Prop Firm Rules: Trailing Drawdown, Static Accounts, and Surviving Funded Trading

Ignore the marketing numbers. Manage the one metric that can end you… the drawdown.

From the free MicrosTrader Trading Library… 140 lessons mined from 1,042 live ES and MES futures sessions taught since 2018.

A prop firm funds your trading in exchange for rules. Pass an evaluation, respect a maximum drawdown, and you trade their capital for a cut of the profits. Every account flashes big numbers… a $25,000 target, twenty contracts allowed, a fat profit split. George's read on all of it is simple. One number decides whether you survive, and it is the drawdown.

This page gathers what George teaches about funded ES E-mini futures and MES micro futures accounts across hundreds of live sessions… how trailing and static drawdowns differ, the high water mark math that blows accounts, and how your account type should dictate every stop and every take-profit.

“"You look at the most important number on here, the only number that really matters, that is the $6,500 drawdown. That's the only number that matters. Everything else is just crap. It's marketing."”

— George, live session, May 15, 2024

ES futures Battle Plan chart from George’s published record

From George’s published record: Micros Trade Plan #321 — a 27-point move, mapped in advance.

The Only Number That Matters Is the Drawdown

Prop firms want your eye on the shiny stuff. The account size. The profit target. The contract count. George strips all of it away. The $25,000 label on a funded account is "marketing" (May 26, 2024) with nothing to do with how you trade. What matters is the maximum drawdown and how you divide it out.

So what is the real job? Know your max drawdown. Split it across a number of trading days. Use your leverage metrics to stay inside the lines… "what really matters is knowing what your max drawdown is, dividing that out amongst a number of days, and using your leverage metrics to stay within the Matrix" (Feb 25, 2023). That's the whole game. This is position sizing wearing a prop firm's clothes.

“"Ignore the number of contracts. It literally means nothing. Just consider that the number of ways you can screw yourself. How many possible ways can I screw myself? You want to know that? Look at that number."”

— George, live session, May 15, 2024

George has taught this in 30+ recorded sessions… and every claim in the full lesson links to the recording it came from. The full lesson covers far more than fits here.

Read the full lesson free at MicrosTrader.com →

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📍 Originally published on MicrosTrader.com

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