TradeBB Trailing drawdown, explained step by step
A trailing drawdown is a loss limit that moves up as your account reaches new highs, and never moves down. Your account fails if its value touches that moving floor. A static drawdown, by contrast, stays at a fixed level below your starting balance.
The idea is simple. The details are where accounts end: when the floor moves, whether open profit counts, and when it stops moving. Those differ by firm and by account type, which is why most explanations online contradict each other.
This guide walks through one example under three rules side by side, then gives you a checklist for reading your own firm's version.
Trailing vs static drawdown
Take a $50,000 account with a $2,000 limit.
- Static — the floor is $48,000, and it stays there however well you do
- Trailing — the floor starts at $48,000, then follows your highest value up, $2,000 behind it
With a trailing drawdown, every new high costs you room below. Grow the account to $52,000 and the floor is now $50,000. Give back $2,000 from there, and the account is out, even though you're exactly back where you started.
Intraday vs end-of-day trailing drawdown
Trailing drawdowns come in two main types, and the difference is when the floor moves.
Intraday trailing. The floor moves during the trading day, following your highest account value, often including profit on trades that are still open. A trade that runs up and then comes back raises your floor even if you closed it near breakeven.
End-of-day (EOD) trailing. The floor moves only once a day, based on your balance at the close. Open profit during the day doesn't raise it.
The part people get wrong: with an EOD trailing drawdown, the floor moves at the close, but touching it during the day still counts. Apex and Topstep both state this in their help centers. EOD changes how fast the floor rises, not when you can breach it.
One example, three rules
Same $50,000 account, same $2,000 limit, same three days of trading. Watch what each rule does to your floor.
| Moment | Account value | Intraday trailing floor | EOD trailing floor | Static floor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | $50,000 | $48,000 | $48,000 | $48,000 |
| Day 1, open trade peaks | $51,500 | $49,500 | $48,000 | $48,000 |
| Day 1 close (trade closed) | $51,300 | $49,500 | $49,300 | $48,000 |
| Day 2, low point | $49,600 | $49,500 (room: $100) | $49,300 (room: $300) | $48,000 |
| Day 2 close | $50,100 | $49,500 | $49,300 | $48,000 |
| Day 3, low point | $49,400 | Breached | $49,300 (room: $100) | $48,000 |
Three things this shows:
- Open profit moved the intraday floor. A peak you never banked raised it by $1,500 on day 1.
- You can be up and still lose room. After day 2 you're $100 ahead overall, but under the intraday rule your room has shrunk from $2,000 to $600.
- The same day ends one account and not the other. Day 3's dip breaches the intraday rule and leaves the other two standing.
Five questions to ask about your firm's rule
"Trailing drawdown" covers several different rules. Before you trade an account, find the answer to each of these in your firm's rulebook.
- When does the floor move? During the day, only after a trade closes, or once at the close?
- Does open profit count? If it does, a trade that runs up and comes back raises your floor.
- Is a breach checked during the day? At most firms it is, even when the floor only moves at the close.
- Where does it stop? Many rules stop trailing once the floor reaches a set level, such as your starting balance. Until then, your room is at its tightest.
- What do payouts do? At some firms, a withdrawal lowers your balance without lowering the floor, or resets it.
Here's how three firms describe some of these, as listed on their own sites in October 2026:
| When the floor moves | Open profit raises it? | Breach during the day? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apex, intraday accounts | During the day, from peak balance | Yes | Yes |
| Apex, EOD accounts | At the daily close | No | Yes |
| Topstep, Trading Combine | From the highest closing balance | No | Yes |
| FTMO, 1-Step | Once a day, at midnight | No | Yes |
Rules change, and some differ by account type or platform within the same firm. Always check the current rulebook.
Check your own trading against a trailing drawdown
Before you buy an account, you can replay your own history against the rule you'll trade under.
- Scale it — convert the firm's limit to your account size, or your results to theirs
- Walk day by day — for each day, take your highest balance so far and subtract the limit; that's your floor
- Compare each day's low — did your balance on any day dip below that day's floor?
- Note the tightest day — the day with the least room left, and what you were doing
The limit of this check: your closed trades show where your balance stood after each trade, not the highest point a trade reached while it was open. For EOD and static rules that's close to the real thing. For an intraday rule that counts open profit, treat the result as a best case: the real floor would have been higher.
Replay your history against the rule — Start Your Prop Journal →
How to trade under a trailing drawdown
- Size for the tightest window — before the floor stops trailing, room is smallest
- Bank early profit with care — under intraday rules, a spike you give back still raises the floor
- Know your floor each morning — write it down before the open
- Stop well before the line — a floor touched by one tick is still touched
- Watch the trade after a loss — that's where most breaches start
The last one is the habit, not the rule. More on it in revenge trading, and on the full set of challenge rules in how to pass a prop firm challenge.
Frequently asked questions
A loss limit that follows your account up, a fixed distance behind its highest value, and never moves down. If your account falls to it, the account fails.
A loss limit that follows your account up, a fixed distance behind its highest value, and never moves down. If your account falls to it, the account fails.
Intraday trailing moves the floor during the day, often counting open profit. EOD trailing moves it once a day from your closing balance. At most firms, a breach is checked during the day under both.
Intraday trailing moves the floor during the day, often counting open profit. EOD trailing moves it once a day from your closing balance. At most firms, a breach is checked during the day under both.
It's more forgiving, because the floor never rises. Whether a firm's overall rules suit you depends on the rest of the package too.
It's more forgiving, because the floor never rises. Whether a firm's overall rules suit you depends on the rest of the package too.
At many firms, yes: once the floor reaches a set level, often the starting balance, it stays there. The exact level differs by firm and account type.
At many firms, yes: once the floor reaches a set level, often the starting balance, it stays there. The exact level differs by firm and account type.
Yes. Under a trailing drawdown, you can be up overall and still fall to the floor, because the floor rose with your earlier high.
Yes. Under a trailing drawdown, you can be up overall and still fall to the floor, because the floor rose with your earlier high.
Know your floor. Then find what pushes you toward it.
Bring in your trades, replay them against your firm's rule, and see which days came closest.