Slippage & micro-breaches: “I only went over by $0.01”

TL;DR

Yes, $0.01 counts. Drawdown rules are equity-based and moment-in-time. If it prints below the line, even briefly, it’s a breach. As the Brits say: “Tuppence is tuppence.”

How it works

Equity includes floating PnL and costs, so spread spikes and slippage can push you over the threshold.

Common gotchas

• Don’t trade “on the line.” Give yourself a buffer.
• Avoid high-vol windows: rollover, thin liquidity, red news spikes.
• Use hard SLs. “I’ll close it manually” is often too slow against volatility.
• Pending orders can trigger when you’re not looking, handle them like live grenades.

Example

You’re down -4.9% on a 5% daily limit. Spread widens, stop slips, equity prints -5.01% = hard breach. You can “but it came back” all you want, a line must be drawn. The print happened, you lost the account.

Related FAQs

• What is Max Daily Loss (daily drawdown) and how is it calculated?
• Do spreads/commissions/swaps count toward drawdown?
• What time does the trading day reset (timezone) and why it matters