Does the daily loss limit include open trades?

At FTMO, FundedNext and The5ers, yes: open trades count, not only closed ones. Read your own firm's rule page, because the starting point differs from firm to firm.

Is the daily loss limit the same as maximum drawdown?

No. The daily limit is the most you may lose in one day and resets each day. The maximum loss or maximum drawdown is the most you may lose in total and does not reset.

When does the day reset?

At a fixed time in the firm's time zone: midnight Central European time at FTMO, and midnight server time at FundedNext and The5ers. Convert it to your own time once and write it down.

Do commissions and swaps count?

At FTMO and FundedNext, yes: both rule pages include swaps and commissions. They reduce equity like any other loss. A day with many trades can use a few hundred dollars of the limit in costs alone.

Can a stop loss protect me from breaking the limit?

It helps, but it is not a guarantee. Around high-impact news, price can jump past the stop and the trade closes at a worse price. That is why many traders close or reduce trades before those releases.

What is a prop firm daily loss limit, and how traders break it

Short answer

A prop firm gives you its money to trade after you pass a paid test. The daily loss limit is the most the account may lose in one day. At the three firms quoted below, touching it once fails the challenge or closes the account.
All three firms quoted here count open trades too, not only closed ones. A trade that is losing right now counts, even if it would come back later.
Each firm counts from its own starting point, such as the balance at the start of its day, and the day resets at a set time in the firm's time zone, not yours.
Traders mostly break it with a trade held into big news, several trades on pairs that move together, or one more trade after a loss.

Words used here

Prop firm: A company that lets you trade its money after you pass a paid test. You keep part of the profit. It has strict rules.
Evaluation (challenge): The paid test. You must reach a profit target without breaking any rule. Some firms use one step, some use two.
Funded account: The account you get after you pass. The rules still apply, and breaking one still closes it.
Balance: Money in the account counting only closed trades.
Equity: Balance plus or minus the profit or loss of trades still open. It moves with every tick of price.
Drawdown: How far the account has fallen from a starting point or from its highest point.
Pip: The smallest price step traders count in. On EURUSD, 1 pip is 0.0001.
Lot: The size of a trade. 1 standard lot of EURUSD makes each pip worth about $10.
High-impact news: The few economic releases that move prices most, such as US inflation (CPI), US jobs (NFP) and interest rate decisions.
Slippage: When your stop loss closes the trade at a worse price than you set, because price jumped past it.

What the daily loss limit is

Most prop firm programs set two loss limits. The maximum loss (or maximum drawdown) is the most the account may lose in total. The daily loss limit is the most it may lose in a single day. On two-step forex challenges at FTMO and FundedNext the daily limit is 5% of the starting account size, and one-step programs at both firms use 3%.

The daily limit exists because a firm cannot take the risk of one bad afternoon. For you it means one thing: there is a line under your account every day, and you need to know exactly where it is before your first trade.

How firms count it

Two details decide where the line is. First, the starting point: FTMO uses the balance at the start of its day, The5ers uses the higher of balance and equity at that moment, and FundedNext counts today's losses against a fixed amount taken from the initial balance. Second, what counts: all three firms quoted below count open trades, so a losing trade you have not closed already uses up your limit.

Same account, two ways of countingSwipe sideways to see every column

	From the balance at the start of the day, 5% of the initial account	5% of the higher of balance and equity at the start of the day
Balance at the start of the day	$100,000	$100,000
Open trade in profit at that moment	+$1,500	+$1,500
Starting point used	$100,000	$101,500
Daily limit	$5,000	$5,075
The line equity must stay above	$95,000	$96,425

Illustration with round numbers. The first column follows FTMO's wording, the second The5ers' wording. Read your own firm's rule page before you trade; the section below quotes three firms.

A worked example in dollars

A $100,000 funded account. Daily loss limit 5%, counted from the balance at the start of the day, open trades included. So the line is $95,000 of equity. The trader starts the day flat, with no trades open.

One day on a $100,000 account

Balance at the start of the day: $100,000
The line: $100,000 minus 5%: $95,000
London morning: a GBPUSD trade closes at a loss: -$3,000
Room left before the line: $97,000 − $95,000: $2,000
8:25 New York time: buys 3 lots of EURUSD, stop loss 40 pips away. Planned risk 40 pips × $30: $1,200
8:30: US inflation (CPI) comes out. The stop fills 70 pips below the entry. Loss 70 × $30: -$2,100
Equity at that moment: $97,000 − $2,100: $94,900

The stop loss was 40 pips away, so the plan was to lose at most $1,200 and keep $800 of room. But in the first minutes after big news, the gap between buy and sell prices (the spread) widens and price can jump past a stop. The stop filled 30 pips late. Equity touched $94,900, which is $100 under the line. The account is closed, even if price comes back an hour later.

