Static Drawdown Prop Firms: What It Means and Which Offer It (2026)

If you have spent any time comparing prop firms, you have probably hit the same wall every futures trader hits: the drawdown rule. Most firms use a trailing drawdown that follows your account higher as you make money, which means a single good day can quietly raise the floor you are not allowed to fall below. Static drawdown works differently. It sets one fixed dollar amount and leaves it there for the entire evaluation.

This guide explains exactly what a static drawdown prop firm is, how static drawdown compares to trailing drawdown, which firms offer it, and how Elite Trader Funding's static accounts are structured in 2026.

Elite Trader Funding is a futures prop firm that has paid out more than $13 million to traders. We offer both trailing and static drawdown evaluations, so the comparisons below come from running both models in production, not from theory.

Static drawdown is a maximum loss limit set as a fixed dollar amount that does not move. When you open a static evaluation account, the firm calculates your minimum allowed balance once, at the start, and that number stays frozen no matter how much profit you make. If your account ever closes at or below that fixed floor, the evaluation ends.

Picture a $50,000 static account with a $2,000 drawdown. Your account can never drop below $48,000. That line is drawn on day one and it never moves up, even if you grow the account to $60,000. The only direction the rule cares about is down, and the threshold is the same on your first trade as it is on your hundredth.

• The drawdown is a fixed dollar figure, set once at account creation.
• It does not trail, ratchet, or follow your equity or balance higher.
• It is measured against your closing balance rather than every intraday tick.
• Once you are clearly above it, every dollar of profit becomes real breathing room.

That last point is why traders search specifically for static drawdown prop firms. The rule gets easier to live with the more you win, which is the opposite of how a trailing drawdown behaves.

It is also why a static account is the closest a funded program gets to trading a real cash account. When you trade your own capital, the only thing that limits you is the money in the account, and that limit does not shrink just because you booked a profit. A static drawdown behaves the same way: the floor is fixed, and every gain becomes a bigger buffer sitting on top of it.

The difference between static and trailing drawdown is the single most important rule to understand before you buy an evaluation, because it changes how you are allowed to trade.

A trailing drawdown moves up as your account balance increases. Make $1,000 in profit and your minimum allowed balance often rises by $1,000 too, so the cushion you thought you earned never really becomes yours. A static drawdown ignores your profits entirely. The floor is fixed, so profit accumulates as genuine margin for error.

• Trailing: a $50K account with a $2,000 trailing drawdown. You run it to $53,000, then give back $2,100. On most trailing models you are now in violation, because the threshold trailed up with your high-water mark.
• Static: a $50K account with a $2,000 static drawdown. You run it to $53,000, then give back $2,100 to $50,900. You are fine, because your fixed floor is $48,000 and you are still well above it.

Neither model is automatically better. Trailing drawdowns often come with slightly cheaper entry pricing or larger headline account sizes. Static drawdowns reward consistency and let winners run without the floor chasing them. For most discretionary day traders who scale into winners, static is the less stressful model.

There is also a middle option called end of day drawdown, which only trails your closing balance instead of every intraday tick. See our guide to end of day drawdown prop firms for how that model compares.

• Closest to a real cash account: your only hard limit is a fixed dollar amount, just like the capital you deposit in your own brokerage account, so the rules behave the way real trading does.
• Predictability: you know your exact stop-out balance for the entire evaluation and can size positions against a number that never changes.
• Profit stays yours: gains build a real buffer instead of dragging the loss limit up behind them.
• Cleaner risk math: position sizing is simpler when the maximum loss is a constant.
• Less punishing on volatile days: one strong session will not tighten the rope on your next trade.

The trade-off is that static accounts often start with a slightly smaller drawdown allowance in dollar terms, so they reward traders who already manage risk well rather than those hoping for a wide trailing cushion to absorb mistakes.

Static drawdown is still the minority model in futures prop trading. Most large firms built their evaluations around trailing or end-of-day drawdowns, which is why traders search for the specific firms that offer a static option.

Names like Apex and FTMO come up constantly in these searches. Their drawdown structures vary by program and change over time, so always confirm the current rules on their own sites before you buy. The important thing to know is that a true, fixed, non-trailing static drawdown is a deliberate product choice, and not every firm offers one.

Elite Trader Funding offers static drawdown as a dedicated evaluation track alongside our standard accounts, which is what the rest of this guide covers.

