Is There a Funded Trading Account With No Daily Drawdown at All?
The one Phoenix Trader Funding line that drops the daily drawdown once it is live, and the overall loss floor every account, Merit included, keeps in its place.
Yes, and once an account is live-funded only one line has none: Merit. No Classic, Daily or Spark evaluation carries a daily drawdown, and neither does a funded Classic, but all three pick up a scalable daily limit, set with the trader, the moment they reach Live.
Merit runs the other way: its evaluation carries a 25% dynamic daily drawdown, and that is the one it drops at Live. Every account, Merit included, still keeps an overall loss floor.
- What a daily drawdown restricts
- What changes the moment a Merit account goes live
- How this compares with Phoenix Trader Funding's other live accounts
- What the freedom trades away
- Who this fits
- FAQ
A daily drawdown limit is the rule that closes an account, or halts trading on it, the moment a trader loses more than a set amount in a single day, even if the account is still profitable overall. It is usually the first rule a funded trader names when asked what actually gets accounts cut.
Several firms now advertise accounts with no daily drawdown. Read past the headline and an overall trailing or static floor is still there in most of them: removing the daily cap does not remove that floor, it just means the room above it can be lost in one bad session instead of being rationed out day by day.
That is a real improvement over a hard daily cap. It is not the same as the rule disappearing.
- An overall drawdown floor on the account's total losses usually remains
- The daily limit is typically what they drop; the overall floor almost never joins it
What a daily drawdown restricts
A daily drawdown rule resets a maximum-loss counter every trading day. Break it in one afternoon, even on a day that started well, and the account closes or stops trading for the rest of the session, depending on the firm. It punishes one bad session harder than a rule measured over the account's whole life.
At Phoenix Trader Funding, Merit is the exception. Its evaluation carries a 25% dynamic daily drawdown while the account is being proven, on top of a flat $2,000 total loss limit measured from the starting balance rather than a moving peak. That daily rule lifts once the account goes live.
What changes the moment a Merit account goes live
Merit skips the Pre-Funded stage Classic and Spark sit in while they collect four payouts and clear a risk review, and skips the lifetime-paid threshold Daily waits on. An accepted Merit trader goes straight to a live funded account, which carries no daily drawdown, no buffer, no withdrawal limit and no consistency rule.
A buffer is an amount of the account's balance that has to stay put: only profit above it can be paid out. Classic and Daily hold a locked one while funded, $1,500 to $3,000 on Classic and $600 to $2,000 on Daily; Spark and Merit hold none.
How this compares with Phoenix Trader Funding's other live accounts
Classic, Daily and Spark run the opposite pattern from Merit. None of their evaluations carry a daily drawdown at all, the same as Merit's live stage; each of the three then picks up a scalable daily limit, set with the trader, once the account reaches Live.
Their live amounts span $400 to $3,500 across the three lines, and the rule does not track with size: Spark Live carries a daily drawdown on a $400 account, a fifth of Merit's $2,000.
Every Phoenix Trader Funding Live account, Merit included, uses a static drawdown rather than a trailing one once live, measured from the starting balance, so growing the account does not tighten the rule further the way a trailing floor does during an evaluation.
What differs account to account is what else sits alongside that floor. Merit is the only line where the answer is nothing.
| Account | Evaluation daily drawdown | Live amount | Live daily drawdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic | None | $1,250 to $3,500 | Scalable limit set with trader |
| Daily | None | $500 to $2,000 | Scalable limit set with trader |
| Spark | None | $400 to $1,000 | Scalable limit set with trader |
| Merit | 25% dynamic | $2,000 | None |
What the freedom trades away
The freedom above is not free. Merit is the only one of the four lines whose evaluation carries a daily drawdown at all.
Staying inside the drawdown limits does not guarantee funding on its own: the risk team and an AI review every trade, and a human decides, with no guarantee of funding whatever the P&L. The freedom on the other side is real, but reaching it again means holding a different Phoenix account type first.
Who this fits
A trader who wants the fewest live-account rules to track gets more genuine rule freedom from Merit: no daily counter to watch once live, and no payout count or lifetime-paid threshold to clear before getting there.
A trader who would rather work to a profit target, or wants the option of buying a reset, is better served by Classic, Daily or Spark: all three set a profit goal and sell resets.
- Wants a live account with no daily loss counter to watch
- Is fine starting at Merit's $2,000 live amount
- Would rather have one attempt at $69 than a multi-stage path with a payout count or lifetime-paid threshold to clear first
FAQ
Does Merit have a daily drawdown during the evaluation?
Yes. The evaluation carries a 25% dynamic daily drawdown alongside a flat $2,000 total loss limit. The daily drawdown is removed only once the account is live-funded, not before.
What is the difference between a buffer and a drawdown rule?
A drawdown rule limits how much a trader can lose before the account closes. A buffer is separate: an amount of the balance that has to stay in the account, with only profit above it available to withdraw. Classic and Daily carry a locked buffer; Spark and Merit carry none.
Do Classic, Daily and Spark carry a daily drawdown during their evaluations?
No. None of the three evaluations carry one. Each picks up a scalable daily limit, set with the trader, only once the account reaches Live. Merit runs the other way: 25% dynamic during its own evaluation, then none once live.
How fast can a Merit account reach these rules?
The evaluation itself runs one to thirty calendar days, with one attempt allowed and a decision at the end of it rather than a fixed pass mark. Once accepted, funding is immediate: Merit is the only Phoenix Trader Funding account that moves straight to live-funded status, with no payout count or lifetime-paid threshold to clear first.
Is there still any loss limit once a Merit account is live?
Yes. A live Merit account keeps a static drawdown measured from the starting balance, like every Phoenix Trader Funding Live account; what it does not have is a daily limit on top of that floor.
Full evaluation and Live rules for every account size are on the evaluations page, Merit's own terms sit on the Merit accounts page, Classic rules are on the Classic accounts page, and the rest of the rule set is in the Phoenix Trader Funding FAQ.
Start a Merit evaluation for $69, paid once.
View Merit at Phoenix Trader FundingNew funded-account types are trialled at Phoenix Labs as real, tradable accounts before they join the permanent offer. The ones that work graduate; the ones that do not are retired.