Trailing Drawdown
The trailing drawdown is a dynamic floor that follows your highest equity. It rises as you profit but never drops back. Here's exactly how it works with a buffer to protect against spikes.
What is the trailing drawdown?
The trailing drawdown is a moving floor that tracks your account's highest equity ever reached. As your account grows, the floor rises with you. As your account drops back, the floor stays put — locking in your gains.
How it's calculated
At all times, the system tracks your highest equity ever (called highestEquity). The trailing floor is:
trailing_floor = highestEquity − trailing_drawdown_amount
If your live equity drops below this floor → breach (after a small time buffer to protect against momentary spikes).
Worked example — Challenge 50K
Account: Challenge 50K · Trailing drawdown: $3,000
Initial equity = $50,000 → initial trailing floor = $47,000
You grow your account to $52,500.
highestEquity is now $52,500 → new trailing floor = $52,500 − $3,000 = $49,500.
The floor moved up by $2,500. You "locked in" that progress.
You grow further to $54,000. highestEquity = $54,000.
New trailing floor = $54,000 − $3,000 = $51,000.
The market turns. Your equity drops to $51,200. You're $200 above the floor — safe.
Then a position pushes you to $50,900. $50,900 < $51,000 → BREACH (after the buffer time elapses).
The buffer protection
To protect against momentary spikes, FairTicks applies a short time buffer before triggering a trailing breach. If your equity dips below the floor for just an instant and then recovers, no breach is triggered. Only sustained breaches count.
Locking on PASSED transition
Once your account transitions to PASSED (you reached the profit target and met all conditions), the trailing drawdown stops moving and locks at your initial capital level. From then on, only the static "max loss from initial capital" rule applies.
On the funded account, you need stability. A trailing drawdown that keeps moving forever would create an impossible long-term game. Locking it at initial capital after PASSED gives you a fair, predictable floor for funded trading.
Which accounts have trailing drawdown?
All account types (Rapid, Classic, Discipline) have trailing drawdown active during evaluation. The trailing amount varies by account size — see your specific account page for the exact value.