Daily loss limits at futures prop firms: hard, soft, and none

A daily loss limit caps how much you can lose in one session. At 3 of the firms we track, hitting it can fail the account. At the others that state the effect, it only flattens you and pauses trading until the next session. Some programs have no daily limit at all. Across the 72 programs sold by the 18 firms we track, 5 have a hard limit, 24 a soft one, and 42 none, while 1 doesn't say which.

Hard, soft, and none

Hard: the account fails

A hard limit works like a second drawdown that resets every morning. Cross it and the evaluation is over. At Earn2Trade every evaluation carries one, and it fails the account even when the loss is unrealized. Whether the funded limit works the same way isn't confirmed. At Elite Trader Funding the End of Day and Diamond Hands programs have one; the End of Day limit is measured from the prior day's closing balance and includes open losses.

Soft: you're done for the day

A soft limit flattens your positions and locks the account until the next session. Nothing fails. Of the firms we track, 10 have at least one program with a soft limit. The loss still comes off your balance, though, so it still counts toward the max-loss floor. A soft limit protects you from one terrible day, not from a string of bad ones.

None: only the drawdown

With no daily limit, the only loss rule is the maximum drawdown, and you can lose all of it in one session. Topstep, Take Profit Trader, TradeDay, Funded Futures Family, and Phidias Propfirm have no daily limit on any program we track (Topstep sells an optional one). That's freedom and exposure in the same package: nothing stops a revenge-trading afternoon except you.

Daily loss limits, firm by firm

Each program sits in the column for its limit type, with the 50K amount where the firm sells a 50K. "Some sizes" means the limit doesn't apply to every account size. Open a firm for the other sizes, scan every program on the programs table, or put two firms side by side in compare.

Not stated: DayTraders.com's Straight to Live (S2L, 'Live') publishes a daily limit amount but not whether breaching it pauses or fails the account.

The limit can change after you pass

The table shows each program's own rule. Several firms change it at the funded stage. Apex Trader Funding's Intraday evaluations have no daily limit, but the funded account adds a soft one. At Alpha Futures, the Standard evaluation has none; its funded stage adds a soft Daily Loss Guard. On LucidPro, Lucid Trading swaps the fixed funded limit for one set at 60% of your highest end-of-day profit once the account closes above its initial trail balance. Bulenox removes the Master Account's limit for good once its drawdown locks. Tradeify's Growth limit rises to the full drawdown once the account is up 6%.

Your real daily limit is the closer one

A daily limit and a max-loss floor run at the same time, and whichever you'd hit first is the one that counts. Here is a hypothetical 50K account with a $48,000 floor and a $1,000 soft daily limit, on two different mornings.

Lucid Trading states this outright for its intraday line: if the trailing floor moves above the daily limit, the floor becomes the binding, hard limit. The same logic applies at every firm with both rules. Before the open, subtract your floor from your balance and compare it to the daily limit. Trade to the smaller number. For how the floor itself moves, see trailing, end-of-day, and static drawdown explained.

Optional daily limits

A few firms let you choose, and they price the choice.

• Topstep: opt in at checkout. The Trading Combine has no daily limit unless you add one ($1,000 / $2,000 / $3,000 for 50K / 100K / 150K). Hitting it flattens you and pauses trading until 5 PM CT, it doesn't fail the Combine, and it carries into the funded account. On the No Activation Fee path it takes $10 / $20 / $30 a month off the price, and a limited-time offer that started June 2, 2026 doubles the funded per-request payout caps for Combines bought with one.
• Lucid Trading: choose on or off at purchase. The choice covers both the evaluation and the funded account and can't be changed later. Hitting the limit locks trading until the next session. Lucid's pricing adds a fee for going without it.
• FundedNext Futures: an add-on on Rapid Pro. Chosen at purchase, it cuts the price by $20 / $40 / $50 and applies a $500 / $1,000 / $1,250 soft limit through the challenge and the funded account.

The table lists Topstep under no limit and Lucid Trading under soft, but at both the choice is yours. If you already stop yourself after a bad day, the cheaper version with the limit costs you little. If your edge needs room to recover inside one session, pay for the version without it and bring your own stop.

Set your own daily stop, tighter than the firm's

The firm's daily limit is the most it will let you lose. It isn't a plan. A personal stop set well inside it keeps one bad day from eating the drawdown you need for the rest of the evaluation.

1. Pick a number before the open. A fixed dollar amount, or a share of today's room to the floor, whichever is smaller.
2. Count it the way the firm does. The firms that spell it out count open losses, and Bulenox counts commissions too, so your stop should include both.
3. Stop at the number, not after the next trade. The trade after the stop is the one that turns a soft day into a hard failure.
4. Make it mechanical. A rule you enforce by willpower works until the day it matters.

For the mechanical part, CrossTrade's Account Manager (from our publisher) sets a daily profit and loss threshold on each account. When session P&L crosses your loss threshold, it can flatten the account and stop it for the rest of the session. It's a risk tool, not a guarantee: flattens are market orders and can slip, and on NinjaTrader 8 it only acts while NinjaTrader and the XT Add-On are running and connected (Tradovate monitors run in CrossTrade's cloud). It can't connect at Topstep, Alpha Futures, and DayTraders.com. Firms that restrict third-party tools may not allow it either, so check your firm's rules first. The threshold docs explain the settings.

If you run several evaluations at once, a per-account stop matters more, because each account has its own floor and its own room. See managing multiple prop firm accounts, and how a futures prop firm evaluation works for where the daily limit fits in the whole process.

Questions traders ask

Prop firm rules change often. Figures here were checked against each firm's own site on the date shown on its firm page; confirm the current terms with the firm before you buy. Nothing here is financial advice.