What does buffer mean on a prop firm account?

The live distance between your balance and the maximum loss limit that closes the account. On a trailing account it does not grow with profit until the floor stops trailing, because the floor rises alongside your balance.

Does the trailing drawdown ever stop moving?

At most firms, yes. The floor typically stops trailing once it reaches the original starting balance, and some firms lock it slightly above — Apex locks $100 above the starting balance (thortradecopier, May 2026). After that the account behaves like a static one.

Which is better, a bigger drawdown or an EOD buffer?

It depends on how your strategy loses. If your trades routinely build open profit and give some back, EOD is worth more than extra dollars, because intraday tracking charges you for the giveback. If you cut fast and rarely sit underwater, a larger allowance on an intraday account may be the better deal.

How do I calculate my current buffer?

Take the highest recorded balance the firm uses for trailing — end-of-day close for EOD accounts, intraday peak including open profit for intraday accounts — subtract the maximum drawdown to get the floor, then subtract that floor from your current balance.

Strategy · 6 min read

Re-entry rules after a stop loss

Getting stopped out is not the expensive event. The expensive event is the second trade taken thirty seconds later because the idea "still looks right." A re-entry rule decides that question in advance — how many bars to wait, what has to be true again, and how many attempts a session gets.

Why discretionary re-entry produces double losses

A stop loss ends a trade at the point where the original thesis is, by definition, least supported. Re-entering immediately re-buys the same thesis at a worse price, with the emotional weight of a fresh loss behind the decision. Most "two losses in ten minutes" sequences in a trading journal are one signal and one revenge entry. The signal was fine; the second trade was not a signal at all.

The three re-entry rules that can be written as code

1. Cooldown in bars. No new entry for N bars after a stop. The simplest rule, and the most effective per line of code. Typical values: 3–10 bars on the trading timeframe. Its job is not to find a better price; it is to force the strategy to see a full fresh bar sequence before re-evaluating.

2. Signal must re-trigger. The entry condition has to become false and then true again. A crossover that already happened does not count; a new crossover does. This prevents the strategy from re-entering on the residual state of a signal that already fired.

3. Attempts per session. A hard cap — usually two — on entries in the same direction per session. After the cap, the strategy sits out until the next session regardless of signals. This is the rule that bounds the worst-case loss on a day when the setup keeps appearing and keeps failing.

What this looks like in Pine Script

//@version=5
strategy("Re-entry rules", overlay = true)

cooldownBars = input.int(5, "Cooldown bars after stop")
maxPerSession = input.int(2, "Max entries per session")

var int lastStopBar = na
var int entriesToday = 0

if ta.change(time("D")) != 0
    entriesToday := 0

signal = ta.crossover(ta.ema(close, 9), ta.ema(close, 21))
cooledDown = na(lastStopBar) or (bar_index - lastStopBar) >= cooldownBars
underCap = entriesToday < maxPerSession

if signal and cooledDown and underCap and barstate.isconfirmed
    strategy.entry("L", strategy.long)
    entriesToday += 1

// after strategy.exit hits the stop:
if strategy.closedtrades > 0 and strategy.closedtrades.exit_bar_index(strategy.closedtrades - 1) == bar_index
    lastStopBar := bar_index

Three rules, twelve lines. The point is not the specific values — it is that the decision exists before the stop is hit, so the trader never makes it under pressure.

How this interacts with prop firm rules

On a prop account, unbounded re-entry is how a normal losing morning becomes a daily loss limit breach. Two stops at full size plus a revenge entry is often the entire daily loss allowance. The attempts-per-session cap is therefore not a performance optimisation; it is the rule that keeps the account alive on the days the setup does not work. Size each attempt against the daily loss limit, not the account balance, and the cap follows from the arithmetic.

FAQ

Should I re-enter a trade after being stopped out?

Only if a rule written before the trade says so. The three codeable rules are a bar cooldown, a requirement that the signal re-trigger, and a cap on attempts per session.

How long should the cooldown after a stop loss be?

Commonly 3–10 bars on the trading timeframe. The purpose is to force a fresh bar sequence before re-evaluation, not to find a better price.

How many re-entries per day is reasonable on a prop account?

Two in the same direction is a common cap. On a prop account, two full-size stops plus a re-entry is often the whole daily loss allowance, so the cap should be derived from the DLL, not chosen by feel.

Is re-entry the same as revenge trading?

Discretionary re-entry immediately after a stop usually is. Rule-based re-entry — cooldown, re-triggered signal, attempt cap — is not, because the decision was made before the loss.

Firm rules verified against official documentation and current third-party rule trackers in September 2026. Prop firm rules change frequently; confirm on the firm's site before purchasing an evaluation.

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