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Trailing drawdown calculator for Topstep and other futures prop firms
Work out exactly where your floor sits today, how far your balance can fall before the account closes, and the balance at which the floor stops following you up.
What a trailing drawdown actually is
Most prop firm futures accounts do not give you a fixed stop-out level. They give you a floor that follows your balance upward and never comes back down. Make money and the floor rises behind you. Give it back and the floor stays where it climbed to, so the same dollar loss costs you more room than it did the day before. That asymmetry is what closes accounts, and it is why the number worth watching is the gap between your balance and your floor, not your profit and loss for the day.
Firms differ on the detail. Some move the floor while a position is still open, some only on the closing balance of the session, and most stop moving it once it reaches a published level near your starting balance. Pick your account below and the calculator applies that program's behaviour.
Calculate yours
Verified September 4, 2026Room before your floor
$3,700
Floor sits at
$149,500
Floor locks at
$150,000
You have $3,700 between your balance and the floor at $149,500. Another $500 of new highs pins the floor at $150,000 for good, and it stops chasing you from then on.
The limit rises with the end-of-day balance, never falls, and stops moving once it reaches the balance the account started at. Topstep help center: Maximum Loss Limit
A worked example on a 150K evaluation
Start at $150,000 with $4,500 of drawdown. On day one the floor is $145,500. Four sessions later:
Notice day 4. You gave back $800 and your room fell from $4,500 to $3,700, because the floor kept the ground it took on day 3. Two more sessions like that and an ordinary losing day becomes an account-ending one. Notice day 2 as well: a green day that does not set a new high moves nothing, so the floor only ratchets on the highs.
On this account the floor stops moving once it reaches $150,000, which takes a high of $154,500. Every dollar of new high before that point buys permanent room, and the stretch just before the lock is the most valuable stretch in the account's life.
Intraday trailing, end-of-day trailing, and a fixed floor
Intraday trailing follows the balance while a position is open. An unrealised gain you never took can still raise the floor, so a trade that goes $600 your way and comes back to flat has cost you $600 of permanent room and returned nothing. This is the harshest version, and it punishes holding a runner and hoping.
End-of-day trailing only moves the floor on the closing balance of the session. Open profit you give back before the close never counts against you, which makes intraday swings cheaper but makes the decision of when to stop for the day heavier. Note that a firm can move the floor at the close and still liquidate you intraday when your open loss reaches the limit. The two are separate rules.
A fixed floor does not move at all. Your room is simply your balance above a level set at the start, and a good day genuinely is yours to keep. Firms publish this on some sizes and stages, and it is the easiest of the three to trade against.
Whichever one you are on, the discipline is the same: size the next trade against the gap you actually have, not the number printed on the account you bought. For the wider picture on how limits end accounts, see the long-form trailing drawdown guide and the daily loss limit guide.
Common questions
What is a trailing drawdown?
It is a minimum balance that follows your account upward. Every time your balance sets a new high on the basis your firm tracks, the floor moves up behind it by the same amount, and it never moves back down. Touch the floor and the account is over, so the number that matters day to day is the gap between your balance and that floor, not your profit for the day.
Does the floor ever come back down?
No. On every program covered by this calculator the floor only moves in one direction, upward, and it keeps the highest position it has reached for the life of the account. That is why giving back a winning day costs you room permanently: the profit leaves, the floor stays.
When does a trailing drawdown stop trailing?
Most firms freeze the floor once it reaches a published level. Topstep describes the limit as locking when it reaches the balance the account started at. MyFundedFutures publishes a lock a hundred dollars above the starting balance on the plans covered here. Earn2Trade describes its drawdown as settling at the starting balance. Take Profit Trader publishes the same lock at the starting balance on both its test and PRO stages. After the lock your downside is fixed and the account is far easier to hold.
Does unrealised profit move the floor?
It depends on the program, and sometimes on the stage within it. Some firms move the floor only on the closing balance of each session, and others follow the balance while a position is still open, which means an open trade that runs in your favour and then gives it back can still raise the floor. This calculator asks for the high on the basis your program uses, and the note under the picker says which one that is.
How much room do I actually have to trade with?
Your balance minus your current floor, and no more. A common and expensive mistake is to treat the headline drawdown figure as the room available, months into an account whose floor has already climbed. Once the floor has locked, your room is simply the profit you are holding above it.
Is this the same as the daily loss limit?
No. A daily loss limit resets each session and usually ends your trading day. A trailing drawdown is cumulative and permanent, and hitting it ends the account. An account can be nowhere near its daily limit and one bad session away from its floor, which is why both need watching.
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A journal that keeps the floor current after every session beats opening a chart and doing this arithmetic in your head.
Firms and plans appear here only where the figures are published on a page this tool can link to. Figures verified September 4, 2026; rules and prices change, check the firm's page. Sources: Topstep, MyFundedFutures, Earn2Trade, Take Profit Trader.
Educational only, not financial advice. Propfy is an independent trading journal for Topstep and other futures prop firms, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any firm named on this page. Firm names are used only to identify whose published rules a figure came from.