One rule, across every programme we have read
What hitting the daily loss limit does — and the 11 programmes that never say
52 programmes from 14 firms have had their rules read from the firms’ own documents. 42 publish a daily loss limit. Of those, 30 say breaching it ends the attempt, exactly one says it pauses the account until the next session, and 11 — 26% of the field — do not say at all.
That sentence is not a formality. At 1% risk per trade the median programme here allows 4 consecutive full-risk losses before the daily limit and 8 before the overall drawdown, and the probability of a losing run falls away exponentially in its length. So hold every published number fixed, change only whether the limit ends the attempt or pauses it, and the computed failure probability moves by 59 percentage points on average across the 39 programmes with an evaluation to fail — on every single one of them.
What the limit is measured against
All 42 publish a percentage. Far fewer publish the number the percentage is taken from, and that number is where your floor actually sits. 9 of the 42 programmes here state it on the pages we read. The variants are not cosmetic — they are different rules wearing the same figure.
The day’s equity high — the limit trails within the session
3 programmes — HyroTrader's One-Step Challenge, Audacity Capital's FTP (Instant Funding) and HyroTrader's Two-Step Challenge
The floor rises with the account during the day. A position opened after a profitable morning is measured against the morning, not against the open, so a day that finishes level can still breach.
The 4% daily limit trails: "The standard daily drawdown is trailing, as it is calculated from the highest equity point reached during the day, including unrealized P&L." The firm’s own example fails a $5,000 account that peaked at $5,200 and fell back to $5,000 — level on the day, and out.
HyroTrader — One-Step Challenge — read 2026-08-06
The higher of the day’s opening balance and opening equity
3 programmes — Audacity Capital's Ability One, Audacity Capital's Ability Challenge and Funding Pips' 2 Step Standard
The stricter of the two starting points, fixed for the day. A floating profit carried through the reset raises the floor you must then stay above — the profit is counted against you before it is banked.
Ten percent to make against a 6% total drawdown, with the tightest daily limit on this site: 3%, measured from the higher of the day’s opening balance and equity.
Audacity Capital — Ability One — read 2026-08-06
The previous day’s closing balance
1 programme — Hola Prime's 1-Step Prime
Yesterday’s close rather than the starting balance, so the allowance moves with the account from day to day — up after a good day, and down after a bad one.
The daily limit is measured against the previous day’s closing balance, not the starting balance.
Hola Prime — 1-Step Prime — read 2026-08-05
The start-of-day balance, on closed trades only
1 programme — City Traders Imperium's 2-Step Challenge
Measured on balance rather than equity, which is materially the easiest version of the rule: an open position at a floating loss cannot breach it.
The daily cap is 5% of the start-of-day balance and the overall cap 10% of the initial balance — neither moves with profit.
City Traders Imperium — 2-Step Challenge — read 2026-08-06
Several formulas at once, all published by the firm
1 programme — Fidelcrest's Pro Trader — Normal
The percentage agrees across the firm’s own pages and the method of measuring it does not. A reader cannot compute their own floor from that, and neither can we.
The firm publishes three different formulas for measuring the daily loss. The 5% figure is identical in all three.
Fidelcrest — Pro Trader — Normal — read 2026-08-06
33 publish the percentage and not the starting point
33 of the 42 give a daily loss limit without saying, on the pages we read, whether it runs from the opening balance, the opening equity, the higher of the two, yesterday’s close or the day’s high. On a 4-loss allowance the difference between those starting points is a whole trade, and on the tightest programmes here it is most of the day’s rope. It is a question their support can answer in one line, and it is worth asking before the fee is paid rather than after.
3 programmes pair a static overall cap with a daily one that follows the day’s high
HyroTrader's One-Step Challenge, Audacity Capital's FTP (Instant Funding) and HyroTrader's Two-Step Challenge. The overall drawdown on all of them is measured from the initial balance and does not move — the word a buyer compares on says “static” — while the daily cap is calculated from the highest equity the account reaches during the session, unrealised profit included. A morning that goes well shrinks the afternoon’s allowance, and a day that finishes exactly level can still breach.
