The short answer
On One Step, Instant and Instant Pro, the trailing drawdown is a protective floor beneath your account that moves up as you make profit. Once your gains reach the point where the floor has trailed up to your starting balance, it locks there and stops moving. From that moment your downside floor sits at your initial deposit level, so a losing run cannot undo the progress you have already made. Two Step uses a static maximum drawdown that never moves, and Instant 24h uses a trailing floor that keeps trailing and never locks.
What the trailing drawdown is
Every UZO account has a maximum drawdown level: a floor your equity is not permitted to fall below. The trailing drawdown is the logic that decides where that floor sits and when it moves. It applies to One Step, Instant and Instant Pro. On Two Step the maximum drawdown is static and never moves, and on Instant 24h the trailing floor keeps trailing and never locks.
Rather than leaving the floor fixed at the lowest permitted level for your whole evaluation, the trailing drawdown raises it as you build profit, then secures it at a safe point. It is designed to reward progress: the further you climb, the harder it becomes to lose what you have earned.
Trailing up with your equity
In its first phase, the trailing drawdown trails your equity upward. As your account reaches new highs, the protective floor follows behind it at a set distance, shown on your dashboard.
The key detail is that the floor only ever moves in one direction: up. When your equity rises to a new peak, the floor rises with it. When your equity dips, the floor stays put at the highest level it has reached. It never trails back down. This is why early gains matter so much: each new high quietly tightens your safety net.
Because the floor tracks your equity, it responds in real time to your open positions and their floating profit and loss, not only to your closed balance. Your account is measured as it actually stands at any moment.
The lock at starting balance
On these products the trailing drawdown does not trail forever. It stops trailing at the moment it reaches your starting balance, which happens once your account has grown by roughly the trailing distance. From there the floor locks at your starting balance and stays there for the rest of the account's life.
After the lock, your downside floor no longer moves with your equity. It sits at your initial deposit level. This is the moment your progress becomes durable: even a deep drawdown from that point cannot take your account below where it began.
What triggers the lock
The floor locks once it has trailed all the way up to your starting balance. In practical terms that is when your account has grown by about the trailing percentage that applies to your plan. Your exact trailing distance and your live floor are always shown on your dashboard, so you never have to guess where your protection currently sits.
A worked example
For illustration, suppose your trailing drawdown is 5% on a $100,000 account. The floor begins at $95,000, which is 5% below your starting balance, and follows your equity upward in real time as you set new highs. Once your equity has climbed by 5%, to $105,000, the floor has trailed all the way up to $100,000, your starting balance, and locks there for good. Your own trailing percentage depends on your plan and is shown on your dashboard.
How the locking trailing drawdown differs from a plain one
A plain trailing maximum drawdown follows your equity up but keeps trailing indefinitely, which is how Instant 24h works. You make profit, give a little back, and the floor that was trailing close behind can stop the account even though you are still up overall.
UZO's trailing drawdown on One Step, Instant and Instant Pro behaves differently in its second phase. It trails up like a plain trailing drawdown at first, but once you have made real progress it locks to a fixed floor at your starting balance. You get the upside of a trailing floor early on and the breathing room of a fixed floor once you are established.
Mechanic | How the floor behaves |
Plain trailing drawdown | Trails your equity up the entire time, never locks (Instant 24h) |
Static drawdown | Fixed in one place from day one, never moves (Two Step) |
Locking trailing drawdown | Trails up early, then locks at your starting balance once it has trailed that far (One Step, Instant, Instant Pro) |
Why it protects you
The trailing drawdown lets you keep hold of your progress and guards against giving gains back. Early on, every new high raises your floor and reduces how much you can lose. Later, the lock guarantees that the progress you have made cannot be erased by a single difficult session.
The payoff
Once the floor locks, your starting balance is safe ground. You can keep trading towards your reward knowing the floor beneath you will not fall, whatever the market does.
Worth remembering: the trailing drawdown governs your maximum drawdown floor. Your daily drawdown limit, which resets at 00:00 UTC, is a separate rule and still applies. Both limits, and your live floor, are always visible on your dashboard.