Apex Trader Funding rules, explained
By Tyler Branstiter · Updated October 10, 2026 · Last reviewed October 10, 2026 · 5 min read
Apex Trader Funding is the largest futures prop firm, and its rules are mostly straightforward once you know what each one is doing. The problems come from the trailing threshold and, later, the consistency rule — so those get the most space here.
Apex changes account specs, pricing, and payout terms often, and runs near-constant promotions. The account-size tables below are pulled live from the same rules data Tradervana itself uses, so they track Apex's current lineup rather than a snapshot from whenever this guide was last edited — still worth confirming your exact account's spec on Apex's own site before you trade.
The evaluation
Since March 1, 2026, an evaluation is a one-time fee with 30 days to pass, not a monthly subscription. To pass, you need to:
- Hit the profit target for your account size, and
- Stay above the trailing threshold the entire time, and
- Trade at least one day (Apex's eval is effectively a "hit the target without blowing up" test, not a multi-week grind).
EOD Trail vs Intraday Trail
Apex accounts come in two flavors, and you pick one when you buy:
- Intraday Trail — the threshold follows your account's highest point including unrealized profit on open positions, and there's no daily loss limit. See Trailing drawdown, explained for the mechanics and a worked example — this is the version that quietly eats your room after a trade spikes and comes back.
- EOD Trail — the threshold only trails on your closing balance each day, but the account carries a daily loss limit instead (see the table below — it scales with account size, not a flat $1,000 across every size).
On a Performance Account (PA), the threshold stops trailing once it reaches $100 above your starting balance. Once the account has been up enough for the threshold to climb that far, it locks there and behaves like a fixed drawdown from then on. Getting to that point is the single biggest risk-reduction step in the whole account.
Evaluations are different, and it depends on the platform. On Rithmic and WealthCharts evaluations the threshold stops trailing at the profit-target balance, while on Tradovate evaluations it keeps trailing. Check which one your evaluation runs on before you plan around a lock.
Account sizes
Intraday Trail
| Account | Profit target | Trailing threshold | Max contracts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25K | $1,500 | $1,000 | 4 minis |
| 50K | $3,000 | $2,000 | 6 minis |
| 100K | $6,000 | $3,000 | 8 minis |
| 150K | $9,000 | $4,000 | 12 minis |
Verified against Apex Trader Funding's own site as of Oct 10, 2026.
EOD Trail
| Account | Profit target | Trailing threshold | Daily loss limit | Max contracts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25K | $1,500 | $1,000 | $500 | 4 minis |
| 50K | $3,000 | $2,000 | $1,000 | 6 minis |
| 100K | $6,000 | $3,000 | $1,500 | 8 minis |
| 150K | $9,000 | $4,000 | $2,000 | 12 minis |
Apex also lists 'Legacy' accounts with their own terms, and both Rithmic and Tradovate versions of each. Confirm your specific account's spec sheet. Verified against Apex Trader Funding's own site as of Oct 10, 2026.
Contract scaling and the PA daily loss limit
The "Max contracts" figures in the tables above are the evaluation's. Apex's own wording is that "your account may scale up in contract size as your balance grows" — you don't get the full contract allowance from a cold start on the funded (PA) account, and the PA's cap is lower than the evaluation's at every size. On a PA, both the contract cap and the daily loss limit step up through balance tiers based on your prior close, so neither is a single fixed number. Trading over the allowed size is a rule violation even if the trade wins, so check the current scaling schedule for your account size on Apex's site.
Getting funded and getting paid
Once you pass, you move to a Performance Account (PA). From there:
- There's a minimum balance / safety net you need to be above to request a payout: the starting balance plus the trailing threshold plus $100 (for example, $52,100 on a 50K account with a $2,000 threshold).
- Early payouts have a minimum number of qualifying trading days and a cap on the amount; later payouts loosen up. Check Apex's current payout schedule for the exact day counts and caps.
- The consistency rule applies to payouts: no single day's profit can be more than a set share of your total profit at the time you request the payout. See The consistency rule, explained.
The consistency percentage depends on your account. Apex's legacy accounts use 30%; accounts opened under the current rules use 50%. Confirm which applies to yours — it changes how much total profit you need behind your best day before a payout unlocks.
The mistakes that fail Apex accounts
- Treating the threshold as a fixed number below your starting balance. On an intraday account it's trailing and follows unrealized P&L — after any trade that spiked, your real floor is higher than you think.
- Not pushing to the lock. Every dollar of realized profit past "starting balance + $100" is trading against a fixed floor instead of a moving one.
- One monster day. It feels great and then it quietly caps your payouts under the consistency rule.
- Oversizing on the PA before scaling unlocks.
Track it against your account
Save your Apex account's target, trailing threshold, contract cap, and consistency percentage (30% or 50%) as a rule set in Tradervana. Connect Tradovate — or import from either the Tradovate or Rithmic version — and it shows your live distance-to-threshold, how close you are to the profit target, and whether your best day is still inside the consistency limit, on every account at once. A rule set holds one daily loss limit and one contract cap, so update it as your PA moves up a tier.