Why your prop account blew on a green day
You closed green and still got the violation email. It feels like a glitch. It isn't — it's the trailing drawdown doing exactly what it's designed to do. Here is the mechanic, with numbers.
⚠ Rules change often. Prop-firm rules and drawdown models change frequently. Always verify the firm's current Terms of Service before deploying any strategy. Figures here were checked May 2026.
The trap lives in one fact: on a trailing drawdown, profit permanently raises the floor, but giving it back never lowers it. So you can be up on the day, hand some of it back, and cross a floor that your earlier profit pushed up underneath you.
The mechanic, in dollars
Start a $50K account, $2,500 trailing drawdown — floor at $47,500. You run it to +$3,000 (balance $53,000). On an intraday trailing account the floor instantly re-marks to $50,500 ($53,000 − $2,500). Now you give back $2,600 and close at +$400 — a green day. But $50,400 is below the $50,500 floor. Violation. You were never in the red and you still failed.
Why EOD vs intraday decides it
On end-of-day trailing, the floor only re-marks at the close, so an intraday spike-and-give-back doesn't raise it — only your closing balance does. That single difference is the gap between surviving and blowing on the same trade sequence. See EOD vs intraday.
How to stop it happening
- Match preset to floor. Aggressive, let-it-run sizing on an intraday floor is how green days turn into violations.
- Bank, don't round-trip. Don't give back a large unrealized gain on an intraday account — it has already moved your floor.
- Use fixed targets. A hardcoded system takes profit at planned levels instead of riding a spike and surrendering it.
Puravida Edge's futures presets add an end-of-day guard and fixed scale-out targets precisely so the close lands where the model expects. To size against your specific floor, read how to size against trailing drawdown and check the Pass Estimator.
FAQ
How can I blow a prop account on a day I made money?
On a trailing drawdown, earlier intraday profit raises the floor permanently. If you give enough of it back, you can close green but still fall below the raised floor — a violation.
Does this happen on end-of-day trailing too?
Much less. EOD trailing only re-marks the floor at session close, so an intraday spike you give back doesn't raise it — only your closing balance does.
How do I avoid the green-day blow-up?
Match your sizing preset to the floor model, take profit at fixed targets rather than riding spikes, and avoid round-tripping large unrealized gains on intraday accounts.
Not financial advice. Performance figures referenced are hypothetical, modeled outputs (1,500-path Monte Carlo on a 12-month sample). Past performance does not guarantee future results. Prop-firm Terms of Service compliance is your responsibility — verify every rule with the firm directly.