Prop Firm Daily Loss Limit Explained: Balance or Equity Decides

The daily loss limit ends more evaluations than any other rule, and most sales pages state the one detail that decides when it fires in a single clause, then move on.

Ordane accounts operate on simulated capital. No live funds are traded and no deposits are accepted. This guide teaches the mechanic, then shows where each named firm draws its line, quoting each firm's own live documentation with the date it was read. The detail that decides everything is the reference number the limit is measured against, because that number decides whether an open, floating loss can close your account before you close a single trade.

Balance or equity: the one question that decides your account

The 45-word answer, quotable as written

The definition is a two-line job. Where firms actually differ, and where their documentation tends to go vague, is the reference and the reset clock. So the rest of this guide is about those two things, not the dictionary.

Why a firm that will not answer this in writing is telling you something

A limit is a percentage of a number. If the firm will not put that number in its published rules, you cannot calculate your own room before you place a trade, which means you are trading a rule you have not read. The firms below all publish the reference. The exercise for any firm not on the list is to open its rulebook and find the same sentence before you pay.

One account, one day, two rulebooks: the worked case

The setup: 50,000 account, 3 percent limit, same trades

Take a 50,000 opening balance and a 3 percent daily loss limit, which is 1,500. One position, one trading day. The position drifts to 1,700 underwater by late morning, then recovers and closes flat by the end of the day. Same account, same trade, same day. Now run it through both references.

Under real-time equity: closed at 11:40 on an unrealised loss

Equity is your balance adjusted for every open position, so an unrealised loss counts the moment it appears. The position sinks through the morning. At 11:40 the floating loss crosses 1,500, equity has dropped a full 1,500 below the day's opening balance, and the limit is touched while the trade is still open. The account is closed there. The afternoon recovery never happens for this account, because the account no longer exists when it would have.

Under balance at day start: still open, position closed at break-even

Under a balance-referenced limit only realised losses move the count. The same position floats to minus 1,700, but it is never closed at that level, so nothing is counted. It recovers and closes flat. Realised loss for the day: zero. The account is untouched and open for the next session.

Where exactly the two paths diverge

The two paths split at the exact instant the floating loss crosses 1,500. Under equity, that instant is the breach. Under balance, that instant is nothing, because no trade has closed. That single sentence is the whole difference.

Balance-referencing is not leniency. A trader who takes three separate trades, each closed for a realised 600 loss, is down 1,800 realised on the day. That breaches the 1,500 line under both references, because both count realised losses. The balance rule ignores the floating swing on an open trade; it does not ignore the day's realised total. It is a different trigger, not a softer one.

The reset clock: when your reference balance is stamped

A balance-referenced limit is only as knowable as the moment the balance is stamped. Three concrete things decide that moment, and most guides skip all three.

Server midnight versus session open

The stamp happens at the firm's server day boundary, not at your local midnight. That boundary is defined differently at each firm. FTMO recalculates the limit every midnight CE(S)T (FTMO Academy, Maximum Daily Loss, retrieved July 28, 2026). The5ers takes its daily drawdown at 00:00 UTC+3 (The5ers, High Stakes Program rules, retrieved July 28, 2026). Topstep does not use a calendar midnight at all: its trading day runs from 5:00 PM CT to 3:10 PM CT (Topstep Help Center, Daily Loss Limit, retrieved July 28, 2026), a session window. Three firms, three different definitions of when the day starts.

What timezone the server actually runs on

The three firms above publish their reset moment. Others do not, and a reset moment you cannot see is a rule you cannot plan around. If a firm does not state its server timezone and reset hour in writing, that is not a detail to assume from the platform's defaults. It is a question to ask before you pay.

A position held across the rollover

A position held across the reset carries its floating profit or loss into the new reference day. The count you were watching resets underneath an open trade, which can hand you fresh room mid-position or, on an equity-referenced firm, restamp the level your open loss is measured against. Send any firm this exact question, worded so it cannot be answered vaguely: what timezone is your server day, at what hour does the daily reference balance reset, and does an open position's floating profit or loss carry into the new day.

Daily loss limit versus maximum drawdown

The daily loss limit and the maximum drawdown are two separate floors, and each can end an account on its own. The daily loss limit resets every trading day; the maximum drawdown is the account-life floor that never resets, so a day can sit inside the daily limit and still breach the overall drawdown, and the reverse. How a static floor differs from a trailing one is its own topic, covered in Ordane's drawdown guide, and this guide does not reopen it here.

Where named firms draw the line, and what they measure it against

Every figure below is quoted from the firm's own live documentation, retrieved July 28, 2026. Affiliate blogs, review directories and comparison sites are not sources here, and where a firm's own rule does not state a cell, the cell says so rather than borrowing an answer from somewhere else.

As of July 28, 2026. The three competitor rows carry a 90-day re-check, because these limits change without notice.

Two honest reads sit in that table. FTMO measures against equity, so a floating loss can breach you before you close a trade (FTMO Academy, Maximum Daily Loss, retrieved July 28, 2026); Ordane's limit is balance-referenced, so a single floating spike cannot breach the account, and on that one axis Ordane is stricter. The other way, Topstep is more forgiving than Ordane on the consequence: hitting its daily loss limit is not a rule violation but a session-ending break, and the account stays eligible and resumes the next session (Topstep Help Center, Daily Loss Limit, retrieved July 28, 2026), where an Ordane breach closes the account (clause R-2). Neither read is a sales point. They are two axes, and a trader can prefer either.

