AlphaEngine OS

Trailing drawdown calculator

Pick your firm and account, type your daily closes, and see where the floor sits, where it locks and how much room is left. Filled with an example.

Drawdown type
Your days (balances)
DayHighLow (optional)Close

Result

Enter your numbers to see the result.

Arithmetic on the numbers you entered. Your firm's dashboard is the only official number. AlphaEngine never touches your broker.

Three kinds of drawdown

Every prop account has a floor: a balance it must never touch. The maximum drawdown is the distance between your balance and that floor. What changes from firm to firm is how the floor moves.

  • Static: the floor is the starting balance minus the drawdown, and it never moves.
  • End-of-day trailing: after each session the floor rises to your highest closing balance minus the drawdown. It never comes back down.
  • Intraday trailing: the floor follows your highest balance during the day, open profit included. A trade that runs up and comes back can raise the floor without leaving you any profit.

Calculated at the close, enforced all day

"End of day" describes when the floor moves, not when it counts. Tradeify writes that the limit "only UPDATES at the end of each trading day, but it is ENFORCED continuously throughout the day", and Topstep describes its Maximum Loss Limit as "Calculated end of day, enforced intraday". If your balance, open trades included, touches the floor at 10:15, the account fails at 10:15, even if you would have closed green. That is why the calculator asks for the low of the day.

Where the floor stops

Many firms stop the trailing floor at a fixed balance. On a Lucid 50K LucidFlex account it stops at $50,100; on a Topstep 50K Combine it stops at the starting balance; on a Tradeify funded account it locks at $100 above the starting balance, but on a Tradeify evaluation it never locks. Pick your account above and the calculator fills the level from the firm's page, with the date it was read.

Why a good day makes tomorrow tighter

Example: a $50,000 account with a $2,000 end-of-day trailing drawdown. You close day one at $51,500: the floor rises from $48,000 to $49,500. On day two you have $2,000 of room again, measured from $51,500, not from $50,000. Give back $2,000 and the account fails, even though it is still $1,500 above where it started.

The floor rarely ends an account on its own. It ends it when the stop gets moved, or when one more trade follows a loss. That part is not arithmetic.

Questions

How does a trailing drawdown work?

The floor follows your highest balance, minus the drawdown amount, and never moves down. Profits raise it; losses don't lower it. With an end-of-day trail it moves after each close; with an intraday trail it moves during the session, open profit included.

What is the difference between intraday and end-of-day trailing drawdown?

An intraday trail updates from your highest balance during the day, including unrealized profit. An end-of-day trail updates only from your closing balance. End of day is more forgiving on trades that run up and come back, but most firms still enforce the floor in real time.

Does the trailing drawdown ever stop?

At many firms, yes: the floor stops at a set balance, often the starting balance or $100 above it. Not always: Tradeify writes that its evaluation accounts do not lock. Check your firm's page; the calculator shows the level and the source for each account it lists.

Can I go below the floor during the day if I close above it?

At the firms whose rules are listed here, no. Topstep and Tradeify both say the floor is enforced during the day, so touching it fails the account even if you recover by the close.

Accounts rarely die from the drawdown. They die from the stop you moved before it.

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