The short answer
Daily drawdown limits how far your live equity may fall within a trading day. The percentage depends on your program, phase and account size. Where a daily limit applies, it resets at 5:00 PM ET (4:00 PM CT).
Daily drawdown by program
These tables describe currently offered accounts. Use the rules assigned to your account in the dashboard if it was purchased under different terms.
Program / phase | Daily drawdown | Separate trailing limit |
Thunderbolt Classic / Horizon challenge | 3% | 4% EOD |
Thunderbolt Classic / Horizon funded | 2% | 4% EOD |
Vanguard $25K | None | 4% EOD |
Vanguard $50K / $100K | 2.5% | 4% EOD |
Vanguard $150K | 2% | 3.5% EOD |
Vanguard $200K / $300K / $400K | 2% | 3% EOD |
How the daily floor is calculated
At the 5:00 PM ET reset, take the higher of balance or equity. Multiply that value by (1 − your daily drawdown percentage). This is the daily floor for the following session. Your live equity, including open-position P&L, is checked against it.
Daily floor = max(balance, equity) at reset × (1 − daily drawdown %).
A daily drawdown breach ends the account. The next reset does not reverse a breach or restore losses. The separate trailing floor must also be respected; whichever floor is higher leaves less room for further loss.
Worked examples
Account / reset value | Daily rate | Daily floor | Initial room |
$50K Classic funded; reset $50,000 | 2% | $49,000 | $1,000 |
$50K Vanguard; reset $50,000 | 2.5% | $48,750 | $1,250 |
$100K Vanguard; reset $100,000 | 2.5% | $97,500 | $2,500 |
If a $50K Classic funded account loses $800 and its next reset value is $49,200, the new daily allowance is 2% of $49,200: $984. The new floor is $48,216. It does not refill to a fixed $1,000. The trailing floor may impose a tighter limit.
The 5:00 PM ET reset
ET means New York local time and follows US daylight saving. The reset is not midnight UTC. It is an account-rule boundary; exchange trading hours and holiday schedules vary by contract.
Under the published Upcomers Futures holding policy, positions are scheduled to close at 4:50 PM ET before the daily break. Do not plan to hold a position through that break or a weekend. See trading hours and holding rules.
Where to go next
Read trailing drawdown for the account-wide floor. A $25K Vanguard account has no daily limit, but its trailing and trade-loss rules still apply.
See Thunderbolt Classic, Vanguard and Horizon for the full program rules.