What is the difference between static and trailing drawdown?

A static limit is measured from your starting balance and never moves. A trailing limit is measured from your account's peak, so every new high drags the floor up behind you — profit shrinks your room instead of growing it until the rule locks, if it ever does.

Why did my drawdown floor move up after a winning day?

That's the trailing variant working as designed: the floor follows your high-water mark. Make a new peak and the breach line rises with it, which is why trailing rules end accounts that never had a large loss from their starting balance.

Does the floor track balance or equity?

It varies by firm — some track closed-balance peaks, others equity peaks including open trades, some update only at end of day. Enter the high-water mark your firm's definition produces; the arithmetic here is the same either way.

Static vs Trailing Drawdown Calculator

Static vs trailing drawdown calculator

Two accounts with the same drawdown percentage can have very different floors: a static floor never moves, a trailing floor climbs behind every new peak. Enter your starting balance, high-water mark and current equity to see both lines and how much room you really have.

The math — floor = reference × (1 − drawdown%)

Starting balance ($)

High-water mark ($)

Your account's peak so far (≥ starting balance). Some firms track balance peaks, some equity peaks — use your firm's definition.

Current equity ($)

Max drawdown rule (%)

Rules vary by firm and change — check your firm's current terms.

The two floors, side by side

$8900.00 room

Static: floor $90000.00 → room $12500.00. Trailing: floor $93600.00 → room $8900.00. The trailing floor has climbed $3600.00 above the static one — profit moved the line up behind you. That's the trap the trailing variant hides.

The same percentage, two very different rules

Run the default numbers: a $100,000 start, a $104,000 peak, equity at $102,500, a 10% rule. The static floor sits at $90,000 — you have $12,500 of room. The trailing floor sits at $93,600 — $8,900 of room, $3,600 less, purely because you made money. Same percentage, same account, thirty-percent difference in survivable loss. That gap widens with every new peak, which is why the two rule types deserve different position sizing even when the headline number matches.

Why trailing rules end winning accounts

A trailing floor converts your best day into your tightest constraint: the peak rises, the floor follows, and the room you *feel* you have — measured from your starting balance — stops being the room you actually have. Accounts fail trailing rules after profitable runs precisely because the buffer never grew with the balance; it stayed a fixed slice below a moving peak. If your firm's variant locks the floor at breakeven once you've gained enough, the trap has an exit — enter your locked value as the high-water mark and the arithmetic still holds.

Enter your firm's definitions, not ours

Whether the peak tracks balance or equity, updates intraday or only at the close, and whether the floor ever locks are firm-specific choices that change over time — this page names no firm and hard-codes none of them. It computes both floors from the numbers you enter so you can see which line is binding before the market shows you. The drawdown recovery calculator answers the companion question: once you're down, what gain does the climb back actually require.

Method: static floor = start × (1 − dd%); trailing floor = high-water mark × (1 − dd%). Intraday-vs-EOD tracking, balance-vs-equity peaks and breakeven locks vary by firm.

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Static vs trailing drawdown calculator

The same percentage, two very different rules

Why trailing rules end winning accounts

Enter your firm's definitions, not ours

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