The 2-step 10% shelf stays under the start balance
On the flagship 2-step, maximum loss is a static 10% from initial balance. On $100,000 the lifetime floor is $90,000 and it does not rise because you closed Tuesday up $4,000. Daily loss is a separate 5%, $5,000 when the day opens at $100,000, anchored to the higher of day-start balance or equity at 00:00. You can be $7,000 above the lifetime floor and still be finished because the day printed $5,000. Phase 1 is 10% and Phase 2 is 5%, with three minimum trading days and no overall time limit.
That static shelf is why a gold swing can be planned in dollars from the first session. Open a Venasri account and label the profile 2-step before you copy a lot from a 1-step thread. The platforms are MT5 and Match-Trader. Neither platform will translate a trail habit into a static floor for you.
Smart trailing 6% on 1-step moves when you are right
The 1-step maximum is a smart trail at 6%, $6,000 on $100,000 at the start, and the daily line on that product is 4%, or $4,000. A trail means progress in the account can lift the floor. A week that marks higher does not leave the original $6,000 of air untouched the way the 2-step shelf would. Traders buy 1-step to skip Phase 2, then manage the book as if $90,000 were still the death line. It is not.
Work a simple path. Start at $100,000 with the trail near $94,000. A run toward $106,000 that the trail follows leaves less room than a static thinker expects. A normal pullback can then tag 6% while the 2-step version of you would still be inside 10%. Daily loss can tag first. Two or three large losers can print $4,000 with the trail still looking calm. Read both numbers every session.
Midnight uses the higher of balance and equity
CTI does not anchor the day to closed balance alone. At 00:00 it takes the higher of day-start balance or equity. A $3,500 open gold winner held into that snapshot can raise the base the next 5% is hung from. A giveback after midnight spends the new day even if yesterday closed trades look excellent. This is the opposite of a gift. Booking part of the winner before the clock is how you choose which day owns the pullback.
Weekend holding is permitted, so Friday is the long version of the same choice. Wednesday swap charges and Sunday gaps count toward the daily line. Bot controls should partial a large float before midnight rather than treating a legal hold as a free hold. The $509 fee on $100,000 does not buy a softer snapshot.
Stand at 4.25% on 2-step and lower on 1-step
Equity Guard should flatten a $100,000 2-step account near $4,250 of daily loss, which is 4.25% and $750 inside the official $5,000. On 1-step the official day is $4,000, so the same 4.25% setting is already through the line. Use about 3.25%, near $3,250, on that product. A daily guard still does not watch the smart trail. Add a separate alert when the 6% floor has stepped up.
There is also a profitable-day rule: three days of at least 0.5% in each phase. Drawdown math will not track that for you. You can respect both loss lines and still be short a qualifying day. Keep the loss lines boring so you still have an account on the third qualifying session. The salary and the 100% split are funded-stage stories. They start after these floors are still intact.
