PT:DD Ratio
Profit target divided by drawdown — the one number that tells you how hard an evaluation actually is, and the fastest way to compare firms honestly.
The PT:DD ratio is profit target ÷ maximum drawdown. It answers the only question that really matters when you’re comparing evaluations: how much do I have to make, relative to how much room I have to make it in?
Account size, fee, and marketing copy all distract from this. A “$150K account” sounds bigger than a “$50K account,” but if the bigger one demands a $9,000 profit on a $3,000 drawdown, it’s a far harder test than a $50K account asking $3,000 on a $2,500 drawdown. The ratio strips the noise out.
| Account | Profit target | Max drawdown | PT:DD | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | $3,000 | $2,500 | 1.20 | Room to breathe — a normal losing streak survives |
| B | $6,000 | $3,000 | 2.00 | You need roughly two drawdowns’ worth of profit |
| C | $9,000 | $3,000 | 3.00 | Demanding — very little tolerance for a bad run |
The intuition: a ratio near 1.0 means one good run gets you there, and you can absorb losses on the way. A ratio of 3.0 means you must produce three times your entire risk budget without ever using the whole budget — which requires both a strong edge and near-flawless risk control.
Neither is “bad.” A higher ratio often comes with a cheaper fee, a bigger account, or better terms once funded, and skilled traders take those trades knowingly. What you never want is to pay for a hard evaluation because a headline number looked generous.
Two refinements before you buy. First, check the type of drawdown — a $2,500 intraday trailing drawdown is a tougher $2,500 than an end-of-day one. Second, factor in the daily loss limit, which caps how much of the drawdown you can use in one session.
Run the ratio on every evaluation before you pay for it. Read the PT:DD ratio explained for the full method, then compare targets and drawdowns firm by firm in our directory.