Elite Trader Funding offers three static drawdown evaluation sizes. Each one pairs a fixed-dollar drawdown with a clear profit target, and none of them carry a daily loss limit or a consistency rule.

• 10K Static: $10,000 starting balance, $500 fixed drawdown, $1,000 profit target, up to 1 mini or 10 micro contracts.
• 25K Static: $25,000 starting balance, $1,000 fixed drawdown, $2,000 profit target, up to 2 minis or 20 micros.
• 50K Static: $50,000 starting balance, $2,000 fixed drawdown, $4,000 profit target, up to 4 minis or 40 micros.

Across all three sizes the rules that matter most to day traders are the same:

• No daily loss limit. You are governed by the fixed static drawdown, not a separate per-day cap.
• No traditional consistency rule during the evaluation phase.
• A minimum of 5 trading days before you can pass the evaluation.
• Resets are available if you breach, for a $47 reset fee, so a single bad day does not mean buying a brand-new account.

Evaluations are billed monthly and Elite Trader Funding runs frequent promotions, and repeat traders can lower the cost further through the rewards program. Check the live pricing page for the current rate rather than relying on a list price, and see the Elite Trader Funding help center for the exact rules of every account type.

Passing the evaluation and activating your funded account carries a one-time activation fee. From there you earn payouts on your simulated profits, and on Live Elite you keep 80% of your profits.

Static drawdown also powers our 100K Direct to Funded account, which is one of only two Elite Trader Funding accounts that allow swing trading and overnight holds.

The Static evaluation, like most ETF evaluations, is a one step evaluation, so you clear a single profit target to get funded.

Say you take the 25K Static evaluation. Your starting balance is $25,000, your fixed drawdown is $1,000, and your profit target is $2,000.

• Your account can never close at or below $24,000. That floor is set on day one and never moves.
• You trade for several days and reach $26,500. Your floor is still $24,000, not $25,500, so you now have $2,500 of room beneath you.
• You hit the $2,000 profit target at a $27,000 balance on or after your fifth trading day. The evaluation is passed.
• You activate your funded account, earn payouts on your simulated profits, and keep 80% of your profits once you reach Live Elite.

On a trailing model, that same run to $26,500 would have dragged your minimum balance up toward $25,500, leaving you far less margin for the next pullback. The static floor is what lets the winners breathe.

A large share of static-drawdown searches come from forex traders, because forex prop firms popularised the fixed maximum-loss model. Elite Trader Funding is a futures prop firm, not a forex firm, so if you specifically want to trade currency pairs we are not your fit.

Many traders who started in forex still move to funded futures for the deeper liquidity, the near 24-hour index and energy markets, and the daily payout potential on Live Elite. If you came here from a forex static-drawdown search, the futures version of the same fixed-floor concept is exactly what you will find above.

• Size your risk against the fixed floor from day one, since it will not move to bail you out.
• Bank the early cushion. Reaching profit on a static account permanently increases your margin for error.
• Respect the 5-day minimum and do not rush the profit target in a single reckless session.
• Treat the absence of a daily loss limit as freedom to manage risk, not a licence to overtrade.

Our full walkthrough on how to pass a prop firm evaluation covers position sizing and discipline in more depth.

Choose a static drawdown account if you manage risk tightly, like to scale into winners, and want a stop-out number that never changes. Choose a trailing account if you prefer a larger headline drawdown cushion at entry and you do not mind the floor following your balance higher. Most traders who have blown trailing accounts on a good-day-gone-bad find static accounts far easier to hold.

If you want to test your edge with stakes attached while you decide, Elite Trader Funding also runs trading competitions with cash prizes.

Elite Trader Funding offers 10K, 25K, and 50K static drawdown evaluations with no daily loss limit and no consistency rule. Browse the static drawdown evaluations, pick your account size, and trade against a floor that never moves. Most static traders start with the 50K Static evaluation.

Once you are funded, you can also earn by referring other traders through the Elite Trader Funding affiliate program.

• How to get a futures funded account in 2026
• How prop firm payouts actually work
• Cheapest prop firms: price vs value
• Best prop firm for beginners
• End of day drawdown: how EOD accounts work
• Swing trading prop firms: which allow overnight holds
• One step prop firms: how single phase evaluations work

Pricing, promotions, and product details referenced in this article reflect information available at the time of publication and may have changed. Visit elitetraderfunding.app/evaluations for current pricing.