Two rules on a CFD account have nothing to do with how much you have lost. Max Exposure caps the total size of what you have open at once. Max Floating Loss caps how far a single position, or all your positions on one symbol, may go against you while still open. Neither shows in the closed profit and loss, which is why traders who have never been near a loss limit meet them.
Both are warning-based rather than hard breaches. The first time you cross one you get a warning, and if the account is in profit at that moment the profit is reset to the starting balance. The second time, on the same rule, the account is closed. On Instant plans the floating loss rule works through notices and strikes instead, and it costs you payout rather than the account.
This post explains what each rule measures on a WhitePips account, how the warning and closure sequence runs, and the sizing habit that keeps you inside both without thinking about them. The figures are the published ones on the CFD plan pages; the trading rules have the binding wording.
What Max Exposure measures
Exposure is the combined notional value of every open position, in account currency, whatever direction each one points. A standard lot of EURUSD is 100,000 euros, so with the pair near 1.10 one lot is roughly $110,000 of exposure. A lot of gold is 100 ounces, so its exposure is 100 times the gold price. Add up every open position that way and you have the figure the rule looks at.
The cap is published for each account size, as a dollar figure and as a share of the balance. It is $125,000 on a $2,500 account, or 5,000% of the balance; $300,000 on $10,000; $625,000 on $25,000; $1,000,000 on $50,000; $1,250,000 on $100,000; and $2,000,000 on $200,000, which is 1,000%. The share falls as the account grows because a $200,000 account at 5,000% would be a $10,000,000 book, and nothing about a larger account makes that sensible.
The cap sits well below what leverage alone would allow. On a $25,000 Edge 1 Step at 1:100, margin would permit $2,500,000 of positions; the exposure cap stops you at a quarter of that. The leverage figure is a platform ceiling, as the sizing post says, and the exposure cap is the number that actually binds.
How an exposure breach plays out
The rule is checked on the open book. When the notional of your open positions goes over the cap, the account takes warning 1 of 2. Trading continues. If the account is in profit at that moment, the profit is reset: the balance returns to the starting balance, so the profit target, or the current payout cycle's profit, starts from zero. Profitable days you have already earned are kept.
A second exposure breach closes the account. Warnings are counted separately for each rule, so an exposure warning and a floating loss warning do not add up to a closure; two on the same rule do. The warnings ledger on the dashboard shows what has been counted and against which rule.
The reset is the part traders underestimate. An account 8% towards a 10% target that stacks one position too many goes back to zero with a warning on file, and the second occurrence is terminal. The rule applies in the evaluation and once funded, so the habit has to be formed in the first week.
What Max Floating Loss measures
Floating loss is the unrealised loss on an open position: how far it is under water before you close it. The rule caps it, and it does so in two forms depending on the plan.
On Instant Pro and Instant Go the rule is Max Floating Loss per Symbol. All open positions on one instrument, added together, may not float more than 1.5% of the starting balance under water: $375 on a $25,000 account. A floating loss of 1% sends a notice. The first time 1.5% is breached is a formal warning. Each later breach is a strike, and each strike pays the next payout cycle at a 10% split instead of your normal one. On a $25,000 Instant Pro that would turn $2,000 of profit into a $200 payout. The account stays open; the cost is in the payout.
On Edge and Prime the rule is Max Floating Loss per Trade, a limit on the floating loss of a single position. It is measured only once the account is funded, not during the evaluation, and the limit for your plan is on the dashboard rule card. It runs on the same two-warning sequence as exposure: a first breach is a warning that resets profit if there is any, a second closes the account.
Why the two rules exist
Loss limits measure results. Exposure and floating loss measure behaviour before the result arrives. A trader with four correlated positions open at full size has not lost anything yet, and may not, but has built a book that one headline turns into a Maximum Loss Limit breach with no chance to react. The exposure cap forces that book to be smaller. The floating loss cap forces a losing position to be closed by the trader rather than by the hard limit, and it is the rule most directly aimed at averaging down, which is where a 1% loss becomes a 1.5% one, then a 3% one.
That is also why they are warning-based. Neither is a failure of the method; each is a lapse of discipline that the firm would rather correct than punish on first sight. The second occurrence is treated as a pattern.
Exposure is the size of the problem you have agreed to have. Floating loss is how long you have agreed to watch it.
How to stay inside both
- Know your cap in lots. Divide the exposure cap by the notional of one lot of each instrument you trade, and write down the total lots you may hold at once. On a $25,000 account the $625,000 cap is roughly five and a half lots of EURUSD, or the equivalent across whatever you hold. Then set yourself a working ceiling well below it.
- Count positions, not trades. Hedged or opposite positions both add to exposure. Partial closes reduce it; adding to a winner increases it.
- Use stops that sit inside the floating cap. On an Instant account, the stops on one symbol should add up to less than 1.5% of the starting balance, so the cap is never the thing that closes you. The 1% notice is the signal to act, not to wait.
- Never add to a losing position on one symbol without checking the combined floating loss. On Instant plans that total is the figure the rule reads.
- Watch the rule cards. The dashboard shows exposure and floating loss live next to the daily and maximum loss cards. If you only look at the equity figure, you will not see either rule coming.
How the two relate to the loss limits
The Daily Loss Limit and the Maximum Loss Limit are measured on equity, so a floating loss counts towards them as soon as it exists. A position that is 1.5% under water on a $25,000 Instant Go has used half the day's 3% limit before anything is closed. The floating loss rule tends to fire first and more gently; think of it as the earlier of two alarms on the same loss.
Exposure relates to the limits differently. It does not count towards them at all, and that is the danger: a large book costs nothing on the rule cards until price moves. The relationship is between exposure and speed. The more notional you hold, the fewer pips it takes to reach the daily limit. At the exposure cap on a $25,000 Edge 1 Step, a move of 0.16% against the whole book is the 4% Daily Loss Limit, and a move of 0.3% is the Maximum Loss Limit. Nobody who sizes from the loss limits ever gets near the cap; the people who reach it are sizing from the margin.
Questions traders ask
Does a hedge reduce my exposure? No. Exposure is the combined notional of all open positions, so a long and a short on the same symbol count twice, not zero. Closing one of them halves it.
Is floating loss measured during an Edge evaluation? No. Max Floating Loss per Trade on Edge and Prime applies only once the account is funded. Max Exposure applies throughout, evaluation included.
Does an exposure warning cost me the profitable days I have earned? No. The profit is reset to the starting balance, but profitable days already recorded are kept. On the second breach the account is closed.