Five ways traders break it

Holding a trade into big news. A 40-pip stop does not guarantee a 40-pip loss. On US CPI, EURUSD moved 45 pips on average in the first 15 minutes over the last 12 releases, and some single releases moved much more.
Forgetting that open trades count. The trader looks at closed trades, sees $2,000 lost, and thinks there is $3,000 left. A losing trade still open has already used $1,500 of that.
Several trades that move together. EURUSD and GBPUSD both tend to fall when the US dollar rises. Two trades with $600 of risk each can behave like one trade with $1,200 of risk.
One more trade after a loss. After a red morning, the next trade is often bigger, to win it back. It is sized on the account, not on the room left today.
Getting the reset time wrong. The trader thinks the day ended at local midnight and keeps trading. For the firm it is still the same day and the morning's loss still counts. The reverse also happens: FTMO warns that a losing trade held past its midnight reset can break the new day's limit.

How three firms word it

The same idea, three different rule pages. Each column below comes from the firm's own site, for one program and a $100,000 account. Firms change rules, and other programs at the same firm can differ, so read the page for the exact account you buy.

Daily loss rules on a $100,000 account, from each firm's own pagesSwipe sideways to see every column

	FTMO, 2-Step	FundedNext, Stellar 2-Step	The5ers, High Stakes
Daily limit	$5,000 (5% of the initial capital)	$5,000 (5% of the initial balance)	5% of the day's starting balance or equity, whichever is higher
Where the line sits	Balance at midnight minus $5,000. The first day starts from $100,000	Today's closed and open results may not lose more than $5,000. Profit made earlier in the day adds room	The day's starting balance or equity minus 5% of it
Open trades count	Yes, with swaps and commissions	Yes, with swaps and commissions	Yes (equity)
The day resets	00:00 Central European time (CE(S)T)	00:00 server time (GMT+3 in summer, GMT+2 otherwise)	00:00 MT5 server time (GMT+3 in summer, GMT+2 in winter)
If you touch it	Rule broken. The challenge is failed	Account breached. No more trading on it	Account closed

FundedNext's Stellar Instant accounts have no daily loss limit.

Where FxMind fits

FxMind links your MT5 or MT4 account with the investor password, which can see the account but cannot trade. You pick your firm and account size and its rules load (10 forex firms, 641 presets). From the Trader plan ($49 a month, 2 linked accounts), Prop Rule Guard checks live equity against them and warns you at 70% and again at 90% of the daily limit, by email and push. News Guard, also from Trader, warns you before high-impact news lands on an open trade, with the usual move for that release next to your stop distance.

On Pro ($89 a month, 3 linked accounts) and above, if you allow it on an account, FxMind can close a trade, close half, move the stop or cancel orders under limits you set. It never opens a trade. It does not replace your firm's own dashboard: the firm's numbers are the ones that count. Practise a prop challenge, on every plan, lets you trade a past market under a firm's real rules before a fee is at stake. Today the link works with MT5 and MT4; cTrader and Match-Trader are next. See /features and /pricing.

Questions

01
Does the daily loss limit include open trades?
At FTMO, FundedNext and The5ers, yes: open trades count, not only closed ones. Read your own firm's rule page, because the starting point differs from firm to firm.
02
Is the daily loss limit the same as maximum drawdown?
No. The daily limit is the most you may lose in one day and resets each day. The maximum loss or maximum drawdown is the most you may lose in total and does not reset.
03
When does the day reset?
At a fixed time in the firm's time zone: midnight Central European time at FTMO, and midnight server time at FundedNext and The5ers. Convert it to your own time once and write it down.
04
Do commissions and swaps count?
At FTMO and FundedNext, yes: both rule pages include swaps and commissions. They reduce equity like any other loss. A day with many trades can use a few hundred dollars of the limit in costs alone.
05
Can a stop loss protect me from breaking the limit?
It helps, but it is not a guarantee. Around high-impact news, price can jump past the stop and the trade closes at a worse price. That is why many traders close or reduce trades before those releases.

Sources

Rules quoted here come from each firm's own help pages, checked on Sep 17, 2026.

Prices, plans and rules change. Check the company's own page before you pay. Product names belong to their owners and are used here only to say which product we mean.

This article is general information, not investment advice. FxMind gives no buy or sell signals and never opens a trade for you.

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