Apex Trader Funding
We had this disqualified for intraday trailing, and that was wrong. Apex sells two lines — Intraday Trail and EOD Trail — and on the funded account both stop: "Once the Intraday Threshold reaches Starting Balance + $100, it stops increasing." Its own product data confirms it, listing the liquidation floor as exactly 25,100 / 50,100 / 100,100 / 150,100. A floor locked at your starting balance is not chasing anything. It also carries the largest unmanipulated review base in this study: 4.2 from 20,336, with no Trustpilot warning of any kind.
One trap survives, and it is specific rather than general: on Tradovate evaluations the intraday threshold never stops. Apex says so itself, in eight words — "Tradovate Intraday Drawdown trails indefinitely with the peak account balance", and the EOD page carries the same line. The same product on Rithmic or Wealthcharts freezes at the profit-target balance. The platform you pick at checkout changes the rule, which is not something a buyer would expect to matter. What keeps Apex out of the recommended tier is not the drawdown, it is the exit. A Performance Account is closed after six payouts — "regardless of the total profit generated in the account" — with each request capped between $1,000 and $5,000, and the terms reserve the right to "deny, modify, reduce, cap, delay, or revoke Reward distributions for any reason or no reason". Apex Trader Funding Inc. is a real Texas corporation that names no broker and states it is not one. There is no static plan at any size — the whole catalogue is 48 intraday SKUs and 42 EOD ones.
Not enough published data to simulate this firm’s floor.
No disqualifier applies, and there is a plan here worth trading — but something real is wrong, and we name it. Read the reservation before you pay.
What they published
“The Company reserves the right to deny, modify, reduce, cap, delay, or revoke Reward distributions for any reason or no reason, including but not limited to suspected violations of this Agreement”Scorecard
15Trails on daily closes only, then freezes at your starting balance
A named company, but no financial regulator anywhere — or a light-touch one only
A lifetime ceiling, or a rule that can block payment
Every page we read agreed with every other
Years of operation and a large, unmanipulated review base
Each axis is scored 0–5 against a published scale. The line under each bar is the rung this firm landed on — not our summary of it, the scale entry itself.
Plan by plan
1 of this firm’s challenges were read plan by plan, with a citation behind every answer.
The line to buy. The floor moves only at the 4:59:59 PM ET close, so nothing you do intraday can move it, and it locks for good at your starting balance plus $100. Roughly double the price of the intraday equivalent, which is the honest price of the better rule.
Tradable, but you are exposed until it locks: the threshold tracks unrealised profit tick by tick, so a spike you never closed on raises your floor until the account is $2,100 up on a 50K. After that it is fixed at $50,100 and the risk is over.
The one genuinely bad product here, and it is bad by Apex's own written admission: on Tradovate the evaluation threshold never stops trailing. Same account, same price, different platform — pick Rithmic or Wealthcharts and the floor freezes.
Trustpilot
What this firm published
Everything below is quoted from a page we opened, on the date shown. The quotes are in the firm’s own language, exactly as published — never edited, never shortened, never swapped for a translation. On the Spanish edition our own rendering appears underneath each one, unquoted and marked as ours: the quotation marks on this site mean the words are the firm’s, and nothing we wrote ever wears them. Where we have not read enough to put a number on an axis, we say so instead of guessing.
2/5
Can you even pass?
Almost nobody who pays for an evaluation ever reaches a funded account, so this is the part of the product most customers actually buy. Every firm advertises its profit target; none of them advertises that target next to how much you are allowed to lose while chasing it.
2/5
Can you keep the money?
The drawdown takes the account away; the payout rules take the money. Answered by whichever of the two we can measure and is worse — they are two ways of losing the same thing, so a good half cannot pay for a bad one.
2/5
Is anyone behind it?
A named company, a market, and rules you could read before paying. These three do not substitute for one another — a company you can sue does not stop existing because the account is a simulation — so this is the average of the ones we could measure, not the worst.
How hard the test is
Not the profit target on the sales page — that target measured against the room you are given to reach it.
How much you must win to survivefor every $1 you are allowed to lose, you must make $1.52.40/8
“25K 50K 100K 150K Profit Target $1,500 $3,000 $6,000 $9,000 Max Drawdown (EOD) $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 Daily Loss Limit $500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000”A profit target only means something next to the room you are given to reach it. Ten per cent to make against ten to lose is a coin flip sold as an exam.
