How do I stop breaching FTMO's daily loss limit on cTrader?
Size every trade from what is left of the day, not the account size. FTMO's line is 5% (2-step) or 3% (1-step) of the initial capital below the midnight Prague balance, on equity. Put a stop loss on every order; end the day when one more loss would not fit.
Nothing about cTrader changes FTMO's rule: the firm measures the line on its own server, from the balance at midnight Prague time, on equity. What cTrader changes is what you have to hold yourself to it with. The platform places the orders it is given; keeping each one inside the day's room is the trader's job, or a tool's.
Three habits do most of the work. Work out the room at the start of the day - the line in money and the distance to it - and size each trade as a share of the initial capital that fits several times into that room. Put the stop loss on the order, so it rests at the broker and holds if cTrader or the connection closes. And count open trades together: two positions each inside their own stop can reach the line between them.
Tools come in two kinds. A risk cBot runs inside cTrader - on your computer, or since cTrader 5.0 in Spotware's cloud at no charge - and reacts to the account: when a limit is reached it closes positions, after they opened. A risk manager in front of the broker, which is what Propcockpit is, checks an order placed through it against the day's room before it is sent and, on a plan that enforces, refuses the one that would not fit. An order placed directly in cTrader is read and counted, not intercepted.
Worked example
A 100,000 FTMO 2-step account on cTrader starts the day at 101,000: the line is 5,000 below, at 96,000. Risking 1% of the initial capital, 1,000 a trade, the fifth consecutive full loss reaches the line, and after three the room is 2,000: two more trades. At 2,500 a trade the second loss reaches it. The number to size from is the room - 5,000 at the start and less after each loss - never the 100,000 on the label.
Where this is from
- FTMO's Trading Objectives, the firm's own rule page
- cTrader 5.0 and free cloud cBots, Spotware's announcement
- FTMO rules on this site, with its cTrader details
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.