailing, after each close: floor = min( max(floor, highest close − D), L )
  • Intraday trailing, during the day: floor = min( max(floor, highest balance incl. open profit − D), L )
  • Static: floor = S − D, always
  • Breach: any moment the balance (incl. unrealized P&L) ≤ floor in force
  • Room left = current balance − floor
  • Room in points = room ÷ (point value × contracts). With $1,000 of room: 50 NQ points, 20 ES points, 500 MNQ points, 200 MES points on one contract.
  • Balance needed to lock = L + D (the floor reaches L when your high reaches L + D)

Worked example: Topstep-style 50K Trading Combine

Topstep's own example: start $50,000, MLL $48,000. Day 1 +$500 → balance $50,500, MLL $48,500. Day 2 −$500 → balance $50,000, MLL stays $48,500. (Topstep) The MLL locks at $50,000 once a closing balance of $52,000 is reached.

Worked example: funded account that starts at $0

In a Topstep Express Funded Account the balance starts at $0 and a 50K's MLL starts at −$2,000, locking at $0 once the balance reaches $2,000. The same formulas work with S = 0, D = 2,000, L = 0.

Daily loss limit vs max drawdown

They are separate rules. A daily loss limit (DLL) caps one session's loss; at many firms hitting it pauses you until the next session rather than failing the account. At Apex EOD evaluations, reaching the DLL "pauses trading for the remainder of the session. Your account remains active." At Topstep, the DLL is optional in the Combine and XFA, and triggering it "is not a rule violation." (Topstep DLL) The max drawdown is the account-ending floor. Your usable room today is the smaller of the two.

Usable room today is the smaller of the daily loss limit and the distance to the drawdown floorRoom to max drawdown floor$2,000Daily loss limit left today$500Usable room today is the smaller of the two: $500.
Illustrative: $2,000 to the floor, $500 left on today's daily loss limit.

Questions people ask

What is a trailing drawdown in a prop firm?

A maximum-loss floor that rises with your account's high-water mark and never falls. Touch it and the account fails or closes.

What is an EOD drawdown?

An end-of-day trailing drawdown only moves the floor based on your closing balance. Open profit during the day doesn't raise it, but most firms still check your live balance against the current floor.

Is intraday or EOD drawdown better?

EOD is more forgiving for trades that run up and pull back, because unrealized peaks don't move the floor. Intraday trailing locks in your best open-profit moment as the new reference point.

Does a trailing drawdown ever stop trailing?

Usually. Many futures firms lock it at the starting balance (Topstep's MLL locks there) or a fixed amount above. Check your firm's rule.

How do I calculate how many points I can lose?

Room left ÷ (point value × contracts). $1,000 of room is 50 points on 1 NQ or 500 points on 1 MNQ.

What's the difference between daily loss limit and max drawdown?

The daily loss limit caps one session's loss and often just pauses trading; the max drawdown is the account-ending floor.

Sources (checked 14 Oct 2026)

Copying to several prop accounts? Give each one its own limits.

Edgeable lets you set a daily loss limit, max contracts and a lockout per follower, so one account reaching its limit stops copying there while the others carry on. Monitor Rithmic accounts without copying to them. Runs in the cloud. Managing multiple prop evaluations.

See guardrails

Guardrails are tools, not guarantees. Your firm's own rules and calculations always decide. Not financial advice.

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