This is the one case where the arithmetic on this site is optimistic rather than pessimistic. Every figure here applies a cap at its starting level, which understates a floor that climbs during the day, so the figures below for these programmes are better than they deserve — which is why the recommendation at the foot of this page is barred from naming any of them.
HyroTrader — One-Step Challenge: 4% daily, trailing; 6% overall, static
The 4% daily limit trails: "The standard daily drawdown is trailing, as it is calculated from the highest equity point reached during the day, including unrealized P&L." The firm’s own example fails a $5,000 account that peaked at $5,200 and fell back to $5,000 — level on the day, and out.
HyroTrader — One-Step Challenge — read 2026-08-06
Audacity Capital — FTP (Instant Funding): 5% daily, trailing; 10% overall, static
The 5% daily limit trails the highest equity the account has reached, per the knowledge centre, while the page selling it promises "a static drawdown" with "nothing that tightens as you start to profit". Both are published; they cannot both be true.
Audacity Capital — FTP (Instant Funding) — read 2026-08-06
HyroTrader — Two-Step Challenge: 5% daily, trailing; 10% overall, static
The 5% daily limit trails the day’s equity high, as on the one-step.
HyroTrader — Two-Step Challenge — read 2026-08-06
Every programme with a published daily limit
| Programme | Daily | Measured against | Breaching it | Losses at 1% | Then what ends it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E8 Markets E8 Pro | 2.5% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 2 | 2 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha One 6% | 3% | Not stated | Not published read as ending, our reading | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha Pro 6% | 3% | Not stated | Not published read as ending, our reading | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Audacity Capital Ability One | 3% | Higher of open balance / equity | Not published read as ending, our reading | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| E8 Markets E8 One | 3% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| FTMO 1-Step | 3% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| FundedNext Stellar 1-Step | 3% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Funding Pips 2 Step Pro | 3% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Funding Pips 1 Step Flex | 3% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Funding Pips FundingPips Zero | 3% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 3 | No evaluation to fail |
| Goat Funded Trader 1 Step Model (GOAT) | 3% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Goat Funded Trader GOAT Blitz | 3% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Hola Prime 1-Step Prime | 3% | Previous day’s close | Not published read as ending, our reading | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| The5ers Hyper Growth | 3% | Not stated | Pauses until next session | 3 | 6 losses, on the overall cap |
| The5ers Pro Growth | 3% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 3 | 3 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha One 10% | 4% | Not stated | Not published read as ending, our reading | 4 | 4 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha Pro 8% | 4% | Not stated | Not published read as ending, our reading | 4 | 4 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha Three | 4% | Not stated | Not published read as ending, our reading | 4 | 4 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Funded Trading Plus 1-Step Express | 4% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 4 | 4 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Funded Trading Plus 2-Step Classic | 4% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 4 | 4 losses, and the attempt is over |
| FundedNext Stellar Lite | 4% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 4 | 4 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Funding Pips 2 Step Flex | 4% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 4 | 4 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Goat Funded Trader 2 Step GOAT Model | 4% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 4 | 4 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Goat Funded Trader 3 Step Model | 4% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 4 | 4 losses, and the attempt is over |
| HyroTrader One-Step Challenge | 4% | Day’s equity high (trails) | Ends the attempt | 4 fewer in practice — it trails | 4 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha One 12% | 5% | Not stated | Not published read as ending, our reading | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha Pro 10% | 5% | Not stated | Not published read as ending, our reading | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha Swing | 5% | Not stated | Not published read as ending, our reading | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Audacity Capital Ability Challenge | 5% | Higher of open balance / equity | Ends the attempt | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Audacity Capital FTP (Instant Funding) | 5% | Day’s equity high (trails) | Ends the attempt | 5 fewer in practice — it trails | No evaluation to fail |
