Apex Trader Funding rules in cash

The floor follows your best equity, not your balance

A trailing threshold moves up as the account reaches new highs, and Apex offers two versions of that behaviour. Intraday trailing responds to unrealised profit, so an open winner lifts the floor before it is closed; if the trade then reverses, the floor stays where it rose to. End-of-day trailing recalculates once a day, usually on the closing equity, so intraday spikes do not count.

The practical consequence is that profit makes the account tighter rather than safer. On a $150,000 intraday account, a strong morning can raise the threshold far enough that a normal afternoon retracement ends the evaluation — without a losing trade being closed. That is the single most common way a good Apex attempt dies, and it is a sizing problem rather than a trading problem.

Why the last third takes as long as the first half

With a fixed dollar target and a moving floor, risk has to fall as profit accumulates. Early in an evaluation the floor is far below and full size is defensible; at 70% of target the remaining room is small relative to the progress still needed, and at 85% any full-size loss can end the account before the target. The result is a plan that deliberately slows down near the finish, which is why the elapsed time is not linear in the target.

The 50% consistency rule adds a second constraint at payout: no single best day may exceed half of the profit being withdrawn. A pass made in two large sessions can therefore produce an account that cannot withdraw cleanly, which turns the evaluation into a pacing exercise even though the rule is enforced later.

What to confirm before you pay

• EOD or intraday. These are different products with the same brand. The intraday version removes room mid-session and demands smaller size throughout.
• The exact parameters for your size. Target, threshold and daily limit are published per size; a figure from a $50,000 plan does not describe a $150,000 one.
• How the floor recalculates. Whether it uses unrealised equity, and whether it ever stops rising, changes the finish line more than the target does.
• The third-party trading clause. Apex's rules describe how an account is scored, not who may trade it. Confirm that separately — see the risk disclosure.

Planning against these numbers

Start from the threshold, not the target. If the maximum loss is $3,000 on the size you are buying, a single trade risking $500 survives six losses at full size, and the plan should treat $750–$1,000 as the ceiling per trade early on. As the floor rises, that ceiling falls; the useful habit is to recompute room from the peak after every winning day rather than once at the start.

The maximum loss calculator shows the floor under both trailing conventions, and the trailing drawdown maths works through the arithmetic with a full example. For the funded side, the Apex guide covers payouts and scaling.

Frequently asked

Is the Apex drawdown trailing or static?

Trailing, in both of the firm's versions: end-of-day trailing on EOD plans and intraday trailing on the others. The threshold moves up with the peak and does not move back down.

Is there a daily loss limit?

On EOD plans there is a fixed dollar daily figure published by size. On intraday plans the trailing floor effectively limits the day, because a large intraday loss can breach the threshold before any daily rule is reached.

What is the 50% consistency rule?

At payout, no single best day may account for more than half of the profit being withdrawn. Legacy accounts carry a 30% figure. It does not stop you passing; it stops a fast, lumpy pass from converting into a full payout.

Does the target change with account size?

Yes — the target is a fixed dollar amount per size rather than a percentage. That is why an Apex plan cannot be compared to a percentage-based plan without converting both into dollars on the size you intend to trade.