Guides · Rules that end accounts
Equity and balance are not interchangeable
A floating loss can breach a rule before you close the trade. Some daily limits use the higher of the two.
Balance is closed profit and loss. Equity is balance plus what is still open. A rule that watches equity can fail you on a trade you still believe will come back. A rule that watches only the end-of-day balance can let that same trade breathe, and then punish the close.
A daily limit that picks the worse baseline
Funding Pips’ 2-Step Pro article says the daily loss is 3% of the higher of that day’s opening balance or opening equity. If you start the day with 105,000 of balance and 107,000 of equity, the baseline is 107,000 and 3% of that is the room. Using yesterday’s balance because it feels fairer is how people breach a rule they thought they had measured.
FTMO’s Instant maximum loss is described as intraday and balance-based. That is a third shape: the trail follows balance, not every tick of open profit. Do not paste the Funding Pips daily-loss method onto it.