What does “soft” mean?
A soft limit stops you for the day; a hard limit ends the account. When your daily loss reaches the Daily Loss Limit, open positions are closed and new orders are rejected until the next session opens at 6:00 pm ET. Your account is intact the next day.
Soft does not mean harmless: the loss still lowers your closed balance, which is what the Max Loss Limit measures.
| Account type | 25K | 50K | 100K | 150K |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cycle | None | −$1,200 | −$1,800 | −$2,700 |
| Clear | −$600 | −$1,200 | −$1,800 | −$2,700 |
| Stream | −$600 | −$1,200 | −$1,800 | −$2,700 |
| Direct | None | −$1,200 | −$2,100 | −$3,000 |
Which accounts have a Daily Loss Limit?
- Cycle: none on 25K, then $1,200, $1,800 and $2,700. Applies during the evaluation and once funded.
- Direct: none on 25K, then $1,200, $2,100 and $3,000.
- Clear: $600 to $2,700, at every size, evaluation and funded. It stays a fixed soft limit; Clear does not use the scaled limit described below.
- Stream: $600 to $2,700 when you keep it on. You can switch it off at checkout; the choice carries over to the funded account.
How is the daily loss measured?
From the day’s starting balance, including open positions. If you start the session at $100,000 with a $1,800 limit, the block triggers when your equity reaches $98,200 at any moment during the session, not only at the close.
How does the limit scale once funded?
On funded Cycle and Direct accounts, once your balance is above the initial trail balance (starting balance plus the initial Max Loss Limit), the fixed Daily Loss Limit is replaced by a scaled one: 60% of your highest end-of-day profit. It ratchets, so it never comes back down. A 100K Cycle trader with a highest closed profit of $5,000 has a $3,000 daily limit from then on, instead of $1,800.
See scaling for the full mechanism and worked numbers.
Common mistakes
- Treating the Daily Loss Limit as the amount you can lose “for real”. A loss that hits it also brings you closer to the Max Loss Limit.
- Adding to a losing position near the limit: the block closes everything at market.
- Buying a Stream account with the limit off because it feels freer, then trading larger than the intraday Max Loss Limit allows.
- Assuming Clear has no daily limit because it has no consistency rule: it has one at every size.
- Expecting a block to reset at midnight. The next session starts at 6:00 pm ET.
Simulated accounts until Live. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss.