What is a Trailing Drawdown, and Why Opus Uses Static Instead
Trailing drawdown is the rule most traders fail without knowing it exists. Here's how it works, and why Opus's static drawdown is more trader-friendly.
The two flavors of max loss
Static drawdown. Your max loss is a fixed dollar amount from your starting balance. On a 100K account with 6% max loss, you blow when equity hits $94,000. Period. It never moves.
Trailing drawdown. Your max loss "trails" your account's high-water mark. Take the account from $100K to $108K, your max-loss line moves from $94K up to $102K. Now a normal drawdown back to $100K is a blow.
Why trailing is brutal
Most evaluations require an 8-10% profit. By the time you're near the target, your trailing drawdown has crawled up to within 1-2% of your current equity. One bad day undoes weeks of work.
Why Opus uses static drawdown
We want traders who can demonstrate consistency to keep their funded accounts long-term. Trailing drawdown selects for traders who get lucky early, and washes them out the moment they normalize. Static drawdown gives skilled traders room to breathe after a drawdown without ending the run.
Opus funded accounts have a static 6% max loss from starting balance. Build profits, drawdown to break even, build again. The line doesn't move.