Daily Drawdown Trading Lock

The Daily Drawdown Trading Lock is an automated system-level account protection mechanism. It is separate from the configurable Daily Equity Drawdown rule in Trader's Guard.

Purpose and benefits for traders

In fast-moving financial markets, consecutive losing trades can trigger emotional decision-making. Without a firm stopping mechanism, traders often fall into "revenge trading"—submitting hurried orders with oversized volume in an attempt to recover losses quickly. This emotional spiral can exhaust an account's capital in a single difficult session.

The Daily Drawdown Trading Lock acts as an automatic circuit breaker:

• Prevents rapid account depletion: When intraday losses reach the account's safety threshold, the system locks trading to prevent further loss escalation.
• Enforces a psychological reset: Pausing trading until the next MT5 trading day provides a mandatory cooling-off period, allowing the trader to step away from the charts, regain emotional composure, and re-evaluate their strategy objectively.
• Preserves capital for future opportunities: By capping maximum daily losses, the majority of the account capital is preserved so the trader has the resources to trade again under better conditions.
• Inspired by professional Prop Firm risk discipline: This rule mirrors the strict Maximum Daily Drawdown limits mandated by leading proprietary trading firms in funded evaluation challenges, instilling professional risk management and long-term sustainability.

How the protection works

The system compares current Equity with an adjusted baseline for the current MT5 server day. When drawdown reaches the account's effective limit, new trading is blocked and the system attempts to close open exposure and cancel pending orders.

Under the current standard policy, an account whose frozen start-of-day Balance is 100 USD or more is eligible for protection and uses a 30% daily drawdown limit. The effective limit shown for an account may be different if an account-specific policy or scope override applies. Authorized administrators can configure separate policies for Live and Demo accounts. Traders cannot change this policy themselves; contact GreatBless Support at [email protected] if you want to request a different daily drawdown limit.

Terms to understand first

• Balance: The account value after closed trades and funding transactions. It does not include profit or loss from positions that are still open.
• Equity: Balance plus the current floating profit or loss of all open positions.
• Floating loss: An unrealized loss on an open position. Because it reduces Equity, it counts toward the daily drawdown calculation even before the position is closed.
• Eligibility balance: The Balance captured when the account enters the current MT5 server-day monitoring cycle. Under the current standard policy, it must be at least 100 USD. A later deposit does not retroactively change the frozen eligibility balance for that cycle.
• Effective limit: The percentage currently assigned to the account by the applicable Daily Drawdown policy. It may come from the Live or Demo policy default or from an account-specific override.
• MT5 server day: The trading day used by the platform. WebTrade displays the reset at 00:00 MT5 server time together with the current server UTC offset. The offset must not be assumed to be fixed throughout the year.

How daily drawdown is calculated

For a normal full-day cycle, the system first freezes both the start-of-cycle Balance and Equity. It uses whichever value is higher as the opening baseline:

Opening baseline = max(Start-of-cycle Balance, Start-of-cycle Equity)

Adjusted daily baseline = Opening baseline + Deposits in the cycle - Withdrawals in the cycle

Daily drawdown (%) = max(Adjusted daily baseline - Current equity, 0) / Adjusted daily baseline × 100

Using the higher opening value means an existing floating loss is counted immediately, while floating profit present at the start of the cycle is also protected. Deposits and withdrawals are included so that funding activity does not incorrectly appear as trading profit or loss.

The protection activates when calculated daily drawdown is equal to or greater than the account's effective limit.

If an account is enrolled during the day, or an authorized administrator manually unlocks it, the system starts a new intraday monitoring cycle. Funding and baseline calculations then use that new cycle rather than replaying the entire day as a new loss period.

Eligibility and drawdown calculation are related but different. The frozen start-of-cycle Balance determines whether the account meets the standard 100 USD eligibility minimum. Once eligible, the drawdown baseline is the higher of the frozen Balance and Equity.

Example when opening Balance and Equity are different

Assume a monitoring cycle starts with Balance of 100 USD and Equity of 90 USD:

• Opening baseline: max(100, 90) = 100 USD.
• Current Equity: 90 USD.
• Daily drawdown: (100 - 90) / 100 × 100 = 10%.

The account therefore begins the cycle with 10% daily drawdown because its open positions already have a 10 USD floating loss. If the effective limit is 10%, the lock activates because the trigger includes equality. If the effective limit is the current 30% standard limit, the account is not locked at 10%.

Conversely, if Balance is 100 USD and Equity is 110 USD at the start of the cycle, the opening baseline is 110 USD. The opening floating profit is therefore included in the value protected by the daily drawdown policy.

Simple example using the current 30% standard policy

Assume the account starts the MT5 server day with Balance and Equity of 10,000 USD and its effective limit is 30%:

• Opening baseline: max(10,000, 10,000) = 10,000 USD.
• Adjusted daily baseline: 10,000 USD because there is no funding movement.
• 30% of the baseline: 3,000 USD.
• Equity level that triggers the lock: 7,000 USD.

