A trailing drawdown is a loss limit that moves up as your account makes new highs. With intraday trailing, the floor follows your highest balance at any moment, usually including open profit. With end-of-day trailing, it moves only once a day, from your closing balance. Many firms stop trailing once the floor reaches the starting balance. The same trades can pass under one rule and fail under the other.
Static vs trailing drawdown
A static drawdown never moves: on a $50,000 account with a $2,000 limit, you fail at $48,000 whatever happens. A trailing drawdown starts in the same place but follows your account up. Make $1,000 and the floor rises to $49,000. It never moves back down.
Intraday (real-time) trailing
The floor follows the highest value your account reaches at any moment. At most firms that includes open profit on trades you haven't closed: if a trade is up $1,500 before you exit at +$300, the floor has already moved up as if you'd banked $1,500. Giving back part of a winner costs you room even when you close it green.
End-of-day trailing
The floor is recalculated once a day, from your balance at the close. Swings during the day don't move it, but you still fail if your balance touches the current floor at any time. It's more forgiving for traders who hold trades through pullbacks.
An example
A $50K evaluation with a $2,000 trailing drawdown. On day 1 you're up $1,500 at the high and close up $300. With intraday trailing the floor is now −$500 (from the $1,500 peak). With end-of-day trailing it's −$1,700 (from the $300 close). On day 2 the account drops to about −$700 before recovering to +$800: the intraday account has failed, while the end-of-day account was never close.
When the floor stops trailing
Many firms stop trailing once the floor reaches the starting balance or a little above it, for example Topstep, Lucid Trading's LucidFlex (start + $100) and Take Profit Trader. From then on the floor is fixed, and every new dollar of profit is extra room. Rules differ by firm and plan and change often, so read the current help-center page for your account.
Other rules that interact with it
- Daily loss limit: a separate cap on one day's loss. At some firms hitting it ends the day; at others it fails the account.
- Consistency rule: your best day can't be more than a set share of total profit (40% to 55% at the firms we checked). A big day usually raises the profit you need rather than failing you.
- Minimum trading days and time limits.
Check your numbers
Whether an approach passes depends on its win rate, average win and loss, trades per day, and the rule set. The free prop firm calculator simulates thousands of evaluations under each firm's rules and shows the pass rate and what it's likely to cost in fees to get one pass.
Firm rules checked in October 2026 and summarised here; they change often. Check the firm's own rules before you buy an evaluation.