Prop Firm Equity Guard - Daily Loss Limit and Max Drawdown Protection - expert pour MetaTrader 5

Prop Firm Equity Guard protects a trading account from breaking the most common prop firm rules. It watches equity every second and, when a limit is reached, closes all positions, deletes pending orders and keeps closing any new trade until the lock expires. It works with manual trading and with any other Expert Advisor on the same account. On a live chart it never opens trades.

Figure 1. Prop Firm Equity Guard panel with daily loss and drawdown limits

Rules it enforces

• Daily loss limit - measured from the balance, the equity or the higher of the two at the start of the trading day. When equity falls below that level minus the limit, everything is closed and trading stays blocked until the next daily reset.
• Maximum loss - measured from the initial account balance. When it is reached, trading is blocked permanently until you reset the EA.
• Profit target (optional) - closes everything once equity reaches the target, so a passed challenge is not given back.
• Early warnings - a message and push notification when a set percentage of a limit is used (default 80%).

Features

• Status panel on the chart: lock state, equity, daily loss used, maximum loss used, target and the day start value.
• State is saved in terminal global variables, so restarting the terminal or the EA does not reset the daily start value or an active lock.
• Daily reset hour is configurable to match your firm's server time rules.
• Filters: manage all trades on the account, or only one magic number, or only the chart symbol.
• Checks on every tick of the chart symbol and once per second on a timer, so trades on other symbols are also covered.

Input parameters

• InpDailyLossPct - daily loss limit in percent (default 5).
• InpDailyBase - measure the daily loss from Balance, Equity or the Higher of both at day start.
• InpMaxLossPct - maximum overall loss in percent of the initial balance (0 turns it off).
• InpInitialBalance - initial balance of the challenge (0 = balance when the EA is first attached).
• InpProfitTargetPct - profit target in percent (0 turns it off).
• InpResetHour - hour of the daily reset in server time.
• InpWarnLevel - warning level in percent of a limit.
• InpMagic - manage only this magic number (-1 = every trade on the account).
• InpAllSymbols - manage all symbols or only the chart symbol.
• InpPushAlerts - send MT5 push notifications.
• InpTesterDemo - in the Strategy Tester only, opens one sample trade per day so you can watch the guard lock and release. It has no effect on a live chart.

Important

The guard closes trades at the first price update after a limit is crossed. In fast markets, at the weekly open or on news, the final loss can be larger than the limit because of slippage and gaps. Set the limits slightly below your firm's rules, for example 4.5% for a 5% daily rule, and keep AutoTrading enabled so the guard is able to close trades. Always check your firm's exact rule definitions.

Tested in the Strategy Tester on EURUSD H1 (January - February 2025, 2% daily limit, 10% maximum loss): 10 daily locks with automatic release at the next reset, one permanent maximum loss lock, and no failed close operations.