What Is a Daily Loss Limit
A daily loss limit caps how much an account can lose in one trading day. Prop firms use it so that a single bad session cannot do lasting damage, and traders often call it the daily drawdown. It works alongside a maximum loss, which caps the total an account can lose overall.
Firms measure the daily limit in different ways, for example from the balance or from equity at the start of the day. The idea is the same everywhere: the limit is renewed each trading day, and crossing it ends that account's run.
The Limits on a Pivex Account
On a Pivex account the daily loss limit is 4%, renewed every trading day at 00:00 UTC. The maximum loss is 6% of the starting balance and static, so it does not move as the account grows. If an account crosses a loss limit, open trades close automatically and that account no longer counts toward the Challenge. You can start again with a new account, and on Membership you can activate a saved credit instead of paying again.
Why Traders Reach the Daily Limit
Few accounts reach the daily limit on one planned trade. It usually takes a chain of decisions that each looked reasonable at the time.
- Revenge trading: opening a new position right after a loss to win the money back.
- Sizing up after losses, so the next stop costs more than the last one.
- Moving or removing a stop because the market looks close to turning.
- Holding several trades that react to the same driver, such as EUR/USD, gold and the NAS100 on a US data day.
- Trading through a high-impact release at normal size and getting filled far past the stop.
Each of these makes the day's loss grow faster than planned. That kind of day is where Daily Loss Protection steps in.
How Daily Loss Protection Works
Daily Loss Protection is part of every Pivex Membership account. It draws a line at 3%, below the 4% daily loss limit, and acts when an account reaches it.
- 1The day's loss reaches 3%The account loses 3% in one trading day, whether on one trade or several.
- 2Open positions closeEvery open position on that account closes automatically, at the prices available at that moment.
- 3The account shows as pausedTrading on that account pauses, and the dashboard marks it as paused.
- 4The dashboard shows where you standYou see today's losses next to the allowed daily loss limit, plus a countdown to when trading resumes.
- 5Trading resumesWhen the countdown ends, you can trade on that account again under the usual rules.
A $100K Worked Example
Here is how the levels line up on a $100K Membership account, with amounts shown for the starting balance. The dashboard always shows your live limits.
| Level | Rule | At a $100K starting balance | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Loss Protection | 3% loss in one trading day | $3,000 | Open positions close and trading pauses, once per account |
| Daily loss limit | 4%, renewed every trading day at 00:00 UTC | $4,000 | Open trades close and the account no longer counts toward the Challenge |
| Maximum loss | 6% of the starting balance, static | $6,000 | Open trades close and the account no longer counts toward the Challenge |
| Profit target | 10% | $10,000 | Close all trades when it is reached |
Say three trades go against you in one session and the day's loss reaches $3,000. Daily Loss Protection closes whatever is still open and pauses the account. Without it, the same day could run on toward the $4,000 daily limit, which would end that account's Challenge.
On this account there is $1,000 between the pause and the daily limit. Because positions close at the prices available at that moment, the final loss for the day can differ from exactly $3,000, especially in a fast market.
| Account size | Daily Loss Protection (3%) | Daily loss limit (4%) | Maximum loss (6%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10K | $300 | $400 | $600 |
| $25K | $750 | $1,000 | $1,500 |
| $50K | $1,500 | $2,000 | $3,000 |
| $100K | $3,000 | $4,000 | $6,000 |