A trailing drawdown is a maximum loss limit that moves up with your account and never moves down. End-of-day versions move once per session; intraday versions follow every tick of open profit. At StarTrading it is the Max Loss Limit, and it trails until the account clears a set amount, then locks for good.
Why the limit trails at all
A fixed drawdown gives you the same room whether your account is at its starting balance or up ten thousand dollars. A prop firm cannot fund that: a trader who is up and then gives it all back has used the firm’s capital twice. So the limit follows your balance. When you make a new high, the limit rises by the same amount and keeps the distance constant; when you lose, the limit stays where it was and the distance shrinks.
At StarTrading the trailing limit is the Max Loss Limit. On a 100K account it starts $3,000 below the starting balance for the Cycle, Clear and Stream types. It trails until the account is $3,000 plus $100 above its starting balance, then locks at the starting balance plus $100 and never moves again.
End of day versus intraday
The two versions differ on one point: what counts as a new high.
- End of day: the limit is recalculated once, at the end of the session, from the closed balance. What happens inside the day does not move it. A trade that reaches +$2,000 and closes at +$300 raises the limit by $300.
- Intraday: the limit follows the account value tick by tick, including open positions. The same trade raises the limit by $2,000 at its peak, even if it closes at +$300. You are then $1,700 closer to the limit than an end-of-day trader with the same closed result.
StarTrading uses end of day on every evaluation by default and on funded Cycle and Clear accounts. Funded Stream accounts trail intraday, which is part of the price of daily payouts; on a Stream evaluation you choose between intraday and end of day at checkout. The full matrix is on the comparison page.
A worked example, end of day
A 100K Cycle starts at $100,000 with a Max Loss Limit at $97,000.
| Day | Closed balance | Highest close | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $101,200 | $101,200 | $98,200 |
| 2 | $100,400 | $101,200 | $98,200 |
| 3 | $102,600 | $102,600 | $99,600 |
| 4 | $101,900 | $102,600 | $99,600 |
| 5 | $103,500 | $103,500 | $100,100, locked |
On day 2 the account lost $800; the limit did not move. On day 5 the highest close reached $103,500, which is $3,100 above the start: the limit reached the lock level of $100,100 and stays there whatever happens next. From that point the account behaves like a fixed-drawdown account with $3,400 of room from $103,500, and every dollar of profit above $100,100 is safe from the trail.
What the lock changes once you are funded
The lock is the moment the trail stops being the rule that governs your account. Below it, every new high moves the limit and your room stays constant. Above it, the limit is frozen at the starting balance plus $100, and every further dollar of profit widens the gap between your balance and the limit. Room finally grows.
That matters on a funded account, because the buffer sits well above the lock: $103,100 on a 100K Cycle. You reach the lock long before you can request a payout, so most of a funded cycle is spent on a frozen limit with widening room. What the funded stage looks like in practice, from activation to the first request, is covered in what happens after you pass.
The same week, intraday
Suppose that on day 2 an open position reached +$2,400 before closing at −$800. With intraday trailing, the highest account value was $103,600 at that peak, so the limit moved to $100,600 during the day. The closed balance is still $100,400: the account ends day 2 with $3,200 less room than in the end-of-day version, from a run that never became money. This is why intraday trailing rewards taking profit and punishes letting a winner come back.
What the limit does to your sizing
The distance between your balance and the limit is your real account. On a fresh 100K it is $3,000; on a funded Stream account after a good week it can be much less than that. Size positions from that distance, not from the nominal size. A common approach is to risk a fixed fraction of the remaining room per trade, for example 10%, so that ten consecutive losses at full risk are needed to fail the account. The position sizing article walks through the numbers with micros and minis. Misreading the room is the single most common way an account ends, as the evaluation failures article shows.
Drawdown is not the daily limit
The Daily Loss Limit is a different rule. It is a fixed amount per day, $1,800 on a 100K Cycle, that closes positions and pauses trading until the next session. It does not fail the account and it does not trail. A trader who hits the daily limit three days in a row has lost $1,800 three times and is very close to the Max Loss Limit, but each daily breach on its own is only a pause.
Checklist before you trade a trailing-drawdown account
- Know the version: end of day or intraday. It is on the account page and in the configurator.
- Know the lock level and how far you are from it. Above it, the trail no longer matters.
- Compute your room every morning: balance minus limit. Size from that number.
- On intraday accounts, treat open profit as real: a runner that comes back has already moved the limit.
- Remember that the buffer and the lock are two different levels; the buffer governs payouts, the lock governs the trail.
Which account has the drawdown you want
Every StarTrading account publishes its version before you buy. Cycle and Clear accounts trail end of day, which is the version that leaves open profit alone during the session. Stream trails intraday once funded, in exchange for payouts on every trading day, and lets you pick the evaluation drawdown at checkout. The exact Max Loss Limit for each of the sixteen accounts is on the pricing page, and the comparison table puts them side by side.
Sources
- CME Group, E-mini and Micro E-mini equity index contract specifications: the contract sizes used in the sizing examples.
- CME Group, Globex trading hours: the session boundaries that define an end-of-day recalculation.
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission, customer advisories on the risks of leveraged futures trading.
Simulated accounts until Live. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss.