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Apex Trader Funding has quickly rose up the ranks of futures funding companies with. They are now attracting more traders than any other firm for several reasons.
One of their biggest advantages is the frequent sales of up to 90% off of the evaluation cost. Another advantage is the ability to manage up to 20 funded accounts simultaneously. The process of getting funded here is very straightforward, but upon getting funding, things can get a bit more complicated.
In this guide, I will show you everything you need to know to get started, and how to work your way up to your first successful payout.
If you are new to the idea of funded accounts, check out this guide to answer all your general questions.
The Evaluation
Like most futures funding companies, Apex offers a variety of account sizes and plans to choose from. In addition to 8 separate account sizes, they are also separated by trading platforms: Rithmic and Tradovate. I use Rithmic for everything, but I’ve heard good things about Tradovate too.
If you opt for Tradovate, the account plans will be the same as with Rithmic, but cost $20 extra.
See the account sizes below, and note the additional $20 cost on Tradovate plans.
I almost exclusively go with the $50k plans with Rithmic. They are the best value for the cost (relative to other accounts, as well as other firms), and more than enough size and drawdown to do well with.
However, if you have the capital to go with a larger account, the $150k account is better than the $100k, and the 250k is pretty powerful as well, but neither are evenly scaled up from the $50k when it comes to drawdown or number of contract.
You can compare all of the different account sizes and costs (even across firms) here.
Signing Up For the Evaluation
When you want to sign up for an account, you can do it two ways.
- Select an account size from the main page (with the buttons marked “Rithmic” or “Tradovate”).
- Register your own account (with the yellow “Sign Up” button at the top right of the home page). Login, and find the appropriate Rithmic or Tradovate account from the navigation menu on the left of the member page.
Either way, you will be redirected to a page like this.
The payment option you select doesn’t matter, but the coupon code does. If you don’t enter a value here, you will be charged full price for the evaluation.
As mentioned earlier, one of Apex’s biggest advantages is that they hold frequent sales of anywhere from 70-90% off on everything. You can sign up with the coupon code “DOJIDOJO” to support this site, or use Apex’s default internal code of “SAVENOW“, if you’d rather not support me (or others). Either way, the current sale will be applied to your evaluation cost when you fill out the box accordingly. If there’s a sale going on and you don’t use a coupon, you will not get a discount.
After taking some time to read through the various Terms, Disclaimer, and Privacy Policy sections, and double-checking that you’ve selected the right account plan, you will be able to proceed to the payment page.
Double check again that you have selected the right account and not the wrong platform, and fill out your information to pay for the account. After a short time, you will receive an e-mail and your account will be set up for you to start trading the same day.
As with all evaluations, once it’s been paid for, the clock starts ticking.
Rules of the Evaluation
To pass the evaluation phase, you simply need to produce a certain amount of profit relative to the account size. There is a minimum 7 trading days requirement, which means you simply have to place trades across 7 days. There are also occasional sales where Apex will allow traders to pass in as little as one day.
You are allowed to take as long as you want, but each additional month will be billed again, as the accounts are subscriptions and not single payments.
Trailing Drawdown on Hell Mode
The trailing drawdown at Apex is a little different from most. The typical trailing drawdown moves up as you grow your account balance, including unrealized profits, until it reaches the initial balance. It doesn’t go back down, but if you stay well above your initial balance, you’ll always be fine.
But at Apex (during the evaluation only), this drawdown will continue to rise beyond the initial balance, which is something you don’t typically see.
So if you chose the $150k account, and have a large unrealized profit, be extra careful. Your profit might be $8,000, with a max drawdown of $5,000, putting your account balance at $158,000. But your trailing drawdown will be at $153,000. So if your account drops by $5,000, you will manage to fail your account while having $3,000 or profit.
This rule does not apply to funded accounts, where the drawdown will stop at the initial balance +$100.
Passing the Evaluation
After trading the necessary number of days, and meeting the profit requirements, you don’t have to do anything. Simply stop trading and wait.
The accounts are automatically evaluated at the end of each trading session, and you will get an e-mail if your account has passed. Your subscription will be cancelled and you will be sent a link where you are able to sign your contract. There is also an activation fee for each account, which you can see in the table below.
Note that this process can take up to 2 business days, but is usually done the same day you pass. If it’s taking longer, you may need to reach out to Apex. They will manually cancel your subscription and set up the funded account soon after.
| Apex Trader | Monthly Fee (Rithmic) | Waiving Rithmic | Monthly Fee (Tradovate) | Waiving Tradovate |
| $25,000 | $85 | $130 | $105 | $150 |
| $50,000 | $85 | $140 | $105 | $160 |
| $75,000 | $85 | $180 | $105 | $200 |
| $100,000 | $85 | $220 | $105 | $240 |
| $100,000 (Static) | $85 | $220 | $105 | $240 |
| $150,000 | $85 | $260 | $105 | $280 |
| $250,000 | $85 | $300 | $105 | $320 |
| $300,000 | $85 | $340 | $105 | $360 |
The Funded Account
Now that you’re funded, there’s some extra rules you have to abide by that weren’t enforced during the evaluation.
