Drawdown / Prop Buffer Calculator

See exactly how much room remains above an account drawdown threshold, how much of that cushion a proposed trade consumes, and how many full-risk losses the account can absorb.

Inputs

Define the account

Current account balance / equity

Use the balance or equity figure relevant to your firm's drawdown rule.

Current liquidation threshold

The current account value at which the account would breach its drawdown rule.

Proposed risk on next trade

Planned loss if the next trade reaches its stop. Use gross or all-in risk consistently.

Optional safety reserve

Extra buffer you want to preserve above the official threshold.

Optional daily loss limit

Enter $0 if your account does not use a separate daily loss cap.

Loss already used today

Optional. Used only when a daily loss limit is entered.

Important: prop-firm drawdown rules differ. Some are static, some trail realized balance, and some trail intraday unrealized equity. If your firm supplies a current liquidation threshold, use the first mode because it avoids making assumptions about how that threshold was calculated.

Output

Account cushion

Usable buffer after safety reserve

—

Enter your current account values to calculate remaining room.

Official buffer—

Effective floor—

Next trade uses—

Buffer after next loss—

Full-risk losses available—

Max risk for 1 loss + reserve—

Daily loss room—

Binding limit—

Proposed trade as % of usable buffer —

The official drawdown threshold and your personal safety reserve are shown separately so you can distinguish firm rules from your own risk policy.

Two different buffers

Official limit vs. usable risk capital.

The official buffer is simply current account value minus the liquidation threshold. That is the amount separating the account from the firm's stated breach level at the moment you enter the numbers.

The usable buffer subtracts your optional safety reserve as well. This lets you treat part of the cushion as untouchable rather than sizing trades all the way to the firm's hard limit.

If a $3,500 official buffer exists and you preserve a $500 reserve, only $3,000 is treated as usable risk capital by the calculator.

Trailing drawdown

The threshold can move.

This page does not attempt to reverse-engineer every prop firm's trailing logic. A trailing threshold may rise after realized profits, track unrealized intraday equity, stop trailing after a certain buffer is earned, or behave differently during evaluation and funded stages.

For that reason, the most accurate workflow is to enter the current liquidation threshold shown by the firm whenever it is available. The calculator then evaluates your remaining cushion from that known point.

Always follow the firm's own dashboard and rules when they differ from a simplified calculation.

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Risk disclosure

Prop-firm rules and drawdown calculations vary by provider and may change. This calculator is an educational risk-planning tool and does not determine whether a particular account is in compliance with a firm's rules.

Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss. Rawstocks LLC is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer, and nothing published here constitutes personalized investment advice. Past performance does not indicate future results. Read the full disclosure.