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Daily loss limit: when does it reset, and what counts toward it?
Two accounts can both say “$1,000 daily loss limit” and still hit it at different moments. Four questions decide when yours is hit. The answers are in your firm’s rules, and they’re worth knowing before the day you need them.
1. Does an open loss count?
Some limits count only closed trades. Others count your open trade too, the moment it’s down. If open losses count, the limit can be hit in the middle of a trade that would have come back.
Example: a $1,000 daily limit. Your first trade closes at −$400. Your second trade is open and down $650.
In points, a $650 loss is 13 points on one ES contract ($50 a point), or 325 points on one MNQ ($2 a point). The limit is in dollars, so it doesn’t change with the contract you trade. A micro just takes ten times the points to reach it.
2. Measured from what?
Most daily limits are measured from where you started the day. A few trail your best point of the day instead, so a good morning raises the line.
Example: a $1,000 daily limit that trails the day’s best point. You’re up $500 by 10:00, then give it all back and lose another $500.
3. When does the day end and start again?
Futures trade almost around the clock, so “today” is whatever your firm says it is. Many use the futures session, which opens at 5 PM Chicago time, but when the trading day ends differs by firm. Check both times, and write them in your own time zone. It’s your firm’s trading day that counts, not the market’s daily break (4 to 5 PM Chicago time), and some firms end the day earlier than the market does.
A trade still open at the reset. At some firms you must be flat before the trading day ends, so nothing is open when it resets. If yours lets you hold, ask how an open trade counts toward tomorrow’s limit.
Watch the clock change. The reset follows Chicago time. If you live somewhere that doesn’t change its clocks, the reset moves by an hour on your clock twice a year.
4. Who set it, and can it change?
- Chosen when you bought the account. Usually fixed for good. (one firm, 30 Jun 2026)
- Set by you in your platform or risk settings. Often it can be raised or switched off, which makes it easy to talk yourself out of on a bad day.
- None at all. Some accounts have no daily limit. The drawdown is still there.
Links in brackets go to one firm’s own page as an example, checked 26 September 2026. Your firm’s wording may differ.
What happens when it’s hit
At some firms your positions are closed and you can’t trade until the next session: a forced break, not a failed account. (one firm, 30 Jun 2026) At others, hitting it ends the account. That’s the difference between a soft and a hard limit.
What to do with this
- Write the four answers on your rulebook, in your firm’s words, with the date you read them. The one-page rulebook has room for them.
- Set your own daily stop inside the firm’s. If the firm’s limit counts open losses, yours should stop you before a single trade can reach it.
- Lock it where you can. Some platforms let you set a limit that can’t be raised until the next session. Here’s how, platform by platform.
Check your daily stop before you click
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Educational material only. Not investment advice. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss and most people who try it lose money. Check your account rules with your firm; they change.