What's new in PropGuardian 1.20: tester demo, DST-aware reset, presets for nine prop firms
Two months after the first release, PropGuardian has grown from a three-preset guardian into version 1.20. This post lists what changed, why every preset arms below the firm's published limit, and which firms deliberately did not get a preset. Existing buyers get the update for free through the Market tab of the terminal.
1. Try it in the strategy tester before you rely on it
A guardian is a tool you hope never fires. That makes it hard to trust: you buy it, attach it, and nothing happens until the worst day. Version 1.20 ships with a scripted demo day for the strategy tester. Run PropGuardian in the tester in visual mode with default inputs and watch the whole ladder:
- a demo trade is opened and the demo daily limit is armed;
- the early WARNING fires at the configured percentage of the limit;
- DAILY LIMIT BREACHED -> close-all, with the latency printed in milliseconds;
- DAY LOCKED: a trade opened during the lock is closed within milliseconds, and the journal shows how long it lived;
- the daily reset lifts the lock, and the cycle repeats - three cycles, then the demo hands over to your own inputs.
Set Scripted demo day in the strategy tester to false to test only your own configuration. On a live or demo account the demo never runs.
2. Daily reset with automatic daylight-saving time
Your firm's daily reset is not your broker's midnight. Until 1.10 you had to enter a GMT offset by hand and remember to change it twice a year. Two reset modes are new:
- Midnight Central European time (CET/CEST automatic) - used by the FTMO-style preset;
- 5 PM New York (EST/EDT automatic) - used by the Goat Funded preset.
Broker-server midnight and a fixed GMT offset remain available. The panel now shows the active reset rule at all times, so a wrong setting is visible before it matters.
3. Rule presets for nine firms, all armed below the limit
Every preset arms 0.5 percentage points below the firm's daily limit and 1 point below its max drawdown. A firm that allows 5% daily / 10% max gets a preset at 4.5% / 9%. The reason is mechanical: breach detection is tick-based, and in a fast market the realized loss can overshoot the configured level by a few points before the close executes. The release test in July showed it on a demo account - with a fixed limit of 250 the close fired at a loss of 267.19. You want that overshoot to land inside your margin, not inside your firm's breach.
| Preset | Firm rule (daily / max) | Preset sets | Daily basis | Reset |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTMO style (2-Step) | 5% / 10% static | 4.5% / 9% static | day-start | midnight CE(S)T, DST automatic |
| FundedNext style (Stellar 2-Step) | 5% of initial / 10% static | 4.5% / 9% static | initial balance | broker server midnight |
| The5ers High Stakes style | 5% of day-start / 10% static | 4.5% / 9% static | day-start | broker server midnight |
| FundingPips 2-Step style | 5% of day-start / 10% static | 4.5% / 9% static | day-start | broker server midnight |
| Alpha Capital Pro 10% style | 5% balance-based / 10% static | 4.5% / 9% static | day-start | broker server midnight |
| Goat Funded 2-Step style | 5% of day-start at 5 PM NY / 10% static | 4.5% / 9% static | day-start | 5 PM New York, DST automatic |
| Maven 2-Step style | 4% of day-start at 00:00 UTC / 8% static | 3.5% / 7% static | day-start | 00:00 UTC |
| Trailing firm (generic) | 5% / 8% trailing equity | 4.5% / 7% trailing | day-start | broker server midnight |
| Conservative | - | 3% / 6% static | day-start | broker server midnight |
Day-start means the higher of balance and equity at the reset. FundedNext measures the daily limit against the initial balance, so the daily allowance in money stays the same every day; the others measure against day-start, so the allowance grows with the account. On a fresh 10,000 account all 5%/10% presets show a daily limit of 450.00, stop-out equity 9,550.00 and a drawdown floor of 9,100.00; Maven shows 350.00 / 9,650.00 / 9,300.00.
4. Why some firms did not get a preset
A preset that silently models the wrong rule is worse than no preset, because it looks like protection while measuring something else. Left out on purpose:
- E8 Markets. The daily limit on E8 One is configurable by the trader (3% to 9.2%), sources for E8 Pro contradict each other, and E8's dynamic drawdown trails the highest closed balance and locks at the initial balance - not modelled. Use Custom with the limits from your own dashboard.
- FTMO 1-Step, Alpha One / Direct, FundingPips Zero, Goat instant models. End-of-day trailing or trailing with a lock. PropGuardian's trailing modes are tick-based: every intraday high pulls the floor up, which would be stricter than the firm and could close positions the firm would never count against you. If you accept that, Custom + trailing balance is the closest honest approximation.
- The5ers Hyper Growth / Bootcamp, Maven 1-Step. Rule basis not documented clearly enough to model. Custom with conservative values.
What no preset covers and PropGuardian does not implement at all: consistency scores, news-trading windows, minimum trading days, strike systems. Those are rules you keep yourself.
5. Smaller changes since 1.0
- Pre-flight checks before every order: trading permission, symbol tradability and margin are verified before a request is sent - no error floods on brokers or symbols that cannot be traded.
- Loud, not silent: warning, breach, lock and lock release at the reset are each one journal line plus one optional push notification - never a flood.
- Close-all latency is printed in milliseconds, so you can see what your broker actually delivers.
- Panel colours adapt to light, dark and grey charts and are re-applied when you change the chart template; the panel shows the reset rule, the exact stop-out equity and the drawdown floor.
- Privacy mode masks the account number in the journal for screenshots and streams.
- Custom preset prints its effective limits at start; the panel title typo and a double-encoded dash in the description are fixed. Global-variable names are unchanged, so tools reading the state (PropSizer, PropMirror) keep working.
How the rules were sourced
All rules were collected on 3 September 2026 from the firms' own help pages where accessible (FTMO, FundedNext, Alpha Capital, Goat Funded, Maven) and from search-engine excerpts of the official articles plus secondary sources where the help centers blocked direct access (The5ers, FundingPips). Firms change their rules - during this research alone Goat moved its 1-Step daily limit from 4% to 3%, FTMO introduced a 1-Step model and FundingPips added a monthly consistency rule. A preset is a starting point with a margin, not a guarantee. Always verify your firm's current rules. PropGuardian is not affiliated with or endorsed by any prop firm.
-> PropGuardian on the MQL5 Market - 79 USD, one-time, no subscription. The setup guide walks through the full configuration; the presets are step 2.
