Apex Trader Funding overhauled its entire account structure on March 1, 2026 — and the new rules look almost nothing like the legacy rules most reviews still describe. The recurring monthly fees are gone, replaced with one-time payments. The MAE rule that punished open-trade drawdown is gone. The 5:1 risk-reward restriction is gone. The 30% consistency rule was loosened to 50%. Traders now choose between End-of-Day (EOD) trailing drawdown and Intraday trailing drawdown when buying an evaluation, with mandatory bracket orders enforced at the platform level on Rithmic and Tradovate. Legacy accounts purchased before March 1, 2026 still operate under the old rules. Everything new falls under the updated framework. This page is the complete rule-by-rule reference, updated through April 2026.
If you have read anything about Apex Trader Funding written before March 2026, the rules in that article are out of date. Apex did the largest rule overhaul in its history on March 1, 2026, and almost every meaningful piece of the experience changed in a way that benefits traders.
The pre-March 2026 rule set was, in the words of many traders who had lived inside it for years, designed to be passable but unforgiving. Trailing drawdown updated in real time on every tick. The MAE (Maximum Adverse Excursion) rule could close accounts because of open-trade drawdown even if the trade ultimately closed green. The 30% consistency rule blocked payouts whenever a trader had one strong day. The 5:1 risk-reward restriction prevented traders from running wide-stop strategies. Monthly fees accumulated whether you were trading or sitting on your hands.
The post-March 2026 rule set is a different product. Here is the short summary.
The single most important decision when buying a 2026 Apex evaluation is which drawdown model to choose. The choice is permanent for that evaluation — you cannot switch later — and the two models behave very differently.
The EOD trailing threshold updates once per day at 4:59:59 PM ET based on where your account closed. The new threshold is then enforced in real time during the next trading session. If your balance touches the threshold intraday during the next session, the account closes.
EOD accounts also include a Daily Loss Limit. On a $50K EOD account the DLL is $1,000. If you lose that amount in a single session, trading is paused for the rest of the day, but the account stays alive — you come back the next day at your current balance. The DLL is a speed bump. The EOD trailing threshold is the cliff.
EOD is significantly more forgiving than Intraday because intraday unrealised profits do not lock in a new threshold. You can be up $1,500 mid-session and give it back without the threshold ratcheting upward. The threshold only moves based on the closing balance.
The Intraday trailing drawdown trails your peak balance in real time, including unrealized profits. If your account hits a new high at 10:30 AM during a session, the threshold immediately locks in at a new higher level — even if you give back the gains before close. Intraday accounts have no Daily Loss Limit on the evaluation; the only floor is the trailing threshold itself.
This is the legacy mechanic that ended most accounts under the pre-2026 rules. It remains available for traders who prefer the more aggressive structure, but for most traders, EOD is the better choice. The mechanics of intraday versus EOD trailing are covered in detail in the trailing drawdown guide.
Apex offers multiple account sizes in 2026. The exact pricing structure shifted with the move to one-time payments, and the specific dollar amounts should be verified on the Apex site at purchase time, but the rule structure is consistent.
| Account size | Profit target | Trailing drawdown | Daily Loss Limit (EOD) | Max contracts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25K | $1,500 | $1,500 | $500 | 4 contracts |
| $50K | $3,000 | $2,500 | $1,000 | 10 contracts |
| $75K | $4,500 | $2,750 | $1,500 | 12 contracts |
| $100K | $6,000 | $3,000 | $2,000 | 14 contracts |
| $150K | $9,000 | $5,000 | $3,000 | 17 contracts |
| $250K | $15,000 | $6,500 | $5,000 | 27 contracts |
| $300K | $20,000 | $7,500 | $5,500 | 35 contracts |
Apex also offers Static accounts where the drawdown does not trail. These have lower profit targets but a fixed rather than ratcheting drawdown. The $100K Static, for example, has a $2,000 profit target and a $625 fixed drawdown. Static accounts behave differently from trailing accounts and are generally chosen by traders who want predictability over the trailing dynamic.
The Safety Net is the threshold at which the trailing drawdown stops moving permanently. It applies to Performance Accounts (the funded phase after passing the evaluation) and equals your starting balance plus the drawdown amount plus $100.
| Account size | Drawdown | Safety Net (locks at) |
|---|---|---|
| $50K PA | $2,500 | $52,600 |
| $100K PA | $3,000 | $103,100 |
| $150K PA | $5,000 | $155,100 |
Once your end-of-day balance reaches the Safety Net, two things happen. First, the trailing threshold locks at your starting balance plus $100 and never moves again. Second, your contract scaling unlocks — you can now trade the full contract maximum for your account size instead of the half-cap that applied before reaching the Safety Net.
This means the $50K PA, which is capped at 5 contracts before reaching the Safety Net (half of the 10 contract maximum), unlocks the full 10 contracts after reaching the $52,600 threshold. The contract scaling rule is the reason new PA traders cannot just go max contracts on day one.
The post-March 2026 consistency rule states that no single trading day can account for more than 50 percent of your total profit balance at the time of a payout request. This is the rule that loosened from the previous 30 percent threshold.