| City Traders Imperium 2-Step Challenge | 5% | Start-of-day balance | Not published read as ending, our reading | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Fidelcrest Pro Trader — Normal | 5% | Firm publishes several | Ends the attempt | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Fidelcrest Micro Trader — Normal | 5% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| FTMO 2-Step | 5% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| FundedNext Stellar 2-Step | 5% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Funding Pips 2 Step Standard | 5% | Higher of open balance / equity | Ends the attempt | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Goat Funded Trader 2-Step Standard | 5% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| HyroTrader Two-Step Challenge | 5% | Day’s equity high (trails) | Ends the attempt | 5 fewer in practice — it trails | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| The5ers High Stakes | 5% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 5 | 5 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Funded Trading Plus Instant | 6% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 6 | No evaluation to fail |
| Fidelcrest Pro Trader — Aggressive | 10% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 10 | 10 losses, and the attempt is over |
| Fidelcrest Micro Trader — Aggressive | 10% | Not stated | Ends the attempt | 10 | 10 losses, and the attempt is over |
“Losses at 1%” is how many consecutive full-risk losing trades the daily cap alone allows at 1% risk per trade — the cap divided by the risk, rounded down. On 41 of these 42 the daily cap runs out no later than the overall one and is read as ending the attempt when it does, so the overall drawdown never comes into it. 3 rows are instant-funding products with no evaluation: the limit still applies, but there is no attempt to end. Each programme links to its firm’s page, where every figure carries its source and read date.
10 programmes publish no daily limit at all
FundedNext's Stellar Instant, The5ers' Bootcamp, Goat Funded Trader's Pay Later Model, City Traders Imperium's 1-Step Challenge, City Traders Imperium's Instant Funding, City Traders Imperium's Direct Funding, Lux Trading Firm's 1-Step Evaluation — $100K, Lux Trading Firm's 1-Step Evaluation — $400K, Lux Trading Firm's 1-Step Evaluation — $1M and Lux Trading Firm's INSTA. The measure in the table above does not apply to them, and dropping them would have made the field look tidier than it is. These are not lenient versions of the same rule; they are programmes where the overall drawdown is the only rope. That is a real advantage, and it is not free: 9 of the 10 pair it with an overall cap below the 8% median of the programmes that do publish a daily limit, and 3 with a drawdown that trails rather than sitting still — which is what the ranking page compares.
The 11 that publish a daily limit and never say what breaching it does
Alpha Capital Group's Alpha One 10%, Alpha Capital Group's Alpha One 12%, Alpha Capital Group's Alpha One 6%, Alpha Capital Group's Alpha Pro 10%, Alpha Capital Group's Alpha Pro 6%, Alpha Capital Group's Alpha Pro 8%, Alpha Capital Group's Alpha Swing, Alpha Capital Group's Alpha Three, Audacity Capital's Ability One, City Traders Imperium's 2-Step Challenge and Hola Prime's 1-Step Prime. At Alpha Capital Group, Hola Prime and City Traders Imperium it is not an oversight on one product: 10 programmes between them publish a daily loss limit, and not one publishes what breaching it does.
This site takes the conservative reading — that the attempt ends — because a trader sizing risk should plan against the tighter version, and every figure derived from it is marked as our reading rather than the firm’s. The table below is what that assumption is worth. It is not a rounding error: across these 11 the two readings differ by 53 percentage points on average.
| Programme | Daily | Read as ending | Read as pausing | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha One 6% | 3% | 86% | 64% | 22 pts |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha Pro 6% | 3% | 98% | 49% | 49 pts |
| Audacity Capital Ability One | 3% | 97% | 43% | 54 pts |
| Hola Prime 1-Step Prime | 3% | 97% | 43% | 54 pts |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha One 10% | 4% | 84% | 43% | 41 pts |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha Pro 8% | 4% | 91% | 22% | 69 pts |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha Three | 4% | 95% | 60% | 35 pts |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha One 12% | 5% | 70% | 20% | 50 pts |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha Pro 10% | 5% | 78% | 9% | 69 pts |
| Alpha Capital Group Alpha Swing | 5% | 78% | 9% | 69 pts |
| City Traders Imperium 2-Step Challenge | 5% | 78% | 9% | 69 pts |
At 1% risk per trade, a 40% win rate and 2R winners. The widest gap is Alpha Capital Group's Alpha Pro 8%: 91% if the limit ends the attempt, 22% if it pauses. One unwritten sentence decides which product that is.
