FTMO Static vs Trailing Drawdown: Two Rules, One Firm

FTMO's 2-Step uses a static 10% maximum loss and its 1-Step uses a trailing one. See what FTMO static vs trailing drawdown costs on a $100,000 account.

FTMO sells two challenges, and they use opposite maximum loss rules. The 2-Step has a static floor that never moves. The 1-Step has a trailing floor that climbs behind your profits.

So "FTMO's drawdown rule" is not one thing. Both products advertise "10% maximum loss," and that shared number hides the entire difference.

What static and trailing actually mean, in dollars

Your maximum loss is the floor. Drop below it and you get a breach — the moment the firm closes your account for crossing a limit.

A static floor is set once, from the money you started with, and stays there. On FTMO's 2-Step, a $100,000 account has a floor of $90,000 on day one. Grow it to $130,000 and the floor is still $90,000. You have $40,000 of room.

A trailing floor follows the account up. On the 1-Step, the same account also starts at $90,000, but the floor is recalculated from the highest end-of-day balance reached. Close a day at $110,000 and the floor becomes $100,000. Close a day at $130,000 and it becomes $120,000.

Now the sting. On the 1-Step, at that $130,000 peak, a slide back to $118,000 is a breach — even though you are still up $18,000. On the 2-Step, the same account is $28,000 clear of its floor. Same headline percentage, $30,000 of difference.

	FTMO 2-Step	FTMO 1-Step
Maximum loss	10% static floor, from initial balance	10% trailing, end of day, from the highest end-of-day balance
Floor at a $130,000 peak (on $100K)	$90,000	$120,000
Does the floor ever move down?	No, it never moves at all	No, it only moves up
After a payout	Floor unchanged	Trailing resets after a payout
Daily loss	5% of the balance recorded at day start, measured on equity including floating P/L	3% of the balance recorded at day start, measured on equity including floating P/L
Profit target	10% in phase one, then 5% in phase two	10%, single phase
Minimum trading days	4 in each phase	Not disclosed
Best Day Rule	Does not apply	50%, best day as a share of the sum of positive days

source · Tier B, verified 2026-09-04

Why the 1-Step floor only bites after you win

On day one, both floors sit at $90,000. The gap opens the moment you have a good day. The trailing rule is harmless while you are flat, and tightens every time you make money.

Two details soften it. The 1-Step trails end of day, not intraday. Spike to $115,000 during the session and close at $108,000, and the peak that counts is $108,000. The floor also resets after a payout, so taking money out restarts the mechanism instead of leaving it anchored to an old high.

The daily loss rule flips the other way

If the 2-Step is looser on maximum loss, you would expect it to be tighter somewhere else. It is not. It is looser on the daily rule too.

Your daily loss is a separate floor that resets each day. FTMO measures it from the balance recorded at day start, on equity including floating P/L. An open position moving against you counts straight away. You do not have to close anything to breach.

Say the day starts with a balance of $102,000.

2-Step: 5% of $102,000 = $5,100. You breach at $96,900 equity.
1-Step: 3% of $102,000 = $3,060. You breach at $98,940 equity.

That is $2,040 less room on the 1-Step, every single day. See our breakdown of how five firms calculate the same daily rule differently for why the percentage alone never settles this.

What the 1-Step trades away for skipping a phase

The 1-Step's selling point is one phase instead of two. The cost sits in three rules. Two you have already seen: the tighter daily floor and the trailing maximum loss. The third is the Best Day Rule, which the 2-Step does not have at all.

The Best Day Rule caps your single best day at 50% of the sum of your positive days. Losing days are excluded from that total. If your winning days added up to $10,000, your best one has to be under $5,000.

That exclusion makes it tighter than 50% sounds. Make $6,000 on Monday and lose $4,000 later that week. Your positive days total $6,000, and one day holds all of it — 100%, not 60%.

It is not a breach. Nothing gets closed. It blocks the account from passing and blocks payouts until the ratio comes down. That is a soft breach — a rule that costs you without ending the account.

Which one fits how you trade

If your profits arrive in a few large days, such as news and breakout traders, the Best Day Rule is the one most likely to stop you. It bites at the payout window, not during the challenge.

If you hold positions for days, the trailing floor is the constraint. Every new high you close a day on permanently raises the level you must not fall through.

If you scalp small and often, the daily floor matters more than the maximum. That points at the 2-Step's 5%.

Neither product is better. They are different, and the question is which rule your own strategy runs into first. Our methodology page explains how we record these fields.

What we could not verify

FTMO 1-Step pricing. We captured the 2-Step price table in EUR. The 1-Step tab has not been read.
Payout terms. FTMO advertises a reward share of "up to 90%." The cycle, the minimum amount, and the profit days required are not disclosed on the pages we have read. Not disclosed is not the same as not existing.
1-Step minimum trading days. The 2-Step requires 4 per phase. The 1-Step figure is not stated.
Whether the trailing peak uses end-of-day balance or end-of-day equity. These give different floors if you carry positions overnight. We wrote it as balance because that is how the page reads, and we are flagging it rather than assuming.
No terms and conditions have been read. Everything here comes from FTMO's public rule pages, not the contract.

One thing that is verified and often stated wrongly: FTMO Group also owns OANDA, which holds licences in eight markets. OANDA holds those licences. FTMO does not.

FAQ

Does FTMO use trailing drawdown?

On the 1-Step, yes. The maximum loss trails end of day from the highest end-of-day balance, and resets after a payout. On the 2-Step, no. The floor is static, set from the initial balance. source · Tier B, verified 2026-09-04

Can you breach FTMO while still in profit?

On the 1-Step, yes. At a $130,000 peak on a $100,000 start, the floor sits at $120,000. Falling to $118,000 breaches, even though the account is up $18,000. On the 2-Step, the floor stays at $90,000.

Is FTMO's 1-Step easier than the 2-Step?

It has one phase and a single 10% target. It also has a tighter daily floor, a trailing maximum loss, and the Best Day Rule, none of which apply to the 2-Step. Fewer phases, more rules.

What is FTMO's Best Day Rule?

It caps your best day at 50% of the sum of your positive days, on the 1-Step only. It is not a breach. It blocks passing and blocks payouts until the ratio falls. Losing days are excluded from the total, so it is tighter than the number suggests.

Sources

FTMO trading objectives — https://ftmo.com/en/trading-objectives/ [Tier B, verified 2026-09-04, page modified 2026-05-13]
FTMO press kit — https://ftmo.com/en/press-kit/ [Tier B, verified 2026-09-04]
FTMO pricing — https://ftmo.com/en/#pricing [Tier B, verified 2026-09-04, no publication date on page]

Every figure above is traced to a Tier A or Tier B source (the firm's own terms, rules or help pages). Nothing from aggregators or review sites is used to state a fact. Rules change; the firm's live pages override this article. Not financial advice.