End-of-day vs intraday trailing drawdown
End-of-day trailing drawdown raises your threshold from your highest closing balance; intraday trailing raises it from your highest open equity, even profit you never close. With the same trades, end-of-day never leaves a smaller cushion. Every GhostProp futures plan uses end-of-day trailing.
Key takeaways
- End-of-day trailing drawdown moves the threshold up from your highest closing balance.
- Intraday trailing drawdown moves it up from your highest open equity, including profit you never close.
- With the same trades, end-of-day never leaves you a smaller cushion than intraday.
- End-of-day describes when the threshold moves, not when it is enforced: your open balance must stay above it all session.
- Every GhostProp futures plan uses end-of-day trailing drawdown, and the threshold stops rising at $50,100; perps Shade trails too, while perps Phantom and Specter use a static floor.
Explained
How does each method move the threshold?
Both methods start the threshold at your starting balance minus the maximum loss, never move it down and stop moving it once it reaches a set level. The only difference is which high they follow.
| Question | End-of-day trailing | Intraday trailing |
|---|---|---|
| The threshold follows | Your highest closing balance | Your highest open equity during the session |
| It moves | At each session close | Whenever open equity makes a new high |
| It is enforced | All session, against your open balance | All session, against your open balance |
| Open profit you give back | Never moved the threshold | Already moved the threshold |
What does the difference look like on a futures Phantom account?
Take a futures Phantom account: $50,000 with a $2,000 drawdown, so both versions start with the threshold at $48,000. Then trade the same three sessions on each.
| Session | Closing balance | End-of-day trailing threshold | Intraday trailing threshold |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | $50,000 | $48,000Cushion $2,000 | $48,000Cushion $2,000 |
| Day 1Open high +$1,500, close +$200 | $50,200 | $48,200Cushion $2,000 | $49,500Cushion $700 |
| Day 2Open high +$1,000, close +$800 | $51,000 | $49,000Cushion $2,000 | $49,500Cushion $1,500 |
| Day 3Open low −$1,600, close −$300 | $50,700 | $49,000Cushion $1,700 | $49,500Limit reached |
Same trades, two methods. Intraday trailing assumes the high came before the low, the cautious case.
Day 1 is where they split. Open profit peaks at +$1,500, but the session closes at +$200. End-of-day trailing only sees the close, so the threshold rises to $48,200 and the cushion stays at $2,000. Intraday trailing followed the peak, so its threshold is already at $49,500 and the cushion is down to $700, before a single losing trade.
On day 3, open equity dips to $49,400. That touches the intraday threshold, so the intraday account reaches its limit. The end-of-day account is still $400 above its threshold at the low, and it closes the day with $1,700 of cushion. To test other days, enter them in the drawdown calculator and switch the drawdown method.
Is end-of-day drawdown only checked at the close?
No: end-of-day describes when the threshold moves, not when it is enforced. The threshold is recalculated at each session close, but your open balance must stay above it all session. In the example, a day-3 dip $400 deeper would have ended the end-of-day account too, even though the session would still have closed only $300 down.
When does a trailing drawdown stop moving?
On GhostProp futures, the threshold stops at $50,100, $100 above the starting balance. On futures Phantom that happens once your highest closing balance reaches $52,100. With intraday trailing and the same stop level, open equity touching $52,100 would be enough, even if the trade then closed lower.
Which method does GhostProp use?
Every GhostProp futures plan uses end-of-day trailing drawdown, defined with a worked example in the drawdown rule. The drawdown is $1,500 on Shade, $2,000 on Phantom and $2,500 on Specter. On perps, Shade trails end-of-day by 3%, while Phantom and Specter use a static floor that never moves.
More explainers: what no daily loss limit means and how the consistency rule is calculated.
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Questions
Trailing drawdown questions
Short answers to the questions traders ask most about this rule.
Which is easier to manage, end-of-day or intraday trailing drawdown?
End-of-day trailing is usually easier to manage, because profit you give back during a session does not raise the threshold. With the same trades, it never leaves a smaller cushion than intraday trailing.
Does open profit count toward an end-of-day trailing drawdown?
Open profit never moves the threshold; only closing balances do. Open losses still count against your balance during the session. If your open balance touches the threshold, the account reaches its limit.
Can an intraday trailing drawdown move during a trade that ends flat?
Yes. If the trade shows open profit above your previous high, the threshold rises with it and stays there when the trade reverses. You can finish the session flat with less cushion than you started with.
Does the threshold go down after a losing day?
No. Under both methods the threshold only moves up or stays where it is. A losing day lowers your balance, so your cushion shrinks by the size of the loss.
Does any GhostProp plan use intraday trailing drawdown?
No. Futures plans and perps Shade use end-of-day trailing drawdown, and perps Phantom and Specter use a static floor, as set out in the drawdown rule.
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