If current Equity falls to 7,000 USD or lower, daily drawdown has reached the 30% effective limit and the trading lock activates.

This can happen because of closed losses, floating losses, or a combination of both.

If GreatBless Support approves an account-specific effective limit of 1%, the same 10,000 USD baseline would trigger at 9,900 USD instead. Always use the effective limit displayed for the selected account.

Example with a deposit

Assume the account starts the day with Balance and Equity of 10,000 USD, has an effective limit of 30%, and then receives a deposit of 1,000 USD:

• Opening baseline: max(10,000, 10,000) = 10,000 USD.
• Adjusted daily baseline: 10,000 + 1,000 = 11,000 USD.
• 30% of the adjusted baseline: 3,300 USD.
• Equity level that triggers the lock: 7,700 USD.

The deposit increases both account funds and the comparison baseline. It is not treated as trading profit.

Similarly, a withdrawal reduces the adjusted baseline so that the withdrawal itself is not treated as a trading loss.

What happens when the effective limit is reached?

When the account's daily drawdown reaches its effective limit, the system:

• Disables trading for the account.
• Rejects new market and pending orders.
• Attempts to close open positions.
• Attempts to cancel pending orders.
• Keeps the trading lock active until the start of the next MT5 server day, unless an authorized manual unlock is completed.

Closing positions and cancelling pending orders are protective best-effort actions. Execution may not be immediate, and an action may fail if the market, symbol, MT5 connection, or current order state does not allow it. The account remains trading-disabled while the lock is active.

This system protection can close a position even when both SL and TP are locked by Auto SL/TP Protection. Native Stop Loss, Take Profit and Stop Out execution also remain available.

WebTrade displays a warning using the account's actual effective limit and MT5 server timezone, for example:

Trading is locked because daily drawdown reached 30%. Trading will resume at 00:00 MT5 server time (UTC offset shown by WebTrade).

When trading becomes available again

Trading is normally restored automatically at the beginning of the next MT5 server day, provided that no other account restriction remains active.

Once the lock has activated, a later Equity recovery or an additional deposit does not remove it automatically during the same monitoring cycle.

An authorized Back Office administrator with the required unlock permission may perform a manual unlock. The administrator must provide a reason, the action is audited, and a new intraday baseline cycle starts from the higher of the account's current Balance and current Equity. A trader cannot perform this action.

If another restriction is active, such as a Trader's Guard lock or an independent administrative trading restriction, clearing the Daily Drawdown lock does not make trading available until the other restriction is also cleared.

What should I do when I see the warning?

1. Do not repeatedly submit new orders. Market and pending orders will be rejected while the lock is active.

2. Review the account's effective limit, open positions, pending orders, Equity, funding and trading history.

3. Remember that protective close and cancel actions may take time to complete.

4. Wait until the displayed reset time unless an authorized administrator confirms that a reviewed manual unlock is appropriate.

5. Before trading again, consider reducing position size and reviewing your Stop Loss, Risk Amount, Auto SL/TP Protection, and Trader's Guard settings.

Frequently asked questions

Why does GreatBless enforce a daily drawdown limit?

Like proprietary trading firms and institutional trading desks, GreatBless applies a daily drawdown limit to safeguard traders from catastrophic loss spirals and emotional overtrading. The automated pause ensures that a single turbulent trading session does not permanently exhaust your trading capital.

Does floating loss count before I close a position?

Yes. The protection monitors current Equity, so floating profit and loss from open positions are included.

Can I continue placing pending orders?

No. New market and pending orders are rejected while the lock is active.

Will depositing more money unlock the account immediately?

No. Funding is included in the adjusted baseline, and an active lock does not automatically clear because of a deposit.

Which accounts receive the standard protection?

Under the current standard policy, an account is eligible when its frozen start-of-day Balance is at least 100 USD. An account-specific inclusion or exclusion may change this result. WebTrade displays the effective policy returned by the system.

Is the limit always 30%?

30% is the current standard limit for eligible accounts, but an authorized account-specific policy may apply a different limit. Check the effective limit displayed for the selected account.

How can I request a different daily drawdown limit?

Email [email protected] to contact GreatBless Support. Traders cannot change the Daily Drawdown policy themselves. Any approved change is applied by an authorized administrator and may take effect immediately or from the next MT5 server day.

Can support or the trader turn off this protection early?

A trader cannot disable or unlock it. Only an authorized Back Office administrator with the required permission can perform a reviewed manual unlock. The reason and result are recorded for audit.

Will trading always resume exactly at the reset time?

It resumes automatically only if no other trading restriction remains active on the account.

Difference from Trader's Guard

• Daily Drawdown Trading Lock: A system-level policy applied by account eligibility and scope. Under the current standard policy, the eligibility balance starts at 100 USD and the daily drawdown limit is 30%; an account-specific administrative override may apply.
• Daily Equity Drawdown in Trader's Guard: A scenario rule configured as part of the trader's selected Guard commitments and violation actions.

Both mechanisms may exist on the same account. If either mechanism has an active trading lock, the account remains unable to trade until all applicable locks or restrictions have been cleared.