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TakeProfitTrader Max Trailing Drawdown: The Rule That Kills Most Accounts

Written by Paul

Published on

December 28, 2025

TakeProfitTrader uses a trailing drawdown system that adjusts as your account balance grows—but here's the part most traders miss: the way it trails changes completely between Test, PRO, and PRO+. Understanding these shifts is the difference between surviving to PRO+ and becoming another failure statistic.

Quick heads-up: This article is based on my real experience with TakeProfitTrader and the info available when I published/updated this. Things change in prop trading — rules, payouts, promos, all of it.

For the absolute latest, check TakeProfitTrader´s website or their knowledge base.

What Trailing Drawdown Means

A trailing drawdown is a moving threshold that follows your account balance upward but never moves down.

The amounts per account size:

$25K = $1,500 max drawdown (6%)
$50K = $3,000 max drawdown (6%)
$100K = $6,000 max drawdown (6%)
$150K = $9,000 max drawdown (6%)

How trailing works:

Start a $50K account. Your minimum balance is $47K ($50K - $3K drawdown).

Trade up to $52K. Your minimum now moves to $49K ($52K - $3K). You "locked in" $2K of profit—your minimum will never go back to $47K even if you lose trades.

Trade up to $55K. Minimum moves to $52K ($55K - $3K).

The key: The minimum only moves up (as you profit), never down (when you lose). This protects profit but also means you can't "rebuild" your drawdown cushion by making money—you're always operating within a $3K window from your highest balance.

Contrast with static drawdown: Some firms use a fixed threshold. Start at $50K, minimum stays $47K forever—even if you grow to $60K. You'd have $13K drawdown cushion at that point. TPT never gives you that cushion—always $3K max.

The Three-Phase Drawdown System (Where Traders Die)

TPT doesn't use one drawdown model—it uses three different models depending on your account phase. Most traders don't adapt, and PRO destroys them.

Test Phase: End-of-Day (EOD) Trailing

Your minimum balance updates once per day at 5 PM ET based on your closing balance.

What this means: You can be down $4K intraday, recover to -$800 by 5 PM close, and you're fine. The system only looks at your 5 PM balance, not your intraday low.

Example:

Start day at $50K (minimum $47K)
Drop to $46.2K at 11 AM (would breach if calculated intraday)
Rally back to $49.8K by 5 PM close
Result: No breach. Minimum stays $47K, you closed above it.

Why this is forgiving: Intraday volatility doesn't kill you. You can hold swing trades, let winners breathe, ride through temporary drawdowns. As long as you close above your minimum at 5 PM, you survive.

PRO Phase: Intraday Trailing (The Killer)

Your minimum balance updates in real-time based on your unrealized profit and loss.

This is where 60% of traders fail PRO in the first 30 days.

What this means: Every tick up moves your minimum higher. Every tick down after a spike can liquidate you—even if you're still above your starting balance.

The death spiral example:

$50K PRO account at $52K balance (minimum $49K after meeting buffer).

Go long 3 ES at 6,000
Market spikes to 6,008 (+$1,200 unrealized profit)
Your minimum just moved to $50.2K ($52K + $1.2K unrealized = $53.2K high, minus $3K drawdown)
Market reverses to 5,996 (-$600 from entry)
Your balance is now $51.4K
But your minimum is $50.2K (locked in from the 6,008 spike)
You're still safe... barely. $1.2K cushion left.

Now market drops to 5,990 (-$1,500 from entry):

Balance: $50.5K
Minimum: $50.2K (still locked from that spike)
$300 cushion remaining

Market drops to 5,988:

Balance: $50.2K
Minimum: $50.2K
LIQUIDATED—even though you're $200 above your original $50K starting balance.

Why this kills traders: You think in terms of your starting balance ("I'm still up $200, I'm fine"), but TPT's system thinks in terms of your highest unrealized peak. That 6,008 spike created a new reality—your minimum moved up and never came back down.