The FTMO Trading Journal: Track Prague-Time Limits and Pass the Challenge

Most FTMO challenges are not lost on strategy. They are lost on the rules: a loss that lands on the wrong side of the daily reset, an open trade that breaches the daily limit before you close it, or drawdown creeping up across a week nobody reviewed. A trading journal built for FTMO exists to stop exactly that.

The FTMO rules your journal must understand

• The daily loss limit resets at midnight in Prague (CET in winter, CEST in summer), not at your midnight. A late-evening loss can land in the next FTMO day.
• It is measured on equity, so an open losing trade counts before you close it.
• Drawdown is static: the daily limit and the maximum loss are both measured from your starting balance, and do not move up with profits.
• Hitting the target doesn't switch the rules off. They apply for as long as the account is live.

The full detail, with the daylight-saving catch, is on our FTMO rules page. Always check FTMO's own current rules too.

What an FTMO journal should do

Measure your day on FTMO's clock

Your P&L "today" should mean today in Prague. Anything else shows you room you don't have.

Show headroom before the next trade

The useful number is not your profit. It is how much you can still lose today and in total, and which of the two you will hit first.

Journal without effort

FTMO accounts run on MetaTrader 5, cTrader and other platforms. Auto-sync means every trade is in the journal without you typing it, so the review actually happens.

Review the process, not just the result

Replaying a trade on the broker's own prices, and an AI review of how it was planned and managed, turns a losing week into one specific fix.

Setting it up in The Pips Project

1. Create an account for your challenge and choose FTMO as the firm, with its size and phase.
2. Connect auto-sync: the sync app for MetaTrader 5, or sign in with cTrader. Trades arrive by themselves.
3. Open the Risk tab before you trade. It shows today's remaining daily loss on FTMO's Prague day, your distance to the maximum loss, and which limit is closest.
4. Review each closed trade with replay and the AI review, and tag the mistakes that repeat.

The free plan covers manual and file journaling; auto-sync, replay and the Risk Guardian are in Pro. New to the limits? Read daily loss limit vs max drawdown.