The one that pauses: The5ers — Hyper Growth
3% daily against a 6% overall cap and a 10% target. At 1% risk the daily limit allows 3 consecutive losses and the overall cap 6 — but because the account resumes the next session, only the overall cap can end the attempt. That is 43% instead of 97%, a difference of 54 percentage points, from a rule that costs the firm a day rather than a customer.
5 other programmes publish exactly the same four numbers — 10% target, 6% overall, 3% daily, static drawdown: Audacity Capital's Ability One, FundedNext's Stellar 1-Step, Goat Funded Trader's 1 Step Model (GOAT), Hola Prime's 1-Step Prime and The5ers' Pro Growth. 3 of them end the attempt. 2 do not say. Identical published numbers, and computed odds of 43% or 97% depending on a sentence 2 of them have not printed.
One of those pairs is worked all the way through on its own page: same target, same drawdown, same daily limit, opposite outcomes.
The5ers — challenge programmes explained — read 2026-08-05
What to ask their support before paying
Each of these is a question this data could not answer from the firms’ own published pages. They are worth more than the discount code, and the answers arrive in writing, which is the point.
- Does breaching the daily limit end the attempt, or pause the account until the next session? Unpublished on 11 of the 42 programmes here, worth 53 percentage points of failure probability on average. Ask it first.
- What is the limit measured from? 5 different answers appear in this data — the day’s equity high, the higher of the day’s opening balance and opening equity, the previous day’s closing balance, the start-of-day balance on closed trades only and several formulas the firm publishes side by side — and 33 of 42 programmes do not say which one they use.
- Does the daily limit trail during the session? 3 programmes say it does while calling the overall drawdown static. If the answer is yes, a profitable morning has shrunk the afternoon, and every published figure — including ours — flatters the programme.
- When does the day reset, and in which time zone? Only
2 of the 42 record a reset moment at all, and one of those publishes it more than one way on the firm’s own pages:
The firm publishes three different reset times for the daily limit — 23:59 server time on this page, 16:59 EST in its daily-drawdown article, 17:00 EST on the Instant page. The percentages agree everywhere; only the moment does not.
Funded Trading Plus — 1-Step Express — read 2026-08-06
- Does an open position at a floating loss count? Only
2 of the 42 say, and between those readings the same trade
either breaches or does not:
The 4% daily limit trails: "The standard daily drawdown is trailing, as it is calculated from the highest equity point reached during the day, including unrealized P&L." The firm’s own example fails a $5,000 account that peaked at $5,200 and fell back to $5,000 — level on the day, and out.
HyroTrader — One-Step Challenge — read 2026-08-06
Both caps are measured on closed balance, not equity: "CTI checks only closed trades against the limits." An open position at a floating loss cannot breach either one, which is a materially easier rule than the equity-based version most firms use.
City Traders Imperium — 2-Step Challenge — read 2026-08-06
- Is it the same limit at every stage? On 2 of the
42 the firm says in its own words that it is not: the number moves at a phase boundary
or on the way to a funded account, and the table above carries only one of the two.
The daily limit rises to 4% on the qualified account; the 3% recorded here is the evaluation rule.
Alpha Capital Group — Alpha One 6% — read 2026-08-05
The Challenge phase is looser than the figures shown here: 7.5% daily against a 15% overall drawdown, tightening to 5% and 10% for Verification. The computed difficulty on this page applies the tighter pair throughout, which overstates the difficulty of the first phase.
Audacity Capital — Ability Challenge — read 2026-08-06
What this page does not measure
- · Whether the firm applies its own rule. Everything here is what the firms publish. Nothing on this page is evidence about how a breach is handled in practice, or whether a firm pays.
- · Assumes each trade is independent. Correlated positions — three majors against the dollar — lose together and count as one.
