@digitaldollar it's possible after someone upvotes you that they can take the upvote back and thus your payout goes down. I read post on steemit that explains it but I would not be able to find it now. It also said that some people upvote to bookmark the post and then later they will check it out and if don't like, they take the vote back. I would assume if a whale did this, your payout would drop considerably.