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Apex Trader Funding
Apex Trader Funding: Eval Rules, Consistency Rule, Trailing Threshold & Pine Script Strategies
Everything you need to know about Apex's evaluation rules — how the trailing threshold works, what the consistency rule actually means, and how a Pine Script strategy handles all of it automatically.
Apex Trader Funding evaluation rules at a glance
| Account Size | Profit Target | Trailing Threshold | Daily Loss Limit | Min Trading Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | $1,500 | $1,500 | None | 1 |
| $50,000 | $3,000 | $2,500 | None | 1 |
| $100,000 | $6,000 | $3,000 | None | 1 |
| $150,000 | $9,000 | $5,000 | None | 1 |
| $250,000 | $15,000 | $6,500 | None | 1 |
| $300,000 | $20,000 | $7,500 | None | 1 |
Recent rule changes: Apex retired its legacy Evaluation/PA products and launched new EOD and Intraday account lines on March 1, 2026 — dated details in the Apex rule changes tracker.
How Apex's trailing threshold actually works
The trailing threshold is Apex's version of a drawdown floor — but it uses intraday trailing, which is more aggressive than Topstep's end-of-day version. Here's the exact mechanic:
- You start with a $50k account. The trailing threshold is $2,500, so your initial floor is $47,500.
- Every time your account equity peaks — even intraday, even on an unrealized gain — the floor rises by the same amount.
- If your account peaks at $52,000 intraday (up $2,000), your floor moves to $49,500 ($52,000 − $2,500).
- If that trade then reverses and closes at breakeven, your account is back at $50,000 — but your floor is still $49,500. You've permanently lost $2,000 of cushion from a trade that made nothing.
The trail stops moving once your account reaches the profit target ($3,000 above the starting balance on 50k = $53,000). At that point, the floor is locked and you have a buffer to the downside again. Until then, every intraday peak counts against you.
Why this punishes trailing stop strategies
If your strategy uses trailing stops on winning trades — letting a $1,500 winner trail down to a $400 exit — you've raised the drawdown floor by $1,500 but only booked $400. The floor doesn't care what you took home. It cares about the highest point your equity reached. Fixed profit targets (take profit at 1:1 or 2:1 R, period) protect you from this dynamic.
Does Apex have a consistency rule?
Yes, but it only applies on the funded Performance Account (PA), not during the evaluation. The Apex consistency rule states: no single trading day can account for more than 30% of your total profit target.
On a 50k PA with a $3,000 profit target, that means no single day can show more than $900 in net profit. If you're running 5 MNQ contracts and hit a $1,200 day on a strong trend move, Apex can flag your account.
The practical implications for algo traders:
- Keep your daily profit cap around $700–800 (roughly 25% of target) so a slightly above-average day never accidentally hits 30%
- If the strategy has already hit the daily cap, disable new entries for that session even if signals still fire
- A Pine Script with a built-in daily profit cap achieves this automatically — the strategy simply doesn't take new entries after a certain P&L threshold is reached for the day
Apex vs Topstep: which is better for automation?
Both are strong choices. The key differences that affect automated trading:
| Feature | Apex | Topstep |
|---|---|---|
| Trailing type | Intraday (aggressive) | EOD (forgiving) |
| Daily loss limit (eval) | None | $1,000 on 50k |
| Min trading days | 1 | 10 |
| Consistency rule | 30% on PA only | 5 winning days (≥$200) |
| Automation on live account | Not allowed (commercial) | Not specified |
| Best for | Fast passes, tight strategies | Steady daily grinders |
If your strategy takes 2–3 precise trades per session with fixed targets, Apex's intraday trailing is manageable. If your strategy has wide intraday swings and high per-trade variance, Topstep's EOD system is meaningfully more forgiving.
Contract sizing for Apex evaluations
| Account | Contract | Max Contracts | Recommended Stop | Max Loss Per Trade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50k | MES | 10 | 6 points | $30/contract |
| 50k | MNQ | 10 | 25 ticks | $12.50/contract |
| 100k | ES | 2 | 8 points | $400/contract |
| 150k | NQ | 2 | 30 ticks | $150/contract |
Start at 2–3 MES or 2–3 MNQ contracts per trade on a 50k account. This keeps individual trade risk well below $150 per trade, meaning a string of losing trades won't push you into danger of the trail. Scale only after 3–4 profitable sessions have built a buffer between your equity and the threshold floor.
