Low drawdown EA: what counts as low, and how to spot a real one
A low drawdown EA keeps the fall from its highest equity point small, typically under 10–15% on a real account over many months. Judge it on equity drawdown with open trades included, the length of the record and the risk per trade behind it. On a grid or martingale EA, a small figure often means the big drawdown simply hasn’t arrived yet.
“Low drawdown” is one of the most common claims in EA marketing and one of the easiest to fake by accident. This guide explains what drawdown measures, what counts as low, why recovering from a drawdown is harder than it looks, and how to tell a genuinely low drawdown EA from one that is holding its losses open.
What drawdown measures
Drawdown is the fall from an account’s highest value to its next lowest point, shown in money and as a percentage. MetaTrader 5 reports two versions:
- Balance drawdown counts only closed trades.
- Equity drawdown includes trades that are still open, so it shows the real low point of the account.
Always use equity drawdown. An EA that keeps losing trades open until they come back can show a tiny balance drawdown while its equity falls a long way.
What counts as a low drawdown?
| Maximum equity drawdown | Rough rating | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Under 10% | Low | Most traders can sit through it; fits many prop firm limits |
| 10–20% | Moderate | Noticeable losing stretches; too deep for most prop firm challenges |
| 20–35% | High | Hard to sit through; recovery takes long |
| Over 35% | Very high | One bad run away from a blown account |
These bands are a rough guide for a general trading account, not an industry standard. What matters is the drawdown you can live with at the risk you will actually use.
Why drawdown is harder to recover than it looks
| Drawdown | Gain needed to get back to the peak |
|---|---|
| 10% | 11.1% |
| 15% | 17.6% |
| 20% | 25% |
| 30% | 42.9% |
| 40% | 66.7% |
| 50% | 100% |
A 50% drawdown needs a 100% gain just to break even, which is why keeping drawdown small matters more than chasing return.
Your risk setting decides most of the drawdown
Every EA has losing streaks. How deep a streak takes the account depends mostly on the risk per trade you choose:
| Risk per trade | 5 losses in a row | 10 losses in a row | 15 losses in a row |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5% | 2.5% | 4.9% | 7.2% |
| 1% | 4.9% | 9.6% | 14.0% |
| 2% | 9.6% | 18.3% | 26.1% |
The same EA can be “low drawdown” at 0.5% risk and “high drawdown” at 2%. When you compare EAs, compare them at the risk you will run, and work out your lot size with the position size calculator.
How grid and martingale EAs hide drawdown
Grid and martingale EAs often show very low drawdown for months. They close most baskets in profit and keep the losing ones open, adding positions or increasing lot size until price comes back. The drawdown is there in the open trades, and it arrives all at once when price keeps going. Our martingale vs grid comparison shows the arithmetic.
Quick test: if equity drawdown is many times larger than balance drawdown, or the trade history shows lots growing after losses, treat the “low drawdown” label with suspicion.
How to check an EA’s drawdown honestly
- Use a verified live record. A real-money account on Myfxbook or MQL5 Signals, not a screenshot. See our guide to checking results on Myfxbook and FX Blue.
- Read equity drawdown, and compare it with balance drawdown.
- Look at the length of the record. Six months is a minimum; drawdown tends to grow the longer an EA runs.
- Check the risk setting behind the record and scale the drawdown to the risk you will use.
- Note how long recoveries took. A 10% drawdown that took eight months to recover is harder to live with than it sounds.
- Backtest the worst case. Test on real ticks over several years and expect live drawdown to be somewhat deeper. Our MT5 backtesting guide shows how.
Low drawdown and prop firm accounts
Prop firm challenges often allow a 5% daily loss and 10% overall, and some measure the daily limit on equity. Even a “low” 10% drawdown would fail many of them, so prop firm traders need both a low historical drawdown and a daily loss guard set below the firm’s limit. Compare firms in our prop firm EA rules comparison and check your room with the prop firm drawdown calculator.
Low drawdown EA FAQ
What is a good drawdown for a forex EA?
One you can live with at your risk setting, measured on equity over a long live record. Many traders look for under 10–15%, and compare it with the return: 20% a year with a 10% drawdown is steadier than 60% with a 50% drawdown.
What is the difference between balance and equity drawdown?
Balance drawdown counts only closed trades. Equity drawdown includes open trades, so it shows how far the account really fell.
Can I reduce an EA’s drawdown?
Lower the risk or lot size, avoid running it on several closely related pairs at once, and add a hard equity stop. Lower risk also lowers returns roughly in proportion.
Are low drawdown EAs less profitable?
Usually their returns are lower at the same settings, but the return relative to the drawdown, the steadiness, is often better. That is what lets you stay with an EA long enough for it to work.
Is a low drawdown EA safe?
No EA is safe. A low drawdown so far means the losses have been small so far; position size and a stop on every trade decide what happens next.
Risk warning. Trading forex and CFDs on margin carries a high risk of losing money. The tables on this page are arithmetic examples, not results of any EA. Past drawdown does not cap future drawdown.
Source, checked 6 November 2026: MetaTrader 5 testing report: balance and equity drawdown