The two rules that end most accounts
Almost nobody loses an account by blowing up. They lose it to a daily limit measured in a way they did not expect, or to a drawdown line that moved while they were winning.
Updated 20 September 2026
The daily limit is measured, not felt
A daily loss limit sounds simple until you ask what it is measured against: the balance at the start of the day, or the equity including open trades. Under an equity rule, an open position that is temporarily underwater can breach the limit before you have closed anything.
269 of the 769 plans here use a 3 per cent daily limit and 129 use 5 per cent. The percentage is the part people compare. The measurement is the part that closes accounts.
The drawdown line that follows you up
A static maximum drawdown sits at a fixed level under your starting balance and never moves. A trailing drawdown follows the account upward, so the more you make, the higher the floor sits beneath you.
404 plans here are static and 365 trail. A further 428 use the end-of-day variant, where the line is recalculated from the highest equity at the close of each day rather than tick by tick.
That difference matters most on your best day. Take a 100,000 dollar account up to 106,000 intraday under an end-of-day trailing rule, and the floor rises once the day closes. The profit you gave back is not simply forgotten.
Why this is worth reading twice
Both rules are published and neither is a trick. But they appear as one line on a pricing page and as several paragraphs in the rulebook, and the paragraphs are what decide whether an account survives a normal bad afternoon.
Before paying, find three answers: is the daily limit on balance or equity, does the drawdown trail, and if it trails, is it recalculated intraday or at the close.