Apex Trader Funding Review

Apex Trader Funding is a futures prop firm based in Austin, Texas. You trade equity index, currency, energy, metal and agricultural futures through Rithmic, Tradovate or WealthCharts, with a free NinjaTrader license. Pass a one-time-fee evaluation, pay an activation fee (or pick the path without one), and you trade a simulated Performance Account where approved payouts are paid at 100%.

On 1 March 2026 Apex replaced its old monthly-subscription accounts with new one-time-fee products: an Intraday Trail and an End-of-Day (EOD) evaluation, each with a "Standard" path and a "No Activation Fee" path. The headline features are a 100% split, no minimum days to pass and up to 20 funded accounts. The catches are a 30-day evaluation with no resets, a drawdown that trails your profits, a cap of six payouts per funded account, and list prices that give Apex the highest cost per $1,000 of any futures firm we track.

The short version

• Best for: disciplined manual day traders who can pass inside 30 days and want to run several funded accounts at once.
• Not for: anyone who uses bots, trades through the close, hedges correlated markets or wants a long-term funded account rather than six payouts.
• Biggest strength: a 100% split on approved payouts and room for up to 20 Performance Accounts.
• Biggest risk: the real-time trailing drawdown on Intraday accounts, which counts open profit, combined with a hard 30-day deadline and no resets.
• Our score: 2.9 out of 5. Payouts score well, but list prices are the highest we track and the founding date isn't published.

Who runs Apex Trader Funding

The terms of use describe Apex as "a Texas corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas", and the footer names Apex Trader Funding Inc., with a mailing-only address on E. Ben White Blvd in Austin. The terms are governed by Texas law, and disputes go to binding arbitration in Travis County under American Arbitration Association rules.

Apex doesn't give a founding date. Its history page says founder Darrell Martin has built a network of over 100,000 traders "since 2008", while the website's copyright line starts in 2021.

Everything you trade before going live is simulated. The Performance Account (PA) is a "Sim Funded" account, the risk disclosure says no real capital is at risk, and it adds that "reward payouts are discretionary". Apex says it watches PA traders and may invite the best into a live trading program.

The rules sit in a public help center, with separate articles for EOD and Intraday accounts. Accounts bought before 1 March 2026 are "Legacy" products with their own older rules, and Apex was running a limited-time return of Legacy evaluations when we checked. This review covers the new products only.

Programs and prices

Apex sells one evaluation format with two drawdown types and two payment paths. Prices are list prices from the homepage product picker, checked on 28 October 2026, before any coupon. A banner offering 90% off all evaluations was running when we checked; the picker applies that discount to the evaluation fee and shows the activation fee at full price.

Rules shared by every evaluation:

• One phase, 6% target, no minimum trading days. You can pass in one session.
• 30 calendar days of access from purchase, ending at 6:00 PM ET on day 30. No extensions and no resets: fail or expire and you buy a new one.
• No consistency rule and no scaling in the evaluation.
• After passing, you have 7 calendar days to activate the PA.

Intraday Trail evaluation

The cheaper type, with the harsher drawdown.

• Drawdown trails your peak balance in real time, including unrealized profit, and never moves down.
• No daily loss limit.
• On Tradovate the evaluation drawdown trails without limit; on Rithmic and WealthCharts it stops at the profit target balance.

Worked example, $50,000 Intraday. Your floor starts at $48,000. Open a trade that runs to $900 of unrealized profit and your peak becomes $50,900, so the floor jumps to $48,900 even if you close the trade at $50,300. Reach $53,000 within 30 days and you pass. Once funded, the floor stops trailing at $50,100, which happens when your peak hits $52,100.

EOD Trail evaluation

The friendlier drawdown, at a much higher list price.

• Drawdown is recalculated once a day at 4:59:59 PM ET from your closing balance, then enforced in real time the next session.
• A fixed daily loss limit that pauses trading for the session without failing you.

