Trailing Drawdown Calculator
The exact balance where your account breaches, and how much room is left. Presets for 20 prop firms.
Healthy buffer — you have room to take a normal loss.
One account, one day. The full app runs 10,000 simulated evaluations of your real trades on this ruleset — pass and payout probability, risk of ruin, and full journal + performance statistics.
Run the full simulation →What your pass probability looks like
Three fixed trader profiles run against Topstep's ruleset. The full app runs your real journal numbers instead.
Why the balanced trader fails Topstep
How is trailing drawdown calculated?
Trailing drawdown is measured from the highest balance your account has ever reached — not from your starting balance. On a $50,000 account with a 4% ($2,000) trailing drawdown, the breach line starts at $48,000. Push the account to $52,300 and the line follows you up to $50,300. A $2,000 loss from that peak ends the evaluation even though you are still $300 above where you started.
This is the single most common reason traders blow evaluations they thought they were winning. The account looks green while the distance between the balance and the floor quietly shrinks to nothing.
Does the trail ever stop?
At most end-of-day trailing firms, yes: the trail stops once the breach line reaches your starting balance. Apex Trader Funding locks it at your starting balance plus $100. Intraday trailing firms are stricter — the line follows your highest unrealised equity, so a trade that runs $1,000 in your favour and comes back raises your floor by $1,000 even though you never banked a cent of it.
End-of-day vs intraday trailing
End-of-day trailing only uses your closing balance each day, so intraday spikes are free. Intraday trailing uses your highest equity at any moment. For a scalper who regularly gives back open profit, an intraday trail is dramatically harsher than the headline percentage suggests — which is why two firms with the same "4% drawdown" can have very different real pass rates.
Full breakdown with worked examples: trailing drawdown explained. Or compare every firm's rules side by side in the prop firm database.
Based on each firm's publicly listed rules. Independent — not affiliated with any prop firm, no affiliate links. Rules change; always verify against your firm's dashboard before trading.