Static, intraday-trailing and end-of-day-trailing drawdown are three different rules with three different survival floors on the same equity curve. Track the one your firm actually uses.
No credit card required. Manual balance entry works for MT4/MT5 firms with no API too.
Starting at $100,000, a spike to $105,000 that closes at $102,000 leaves each drawdown rule with a different floor - and a different amount of room left.
$90,000
The floor never moves: starting balance minus your drawdown limit, fixed from day one. This is FTMO's rule.
$95,000
The floor follows your highest equity ever seen, including intraday spikes - even ones that gave back before the candle closed. This is Topstep's rule.
$92,000
The floor only follows your highest end-of-day close. An intraday spike that gives back the same day never moves it. This is Apex's rule.
Get the variant wrong and you'll either think you have room you don't - or panic-close a position that was never actually at risk.
Daily loss, max drawdown, profit target, consistency and minimum trading days - each with the variant your firm actually enforces.
Get warned when a rule moves to a riskier tier, so you can react while there's still something to react to.
Daily loss resets at midnight in the firm's own timezone - FTMO resets on Europe/Prague time, not UTC or yours.
Use live synced equity, type it in by hand for MT4/MT5 firms with no API, or derive it from your closed trades.
A static drawdown fixes your floor once, at starting balance minus the limit, and it never moves - a $100,000 account with a 10% limit stays at $90,000 no matter how high the balance climbs (FTMO works this way). A TRAILING drawdown follows your peak, and there are two kinds that behave very differently: intraday trailing counts every spike your equity ever touched (Topstep), while end-of-day trailing only counts closing balances, so a spike you give back before the close does not move the floor (Apex). On one equity curve - open $100,000, spike to $105,000 intraday, close the day at $102,000 - those three rules give floors of $90,000, $95,000 and $92,000. Choosing the wrong one tells you that you have room when you do not.
A consistency rule caps how much of your total profit may come from a single day - commonly 30% to 50%. Crucially it is PAYOUT-gated, not account-gated: breaking it holds your withdrawal until your results even out, it does not end the account. The formula differs by firm and that changes the verdict: most divide your best day by TOTAL net profit, while FTMO's variant divides by the sum of WINNING days only, excluding losing days from the denominator. On a choppy month those two produce very different percentages from identical trading, so a tracker that applies one formula everywhere will call a passing account failing, or the reverse.