Prop Firm Challenge Risk Calculator

Set your per-trade risk before you start a challenge, from the firm's own daily and overall loss limits — with a deliberate reserve, so a run of losses does not land you exactly on the line. Free, no signup, nothing you type leaves your browser.

Enter the challenge size, the firm's two published limits, and how many trades you are willing to have at risk in a single day.

Take this from your firm's own rules — it varies significantly between providers.
The calculator holds back 20% of your daily allowance as headroom and divides the remaining 80% across this many trades.
Please fill in all fields with valid numbers greater than zero.
Max Daily Loss Allowed (the firm's limit) —
Max Overall Loss Allowed —
Usable Daily Allowance (80% of limit) —
Suggested Max Risk Per Trade —
This tool provides a mathematical starting point only, based on the limits and trade count you enter. It does not account for overnight or weekend rules, trailing drawdown mechanics, floating losses on open positions, or other firm-specific conditions — always confirm the exact rules of your chosen prop firm before setting live risk parameters. Trading Forex and CFDs carries a high level of risk and may result in the loss of your invested capital.

Why the Calculator Holds 20% Back

Divide a daily limit evenly across your trades and a day in which every trade loses in full lands you exactly on the limit — which most firms treat as a breach, not a near miss. A calculation that produces the one number you must not reach is not much use.

The 20% reserve is a choice, not a rule. No firm publishes it and no formula derives it. It exists so that slippage, a wider spread than expected, a swap charge or one trade closing worse than its stop does not turn a full-loss day into a failed challenge. If your strategy's losses are tightly controlled you may want less; if it holds positions through news you may want considerably more.

The figure the calculator returns is the most you should risk per trade, not a target to hit. Risking less is always available to you.

Daily and Overall Limits Fail Differently

Challenges impose two ceilings and they break in different ways. The overall limit is the one traders watch. The daily limit is the one that ends most challenges, because it can be breached by a single cluster of correlated positions opening within minutes of each other — something an Expert Advisor will happily do while you are asleep.

Two details matter more than they appear to. At every firm whose terms we have read, the daily calculation includes the floating profit and loss of open positions as well as closed ones, so a basket sitting underwater can breach the limit on a day that eventually closes in profit. And an overall limit may be static or trailing: a trailing limit rises with your account's high-water mark and never comes back down, so a strategy that makes money and gives it back can breach it without ever being down overall.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why not just divide the daily limit by the number of trades?
Because that produces the exact limit, and most firms breach an account when the limit is reached rather than exceeded. A day on which every trade lost in full would end the challenge. Holding back a fifth of the allowance means a full-loss day still leaves headroom for slippage, spread widening and swap charges, which routinely make a loss slightly larger than its stop suggested.
Is 20% the right reserve?
It is a deliberate choice rather than a derived figure, and no firm publishes one. It is enough to absorb ordinary execution slippage without being so cautious that the risk per trade becomes meaningless. A strategy holding positions through news releases, or one trading instruments with variable spreads, warrants more.
Does this account for trailing drawdown?
No, and that is a real limitation. The calculator works from the limits as percentages of your starting balance. A trailing overall limit moves with your account's high-water mark, so the figure it returns for the overall allowance will be wrong once the account is in profit. Read your firm's rules on whether the overall limit is static or trailing before relying on that row.
Do floating losses on open positions count?
At every firm whose terms we have read, yes — the daily calculation includes the floating profit and loss of open positions alongside closed results, commissions and swaps. This matters most for grid, martingale and basket strategies, which hold unrealised losses open for long periods.
I already have a track record. Can this tell me whether it would have passed?
No — this calculator works forwards, setting risk before you trade. Testing an existing record against a firm's limits is the opposite question and needs different figures. Our Prop Firm Drawdown Checker takes a starting balance, lowest equity, highest end-of-day balance and largest single-day loss, and shows whether that record would have breached either limit.
Is it free, and do you store what I enter?
Free, with no signup. Every calculation runs in your own browser, so the figures you type are never sent to us and are not stored anywhere.

Before You Commit a Challenge Fee

Sizing your risk correctly is the second question. The first is whether the firm will let your Expert Advisor run at all — and on the six firms' published terms, not one of them cleanly permits a commercially bought EA. We publish two free documents covering what to check before you commit: the EA Red Flag Checklist, and a Broker and VPS Quick Reference covering the conditions an EA needs to perform as advertised.

Both are yours the moment you submit — the download page opens immediately, with no waiting and nothing to find in your inbox. The marketing email tick-box is optional and you can leave it blank.

Sizing Is the Easy Part. Eligibility Isn't.

A per-trade risk figure is worth nothing if the firm will not let your Expert Advisor run in the first place — and on the six firms' own published terms, not one of them cleanly permits a commercially bought EA. The restriction takes a different shape at each one, and most comparison tables online get it wrong.

We also tested two developer-supplied prop firm settings files against FTMO's rules on real tick data. Neither passed. Both write-ups are published in full, including the parts that make the EAs look bad.

One more thing this calculator cannot tell you: whether the overall limit you entered is static or trailing. That single distinction has flipped a result from pass to fail on the same twenty months of data — how the two limit types differ is worth five minutes before you pay a fee.

Which prop firms allow EAs, and what the rules say Can an Expert Advisor pass a prop firm challenge? Already have a record? Test it against the limits

This tool performs arithmetic on figures you supply and runs entirely in your browser. It is not financial advice and it is not a guarantee that a challenge will pass. The 20% reserve is a chosen margin, not a rule published by any firm. The calculation does not model trailing drawdown, floating losses on open positions, correlated exposure, news or weekend restrictions, consistency rules, or minimum trading day requirements — all of which can end a challenge independently of the loss limits. Prop firm rules change without notice; confirm yours against the firm's own current terms. Trading forex and CFDs carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors.

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Risk Warning & Affiliate Disclosure: Trading foreign exchange and CFDs on margin carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Past performance, including verified live performance, is not a guarantee of future results. The Robotic Trader may receive compensation from partner brokers, VPS providers and software developers through affiliate links, at no extra cost to you. This supports our research and does not constitute personal financial advice. Commercial relationships never affect our verdicts, and we disclose where we hold accounts ourselves. Always trade with money you can afford to lose.

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