Apex Trader Funding is a futures-only prop firm built around cheap, one-time evaluations and a 100% profit split, and one of the best funded trader programs for futures traders. It fits disciplined intraday futures traders who can trade actively and follow rules to the letter, and it works poorly for anyone running automated systems, holding positions overnight, or trading equities and options. The entry cost is genuinely low, but per-payout caps and a six-payout ceiling on every funded account mean the firm rewards passing quickly and trading steadily far more than it rewards one big run.
See Also: Best Prop Firms for Futures Trading | How Prop Firm Scaling Plans Compare
What Apex Trader Funding Is and Who It Is For
Apex sells a path to trading firm capital without putting personal capital at risk beyond fees. A trader buys an evaluation, hits a profit target inside a fixed risk framework, and on passing activates a simulated funded account called a Performance Account, or PA. Approved profits from that PA are paid out in cash. Everything happens in a simulated environment, so the appeal is straightforward: the downside is capped at the cost of the evaluation, and the upside is real money.
The firm trades futures and nothing else. Equity index futures, currency futures, energy, metals, agricultural contracts, crypto micros, and EUREX products are all in scope, but a trader looking to fund a stock or options account will not find it here. For the active futures segment of the audience, Apex is one of the larger and longer-running options in the category.
One detail matters before reading any older review of this firm. Apex rebuilt its product line on March 1, 2026. Accounts bought before that date are now “Legacy” accounts that keep their old rules and monthly billing, and they are no longer available to buy. Everything that follows describes the current products, which come in two forms: the EOD Trailing Drawdown account and the Intraday Trailing Drawdown account.
The Two Account Types Are the Real Decision
Choosing between EOD and Intraday drawdown is the most consequential choice a trader makes at Apex, more than account size and more than platform. Both define the maximum loss the account can take across its life, both move up as the account makes new highs, and both auto-liquidate and end the account the instant the balance touches the threshold. How they calculate that threshold is where they split, and that difference changes how a strategy survives.
Intraday Trailing Drawdown
The intraday threshold follows the account’s highest balance in real time, and it counts unrealized profit. If an open position pushes the balance to a new peak, the threshold ratchets up immediately, even though no trade has closed. It never moves back down.
The practical effect is unforgiving. A trader who is up $900 on an open contract sets a new peak, and if that winner then gives back its gains, the threshold has already moved against the account. Letting a profitable trade breathe becomes dangerous, because the high-water mark is set on the unrealized spike, not the realized close. This model suits traders who take profit decisively and rarely sit in open drawdown after a move in their favor.
EOD Trailing Drawdown
The end-of-day threshold is calculated once per trading day at 4:59:59 PM ET, based on the closing balance, then it is fixed for the entire next session. It is still enforced in real time during that session, so touching it still ends the account, but intraday swings inside the day do not move it.
That single change gives a trader room to scale into a position and ride a move without an open spike tightening the floor underneath them mid-trade. For a discretionary trader who adds to winners or holds through normal intraday noise, EOD is the friendlier structure, which is why it leads the firm’s own marketing.
Both models behave the same way once an account is funded: the threshold stops trailing once it reaches the starting balance plus $100, locking in a small cushion. During the evaluation, the trailing stop point depends on the platform. On Rithmic and WealthCharts the threshold freezes once it reaches the profit-target balance, while on Tradovate it keeps trailing the peak indefinitely. A trader who wants the threshold to stop climbing during the evaluation has a reason to avoid Tradovate.
Daily Loss Limit and Built-In Scaling
A second risk control, the Daily Loss Limit, sits on top of the drawdown. Hitting it flattens positions and pauses trading for the session, but it does not fail the account; trading resumes at the 6 PM ET reset. The DLL applies to EOD evaluations on a fixed scale by size ($500 at 25K up to $2,000 at 150K) and, notably, does not apply at all during Intraday evaluations.
Inside a funded account, both contract limits and the DLL scale with the account’s profit tier. A fresh 25K PA starts capped at a single contract until the balance clears $1,000, then moves to two. A 50K PA starts at two contracts and works up to four as profit milestones are hit. The upside is that risk loosens automatically as an account proves itself. The catch is the early throttle: a newly funded trader is held to small size precisely when they most want to build a buffer above the drawdown, and that constraint shapes how the first few funded days have to be traded.