Funded Account Rules
Similar to many other firms, the evaluation is more lenient on contract sizes, consistency, and news releases. Apex has historically enforced most of their rules with discretion, but it’s not a good idea to see just how much you can get away with here. You will run the risk of having payments denied if you are doing something insane with your funded account, even if you made a lot of money with it.
No Scaling Rule
While I don’t recommend it, you are technically free to trade up to the max contract size from the beginning. At other firms, you sometimes have to scale up based on how much profit is in the account, and risk losing your account by increasing size too early. This is a restriction that Apex doesn’t impose on you.
Consistency on Contract Sizing
With the No Scaling Rule, you may get wild ideas of making big trades on day one. But while this rule is not strictly enforced, it will be applied with discretion when it’s time to get paid.
Use some common sense and don’t randomly vary your trade position sizes. By trading 2 contracts per trade on Monday, and then 8 per trade on Tuesday, you are showing a poor understanding of risk management. This will rarely work out in the long term, and will likely be flagged during payouts.
Consistency on Profits and Losses
Apex has another loose rule on consistent profits, which often overlaps with contract sizes. If you are using a lot of contracts haphazardly, it’s possible that you will end up with a massive profit (or loss) on one day, with small profits and losses on other days. Apex will take a closer look at your trading history if you have any suspicious activity like this going on.
Even if you are not violating the contract size consistency rule, this may happen during a big trend. But if you have been trading somewhat consistently and they see you had a huge runner on normal sizing, there won’t be any issues. On the other hand, if you have been flipping contracts, scaling up massively on one day to get a big payout, and then barely trading the rest of the time, you may have your payouts denied.
None of this is an obstacle if you are actually a good trader, but it’s good to know nonetheless.
News Releases
Apex, unlike many other firms, does permit holding positions through news releases. The issue, however, is if you are taking trades strictly around news releases (essentially gambling).
So if you had a decent setup appear 10 minutes before a news release, and you know it will work out for you based on your strategy and data, you are fine to hold your trades. You will be opening yourself to risk but Apex will not instantly fail you the way some other firms will. Still, I advise against it until you are truly an expert with news releases.
Withdrawing Profits From Your Funded Account
Apex’s withdrawal system isn’t bad, but it isn’t the most simple either.
No matter what account size you’re on, you must have 10 trading days before you can request a payout. In addition, there is a profit threshold that you must meet before you are eligible to withdraw, and a minimum/maximum you are allowed to withdraw for the first 3 successful payout months.
When I say 3 successful payout months, it means you must make successful payout requests in 3 separate months. You cannot simply get funded, wait 3 months, and then bypass these restrictions.
Once you do have 3 separate months with withdraws, you will still need 10 trading days for future withdraws. But the maximum withdraw cap will be removed, and you can start printing money!
See the table below for the withdrawal minimum balance and maximum amounts.
| Apex Trader Accounts | Minimum Balance Required | Maximum Withdrawal Amount (twice monthly, first 3 months) |
| $25,000 | $26,600 | $1,500 |
| $50,000 | $52,600 | $2,000 |
| $75,000 | $77,850 | $2,250 |
| $100,000 | $103,100 | $2,500 |
| $150,000 | $155,100 | $2,750 |
| $250,000 | $256,600 | $3,000 |
| $300,000 | $307,600 | $3,500 |
| $100,000 (Static) | $102,600 | $1,000 |
At other firms that use the withdrawal threshold system, you must leave that much money in the account indefinitely. At Apex, if you meet the minimum balance requirement, you are able to withdraw from the money that is in the threshold. This enables faster payouts.
However, imagine you have a $50,000 account that just made it to the minimum balance for a payout. Withdrawing a full $2,000 would mean you have only about $50,600 remaining, with a trailing drawdown at $50,100. This may not be enough room to trade comfortably on a full e-mini again, so keep that in mind.
I’ve written an extensive breakdown on withdrawing profits from Apex here.
Apex Trader Funding Compatible Platforms
If you are on Tradovate, it can only be used on Tradovate Web/Mobile, TradingView, or NinjaTrader Desktop/Mobile.
When you choose Rithmic, there’s 14 platforms you can use with it. NinjaTrader 8 (no NT 7) is the preferred platform at Apex, but I personally use Quantower and R Trader Pro.
RTrader Pro, Rithmic Trader Pro Mobile, Rithmic RTrader Pro-Web
WEALTHCHARTS Web Based
Conclusion
Overall, Apex Trader Funding provides an amazing opportunity for futures traders, with plenty advantages and no major drawbacks to cause any real issues. If you go with Apex, try to take advantage of their sales.
Traders here seem to make much more money than I’ve seen at any other firms, largely due to the ability to have 20 simultaneous funded accounts. If you follow the rules and scale responsibly, there is almost no limit to the upside. If you want to see more about the rules, expenses, or profit, you can check my 3-part article that starts here.
I will be adding a full review of my experience so far at Apex, which I will link here soon. Any questions or feedback? Leave a comment, or let me know via Discord!
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