Prop firm risk management: size, daily stop and news rules on MT5.

Almost every evaluation ends on a rule, not on the profit target. Know these four for your exact account before the first trade:

• Daily loss limit: how much you may lose in one day, and whether it counts balance, equity or both.
• Maximum loss: static, trailing intraday, or trailing at the end of the day.
• News restrictions: windows around high-impact releases where opening, or holding, is not allowed.
• Consistency rules: a cap on how much of your total profit one day may represent.

It depends on the firm, so read the exact consequence on your firm's rule page. At many firms a breach fails the evaluation or ends the funded account, and the day runs from the firm's reset time, not yours.

On MT5, Guardian acts at that line. It never opens a trade on its own; at your prop firm's daily limit it closes open trades. Stop for today, one tap on the web or in Telegram, tightens your rules until the firm's next daily reset.

Your real account is the distance to the nearest limit, not the balance on the screen. Each morning, take the smaller of the room before the daily loss limit and the room before the maximum loss, then risk a fixed, small share of that on each trade.

Size from your stop: the money you are willing to lose divided by the stop distance gives the lot size or contract count. As the room shrinks after a loss, the size shrinks with it, so a losing streak slows down instead of speeding up.

Far enough that one more full-size loss after you reach it still leaves room before the firm's limit. Slippage, a gap or a late fill can take a trade past its stop, and the firm counts what was filled, not what you planned. Your personal stop is the line you choose; the firm's limit is the line that ends the account.

• Do: check each entry against your plan before it reaches the market, show the room left today, and end the day when you ask it to.
• Do: enforce the firm's hard limits even when you are not watching.
• Never: open trades on its own or run a strategy for you.
• Never: promise you will pass. Rules reduce the ways an account can fail; they don't create an edge.

Elave Guardian is a free MT5 risk management EA, included with an Elave account: no card, no subscription. Guardian, on-chart sizing and the journal all come with the account. On Windows the Elave Connector installs the EA; on a Mac you add the file by hand. The Elave indicator inside the EA is included with the Elave Bootcamp.

Move the rules from memory onto the chart, where they are checked the same way after a losing streak as on a good day.

• Set a personal daily stop inside the firm's limit, and stop for the day when you reach it.
• Size every trade from the room left, not from the balance.
• Make your platform hold entries that break your plan. On MT5, Guardian checks each entry before the click.
• Give a reason for every exception. Guardian logs each override, so a broken rule leaves a trace.

Guardian is part of the Elave EA for MetaTrader 5. You write your rules once: a daily budget, a maximum risk per trade, a stop on every trade and more. Each rule either warns or holds an entry. In Guardian mode, hold rules hold; in Unlimited mode they only warn. You choose the mode yourself.

A held entry can still go through: override it and give a reason, which is logged. From the third override in a day, new entries are held until tomorrow. Stop for today ends the day in one tap, from the web or from Telegram.

Your firm's limits are separate from your rules. They come from the firm's published rules, they are always on, and at the firm's daily limit Guardian closes open trades. It never opens a trade on its own. A max-drawdown lock survives a restart of MetaTrader.

On-chart enforcement runs on MT5 only. On Windows the Elave Connector installs it; on a Mac, MetaTrader 5 runs through Wine or CrossOver and you add the EA file by hand. Netting accounts get fewer checks than hedging accounts.

Not with Guardian. Its on-chart checks run on MetaTrader 5 only, and futures prop accounts such as Topstep or Apex trade on futures platforms. Set a daily loss limit in the platform you trade on, below the firm's, where the platform offers one.

Elave still helps after the session: TopstepX accounts and NinjaTrader 8 accounts, including Tradovate and Rithmic connections, sync into the free journal for review.

Link Telegram to your Elave account and the desk watches each prop limit on the firm's own basis and trading day:

• Prop-limit alerts: a warning at 50% of the daily loss or overall drawdown limit, and critical alerts at 80% and 100% that cannot be muted.
• /room: the room left before each prop limit.
• Stop for today, from the chat.

Funded accounts usually keep the evaluation's daily loss and maximum loss limits, and some firms apply extra rules, such as a consistency rule, only at payout. Read the funded-phase rules on your firm's page; they can differ from the evaluation.

Keep the same personal daily stop and the same sizing from the room left. The Payouts manager records each withdrawal with its evidence, next to the account's firm, phase and size.

Treat accounts that take the same trade as one position. The same setup on three accounts is one decision at three times the size, and a bad day hits all three. Size each account from its own room left and keep a daily stop per account.

Elave's journal shows every account side by side, each in its own currency. Planning across your own prop accounts comes with the Elave Bootcamp.

Rules on Expert Advisors differ by firm, and they change. Elave makes no blanket claim and no firm has approved Guardian. Read your firm's own rules on automation before you attach any EA; Elave's prop firm directory links each rule to the firm's official page.

Usually, yes. A long on the S&P 500 and a long on the Nasdaq 100 tend to move together, so a bad open hits both. Count correlated positions as one trade when you size against the daily limit.

A written plan only helps if it is still followed after the third loss of the day. The difference is where the rule lives.

• Elave Guardian for MT5The product page: install, panel, rules.
• Prop firm risk calculatorLots or contracts from your max loss and stop.
• Trailing drawdown explained
• Consistency rule explained
• How prop firm challenges work
• Prop firm rules directory
• Prop firm rules compared
• Free trading journal
• AI trading coachTurn a measured habit into a Guardian rule.
• Daily loss limit explained (prop firms)
• Prop firm news trading rules explained
• Trade copier for prop firms: what is allowed
• Prop firm challenge checklist
• Trading guides, rules and tools

Free with an Elave account. MetaTrader 5 only.

Free, no card.