EOD drawdown — A trailing drawdown recalculated once per session from the closing balance, so intraday equity swings do not move the breach level.
How EOD drawdown works in prop trading
An end-of-day drawdown trails, but only on the settle. Whatever your equity did during the session is ignored; the firm takes your closing balance, and if it is a new high the floor moves up by the difference. Intraday give-back costs you nothing in drawdown room.
For active intraday traders this is usually the single most valuable rule difference between two otherwise identical accounts. A strategy that routinely runs +$800 and closes +$200 is penalised heavily by a live trail and not at all by an end-of-day one. The trade-off is that the floor still ratchets up over time, so it is not as forgiving as a genuinely static drawdown.
Key points
- Only the closing balance counts, so intraday peaks and retraces are free.
- Materially easier than a live trail at the same dollar allowance — often the deciding factor between two accounts.
- The floor still moves up permanently as closing balances make new highs.
- Check the firm's session close time; it is usually the futures settle, not midnight local.
Example
$50,000 account, $2,000 end-of-day drawdown. You run +$1,500 intraday and close the day at +$400. The floor moves from $48,000 to $48,400 — the $1,100 you gave back never counted.
Also known as
- end-of-day drawdown
- EOD trailing drawdown
- daily close drawdown
Frequently asked questions
Is end-of-day drawdown better than intraday trailing?
For intraday traders, almost always. It removes the penalty for giving back unrealised profit, which is the most common cause of breach on live-trailed accounts. Compare the two on the same account size before choosing on price.
What time does end-of-day drawdown reset?
Most futures firms use the CME session close (5:00 p.m. Eastern) rather than a calendar day. The exact cutoff matters if you hold positions across the close, so confirm it in the program terms.
Put this into practice
EOD drawdown is described here as a plain-language educational definition. Firms, platforms, and account programs may apply different conditions or calculations. Verify the current official terms before using this definition to make an account decision.