Check an EA Against a Prop Firm Drawdown Limit
A single maximum-drawdown figure cannot tell you whether a strategy would have survived a prop firm account. Whether it lives or dies depends on which type of limit the firm uses, and the same run can pass one and fail another.
This checker takes four figures from a backtest or a live record and tests them against a firm's daily and overall loss limits, showing every step of the arithmetic so you can check it rather than take it on trust.
Drawdown limit checker
Nothing is stored and nothing is sent anywhere. The calculation runs in your browser.
Why Four Figures and Not One
Almost every drawdown calculator online asks for one number — your maximum drawdown as a percentage — and compares it to the firm's limit. That works for a static limit and gives the wrong answer for a trailing one, because a trailing limit rises with your account and does not come back down.
We tested this on a real configuration. A commercially-sold EA was run against FTMO's published rules on IC Markets real tick data, 1 January 2025 to 15 September 2026, producing 837 trades from a £10,000 starting balance. Its lowest equity was £9,190.13 and its highest end-of-day balance was £10,343.70.
| FTMO account | Limit type | Where the floor sits | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-Step | Static, 10% of initial balance | £10,000 − £1,000 = £9,000 | Survives by £190.13 |
| 1-Step | End-of-day trailing, 10% of initial balance | £10,343.70 − £1,000 = £9,343.70 | Breaches by £153.57 |
Same EA, same settings, same twenty months. One account type survives, the other fails, and the difference is £343.70 of profit the strategy earned and then gave back. A single drawdown percentage cannot express that, which is why this tool asks for the account's actual figures instead.
FTMO states that the 1-Step boundary "is derived from the highest balance you reach at the end of the trading day, rather than from intraday fluctuations (equity)", that the amount is "10% of the initial simulated balance", and that "if the balance at the end of the next day is lower, the limit remains unchanged."
So it is a fixed amount trailing the peak end-of-day balance, and it never decreases. That is the arithmetic the checker uses.
Where to Find Your Four Figures
From a MetaTrader 5 backtest
The Strategy Tester report gives you the starting balance directly. Lowest equity is the starting balance minus the "Balance Drawdown Maximal" figure, or read it off the equity curve if you have the trade-by-trade export. Highest end-of-day balance and largest single-day loss both need the closed-trade list grouped by date — the tester does not report either one for you.
From a live or demo account
Myfxbook and MQL5 both publish maximum drawdown, but neither reports a peak end-of-day balance. Take that from your broker statement, which lists daily closing balances. Prop firm dashboards usually show the current floor directly, which is worth comparing against what this tool calculates.
If you cannot get the end-of-day figure
Leave it blank and set the limit type to static. The tool will report the overall result as not established rather than estimating one, because an estimated trailing floor is worse than no answer — it produces a confident number that may be wrong in either direction.
What This Tool Cannot Tell You
Three limits worth stating plainly, because a calculator that hides them is misleading rather than useful.
It does not decide whether you may run the EA at all
Surviving the loss limits is one test. Whether the firm permits a bought Expert Advisor is a separate one, and on the six firms' own published terms not one of them cleanly allows it. Read which prop firms allow EAs and what the rules actually say before you pay a challenge fee.
It tests the loss limits, not the profit target
A configuration that never breaches a limit but never reaches the target has still failed the challenge. The checker answers the survival question only.
The daily calculation uses the initial balance as its basis
That is FTMO's published basis — the allowance is a fixed amount set from the initial simulated capital. Some firms instead measure the daily allowance as a percentage of that day's opening balance, which grows as the account grows. Where your firm does that, the figure here is conservative once you are in profit. How prop firm drawdown rules work sets out the difference.
Questions About Drawdown Limits
What is the difference between static and trailing drawdown?
A static limit is fixed at the start and never moves: 10% of a £10,000 account means the floor sits at £9,000 for the life of the account. A trailing limit follows your account upward — it is recalculated from your highest balance, so every pound of profit raises the floor beneath you. Once raised, it does not come back down. A strategy that makes money and gives it back can breach a trailing limit while never losing money overall.
Do floating losses count toward a prop firm's daily limit?
At all six firms we have read the terms of, yes. FTMO states that the daily calculation "includes both the results of closed positions and the floating P/L of open positions, as well as commissions and swaps". This matters most for grid and martingale strategies, which hold unrealised losses open for long periods — a basket sitting underwater can breach the daily limit on a day that closes in profit.
Is balance-based drawdown safer than equity-based for an EA?
For the overall limit, a balance-based measure is more forgiving to a strategy carrying floating losses, because it only counts what has been realised. But firms rarely apply the same basis to both limits. E8 Markets trails maximum drawdown on closed balance while breaching the daily limit on equity, so an open basket can still fail the account intraday. Read the two limits together, never separately.
Can I use my backtest figures, or do they have to be live?
Backtest figures work for this calculation, with one caveat: generated tick data understates drawdown for grid, martingale and basket strategies, because it does not reproduce spread widening, gaps or stress-period slippage. If the run was not at 99% real ticks, treat the result as optimistic. Our testing methodology sets out why.
Why does the result sometimes say "not established"?
Because the figures supplied cannot answer the question asked. A trailing limit cannot be calculated without a peak end-of-day balance, and no amount of inference fixes that. We would rather report that a result is not established than publish an estimate that looks like a measurement. The same rule governs our published conformance tests.
Does passing this check mean an EA will pass a challenge?
No. It means the figures you entered would not have breached the two loss limits you entered, over the period those figures cover. It says nothing about the profit target, the firm's rules on bought EAs, consistency requirements, minimum holding times, or whether the next twenty months resemble the last. Past performance, including backtested performance, is not a guarantee of future results.
Get the Verified Rules Sheet
The limits above only help if you know which firm applies which. We read all six firms' own terms and conditions, help centres and rules pages and wrote down what they actually say about Expert Advisors, drawdown type, daily and overall limits, grid, martingale and copy trading — including the four places where a firm contradicts itself in its own documentation.
It is six pages, every rule quoted and sourced, and it is free. We re-verify these rules quarterly and will email you when one of the six changes something.
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