Pricing
Apex prices each evaluation as a one-time fee for 30 calendar days of access. There is no subscription, no recurring charge, and nothing to cancel. The evaluation fee is identical whether a trader picks the EOD or Intraday version; only the drawdown mechanics differ. On the standard checkout, passing the evaluation triggers a separate one-time activation fee to open the funded account, due within 7 calendar days of the pass.
| Account Size | Profit Target | Max Drawdown | One-Time Evaluation | 5-Pack Evaluation | PA Activation Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25K | $1,500 | $1,000 | $199.00 | $850.00 | $69 |
| 50K | $3,000 | $2,000 | $399.00 | $1,750.00 | $139 |
| 100K | $6,000 | $4,000 | $699.00 | $3,500.00 | $239 |
| 150K | $9,000 | $6,000 | $999.00 | $4,500.00 | $329 |
The profit target on every account is 6% of the account size, and the maximum drawdown is 4%. The numbers reward a clear read of the math: a 25K account asks for $1,500 of profit against $1,000 of room, a tighter ratio than the larger sizes, where the buffer relative to the target widens. A trader who wants more breathing room per dollar of target gets it by stepping up in size, at a higher fee.
The figures above are the standard checkout. Apex also sells a separate No Activation Fee version of every account, across each size, drawdown type, and platform, which removes the activation fee that the standard path charges on passing. The two paths differ in how the cost is divided between the evaluation purchase and the funded-account step, so the live order page is the place to compare the current price of each before committing.
Rules and Restrictions That Actually Affect Cost and Usability
The headline price is not the whole cost, and several mechanics change what the product is worth to a specific trader. These are the ones worth understanding before paying.
No Resets and a 30-Day Clock
The new evaluations cannot be reset. Access runs for 30 consecutive calendar days from purchase, weekends and holidays included, and expires at 11:59 PM ET on day 30 with no extension. Hit the drawdown and the evaluation is failed permanently. Run out of days short of the target and the balance is wiped. Either way, the only way forward is to buy a new evaluation at full price.
This is the single biggest shift from the older Apex model, which ran on monthly billing with paid resets. For a trader who passes on the first or second try, the one-time structure is cleaner and often cheaper. For a trader who expects to grind through several attempts, the low $199 entry is misleading, because three failed 25K attempts cost the same as one larger account with far more room.
What “100% Split” Really Pays
The 100% profit split is real, and it is also bounded in two ways that change the picture. Each payout request is capped at a fixed dollar amount that steps up with the payout number, and each funded account is limited to six payouts before it closes and the trader must qualify again through a new evaluation.
On a 25K account, every one of the six payouts is capped at $1,000, for a maximum of $6,000 out of that account before re-qualifying. Larger accounts scale higher, with a 150K EOD account running from $2,500 on the first payout up to $5,000 on the sixth. To request a payout at all, an account needs at least 5 qualifying trading days, each clearing a minimum daily profit that ranges from $100 on a 25K account to a few hundred dollars on the larger sizes, plus a balance above the safety net. Payouts themselves are quick once requested: Apex reviews within 2 business days and sends funds in 3 to 4 more, with most traders seeing money in 5 to 11 business days total by ACH in the US or through the Plane network internationally.
The 50% Consistency Rule and Safety Net
A 50% consistency rule governs payout eligibility. No single trading day may account for 50% or more of the total profit earned since the last approved payout. The rule does not fail an account; it simply hides the payout button until the largest day falls below half of cumulative profit. A trader whose entire gain came from one explosive session has to keep trading and add steadier days before the money is reachable. The math is simple to plan around: dividing the best day by 0.5 gives the minimum total profit needed to unlock a request.
Alongside it, a safety net equal to the drawdown limit plus $100 must stay intact for the life of the account, and only profit above that line is withdrawable. Both rules push the same behavior, which is consistent daily performance rather than a single lucky swing.
The Inactivity Rule
A funded account is not a buy-and-hold asset. To stay active, a PA must record at least 2 trading days of $50 or more in net profit within every rolling 30-day window. Fall short and the account goes dormant at 15 days, then closes permanently at 30, forfeiting any accumulated rewards. Placing trades is not enough; the days have to be profitable. A trader who steps away for a month loses the account and cannot get it back.
