Why prop-firm accounts fail on one bad day, and how Prop Firm Keeper stops it early
Most prop-firm challenges are not lost because the strategy is bad. They are lost on one day: a few trades go wrong, the trader opens "one more to get it back", and the daily loss line is touched. The account is gone, even if the month would have been fine.
The firm's line is a hard wall. You cannot be "a little over". So the real question is not "where is the line?" but "how far am I from it right now, and what happens if my stops are hit?"
I built Prop Firm Keeper to answer that question on the chart, all the time, and to act before the line is reached.
What it is (and what it is not)
- It is a risk guard for MT5 prop-firm accounts.
- It never opens trades. It only warns, blocks new trades and, at the last level, closes trades.
- It is not a trading strategy and it does not make you profitable. It only helps you stay inside the rules.
- It is an independent tool. It is not made by, endorsed by, or affiliated with any prop firm.
Supported firms and programs
Rules checked on 2026-11-03:
- FTMO: 2-Step, 1-Step, Instant
- FundedNext: 2-Step, 1-Step, Lite, Instant (accounts under $50k only; larger FundedNext accounts do not allow third-party EAs)
- FundingPips: 2-Step Standard, 2-Step Pro, 2-Step Flex, 1-Step Flex, Zero
- E8: One, Signature, Pro
You choose the firm, the program, the phase (Phase 1 / Phase 2 / Funded) and Standard or Swing. The guard loads that program's rules:
- daily loss %
- how the daily line is measured
- max loss type (static or trailing)
- reset time
- news window
- weekend rule
Firms change their rules, so the panel shows the date the rules were checked. Always confirm with your firm.
Three levels, before the firm's line
The levels are a % of your loss allowance. You can change them.
- Warn (50%). Alert only.
- Block (70%). You choose what happens:
- close any trade opened after this level (default), or
- alert only, so new trades are still allowed.
- Close (80%). Closes every trade and stops until the next daily reset.
The guard acts at level 3, before the firm's line. The firm's line itself is never the trigger.
Example on a $100,000 FTMO 2-Step account (5% daily loss = $5,000):
| Level | Daily loss | Equity line |
|---|---|---|
| Warn 50% | $2,500 | $97,500 |
| Block 70% | $3,500 | $96,500 |
| Guard close 80% | $4,000 | $96,000 |
| Firm line | $5,000 | $95,000 |
So even at the worst moment, about $1,000 of room is left between the guard and the firm's line, for slippage and spread.
If you prefer to decide everything yourself, run it in alerts only mode. It then never closes anything.
The panel
The panel on the chart shows:
- equity and balance
- today: how much you can still lose to each level and to the firm line, with the equity value of each line
- overall (max) loss: the same, static or trailing
- "If every SL is hit": your equity if all open stop losses are hit, so you see the real risk of what is open, not only the current profit or loss
- profit target and how much is left
- trading days done / required
- next daily reset, in your PC time and in the firm's time
- next high-impact news event
- Telegram status
The panel can be in English or Thai.
Other protection
- New-trade check: if a new trade would put "if every SL is hit" below the close level, the guard warns and closes that new trade. Trades you already had are not touched.
- News: alerts before high-impact events from the MT5 calendar (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY), and again when the firm's news window starts.
- FundedNext Instant and funded accounts: open-risk limit (stop-loss distance plus losses).
- FundingPips Zero: floating-loss limit, and closes trades before high-impact news.
- Friday reminder: at 20:00 server time, only if you still have open trades, for programs that do not allow holding over the weekend. It does not close trades for the weekend. You close them yourself.
- What to watch: the whole account, manual trades only, or one magic number.
Safe after restarts
MT5 restarts, VPS migrations and power cuts happen. The guard handles them like this:
- Day-start balance, balance peaks and trading days are rebuilt from your deal history.
- Values that history cannot give are saved in terminal global variables.
- A daily stop or block stays in force after a restart.
- A max-loss stop stays until you clear it on purpose.
If the guard cannot read your start capital or your history, it does not guess. That value is shown in red as "not checked".
Setup in 2 minutes
- Attach Prop Firm Keeper to any one chart. One guard per account is enough; a second copy will not start.
- Choose your firm and program, your phase, and Standard or Swing.
- Leave the start balance at 0 (read automatically) or type your account size.
- Keep the default levels (50 / 70 / 80), or change them.
- Optional: turn on push notifications or Telegram (see below).
Everything else can stay at default.
Telegram alerts (optional)
- In Telegram, open the official BotFather bot. Send /newbot and follow the steps. BotFather replies with a token (it looks like 123456789:ABC... ). Copy it.
- Open a chat with your new bot and send it any message, for example "hi". A bot cannot write to you until you write to it first.
- Find your chat ID: open a bot that shows your user ID (search "userinfo" or "get id") and copy the number. For a group, add your bot to the group and use the group's ID (it starts with -100).
- In MT5: Tools > Options > Expert Advisors, tick "Allow WebRequest for listed URL" and add https://api.telegram.org
- In the guard's inputs set InpTelegram = true, then paste InpTgToken and InpTgChatId.
- When you attach it, the guard sends one test message. If it does not arrive, the panel shows the Telegram error. Check the token, the chat ID and the WebRequest URL.
Keep your token private: anyone with it can send messages as your bot.
FundedNext presets turn Telegram off automatically, because FundedNext does not allow EAs that use Telegram.
Known limits (please read)
- The news list is the MT5 calendar. A firm's own list of restricted events can differ.
- The guard does not close trades inside a news window (that would itself be a trade in the window), except at level 3.
- On netting accounts, volume added to an existing position keeps the old open time, so the guard cannot tell it is new.
- After a withdrawal, some firms keep the trailing line where it was. The panel warns you, and you can type the firm's line yourself.
Where to get it
Prop Firm Keeper on the MQL5 Market: https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/206153
Questions and feedback are welcome in the product comments.
