What is an intraday trailing drawdown, and how is it different from end of day?

An intraday trailing drawdown is a loss limit that is recalculated continuously while you trade, so the highest value your account reaches at any moment of the session, including profit on a position that is still open, can lift the floor. An end-of-day trailing drawdown is recalculated once, after the close, using only the closing balance. At Phoenix Trader Funding, every evaluation measures at the end of the day, and a funded Spark account is the one that trails intraday.

The two designs use the same idea and the same distance. What separates them is which moments of your day the limit is allowed to see.

What every trailing drawdown has in common

A trailing drawdown is a loss limit that follows your account upward instead of sitting at one fixed level. The level it follows is the high-water mark. A high-water mark is the highest value the account has ever reached, and it only ever rises. The floor sits a set distance beneath that mark, and when the account climbs to a higher mark the floor climbs with it. When the account falls back, the floor stays where it is.

Every trailing design shares those mechanics. The only question that changes between them is how often the high-water mark is checked, and against what. If you want the full mechanics of the floor itself, the answer on what a trailing drawdown is and how it moves covers them in detail.

How intraday measurement sets the floor

Intraday measurement, sometimes called real-time trailing, watches the account value as it moves through the session. Open positions are part of that value. If a trade runs into profit, the account value rises while the trade is still open, and if that value is higher than any point the account has reached before, it becomes the high-water mark on the spot. The floor follows immediately. It does not wait for the trade to close and it does not wait for the session to end.

The consequence is that the limit sees the path of your day, not only where the day finished. A peak that lasted a few seconds counts the same as a peak you held into the close. Profit that appears on screen and then disappears before you exit has still moved the floor, and the floor does not move back down when that profit goes away.

How end-of-day measurement sets the floor

End-of-day measurement checks the account once, after the session closes, and uses the closing balance as the only reading of the day. Everything that happened between the open and the close is invisible to it. A trade that ran far into profit at midday and came back before the close leaves no trace on the floor. If the day closed higher than the previous high-water mark, the mark rises to the closing figure. If it did not, nothing changes.

For an active trader this is the difference that matters most. Under end-of-day measurement you are judged on the result of the session. Under intraday measurement you are judged on its best moment as well as its result.

The same day, measured both ways

Picture one trading day on two accounts with identical starting points and identical trailing distances. In the morning you open a position and it moves well in your favour. You hold it, hoping for more. In the afternoon the market turns, and you close the trade with a small gain, far below the best point it reached.

• On the end-of-day account, the floor sees one number: the closing balance with its small gain. If that balance is a higher mark than before, the floor rises by that small step. The morning peak never existed as far as the limit is concerned.
• On the intraday account, the floor rose with the morning peak while the trade was open. When the trade gave most of that profit back, the floor stayed up. You finish the day with the same small gain, but with noticeably less room between your balance and the limit.

Neither account broke a rule and both made money. The difference is how much room each one carries into the next session.

Which Phoenix accounts use which measurement

The measurement is a property of the account type and the stage, never of the firm as a whole. Here is how the lineup behaves.

• Every evaluation measures the trailing drawdown at the end of the day, except Merit, which has no trailing drawdown at all and uses a static total loss limit instead.
• A funded Classic account keeps end-of-day measurement.
• The Daily family keeps end-of-day measurement through both the challenge and the funded account, so nothing about the floor changes on the day you pass.
• A funded Spark account trails in real time, intraday. The Spark evaluation measures at the end of the day, so this is a change that arrives at the funded stage.
• Live funded accounts use a static drawdown across the whole lineup, which stops adjusting at the starting balance.

The Spark switch is the one worth planning for. Habits formed during a Spark evaluation were formed under end-of-day measurement, and the funded account reads the same habits differently.

Where an intraday floor stops moving

At Phoenix Trader Funding the trailing drawdown stops at the starting balance. Once the floor has climbed far enough to reach the balance you started with, it freezes there and never adjusts again, however high the account goes afterwards.

That has a useful consequence for intraday measurement in particular. Before the floor reaches the starting balance, every peak you touch during the session can pull it up. After it reaches the starting balance, the floor is static, and peaks inside the session no longer move it at all. From that point the difference between intraday and end-of-day measurement simply disappears, because there is nothing left to trail.

Trading habits that matter more under intraday measurement

None of these are rules. They are the habits traders tend to adjust when they move from an end-of-day account to an intraday one.

• Know your room after every strong move, not only at the open. Your room is the distance between your account value and the floor. On an intraday account that distance can shrink during a winning trade, not only during a losing one.
• Decide how much open profit you are willing to give back. A trade that runs and then reverses costs room on an intraday account even when it closes green. Traders who let winners breathe often take partial profits or tighten their exits sooner on this kind of account.
• Watch copied trades across different account types. Copying your own trades between your own accounts is allowed on every account type. The same trade copied onto a funded Spark account and a funded Classic account moves the two floors differently, because one reads the peak and the other reads the close. Small fill differences between copied accounts add to that, as the answer on why copied accounts show a different profit or loss explains.
• Read the account card before you size up. Larger positions make larger swings in open profit, and on an intraday account those swings are exactly what the floor follows.

The full rule set for each account family, including which stage measures how, is published on the Phoenix Trader Funding evaluations page.

Common follow-up questions

Does open profit count toward an intraday trailing drawdown?

Yes. An intraday trailing drawdown follows the account value as it moves through the session, and an open position is part of that value. A trade that runs into profit can set a higher high-water mark before it is closed.

Is an intraday trailing drawdown harder to trade than an end-of-day one?

It reacts to more of your day, so trades that run into profit and then give it back cost room that an end-of-day limit would never see. A trader who exits close to the best point of a move notices very little difference between the two.

Does an intraday floor keep rising once it reaches the starting balance?

No. At Phoenix Trader Funding the trailing drawdown stops at the starting balance. Once the floor reaches it, the floor is static and intraday peaks no longer move it, however high the account climbs afterwards.

Which accounts trail intraday rather than at the end of the day?

A funded Spark account trails in real time, intraday. Every evaluation measures at the end of the day, Merit has no trailing drawdown, funded Classic and Daily accounts stay end of day, and Live accounts use a static drawdown.

Why can the same copied trade leave two accounts with different room?

Because the floors may be measured differently. An intraday account reads the highest point the trade reached while open, and an end-of-day account reads only the closing balance, so one floor can rise while the other stays put.