Apex Trader Funding Rules: The Trailing Drawdown Explained
Apex's ruleset is built around a trailing drawdown rather than a static one, and it offers two variants — intraday and end-of-day. Which one you are on changes your position sizing more than anything else about the account, because a trailing threshold follows your profit upward and never widens.
Confirm before you buy
Apex runs multiple account types and has changed parameters repeatedly, including separate intraday, end-of-day and legacy structures with different rules. Everything below describes how the mechanisms work, as published at the time of writing. Check the help-centre page for the exact account type you are purchasing.
Trailing drawdown, in one paragraph
A static drawdown sits at a fixed floor. A trailing drawdown rises as your account peaks, so the distance between your balance and your failure line stays roughly the same instead of widening. That is materially harsher: profit does not buy you room, it moves the wall.
The full comparison, including why unrealised profit on a trailing account is doubly expensive, is in drawdown types explained.
Intraday trailing drawdown
The intraday variant is the strictest common form, and its defining feature is when it measures your peak:
- It trails on intraday high equity, not just closing balance. That means unrealised profit moves the threshold, in real time, as the position runs.
- It is calculated live. The threshold can rise while you are in a trade, so the room you had when you entered is not the room you have now.
- Giving back an unrealised gain is doubly costly. You lose the profit and your failure line is already higher than when you opened.
Practically, this makes trade management the dominant skill. A position that goes $1,500 into profit and then reverses has raised your floor by $1,500 — so the reversal costs you the $1,500 and pulls you that much closer to a limit that is now higher. Traders who scale out or trail a stop do better than traders who hold for a target.
End-of-day trailing drawdown
The EOD variant is more forgiving on timing but has its own subtlety:
- The threshold rises with your end-of-day balance, so intraday swings inside a session do not move it.
- It locks once it reaches a defined point. Apex describes the behaviour in terms of the highest end-of-day balance: once that figure closes above the level that puts the threshold at its cap, the threshold stops moving and remains fixed from then on.
- After it locks, your account behaves like a static-drawdown account — which is the point of choosing this variant.
So the EOD structure is effectively "trailing until you reach a buffer, then static". For a trader who can reach the buffer without a breach, it is a far better account than intraday.
| Intraday trailing | End-of-day trailing | |
|---|---|---|
| Peak measured from | Live high equity, including unrealised P&L | End-of-day balance |
| When it moves | Continuously, during the session | Once per day |
| Does it lock? | Varies by account structure | Yes, once the balance clears the buffer |
| Harshest feature | Unrealised gains raise the floor | Slow progress keeps the floor trailing |
| Suits | Traders who take profit quickly and rarely hold runners | Traders who hold to a close and want eventual stability |
Payout rules
Apex's payout structure has features worth knowing before you commit, because they affect how often you can actually get money:
- A minimum payout amount per request. Apex has published a $500 minimum, meaning small profits cannot be withdrawn piecemeal — they accumulate until they clear the floor.
- A required minimum balance at the time of the request, which incorporates having surpassed the trailing threshold. In other words, the account must be above the trailing line by the stated margin before a withdrawal is approved.
- The published position that reward payouts are discretionary and subject to eligibility and compliance. This is standard industry language, but it means a payout is not an automatic entitlement — it is an approved request.
- Contract limits and scaling apply to performance accounts, tying position size to the account tier.
The third point is the one to read carefully. "Discretionary" does not mean firms refuse arbitrarily — a firm that never pays has no business — but it does mean the compliance audit matters, and a rule breach found at that stage can block a payout you had already earned. See payout timing.
Inactivity and contract limits
Two further constraints that shape how you trade the account:
- Inactivity closure. Apex's performance-account rules include closure for inactivity, so an account you stop trading can lapse even with no breach. The general mechanics are in the inactivity rule.
- Maximum contracts per account. This — not leverage — is the binding position-size constraint on a futures account. You can have margin available and still be unable to add contracts.
How to size against a trailing threshold
The difference from a static account is one extra step:
- Write down the current threshold each morning from the dashboard rather than from memory. On a trailing account it moves, and a trader sizing from a stale number is sizing against a wall that has moved.
- Compute room as balance minus the live threshold, not account size × percentage.
- Divide by the number of trades you plan to take. That is your maximum risk per trade for the day.
- Treat open profit on an intraday account as spent room. It has already raised the floor; it is not buffer you can risk.
The full sizing arithmetic is in risk management on a prop account. On a trailing account, step four is the one that separates surviving traders from breached ones.
For a structural comparison of the two leading futures firms, including how their trailing variants differ, see Apex vs Topstep.
Frequently asked questions
What is Apex's trailing drawdown?
A maximum loss threshold that rises as your account peaks and never moves down. On the intraday variant it trails live equity including unrealised profit; on the end-of-day variant it trails your closing balance and then locks once a defined buffer is reached.
Does the trailing drawdown stop trailing?
On the end-of-day structure, yes — it locks once the highest end-of-day balance clears the defined point, after which it behaves like a static threshold. On the intraday structure, check the specific account type.
What is the minimum payout?
Apex has published a $500 minimum per payout request, along with a required minimum balance at the time of the request. Confirm current figures on the payout page for your account type.
Can I hold positions overnight?
Futures-style accounts typically have specific overnight and weekend rules, and positions may need to be flat for market closures. Check the current rules for your product rather than assuming — see weekend holding.
Is an intraday or EOD account easier?
End-of-day is easier in the specific sense that intraday swings cannot move your threshold. If given the choice at a similar price, EOD is the better structure for most traders — but only if you can reach the buffer that locks it.
Summary
- Apex's core rule is a trailing drawdown, in intraday and end-of-day variants.
- Intraday trails live equity — unrealised profit raises your floor in real time.
- EOD trails closing balance and locks once the buffer is cleared, becoming static.
- Payouts have a minimum request amount and a required balance above the trailing line.
- Contract limits, not leverage, cap position size on a futures account.