End-of-day vs intraday trailing drawdown: what's the difference?
Both floors trail your highest balance; they differ in which peak counts. End-of-day trailing uses your closing balance, so a spike that fades before the close doesn't move the floor. Intraday trailing uses the highest equity reached during the day, open trades included, so the floor can rise on a gain you never closed.
Worked example
The day starts at $50,000. An open trade takes equity to $51,000, then fades, and the day closes at $50,300.
End-of-day trailing, after the close
- Balance
- $50,300
- Highest close
- $50,300
- Floor
- $48,300
- Room
- $2,000
Intraday trailing, after the close
- Balance
- $50,300
- Highest equity
- $51,000
- Floor
- $49,000
- Room
- $1,300
Same trades, same close. End-of-day trailing counts the $50,300 close, so the floor is $48,300 with $2,000 of room. Intraday trailing counts the $51,000 spike, so the floor is $49,000 and only $1,300 is left.
Computed by the same rule engine your real accounts use.
Why it matters during the day
Under intraday trailing, an open trade that runs up and comes back costs room even if it closes at breakeven: the floor moved up with the open gain and doesn't come back down. Under end-of-day trailing, only where the day closes moves the floor, so the room you see in the morning is the room you have until the close.
How firms differ
- Which mode an account uses: it can differ between plans at the same firm, and between the evaluation and the funded stage.
- What counts as end of day: the session close the firm sets, which isn't always midnight.
- Whether the floor stops rising, and where, under either mode.
Check your firm's current terms. Claridae's presets record each firm's version, dated, and you can edit any account's rules.
See it on a sample day
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