- · Assumes every trade risks the same amount. Raising size after a loss shortens the streak you can survive.
- · Uses your stated win rate. If that came from a demo account or a good month, the figure below is optimistic.
- · It applies each cap at its starting level — pessimistic on a static drawdown, close to right on one that trails at the end of the day, and optimistic on a daily limit that trails within the session.
- · The 11 unpublished effects are read as ending the attempt. That is our assumption, stated wherever it is used, and it is the reason those rows are marked rather than merely ranked.
- · Where a firm publishes different caps for different phases, the record carries the tighter pair, so the earlier phase looks harder here than it is.
On the numbers above
Fidelcrest — Micro Trader — Aggressive
It comes out ahead on the chance a losing streak ends the attempt, at 1% risk per trade, at 19% — 6 percentage points clear of Fidelcrest's Pro Trader — Aggressive, the next best.
This is computed from the published rules, not chosen. Whichever programme wins that calculation appears here, including firms we earn nothing from, and it changes when the rules do. It says nothing about payout reliability, platform, support, or the fee.
Where every figure came from
One line per firm with a published daily limit: the document, and the date it was read. Prop firm rules change on the order of months, so a figure without a date is a figure without a claim.
E8 Markets Help Center — product overview — read 2026-08-05
Alpha Capital — rules explained — read 2026-08-05
Audacity Capital — trading guidelines — read 2026-08-06
FTMO — programme comparison and pricing — read 2026-08-05
FundedNext — CFD trading objectives — read 2026-08-05
FundingPips Help Centre — account models — read 2026-08-05
Goat Funded Trader — models — read 2026-08-06
Hola Prime — forex trading rules — read 2026-08-05
The5ers — challenge programmes explained — read 2026-08-05
Funded Trading Plus — hard rules and account breaches — read 2026-08-06
HyroTrader — trading rules — read 2026-08-06
City Traders Imperium — 2-Step Challenge — read 2026-08-06
Fidelcrest — programs — read 2026-08-06
Questions
- What happens if you hit the daily loss limit at a prop firm?
- It depends on the firm, and 11 of the 42 programmes we have read do not say which. 30 state that breaching the daily loss limit ends the attempt — the account is closed and the fee is spent. One programme states that it only pauses trading until the next session: The5ers' Hyper Growth. The remaining 11 publish a daily limit and never publish what touching it does, so this site takes the conservative reading — that the attempt ends — and marks the figure as ours rather than theirs.
- What is the daily drawdown rule at a prop firm, and what is it measured against?
- A cap on how much the account may lose in one trading day, published as a percentage — 2.5% to 10% across the programmes here. What differs, and what decides where your floor actually sits, is the starting point it is measured from. 5 answers appear in this data: the day’s equity high, the higher of the day’s opening balance and opening equity, the previous day’s closing balance, the start-of-day balance on closed trades only and several formulas the firm publishes side by side. Only 9 of the 42 state which one they use on the pages we read; the other 33 publish a percentage of something they do not name.
- Does hitting the daily loss limit always fail the challenge?
- No: one of the 42 programmes here reads the other way, and where it does the arithmetic changes by a measured amount. The5ers' Hyper Growth pauses the account until the next session, which means the overall drawdown becomes the only way to fail. On the same rules read the other way, the failure probability moves by 59 percentage points on average across the 39 programmes here that have an evaluation to fail — and it moves every single one of them. A firm that pauses has made its daily limit survivable; a firm that closes the account has not.
- How many losing trades in a row can I take before the daily limit stops me?
- At 1% risk per trade, between 2 and 10 depending on the programme, and 4 on the median one — against 8 before the overall drawdown. That is why the daily limit is the rule that matters: on 41 of the 42 it runs out no later than the overall cap and is read as ending the attempt when it does, so the overall drawdown decides nothing. Halve the risk and both numbers double, and the probability of a run twice as long collapses rather than halves.
The size that makes any of these limits survivable is worked out per programme here, and the calculator runs the same arithmetic at your own win rate and reward-to-risk.