Intraday vs End-of-Day Trailing Drawdown: What's the Difference?

Updated September 28, 2026

What a trailing drawdown is

Many prop firm evaluations give you a maximum drawdown that trails your account's high-water mark (its highest value so far). The floor sits a fixed dollar amount below that high-water mark and only moves up. If your account touches the floor, the evaluation or funded account fails.

The difference between rule types is which high-water mark the floor follows and when it is updated.

Intraday trailing drawdown

• Updates in real time, tick by tick.
• Follows your highest equity, which includes unrealized profit on open positions.
• A winning trade that you let come back can permanently lift your floor.
• It is the stricter of the two, because your buffer shrinks during the trade, not just after it.

End-of-day trailing drawdown

• Updates once per day, from your balance at the session close.
• Swings in open profit during the day don't move the floor.
• You still have to stay above the current floor during the day, but the floor itself only steps up at the close.
• It is usually more forgiving for traders who hold winners and let them breathe.

Worked example: $50,000 account, $2,000 trailing drawdown

You start at $50,000, so the floor starts at $48,000. You take one trade: it runs to $1,500 in open profit, then pulls back, and you close it for +$200. Your balance at the close of the day is $50,200.

Same trade, same profit, but under intraday trailing you are left with about a third of the buffer. That is why traders under intraday rules often take partial profits or move stops up as a trade runs: the open profit you give back has already cost you room.

Common variations to check in your firm's rules

• Where the floor stops trailing. Many firms stop moving the floor once it reaches a set level, often the starting balance, after which it stays fixed.
• Daily loss limits. Some accounts also have a separate daily loss limit on top of the trailing drawdown.
• Evaluation vs funded accounts. The same firm can use different rules for each stage.

Firms change these rules over time, so always check your firm's current rules page before you trade.

How to stay ahead of the floor

1. Know your rule type and your current floor before every trade.
2. Size positions from the remaining buffer, not the account size (see how many contracts you can trade). The Trailing Drawdown & Position Sizing Calculator does this for NQ, MNQ, ES, MES, YM, Gold and crypto.
3. Under intraday rules, decide in advance how much open profit you are willing to give back.
4. Watch the floor on your chart. The free, open-source TradeGuard Trailing Floor indicator plots the high-water mark and trailing floor on TradingView. See how to install it.