Guide
High-water mark and drawdown for a self-funded futures account
When you trade your own money, your account changes for two different reasons: trading results, and money you move in or out. This guide explains the high-water mark, how drawdown is measured from it, and how Fillbook keeps deposits and withdrawals apart from trading P&L.
Account value is more than your P&L
Account value is your starting capital, plus trading profit and loss, plus deposits, minus withdrawals. If you look only at the balance, a deposit looks like a win and a withdrawal looks like a loss. Keeping the two apart is what lets you read your trading results honestly.
The high-water mark and drawdown
The high-water mark is the highest your account value has reached. Drawdown is the gap between that peak and today's value, often shown as a percentage of the peak. Example: a peak of 20,000 dollars and a value now of 18,500 dollars is a drawdown of 1,500 dollars, or 7.5 percent of the peak. The largest drop from peak is the biggest such gap over the whole history.
Why deposits and withdrawals must move the peak
If you withdraw 2,000 dollars and the peak stays where it was, the account looks 2,000 dollars into a drawdown that trading did not cause. If you deposit 2,000 dollars and the peak stays put, a later loss can look smaller than it was. So the peak moves by the same amount as the money: a withdrawal lowers it, a deposit raises it, and only trading results show up as drawdown.
How Fillbook tracks it
For an own-capital account, Fillbook starts from the account size you set on Risk & rules and works through your logged days in order. A deposit or withdrawal dated that day is applied first, then that session's trading P&L. Trades with a recorded entry time roll into the next session at 6 pm Eastern; trades with only a date stay on that date. The Capital curve card on the Dashboard then shows account value, a time-weighted return, how far below the peak the account is now and the largest drop from peak, with the peak drawn as a dashed line. You log deposits and withdrawals on the Cash flow page.
What this does not know
Every figure is arithmetic over the trades and cash flows you logged. Fillbook does not read your broker balance: the Cash flow page has a check where you type your broker's balance for a date and see the difference, with common reasons such as an unlogged deposit, missing trades or fees. Open positions are not counted, because Fillbook uses closed trades only, so a broker balance can differ by unrealized profit or loss. The return is time-weighted: each day's result is divided by the balance at the start of that day and the days are chained, so adding or removing money does not change it.
See your own curve
Add an own-capital account in Fillbook, log your deposits and withdrawals, and the capital curve shows account value and drawdown from your peak.
See how it worksCommon questions
No. A trailing drawdown is a rule set by a firm, with its own definition and its own terms. The drawdown here is a descriptive figure on your own account and limits nothing. Fillbook's personal-capital risk limits are separate fixed dollar floors that do not trail.
Then the account value is off by that amount, and the drawdown can be wrong too. The balance check on the Cash flow page compares Fillbook's figure with the balance you type, so a gap shows up.
No. The broker balance in the check is whatever you type. Your broker's records are the record of your actual balance.
Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. This guide is general education, not advice, and it cannot account for your situation. Read the full disclosures.
To see what trading costs over the same period, read the guide to commissions and slippage costs.Trading your own capital? See how Fillbook works for your own capital.