Setting Up Daily Loss Limits and Profit Targets

Daily loss limits are one of the most important risk parameters for prop firm traders. Nearly every prop firm imposes a maximum amount your account can lose in a single trading day. If you breach it, the consequences range from a warning to immediate account termination. MimikTrader enforces your daily loss limit in real time so you never have to worry about accidentally crossing the line.

How Daily Loss Limits Work

When you configure a daily loss limit on a follower account, MimikTrader tracks the account's profit and loss from the start of each trading day. This includes both realized P&L (from closed trades) and unrealized P&L (from open positions, recalculated on every price tick).

The system continuously compares the combined P&L against your configured limit. Two things can trigger a breach:

• Pre-trade check: A new trade arrives from the leader, and placing it on the follower would increase risk exposure on an account that is already close to its daily limit. The order is blocked.
• Real-time monitoring: The market moves against an open position and the account's unrealized loss pushes the combined daily P&L past the limit. MimikTrader detects this on the next price tick and immediately flattens the account.

Configuring a Daily Loss Limit

1. 1

   Navigate to the Follower Configuration

   Open the copy group containing the follower account you want to configure. Click on the follower account to expand its settings panel.

2. 2

   Set the Daily Loss Limit Amount

   Enter the maximum daily loss in dollars. For example, if your prop firm allows a $2,000 daily loss on this account, enter a value between $1,800 and $1,950 to give yourself a buffer for slippage.

   [Screenshot: Daily loss limit input field in follower settings]

3. 3

   Choose the Breach Action

   The default action when a daily loss limit is hit is to flatten all positions and lock the account. This is the recommended setting for prop firm accounts, as it provides the strongest protection. The account will remain locked until you manually unlock it.

How Daily Profit Targets Work

Daily profit targets are the inverse of daily loss limits. When a follower account reaches a specified profit for the day, all positions are flattened and the account is locked for the remainder of the session. This is an optional feature — you do not need to set a profit target if it does not apply to your trading rules.

Profit targets serve several purposes:

• Lock in gains: Prevent a winning day from turning into a losing day by automatically stepping away once your target is hit.
• Prop firm requirements: Some prop firm evaluations require reaching a profit target within a specific number of trading days. Tracking daily targets helps you measure progress.
• Discipline enforcement: If overtrading after hitting a reasonable daily profit is a recurring problem, the automatic lock removes the temptation.

Configuring a Profit Target

In the same follower configuration panel where you set the daily loss limit, enter a dollar value for the daily profit target. When the account's combined realized and unrealized P&L for the day reaches this amount, MimikTrader flattens all positions and locks the account.

What Happens When a Limit Is Hit

When either a daily loss limit or profit target is breached, the following sequence occurs automatically:

• All open positions on the affected follower account are closed with market orders.
• All pending orders (stop losses, take profits, working limit orders) are canceled.
• The account is locked, preventing any new trades from being copied to it.
• A risk event is logged in the Activity Log with the timestamp, trigger reason, and the P&L at the time of the breach.

Other follower accounts in the same copy group are not affected. If one account hits its daily loss limit, the others continue receiving trades normally (assuming they have not hit their own limits).

Unlocking an Account

A locked account stays locked until you manually unlock it from the MimikTrader dashboard. This is intentional — automatic unlocking could lead to additional losses if the original breach condition still exists.

To unlock an account:

1. 1

   Open the Copy Group

   Navigate to the copy group containing the locked account. The locked account will display a red lock icon and a “Locked” status badge.

2. 2

   Review the Risk Event

   Before unlocking, check the Activity Log to understand why the account was locked. Confirm that the risk event has been addressed (for example, the trading day has ended and the daily loss counter has reset).

3. 3

   Click Unlock

   Click the “Unlock” button on the locked account. The account will return to an active state and begin receiving copied trades again.

Daily Reset Behavior

The daily loss counter and daily profit counter reset at the start of each new trading day. The reset time follows the futures trading calendar (typically 5:00 PM Central Time for CME products, when the next trading session begins). At reset, the daily P&L returns to zero and a fresh tracking period begins.

Accounts that were locked due to a daily loss limit breach remain locked after the daily reset. You must manually unlock them. This is a safety measure — it ensures you consciously decide to resume trading on an account that had a losing day, rather than having it automatically re-enter the market.