Glossary · Trailing drawdown
What is trailing drawdown?
A loss limit that follows your highest equity in real time, including open trades.
With intraday trailing drawdown, the floor moves up whenever your equity reaches a new high — even from a trade that's still open. It never moves down.
That means giving back an unrealised win can end the account. Many futures firms use it, and some stop the trail once it reaches the starting balance.
Example
$50K account, $2,500 trailing: an open trade hits +$1,000, so the floor rises from $47,500 to $48,500 even if you close at breakeven.