Worked example, $100,000 EOD. Your floor starts at $97,000. Close day one at $101,200 and the next session's floor is $98,200; a losing day leaves it where it was. During the session you can be down $1,500 before trading pauses. Reach $106,000 inside 30 days to pass. Unlike the Intraday version, an open trade that runs up and comes back doesn't lift your floor.

Standard or No Activation Fee?

At list prices, the Standard path is always cheaper in total: the $50,000 Intraday costs $348 with activation against $799 without. The picture flips when Apex runs big discounts on evaluation fees, because the activation fee isn't discounted on the picker. Compare the two totals at checkout before you choose. The picker shows the same Performance Account rules for both paths.

See every option side by side on our Apex challenges page.

Which Apex Trader Funding plan should you pick?

On cost alone, the $50,000 Intraday Standard is Apex's cheapest funding: $348 including activation, or $6.96 per $1,000. The other Intraday sizes cost $8.93 to $10.24 per $1,000.

The catch is the drawdown. An Intraday floor follows unrealized profit, so a trade that runs $1,500 in your favor and then reverses can cost you $1,500 of room without a single closed loss. If you hold winners for big moves, the EOD Standard is the safer choice, even though the $50,000 costs $719 in total, or $14.38 per $1,000.

Size matters more than usual because each PA pays at most six times. A $50,000 Intraday PA can pay out a maximum of $14,500 in total before it closes, and a $150,000 Intraday PA $21,500. Bigger accounts raise the ceiling, but the $150,000 costs nearly four times as much as the $50,000 at list.

Trading rules in practice

Drawdown and the trading day

Touch the floor and every position is liquidated at market. The evaluation fails, or the PA closes for good. Because liquidation fills at market, you can end slightly below the floor.

The trading day runs from 6:00 PM ET to 4:59 PM ET the next day, so up to 23 hours. Daily loss limits reset at 6:00 PM ET.

Holding through the close

Apex's prohibited activities list includes "holding open trade positions through the market close". You must be flat before the session ends, every day. There's no overnight or weekend holding.

Scaling and daily limits in the PA

Funded accounts start with fewer contracts than the evaluation and grow with your closing balance. The daily loss limit grows with them:

Levels update once a day from the previous close and move down as well as up. The $25,000 PA tops out at 2 contracts and the $150,000 at 10.

News trading

News trading is allowed if it's your normal strategy. Apex bans "news trading" strategies that place orders on both sides of the market to gamble on the outcome, and non-directional bracket orders in general.

Bots, copiers and hedging

• Automation is banned. "No Automation or Algorithm Usage allowed" is on the prohibited list; Apex wants human traders only.
• Trade copying with other traders and sharing devices, IPs or cards is banned. Copying between your own accounts isn't addressed in the rules we read.
• Hedging of any kind is banned: no long and short on the same or a correlated instrument, even in one account, and no passing evaluations by hedging them against each other.

Risk management rules

Apex also bans trading without a stop loss (a pending order or a "mental" stop), strategies with tiny targets and huge stops (its example is a 5-tick target with a 150-tick stop), using the full trailing drawdown as your stop, and buying discounted evaluations in bulk to "blow up" in search of a windfall. These are judged by Apex, and breaches can lead to account closure or "Trader Probation".

Inactivity

Each PA must record at least 2 days with $50 or more of net profit in every rolling 30 days. Miss it and the account is closed, with any payout eligibility forfeited. Apex sends reminders on days 15 and 20.

How payouts work

Payouts are paid at 100% of the approved amount, and you can request one every 5 qualifying trading days.

Sizes run $25,000 / $50,000 / $100,000 / $150,000. Only profit above the safety net can be withdrawn, so a $50,000 PA needs a balance of at least $52,600 to request the $500 minimum.

Maximum per payout:

After the sixth payout, the PA closes and you need a new evaluation for another one.

Worked payout, $50,000 Intraday PA. After six trading days, five of them with $200 or more, your balance is $54,000 and your best day was $700. Total profit is $4,000, so your best day is 17.5%, inside the 50% rule. You can withdraw above the $52,100 safety net, which is $1,900, but payout 1 is capped at $1,500. Request $1,500 and all of it is yours. Your balance drops to $52,500, and the floor stays locked at $50,100.

