Does floating loss count toward FTMO's daily loss limit?
Yes. FTMO measures the daily loss on equity, so an open position's unrealised loss counts against the daily line - 5% of the initial capital on a 2-step account, 3% on a 1-step one - before it is closed, even if the trade later recovers.
FTMO's Maximum Daily Loss is measured against the balance the account had at the start of its day, 00:00 CE(S)T, and it is measured on equity: closed results and the floating result of open positions, taken together, at every moment of the day. The firm's objectives page says the limit is recalculated daily from that balance and that the day's floating result counts against it.
That is not an FTMO quirk. FundingPips says the same in as many words - the day's line is measured from the higher of opening balance and equity, "including floating losses from open trades" - and FundedNext measures its 5% against the initial balance, on the account as it moves. A daily limit measured on closed balance alone would let a trader sit in a large open loss all day, which is the thing the rule exists to stop.
The practical consequence is that the number to watch is not the day's realised result but the distance between equity now and the day's line. A trade that is under water is spending that distance while it is open, and two open trades spend it together.
Worked example
A 100,000 FTMO 2-step account starts its day at 100,000. Its daily line is 5% below that, at 95,000. By mid-morning one trade is closed for a 1,500 loss and a second is open, 2,800 under water: equity is 95,700, and 700 is left. If the open trade moves another 700 against the account, equity reaches the line, and FTMO's wording is that the rule is violated when equity drops below it - so the next tick down ends the day, whatever happens to the trade afterwards. A 1-step account draws the same line at 3%, at 97,000, and reaches it sooner.
Where this is from
- FTMO's Trading Objectives, the firm's own rule page
- FTMO rules on this site, with the firm's page linked
- FundingPips rules, where the wording is explicit
A firm or a platform changes its terms without telling anybody here. Each firm page links the firm’s own rule page and shows the date it was checked; the firm’s own page is the one that counts.
FTMO drawdown calculator shows this for your own numbers.