The math example. On a $50K PA, you have accumulated $4,000 in profit since your last payout. Your highest single day during that window was $1,800. Your highest-day-to-total ratio is $1,800 / $4,000 = 45 percent. That passes the 50 percent rule, and you can request a payout. If your highest day had been $2,200, the ratio would be 55 percent, and you would need to add enough smaller profitable days to get the highest day below 50 percent of the new running total.
The rule resets after each payout. The day count and the ratio start fresh from your post-payout balance. The rule applies until your sixth payout or until you move to a Live Trading Account, after which the 50 percent rule no longer applies. From the sixth payout onward, you are also eligible for 100 percent payouts (no firm split) on profits above the minimum balance threshold.
Apex payouts work on a tiered structure. The first five approved payouts pay out a defined percentage to the trader (the firm retains the remainder under the standard split). Starting with the sixth payout, traders qualify for 100 percent payouts on amounts above the safety net threshold.
The minimum payout is $500 across all account sizes. To request a payout, your balance must exceed the safety net threshold by at least the requested amount. For a $50K PA with a $52,600 safety net, you must have at least $52,600 + $500 = $53,100 to request the minimum $500 payout. Larger payouts require a balance proportionally higher above the safety net.
The eight-trading-day rule requires that you have at least 8 trading days between payout requests. You also need to have met the consistency rule (50 percent on the highest day) and the minimum balance requirement.
As of March 1, 2026, Rithmic and Tradovate enforce mandatory bracket orders at the platform level on Apex accounts. Any market or limit order that does not have an attached stop loss and take profit is rejected by the platform. There is no way to opt out.
This is the most significant workflow change for traders coming from the legacy rules. Discretionary scaling, manual partial exits, and stop-and-reverse style trading all require workarounds within the bracket framework. Most traders adapt within two to three weeks of trading under the new rules.
The trade-off is that platform-level enforcement effectively prevents accidental rule violations. Under the legacy rules, a trader who forgot a stop and got caught in a fast move could end the account in seconds. Under the post-March 2026 rules, the platform simply will not let that order through, which protects the evaluation fee from accidental oversight during volatility.
Brackets do not guarantee exact exit prices during high-impact events like FOMC, NFP, or CPI. Slippage can still occur and the trader is responsible for the final fill. The brackets enforce a stop must exist, not that the stop will fill at the exact level.
On a Performance Account before reaching the Safety Net, you can only trade half of the account's maximum contracts. The scaling rule unlocks the full maximum once the Safety Net is reached.
| Account size | Max contracts (full) | Pre-Safety Net cap | Safety Net target |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50K PA | 10 | 5 contracts | $52,600 |
| $100K PA | 14 | 7 contracts | $103,100 |
| $150K PA | 17 | 8 contracts | $155,100 |
If you accidentally trade more than half-max contracts before reaching the Safety Net, you are expected to close the excess immediately. Apex documents a single-violation grace period for accidental over-sizing, but repeated violations or refusal to close out the excess can lead to account closure. Most traders running multiple accounts use a copier with per-account size controls to ensure scaling rules are respected across the fleet automatically.
Apex permits trading on CME-listed futures including ES, NQ, CL, GC, and the corresponding micro contracts (MES, MNQ). The full list is published on the Apex site and updated periodically. Forex spot, equities, and synthetic crypto products are not permitted.
Prohibited strategies in 2026 include hedging during news events (holding both long and short on the same or correlated instrument simultaneously), high-frequency trading, dollar-cost averaging on losing positions in Performance Accounts, and any form of automated strategy that has not been pre-approved by Apex risk management. Pyramiding into winning positions is permitted with appropriate risk management.
Apex maintains broad discretion to investigate accounts showing patterns suggesting any prohibited strategy. Traders who want to run automated strategies should contact Apex risk management before deploying any algorithm, because retroactive approval is not available.
Under the one-time-payment model, account resets work differently than under the legacy monthly subscription. Manual resets cost $80 (Rithmic) or $100 (Tradovate) and are non-refundable. A reset restores the account to its original starting balance, drawdown limit, and trading day count.
Free resets that previously kicked in during monthly auto-renewal no longer apply because there is no monthly auto-renewal under the one-time payment model. Traders who want a fresh attempt after blowing an evaluation either pay the manual reset fee or purchase a new evaluation account.
The evaluation phase has fewer rules than the Performance Account phase, which is intentional — Apex wants to see if you can hit a profit target without ending the account, not test you on dozens of compliance rules from day one.
Once you hit the profit target without breaching the threshold and have completed the minimum trading days, you are eligible for a Performance Account. The transition is automatic at evaluation completion, and the PA picks up the new rule set covered above.
For easy reference, here is the complete current rule set in one place.
That is the complete April 2026 Apex rule set. Apex updates its rules periodically, and anything on this page should be cross-checked against the official Apex help center before significant decisions. For the strategic side of passing under these rules, see how to pass an Apex evaluation. For Topstep's parallel rule set, see the Topstep 2026 reference. For a side-by-side comparison of all three major firms, see the Prop Firm Rules 2026 Hub.