How Ordane's daily loss limit works, and what it does not say yet

Every sentence about the rule in this section is copied from the Ordane rulebook, not restated. The governing document is Ordane Rulebook v1.0, published July 23, 2026.

The daily loss limit is 3 percent, measured against the balance at the start of the server day. A breach closes the account. That is Ordane Rulebook v1.0, clause R-2. In the language of this guide, Ordane is balance-referenced: a floating loss on an open position does not count until the trade closes.

Read it beside the risk rule and the design becomes visible. Maximum risk per trade is 1.5 percent of current balance and a stop-loss is mandatory at entry. Two maximum losses equal the daily limit, which is the design rather than an accident. That is Ordane Rulebook v1.0, clause R-3. Two maximum-risk losses reach the line exactly, which tells you in arithmetic how many full-size losses the rule expects you to survive in a day.

The rules are not a moving target, either. The Ordane rulebook is public, numbered and versioned, and no rule is ever applied retroactively to an open account. Changes produce a new version with a dated changelog entry, and the version you sign up under is the version that governs your account.

Now the concession, in plain words rather than buried. As of July 28, 2026, Ordane's canonical rulebook declares the reference, balance at the start of the server day, but it does not publish the server timezone or the exact reset hour. This guide will not invent one. Ordane runs on Match Trader. The reset moment on that platform is exactly the detail to confirm in writing before you pay, using the same question this guide hands you for any firm. The account-life drawdown floor and the mandatory stop are separate rules with their own pages, not reopened here.

Sizing so two stops cannot reach the line

No method removes the rule, and at Ordane the daily limit is designed to be reached by exactly two maximum-risk losses. Three habits keep you clear of it, and all three follow from the mechanic above.

First, back your position size out of the daily line, not out of the account size. Decide in advance how many maximum-risk losses you are willing to fit inside one day, then size so that number, and no more, can reach the line. Second, know your firm's reset boundary in server time, and stop trading before it if you are holding anything open, so the rollover does not restamp your room while a trade is live. Third, treat the daily limit as the day's stop, not a level to test. Under an equity-referenced firm the limit can be reached by a wick you never realised, so the disciplined move as the day's loss nears the line is to be done, not to trade back toward it.

Questions traders ask about the daily loss limit

Is the daily loss limit based on balance or equity?

It depends on the firm, and it is the first thing to check. FTMO measures against account equity, which includes open positions, commissions and swaps, so a floating loss counts in real time (FTMO Academy, Maximum Daily Loss, retrieved July 28, 2026). Ordane measures against the balance at the start of the server day, so an open floating loss does not count until the trade is closed (clause R-2).

Does a floating loss count toward the daily loss limit?

Under an equity-referenced limit, yes: an unrealised loss on an open position counts the moment it appears, because equity moves with the open trade (FTMO Academy, Maximum Daily Loss, retrieved July 28, 2026). Under a balance-referenced limit, no, not until you close the trade and realise the loss. The reference decides it, which is why the reference is the first thing to confirm.

What time does the daily loss limit reset?

It resets at the firm's server day boundary, and firms define that boundary differently. FTMO recalculates every midnight CE(S)T (FTMO Academy, Maximum Daily Loss, retrieved July 28, 2026), The5ers takes it at 00:00 UTC+3 (The5ers, High Stakes Program rules, retrieved July 28, 2026), and Topstep runs a session from 5:00 PM CT to 3:10 PM CT (Topstep Help Center, Daily Loss Limit, retrieved July 28, 2026). Confirm which moment applies to you before you hold a trade across it.

What is the difference between the daily loss limit and the maximum drawdown?

The daily loss limit resets every trading day and caps a single day's loss. The maximum drawdown is the account-life floor that does not reset. A day can stay inside the daily limit and still breach the overall drawdown, and the reverse can happen too. They are two independent kill switches, not one rule stated twice.

What happens when you breach the daily loss limit?

It depends on the firm. At Ordane a breach closes the account (clause R-2). At Topstep, hitting the daily loss limit is not a rule violation but a temporary break, and the account stays eligible and resumes the next session (Topstep Help Center, Daily Loss Limit, retrieved July 28, 2026). Read your firm's consequence in its own rules before you pay, so it is never a surprise.

Sources

1. FTMO Academy, Maximum Daily Loss, on the 5 percent Maximum Daily Loss set against account equity including open positions, commissions and swaps, recalculated every midnight CE(S)T. academy.ftmo.com Retrieved July 28, 2026.
2. Topstep Help Center, Daily Loss Limit, on the per-account daily loss amounts, the net P&L reference across the 5:00 PM to 3:10 PM CT trading day, and hitting the limit being a temporary break rather than a violation. help.topstep.com Retrieved July 28, 2026.
3. The5ers, High Stakes Program rules, on the 5 percent daily drawdown taken from the previous day's closing equity or balance at 00:00 UTC+3. the5ers.com Retrieved July 28, 2026.
4. Ordane Rulebook v1.0, clauses R-2 and R-3, on the 3 percent daily loss limit measured against the balance at the start of the server day, the 1.5 percent maximum risk per trade with a mandatory stop, and the public, numbered, non-retroactive rulebook. ordanemarkets.com/rulebook Retrieved July 28, 2026.