What is trailing drawdown?
A floor that follows your highest balance up and never comes back down. Intraday trailing drawdown follows your equity, open profit included.
free. no sign-up.
Prop firm daily drawdown calculator. Room left today.
Prop firms cap how much you can lose in a day. See how much room you've got left today, and a size for your next trade that fits inside it.
SizeOps isn't connected to any prop firm, and every firm's rules differ, so check yours.
runs in your browser
Today
= $5,000 today
Closed trades today
Today's closed result
1 lot = 100 oz · $100 per 1.00 move
Cent account: 1 cent lot = 0.01 lot ·
= $1,000 a trade
Your stop as
Direction
stop below the entry
$ move
= $300 on 1 lot
$
A Buy fills at the Ask, so the spread is added to its stop. A Sell adds nothing.
USD round turn
For planning only. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. Rules differ between firms and brokers. Check yours. Real results can differ because of slippage, gaps and your broker's contract specs. This isn't financial advice, and every trading decision is your own.
hey trader, Doing this before every trade? SizeOps does it on your chart. Drag your stop and the size follows, commission in. One click and the stop and target go in with the trade. Its daily loss limit keeps today's count for you, open trades at their stops. No card. MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and NinjaTrader 8. See it on MetaTraderSee it on NinjaTrader 8
What is drawdown in trading?
Drawdown is how far your account falls from a high point before it climbs back, in money or percent. On your balance it counts closed trades; equity drawdown counts open ones too. A daily drawdown is the fall within one trading day; a daily loss limit is the most of it your rules allow.
two limits, usually,
Daily, trailing, static: which one is mine?
Funded account rules usually set two limits: a daily one, and a maximum for the whole account that is trailing or static. Your account's rules say which.
What is static drawdown?
A floor fixed from your starting balance. It never moves, however much you make.
What is end-of-day drawdown?
EOD drawdown moves the floor only once a day, from your balance when the day closes, so what happens during the day doesn't move it.
What is max drawdown?
The biggest fall from a high point to a low over the life of the account. Under funded account rules, the most the whole account may lose.
How firms count the daily limit
- Some count the daily limit from the day's starting balance, some from the higher of balance and equity when the day starts.
- Some count open trades as they stand, some only closed ones. Counting open trades at their stops is the cautious way.
- The day resets at the time your rules set, often your broker's server midnight.
This calculator works out the daily one. Check the trailing or static maximum in your account's rules.
The drawdown formula, worked out
The daily limit counts from where the day started: today's losses use it up, today's profits give some back, and open trades count at their stops.
daily limit = day's starting balance × limit %
room left = daily limit + today's closed result − open trades' risk to their stops
floor = day's starting balance − daily limit
max drawdown formula: max drawdown % = (highest point − lowest point after it) ÷ highest point × 100
room left = daily limit + today's closed result − open trades' risk to their stops
floor = day's starting balance − daily limit
max drawdown formula: max drawdown % = (highest point − lowest point after it) ÷ highest point × 100
A $100,000 day with a 5% limit
Step 1
Your daily limit
$100,000 × 5% = $5,000.00. The floor is $95,000.00.
Step 2
Room left today
Down $2,300 on closed trades, and $1,000 open at the stops: $5,000.00 − $2,300 − $1,000 = $1,700.00. At 1% a trade ($1,000.00), 1 more trade fits.
Step 3
Your next trade
Gold with a $3.00 stop and $7.00 commission a lot: $1,000.00 ÷ $307.00 = 3.257, so 3.25 lots, a loss at the stop of $997.75.
Slippage and gaps can still make a real loss bigger.
Any market, any stop: the position size calculator sizes the trade the same way.
Prop firm drawdown rules, worked out
The same $100,000 account with a 5% daily limit and a 10% maximum, three ways (every firm's rules differ, so check yours):
Static
The floor stays at $90,000.00 whatever you make.
Trailing
After the balance reaches $104,000.00, the floor rises to $94,000.00 and stays there if you give the profit back.
End of day
Up $4,000.00 at noon and flat by the close, the floor doesn't move, because only the closing balance counts.
And the daily limit on top of each: at most $5,000.00 down from where each day started, the number this calculator works with.
close the charts. go for a walk.
How SizeOps' daily loss limit works
- You set it as a % of the day's starting balance.
- Before each new trade, it checks the trade's risk (to its stop, commission included) against what's left of today's limit: today's closed result plus your open trades, counted at their stops. A trade that doesn't fit is refused.
- Once the limit is used up, new trades stay blocked for the rest of the day. SizeOps also cancels its own pending entries. Your manual orders stay.
Read more
- Waiting entries keep fitting: about every 2 seconds, SizeOps checks its waiting entries the way it checks a new trade, and cancels them as soon as one no longer fits what's left today.
- It never closes a running trade unless you turn on “At the limit: also close open trades” (it's off to start with). Trades you placed by hand are never closed.
- It works account by account. Every trade on that account counts, manual ones too.
- When the day starts: on MetaTrader 4 and 5 at 00:00 broker server time (the clock Market Watch shows); on NinjaTrader 8 at 18:00 New York time, when the futures day starts.
An open trade without a stop counts at its current profit or loss. On NinjaTrader 8, SizeOps' own trades on the chart's instrument count at their stops, and other open positions at their current profit or loss.
Built into SizeOps for MetaTrader 4 and 5 and NinjaTrader 8.
we've all been there.
Why some daily limits reset by accident
- The day starts at a different time than you think. Broker server time, your own clock and your firm's reset can be hours apart.
- The limit is measured on balance, while equity is what counts. Balance moves only when a trade closes; many rules watch equity.
- Open trades aren't counted until they close. Trades running toward their stops can use up the day before any shows as a loss.
Read more
- The count lives only in memory. A tool that keeps today's total only in memory starts from zero after a restart.
- Several charts or accounts are counted separately. Two charts that each allow the full limit can lose it twice.
SizeOps counts the whole account from a fixed start of day and counts open trades.
Want to see it on your own chart first?
Try it free for 7 days on your own account. No card, nothing to cancel. Each platform gets its own trial: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and NinjaTrader 8. Questions after your trial? Book a 15-minute call and we'll go through it on your chart.
Questions now? Email support@sizeops.com. We reply within 1 business day.
Position sizing
MetaTrader 4 and 5, NinjaTrader 8: every trade sized from your risk and stop
Position sizing →More free tools
Lots for forex, gold and indices, contracts for futures.
Position size calculator →Which sessions are open now, in your time.
Forex market hours →