Days you have to finish30 days1.05/3
“The End-of-Day (EOD) Evaluation is a 30-day assessment designed to measure profitability and risk management under an end-of-day drawdown model.”A deadline turns a test of skill into a test of whether the market happened to move during your month.
Trading days you must put inThey state there is none.2/2
“No minimum trading days required, may pass in one trading day”Cuts both ways: it costs you time, and it also stops an account passing on one lucky afternoon you could never repeat.
Profit target6%—
“25K 50K 100K 150K Profit Target $1,500 $3,000 $6,000 $9,000 Max Drawdown (EOD) $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 Daily Loss Limit $500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000”A second attempt costs
Maximum loss
The loss limit that closes your account. Does it sit still, or does it climb behind you as you win?
What makes the loss limit riseit rises with the day's closing balanceno change1.65/3
“The EOD Threshold is recalculated once per trading day at 4:59:59 PM ET, based on the account’s closing balance. It always trails the highest achieved EOD balance and never moves downward.”A limit that climbs takes back the cushion you already earned.
Where the limit stops risingsomewhere above your starting balance1.50/3
“Once the EOD Threshold reaches Starting Balance + $100, it stops increasing.”The difference between a danger with an end date and one that never ends.
What the limit is measured againstlive equity, open trades includedno change1/2
“Even though the threshold is calculated at end-of-day, it is enforced in real time.”Decides whether a trade that dips and recovers can close an account that ended the day green.
What taking a payout does to the limitThey do not say.0/2
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
Taking your money out should not leave you closer to losing the account.
Daily limit2%, measured on live equity, open trades includedno change0.30/2
“25K 50K 100K 150K Profit Target $1,500 $3,000 $6,000 $9,000 Max Drawdown (EOD) $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 Daily Loss Limit $500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000”A generous percentage measured on live equity is not generous — it is the same number with a trapdoor under it.
Total loss allowed4%no change0.25/1
“25K 50K 100K 150K Profit Target $1,500 $3,000 $6,000 $9,000 Max Drawdown (EOD) $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 Daily Loss Limit $500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000”How much room you have. Worth little, because almost every firm offers the same.
Withdrawing
How much can leave the account, how soon, how often — and whether they can say no.
Withdrawals before the account ends6 in total1.50/3
“Maximum 6 payouts per Performance Account”The cap per withdrawal times how many they allow is the real size of the account. One plan here is sold on a $200,000 banner and closes after five withdrawals of $2,100.
What else a payout changesthe consistency calculation starts over1.50/3
“The 50% consistency rule requires that no single profitable trading day account for 50% or more of your total profit since your last approved payout.”The floor is not the only thing a withdrawal moves, and the rest of it is never on the same page. Position size, the consistency rule and the share you are paid all reset or shift at some firms, and a trader who checked only the drawdown finds out afterwards.
What breaking the consistency rule costsThey state there is none.it delays the payout2.10/3
“Consistency Not Applied Not Applied”“If this requirement is not satisfied, the payout request option will not be available until you reach 50% consistency.”Weighted by what it costs, not by existing: reading plan by plan, no consistency rule ever closed an account — they postponed the withdrawal.
Can it refuse without giving a reasonyes — it reserves that right in writing0/3
“they are only entitled to a contractual payout based on their trading performance, at the sole discretion of Apex.”“We may decline for any reason” is not a rule, it is the absence of one — it makes every other number on this axis conditional on goodwill.
Most one withdrawal can pay you1.7% of the account, at worst0.50/2
“Payout # $25,000 $50,000 $100,000 $150,000 1 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $2,500”$2,000 is generous on a $25K account and a joke on a $200K one, so it is measured as a share and at the worst size sold.
Does that cap rise with the accountyes — a bigger account pays a bigger cheque2/2
“Payout # $25,000 $50,000 $100,000 $150,000 1 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 $2,500”Days before you can ask for money · Profit required before the first request · Fee charged to pay you
How you may trade
Can you trade the way you actually trade — around the news, over the weekend, at the size and speed you use?
