Your trailing drawdown works differently depending on which prop firm you're on — even though it's the same Tradovate platform
Something that confuses a lot of people trading prop accounts through Tradovate: the platform is the same, but your trailing drawdown can work completely differently depending on which firm funds the account. Two traders sitting on the same Tradovate screen can have opposite rules. Here's the split.
Intraday trailing (e.g. Apex's intraday accounts): your drawdown limit trails your highest unrealized equity. It moves up with every tick as your open profit climbs, and locks in at that peak. So if you're up $800 unrealized and give it back before closing, the limit already ratcheted up to that peak — you can breach even if you close the day flat. This one punishes letting winners run and round-tripping.
End-of-day trailing (e.g. Topstep): the limit only moves up based on your end-of-day balance. Intraday spikes don't ratchet it — only where you actually close the day. It's more forgiving of unrealized swings. But it's still enforced in real time, so if your equity touches the current floor mid-session, that's still a breach. The floor just doesn't climb until the day closes.
Practical version: on an intraday-trailing account, your peak unrealized profit matters and giving back a big open gain can end you. On end-of-day trailing, only your closing balance moves the floor, but you can still get stopped out intraday if you hit the line.
Mixing these up is how people blow accounts they thought were safe. If you trade more than one firm, know which type each account is before you size up.
I built a free calculator that does this math per firm so you can see your real floor: https://fundedstreak.com/calculator (covers Apex, Topstep, Tradeify). Posting the breakdown either way since it comes up constantly.