How to automate Apex evaluations with TradingView and TradersPost
The full setup involves three components:
- TradingView Pine Script strategy — generates entry and exit signals on your chart
- TradingView alert — fires a webhook when the strategy signals. Configure once, runs every session.
- TradersPost — receives the webhook and executes the trade on your connected Apex/Tradovate or Rithmic account
The Pine Script handles all the prop-firm logic: bar-close confirmation (no repainting), session filter (RTH only), daily loss kill switch, and the daily profit cap for PA accounts. TradingView fires the alert. TradersPost places the order. You don't touch anything.
Common reasons Apex evaluations fail
In order of frequency:
- Trailing threshold breach from a giving-back winner. A trade that peaks at +$1,500 and closes at +$300 has moved the floor by $1,500 but only booked $300. Do this twice and you're within reach of the trail on a winning day. Fixed-target exits completely prevent this.
- Revenge trading after a losing session. The lack of a daily loss limit on Apex evals is a double-edged sword — there's nothing stopping a trader from overtrading after a loss. A Pine Script that stops firing after a set drawdown removes this entirely.
- Over-sizing early. Starting with 8–10 MES contracts on day 1 when the trail gives you almost no room. If the first 2 trades both lose, you might be within $500 of the floor on day 1.
- Trading during high-impact news events. A 50-tick spike during a CPI or NFP print can stop out a position at max loss in a fraction of a second. Session filters that pause trading 30 minutes around known high-impact events are essential.
Which Pine Script plan fits your Apex account?
If you're on a 50k eval, the Starter plan ($50) targets MES or MNQ with risk sized for the $2,500 trailing threshold. If you're on a 100k or 150k eval, the Pro plan ($80) covers ES or NQ. If you have your own specific entry rules and just want them coded, the Custom plan ($120) builds the strategy to your exact spec.
Pine Script strategies built around Apex's trailing threshold and consistency rules.
Fixed exits, bar-close entries, RTH session filter, daily profit cap. One-time payment, instant delivery.
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Apex Trader Funding — questions traders actually search
Does Apex have a daily loss limit?
No — Apex Trader Funding evaluations have no daily loss limit. A single bad day won't end your evaluation as long as your account equity stays above the trailing threshold floor. This is one of the most important differences between Apex and firms like Topstep (which has a $1,000 daily loss limit on 50k) or FTMO (which has a strict daily drawdown cap). The absence of a daily limit is why many algorithmic traders prefer Apex — your strategy can have a down day without the evaluation immediately ending.
Does Apex have a consistency rule?
Yes, but only on funded PA accounts, not during the evaluation. Apex's consistency rule caps any single trading day at 30% of your total profit target. On a 50k PA with a $3,000 target, that's a $900 maximum for any single day. Pine Script strategies built for Apex typically include a daily profit cap variable — once the day's P&L hits roughly 25% of target, the strategy stops taking new entries for that session. This naturally satisfies the consistency rule without any manual intervention.
How does Apex's trailing threshold work exactly?
The trailing threshold is an intraday trailing drawdown floor. It starts at $2,500 below your initial account balance on a 50k. Every time your account equity rises (including on unrealized open positions), the floor rises by the same amount. The floor never comes back down. It stops trailing once you've reached the profit target ($3,000 above starting balance = $53,000). Until then, the highest intraday peak your account touches determines how close you are to failure — not where you close each day.
What is the minimum trading days requirement for Apex?
As of 2026, Apex requires only 1 trading day to complete an evaluation. There's no minimum number of days you must trade. If your strategy hits the profit target while staying above the trailing threshold in a single session, you pass. This is significantly more flexible than Topstep (10-day minimum) or FTMO (minimum trading days vary by plan) and makes Apex attractive for traders who want to pass evaluations quickly.
Can I automate my Apex evaluation with TradingView?
Yes. Automation is allowed during Apex evaluations. The standard setup is: Pine Script strategy on TradingView → TradingView alert with webhook → TradersPost receives the signal and places the trade on your Apex/Tradovate account. Apex prohibits commercial automation on PA (funded live) accounts, so most traders automate the eval and execute manually once funded — or continue to use alerts manually.