When reviewing trades, many traders tend to pay more attention to "why I didn't win this order" and "whether the winning rate of the strategy is high enough", but rarely think seriously about one question: if the transaction is put into a clear and strict risk control framework, can your current trading habits still survive?

In the EagleTrader proprietary trading exam, the maximum intraday drawdown and the maximum account drawdown are the two key rules used to answer this question. They are not used to eliminate traders, but to distinguish different trading styles and risk control capabilities.

What is the maximum intraday drawdown? What exactly does it limit?

The maximum intraday drawdown refers to the maximum amount of loss an account is allowed to endure in a single trading day. In the relevant examination rules, this value is a fixed value: always equal to 5% of the initial size of the account, and does not change with changes in the account's profit and account balance on the day.

The calculation scope here includes the profit and loss of closed positions, the floating profit and loss of open orders, as well as all transaction costs such as handling fees and overnight interest. In other words, the test is not about "whether you made money in the end", but whether there was a moment during the trading process that the account risk got out of control.

To give an intuitive example, you can understand it at a glance: Suppose you are participating in an exam account of 200,000 US dollars, the maximum intraday drawdown = 200,000 × 5% = 10,000 US dollars, and the risk control line for the day is 190,000 US dollars.

As long as the account net value retracts to US$190,000 or below during the day's trading, even if the market reverses later and the final closing is profitable, it will still be judged as triggering intraday retracement risk control. The message conveyed by this rule is actually very clear: trading is not just about the results, but whether the entire process is controllable.

Why is the intraday retracement "reset" every day?

There is another detail that is often overlooked in the maximum intraday retracement: it will be reset at the opening of each day, which is 6 am Beijing time during summer time and 7 am Beijing time during winter time. However, it should be noted that if there is a floating loss for unclosed orders on the previous trading day, they will be directly included in the intraday retracement of the new day.

This means that overnight is not a "risk clearing", but a continuation of the risk. From the perspective of trading logic, this rule actually reminds traders of three things: whether they know the risk exposure of their overnight positions, whether they regard "betting on market reversal" as a normal operation, and whether they have the ability to manage risks across trading days.

What will happen if an intraday retracement is triggered?

During the entire exam cycle, any time the maximum intraday retracement is triggered will be directly judged as a failure in the exam. The account will not be deactivated immediately, but traders will receive a risk control reminder email. If they want to continue to participate in the exam, they need to register again. This is why many traders will find during review that the real problem is not a loss in a certain transaction, but that risks continue to accumulate during continuous operations without closing in time.

The maximum drawdown of an account: the bottom line that determines “whether you can survive to the end”

If intraday drawdown limits short-term emotions and operating rhythm, then the maximum drawdown of an account tests long-term risk awareness. The definition of the maximum account drawdown is very clear: during the entire assessment period, the net value of the account shall not be less than 90% of the initial account size.

Taking the same $200,000 account as an example, the maximum allowed drawdown = $20,000, and the account equity must not touch or fall below $180,000. This is a hard bottom line that runs throughout the entire exam cycle. There is no reset or accommodation. If it falls below even for a moment, the exam will fail and you will have to re-register.

Why is the maximum account drawdown 10%?

From a trading perspective, the 10% drawdown space of the initial account size is actually very sufficient: enough to cover the trial and error costs of normal strategies and allow reasonable drawdowns and adjustments, but not enough to support long-term out-of-control positions, orders, or emotional operations.

In other words, this 10% space is not for you to "gamble", but a buffer zone to prove whether you have sustained profitability. Truly mature traders often take the initiative to reduce positions, stop trading, and review trades before their accounts approach this line, instead of waiting for the system to "force corrections."

From the rules themselves, you can see clearly what kind of trader the exam really wants

If you look at these two retracement rules together, the logic is actually very consistent: intraday retracement limits the risk explosion in a short period of time, and account retracement prevents long-term risks from getting out of control. They don't care about how good you make on a certain trade, but more about: whether you know your maximum risk exposure, whether you can control the rhythm in adverse market conditions, and whether you have the trading structure to "stay in the market for the long term."

From this perspective, the proprietary trading exam itself is more like a magnifying glass for trading habits. Rules will not trade for you, but they will truthfully reflect your trading method, whether it is sustainable, or whether it will be swallowed up by the market sooner or later.