Methods and timing. US traders are paid by ACH to a US bank account, international traders through Plane. The payout method article sets out the timeline: Apex reviews within 2 business days, sends approved funds within 3 to 4 business days, and banks take 3 to 7 business days, so most traders are paid within 5 to 11 business days.

Apex's own pages don't all agree:

The 8-day wording matches the Legacy rules, so plan on 5 qualifying days for new accounts.

Fees and refunds. Apex doesn't refund evaluation fees, activation fees, data add-ons, wrong-platform purchases or missed coupons. Platforms can't be switched after purchase, so choose Rithmic, Tradovate or WealthCharts carefully. Level 1 data is included; depth of market is extra.

Who can sign up

Apex can't serve new accounts from: Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, China, Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, Gabon, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, the Maldives, Mauritania, Mauritius, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Réunion, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

If you're from one of these countries but live, bank and hold a valid government ID in an approved country, you may still qualify. Using a payment card issued in a restricted country is grounds for termination, and while you're physically in one you can't trade, buy or request payouts. Canadians can join.

US traders are Apex's main market. Identity details are checked at registration, and Apex accepts only physical, unexpired government IDs such as a passport or driver's license.

Reputation

On Trustpilot, Apex Trader Funding scores 4.2 out of 5 from 21,455 reviews, checked on 28 October 2026, with 5,999 of them in the last 12 months. 81% give five stars, 6% four stars, 2% three stars, 2% two stars and 9% one star. The profile was claimed in February 2024, Apex pays for a Trustpilot subscription, and it had replied to 6% of negative reviews, typically within a month. Trustpilot notes the profile was merged with other profiles belonging to the company. See the Trustpilot page.

The positive reviews mostly mention fast payouts, clear rules and an easy evaluation. The negative ones mostly describe slow or missing support, accounts restricted or closed, strict inactivity rules, rules that are hard to find, and high one-time fees. One detailed review argues that moving traders to a live account early can end the payout run on their simulated accounts.

News. Finance Magnates reported on 29 August 2024 that Apex was allegedly struggling with timely payouts, that its CEO said new security and fraud detection systems were nearly ready with a goal of approvals within 48 hours, and that traders reported being asked to video-record two trading days before a payout. Apex's homepage now advertises "No payout reviews. No video reviews of trading" for the new products. We found no regulator action naming Apex Trader Funding.

Mistakes to avoid at Apex Trader Funding

1. Letting open profit raise your Intraday floor. A winner that reverses can eat your drawdown without a closed loss. Take partials or use the EOD version if you hold for big moves.
2. Holding through the close. It's a prohibited activity that can forfeit the account and its balance.
3. Running out the 30 days. There are no resets or extensions, so a half-finished evaluation is lost money.
4. Forgetting the 7-day activation window. Miss it and the passed evaluation is gone for good.
5. Trading correlated markets in opposite directions. Long ES and short NQ counts as hedging.
6. Going quiet on a funded account. Two days of $50 profit every rolling 30 days, or the PA closes.

Before you buy: checklist

• Choose Intraday or EOD based on how long you hold winners, as well as on price.
• Pick your platform carefully; it can't be changed or refunded later.
• Compare the Standard total (fee plus activation) with the No Activation Fee price at checkout.
• Make sure you can trade manually, with stops, and be flat before every close.
• Confirm your country and payment card aren't on the restricted list.
• Use code SCOUT at checkout. See our Apex Trader Funding coupon page for how to apply it.

Our verdict

Apex Trader Funding suits manual futures day traders who can pass fast, want several accounts at once and value a 100% split. The new one-time-fee products are cleaner than the old subscriptions, and the payout rules are clearly tabled.

At list price, though, it's expensive, and the structure caps what you can earn: six payouts per PA, a 50% consistency rule, a lifetime safety net and a trailing floor. Buy the drawdown type that matches how you trade, plan to pass well inside 30 days, and treat each PA as a fixed number of payouts rather than an open-ended funded account.