Prop firm drawdown calculator
Enter your account and this tells you the exact equity level that ends the challenge, how much room is left below you, and how far you still are from the profit target. Pick your firm to fill in its real numbers, or type your own.
How the two drawdown types behave
The difference decides how you are allowed to trade, and most people find that out the expensive way. Take a $100,000 account with a 10% maximum loss.
Static. Your floor is $90,000 and it never moves. Run the account to $108,000 and you still have $18,000 of room beneath you. The drawdown rule stops mattering as you get further ahead, which is why static programmes forgive a bad day after a good week.
Trailing. Your floor starts at $90,000 and climbs with every new equity high. At $108,000 the floor is $98,000, so you now have $10,000 of room instead of $18,000 — and a retrace that would have been survivable on a static account closes this one. The better you do, the tighter it gets.
The practical consequence is that on a trailing account, an open profit you let run back to breakeven is not a neutral event. It moved your floor up on the way out and left it there on the way back. Traders who scale out and bank partials do measurably better under trailing rules than traders who hold for a single target, and that is a rule of the programme rather than a rule of the market.
The daily loss limit is what actually fails people
Maximum drawdown gets the attention, but the daily limit ends more challenges, for three reasons. It is usually the smaller number. It resets on the firm's clock rather than yours, so a position held across their rollover can count against two separate days. And it is measured on equity, so an open trade that is temporarily offside can breach it even if it later comes back and wins.
If you take one thing from this page: know your firm's daily reset time, in your own timezone, and never carry size through it. Everything else about the risk rules is easier than that one.
Rules by firm
Checked September 2026. Prop firms change programmes often, so treat this as a starting shape and confirm against your own dashboard.
| Firm | Programme | Phase | Target | Daily loss | Max loss | Drawdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTMO | 2-step Challenge | Challenge | 10% | 5% | 10% | Static |
| Verification | 5% | 5% | 10% | Static | ||
| FTMO | 1-step Challenge | Challenge | 10% | 3% | 10% | Trailing |
| FundingPips | 2-step Pro | Phase 1 | 6% | 3% | 6% | Static |
| Phase 2 | 6% | 3% | 6% | Static | ||
| Alpha Capital | Alpha Pro 6% | Phase 1 | 6% | 3% | 6% | Static |
| Phase 2 | 6% | 3% | 6% | Static | ||
| The5ers | Bootcamp (3 phases) | Phase 1 | 6% | 3% | 5% | Static |
| Phase 2 | 6% | 3% | 5% | Static | ||
| Phase 3 | 6% | 3% | 5% | Static | ||
| FundedNext | Evaluation (2-step) | Phase 1 | 8% | 5% | 10% | Static |
| Phase 2 | 5% | 5% | 10% | Static | ||
| E8 Markets | 2-step | Phase 1 | 8% | 5% | 8% | Static |
| Phase 2 | 5% | 5% | 8% | Static | ||
| Topstep | Combine $50K | Combine | 6% | 2% | 5% | Trailing |
| Apex Trader Funding | Evaluation $50K | Evaluation | 6% | none | 5% | Trailing |
Knowing the number is not the same as trading it
A calculator tells you where the floor is. It cannot tell you what you will do when price is a third of the way to it and you are certain the trade is about to turn. That is the part that fails challenges, and the only way to practise it is to be in the position with the outcome genuinely unknown.
That is what TradeDrill is for: pick one of these programmes, trade real historical days bar by bar with the future hidden, and the challenge is scored against these exact rules as you go — and closed the moment you breach, the way the real one would be. It is free.
Questions
What is the difference between static and trailing drawdown?
A static drawdown sets one fixed floor below your starting balance and leaves it there, so any profit you make is yours to lose before you breach. A trailing drawdown follows your highest equity upward, so giving back gains can fail you even while you are still up on the account overall. Most two-step forex challenges are static; most futures combines and one-step programmes trail.
Does the trailing drawdown stop moving once I am in profit?
At some firms, yes. Several futures firms freeze the trailing threshold once it reaches your starting balance, so it can never push your floor above where you began. Others trail all the way to the profit target. This calculator models the pure trailing case, which is the stricter of the two, so treat its answer as the worst case and check your firm's own wording.
Is the drawdown measured on balance or on equity?
Almost always on equity, which means open losing positions count against you in real time. That is why traders breach in the middle of a trade they were planning to hold through. This calculator uses equity throughout.
How is the daily loss limit measured?
From your balance or equity at the start of the trading day, whichever the firm specifies — FTMO uses whichever is higher. The limit resets each day at the firm's server time, which is often not your own midnight, and that mismatch alone fails a lot of accounts.
Are these firm rules current?
The presets were checked in September 2026 and every number stays editable, because prop firms change their programmes often. Always confirm against your own account dashboard before you rely on a figure.
These calculators are for education and planning. They are not financial advice, and no calculator can tell you whether a trade is a good idea. Trading carries risk of loss.