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Prop Firm Challenge Calculator

Estimate how many trades a challenge should take at your edge, and how many full-size losses in a row would breach the daily loss or the max drawdown before you get there.

Challenge rules

Your trading

Average win divided by average loss.

Results

Prop firm challenge estimates
Risk per trade$500.00
Profit target$4,000.00
Expectancy per trade+0.13R = +$62.50
Trades needed on average
Target divided by expected profit per trade. Real sequences vary a lot around this.
64
Expected days
At 2.0 trades per day.
32.0
Consecutive losses to breach daily loss
$2,000.00 limit. Chance of that streak: 9.2%.
4
Consecutive losses to breach total drawdown
$4,000.00 limit. Chance of that streak: 0.8%.
8

A trailing floor follows your equity peak including open profit, so a winning day raises the floor and the same losing streak breaches sooner than the table suggests.

Risk per trade vs consecutive losses to breach

Losses in a row that breach the daily and total limits at each risk level
Risk per tradeLosses to breach dailyLosses to breach totalChance of the daily streak
0.25%16320.0%
0.50%8160.8%
0.75%5105.0%
1.00%489.2%
1.50%2530.3%
2.00%2430.3%
3.00%1255.0%
Every input is in the URL, so anyone opening this link sees the same numbers.
The gain needed to recover from a lossFour bars showing that deeper losses need disproportionately larger gains to get back to the starting balance.ACCOUNT LOST−10%+11.1%−20%+25%−50%+100%−80%+400%0%100%200%300%400%GAIN REQUIRED TO GET BACK TO EVEN
What it takes to get back to even. Losses and the gains that undo them are not symmetrical. Losing 10% needs an 11.1% gain to return to the starting balance, losing 50% needs 100%, and losing 80% needs 400%.
How it's calculated
Trailing drawdowns follow your peak, so the same percentage bites harder after a good run. Trades are not coin flips; streak odds are a rough guide.
Formulas used by this tool
Expectancy (R)winRate × avgR − (1 − winRate)
Expected $ per tradeexpectancy (R) × account × risk% / 100
Trades neededceil(profit target $ / expected $ per trade); none when expectancy ≤ 0
Expected daystrades needed / trades per day
Losses to breachfloor(limit% / risk%) for the daily loss and the max drawdown
Streak probability(1 − winRate)^losses, assuming independent trades

Educational only, not financial advice. The maths is simple arithmetic on the numbers you enter; it knows nothing about your broker, fees, slippage or the market. Questions about the maths? Ask in the forums.