Prop firm challenge calculator

What it works out

A prop firm challenge gives you a profit target and two loss limits: a daily one and an overall one. Enter the account size and the firm's percentages and this turns them into amounts, the profit you need per trading day to reach the target in your time, and how many losing trades in a row fit inside each limit at your risk per trade.

Worked example

On a 100,000 account with an 8% target, a 5% daily limit and a 10% overall limit, risking 1% per trade at 2R: the target is 8,000, the daily limit is 5,000 and the overall limit is 10,000. Five losses in a row would reach the daily limit, so four stay inside it, and nine stay inside the overall limit. Four winning trades at 2R reach the target.

Do not size to the limit

Reaching a limit usually counts as a breach, so a risk that lets you take exactly five losses is too close. Many firms measure the daily limit on equity, so open floating losses count even before a trade closes. That is the main danger for grid and martingale Expert Advisors, which can add positions into a loss. Choose a risk per trade and a maximum number of open positions that keep the worst realistic day well inside the daily limit.

Check the firm's own rules

Firms differ on balance or equity based limits, static or trailing drawdown, when the trading day resets, minimum trading days, news trading, holding over the weekend and consistency rules. Some do not allow Expert Advisors at all. This calculator uses the simple static version and does not replace the firm's rules page.