Most traders who fail an evaluation don't fail the profit target — they breach drawdown. And most of them are surprised when it happens, because they were watching the wrong number.
Equity, not balance
Drawdown here is measured on equity — your closed balance plus the floating profit/loss of open positions. Your balance can look fine while your equity is through the floor. If your floating loss touches the limit for even a moment, the breach counts.
The daily floor
Each day at 00:00 UTC we record your starting balance. Your daily floor is:
Daily floor = day's starting balance × (1 − daily drawdown %)
Example on a $50,000 PAPP account with 4% daily drawdown: floor = 50,000 × 0.96 = $48,000. If your equity — including open trades — touches $48,000 at any point that day, the account is breached. Even if price bounces back one second later.
The max floor
The overall drawdown works the same way but from the account's reference level, and it doesn't reset daily. On the same account with 8% max drawdown, the hard floor is $46,000.
The habit that saves accounts
Before your first trade of the day, write down your floor in dollars. Then size positions so that your worst-case combined floating loss can't reach it. Our free risk calculator on the Tools page does this arithmetic for you — enter today's starting balance and current equity and it shows your remaining headroom.
The traders who pass aren't the ones with the best entries. They're the ones who never let a single day take them to the floor.