Trading Restrictions
The rule set is strict and literal, and several rules disqualify entire trading styles. Positions must be flat before the market close, which rules out any overnight or multi-day holding. Automation and algorithmic execution are banned, as is hedging or holding both sides of the same or correlated instrument. Account sharing, copy trading across accounts, shared IP or hardware, and identity-masking tools all carry account closure. Every trade is expected to carry a defined stop and risk plan, and using the full drawdown threshold as a de facto stop is itself a violation. None of this is unusual for a futures prop firm, but the no-automation and no-overnight rules in particular make Apex a non-starter for systematic traders and swing traders.
Platforms
Apex runs on three native platforms: Rithmic, Tradovate, and WealthCharts. NinjaTrader connects through Rithmic or Tradovate, and TradingView connects through Tradovate. Rithmic leans toward speed and is favored by execution-focused traders, though it is not Mac-native and needs a Windows virtual machine. Tradovate is cloud-based and runs across desktop, Mac, and mobile. WealthCharts bundles scanning and charting tools with a built-in trade copier for managing multiple accounts at once. The platform is locked to each account at checkout, cannot be converted later, and is not refundable if chosen wrong, so the selection deserves more care than it usually gets.
Bottom Line
For an active intraday futures trader who can pass an evaluation in a reasonable number of attempts and then trade consistently, Apex is one of the more economical and transparent funded paths available. The one-time fee, the 100% split, and the fast payout cadence are real advantages, and the choice between two genuinely different drawdown models is more than a marketing distinction. The firm is the wrong tool for systematic traders, overnight holders, and anyone outside futures, and the no-reset structure quietly raises the cost for traders who need several runs at the target.
The strongest fit is the EOD account for a discretionary trader who scales into intraday moves, picks Rithmic or WealthCharts so the evaluation threshold stops trailing, and treats the per-payout caps as the real income ceiling they are.
Pros
- One-time evaluation fee with no recurring billing, starting at $199 for a 25K account.
- 100% profit split on approved payouts, with a documented 5 to 11 business day payout timeline.
- Two distinct drawdown models, letting a trader match risk mechanics to their actual style.
- Up to 20 accounts can be run at once, with a 5-pack evaluation discount for scaling in.
- Built-in contract and loss-limit scaling that loosens automatically as an account grows.
- Broad futures coverage across CME, CBOT, NYMEX, COMEX, and EUREX, including micro contracts.
Cons
- The new evaluations cannot be reset, so every failed or expired attempt costs the full fee again, a real penalty for traders who need multiple tries.
- Payouts are capped per request and limited to six per account, so a 25K account tops out near $6,000 before the trader must re-qualify through a new evaluation.
- The Intraday model counts unrealized profit against the threshold, punishing any trader who lets a winner pull back.
- No overnight holds and no automation, which rules out swing traders and every systematic strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Apex Trader Funding consistency rule?
The consistency rule states that no single trading day may make up 50% or more of the total profit earned since the last approved payout. It does not fail the account; it simply hides the payout request until the largest day falls below half of cumulative profit. Dividing the best day by 0.5 gives the minimum total profit needed to unlock a request, so it is straightforward to plan around.
How long does an Apex Trader Funding payout take?
Apex reviews a payout request within 2 business days and sends funds in another 3 to 4, so most traders see the money in 5 to 11 business days total. Payouts go by ACH inside the US and through the Plane network internationally. An account needs at least 5 qualifying trading days and a balance above its safety net before a request can be made.
How many payouts can an Apex account make?
Each funded Apex account is limited to 6 payouts, after which it closes and the trader must qualify again through a new evaluation. Each request is also capped at a fixed amount that steps up with the payout number. On a 25K account every payout is capped at $1,000, for a maximum of $6,000 before re-qualifying.
What is the difference between EOD and Intraday drawdown at Apex?
The Intraday trailing drawdown follows the account’s highest balance in real time and counts unrealized profit, so an open winner that pulls back tightens the threshold against the account. The EOD trailing drawdown is calculated once per day at 4:59:59 PM ET on the closing balance and then fixed for the next session, which leaves room to scale into a move without that threshold moving mid-trade. For most discretionary traders who add to winners, EOD is the friendlier structure, which is why the firm leads with it.
Can the Apex evaluation be reset?
No, the current Apex evaluations cannot be reset, and access runs for 30 consecutive calendar days from purchase before expiring with no extension. Hitting the drawdown fails the evaluation permanently, and running out of days wipes the balance. The only way forward in either case is to buy a new evaluation at full price, which makes the low entry fee misleading for anyone who expects several attempts.
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