Mandatory stop-lossThey do not say.no change—
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
Minimum time a trade must be heldThey do not say.no change—
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
LeverageNo such thing in this plan.no change—
“Trade full size contracts”Limit on position size42—
“25K 50K 100K 150K Profit Target $1,500 $3,000 $6,000 $9,000 Max Drawdown (EOD) $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 Daily Loss Limit $500 $1,000 $1,500 $2,000 Max Contracts 4 6 8 12”“25K 50K 100K 150K Max Drawdown (EOD) $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 Scaling Tier Based Yes Yes Yes Yes Max Contracts 2 4 6 10”No score here, on purpose. The six axes above ask whether the firm can take your money or refuse to pay it. These rules ask something else — whether you can trade your way — and the right weight depends on who is reading: a minimum holding time decides the account for a scalper and is invisible to anyone else, while the weekend rule is the reverse. A single number would be wrong for half of you, and would look decided. The firm’s own sentences are here; the judgement is yours.
How it grows
What makes the account get bigger, how big it can get, and whether the path ends at a real market or at a larger simulation.
What makes the account growprofit—
“Yes. Position size increases as you move up Scaling Levels based on your End-of-Day balance, up to the account’s maximum level.”How large it can getNo such thing in this plan.—
“Yes. Position size increases as you move up Scaling Levels based on your End-of-Day balance, up to the account’s maximum level.”Where the path endsat a larger simulation—
“All activity occurs in a simulated environment using virtual funds; no real capital is at risk and no live market execution occurs.”One of these questions is scored and it is not here. “Does the cap rise with the account” sits on the cash axis, next to the cap itself, because it has a right answer: a bigger account that pays the same cheque has handed you a larger number and the same money. The three below are different. A two-million ceiling is the whole point of the product for one reader and irrelevant to someone who wants one clean payout, so the firm’s sentences are here and the weight is yours.
The rules in writing
Could you read the rule before paying, and can they change it afterwards?
Where the rule that binds you is publishedin a help-centre article the contract never mentions1.20/4
“The End-of-Day (EOD) Drawdown sets the lowest balance your account is allowed to reach.”If the rule that binds you lives in a help article your contract never mentions, you did not sign it.
Can it change the rules without noticeyes, and it says so0.60/3
“We may update these Terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the “Effective Date” at the bottom of this page. If we make material changes, we will provide you with notice, which may include sending an email to your registered address, posting on our Site, or providing notice through your Account dashboard. Any changes will become effective when posted unless otherwise indicated.”The clause that makes every dated verdict perishable, including ours. Near-universal, so not fatal.
We compared their own pages against each other and found nothing that contradicts.
Is the binding document dated
The company behind it
If it goes wrong, which company do you claim against, and under whose laws?
The company you contract withApex Trader Funding Inc.no change4/4
“2021-2026, Apex Trader Funding Inc.”“Traders do not have any ownership, fiduciary, or equity interests in Apex or its accounts”With no named company there is nobody to sue.
Where it is registeredTexas, United Stateswe did not read this stage2/2
“These Terms shall be governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict of law provisions, unless otherwise required by applicable local law.”A claim in the Czech Republic and a claim in St Vincent are not the same claim.
Its registration numberThey do not say.we did not read this stage0/2
we read the page that should answer this and it does not
What turns a name into something checkable in a public register.
Almost no firm here has a financial regulator, because selling simulated evaluations is not a regulated activity anywhere. Of the 114 firms we scored by hand, 96 sat in the bottom two rungs of backing for this reason. So we do not count it against anyone — it only adds when a firm genuinely has one.
That company owns the brand · The people behind it are named
The market
Do your orders reach a market, or is all of it a simulation?
What the funded account issimulated, with no route to real capital0/4
“The End-of-Day (EOD) Performance Account is a Simulated Funded (Sim Funded) account awarded after you pass the EOD Evaluation.”The question that separates a firm that earns when you lose from one that earns when you last.
Conditions to reach a real marketNo such thing in this plan.—
“The End-of-Day (EOD) Performance Account is a Simulated Funded (Sim Funded) account awarded after you pass the EOD Evaluation.”Promising a route to a real market without publishing the conditions is promising nothing.
Almost none names a broker or a clearing house either, and that follows from the account being a simulation rather than being a second, separate failing. Charging for both would count one fact twice.
We read the rules of every plan it sells and issued a verdict on each one.