I do most of my trading with Apex Trader Funding. I’ve been a member of Apex Investing for a few years and, when they opened their own prop firm, I decided to give them a try. Overall, I find them to be an excellent prop firm and would not hesitate to recommend them to others.
Their normal eval process requires you hit a profit goal without blowing the account by losing more than a trailing loss. I’ll use their 50k account as an example.
The profit target for a 50k account is $3000 with a $2500 trailing stop. You start out with a $50k simulated account. Your target to pass the evaluation is $53,000. Your trailing stop starts at $47,500.
If, during your first trade, you are up $500, your trailing stop moves to $48,000. Please note that the trailing stop is not based on where you end the trade! It is based on your high water mark at any point during your trades. For example, if your $500 profit turns into a $500 loss before you exit, then your trailing stop will still be $48,000. vs. the $47,500 initial level – regardless of the fact that you actually lost money on the trade.
I’ve seen many people complain on social media that this is unfair and that it should be based on the results of the trade. I am here to say that I completely disagree. The rules are clear and, if you don’t agree with them, then I would suggest you move to another prop firm. I mean, it’s not like they’re hiding anything!
The standard requirement for an evaluation account is that the trader trades for at least seven days. The trader can attain the profit target in one day and then trade a micro account for the remaining days – that would be legal for eval accounts. But the trader must log seven days of trades before passing the evaluation.
Recently, Apex has been offering one day evaluation account sales. These short term sales offer the ability to open and pass an evaluation in a single day! Exciting, I agree, but it doesn’t come without risks and downfalls…
I have tried a few of these one day challenges. I’ve passed a few and lost a few. The reality is the trader needs to employ risky trading processes in order to pass in a single day. For example, taking a risky trade. Or over leveraging the account in order to attain the goal.
It is a fun challenge to make $3,000 in a single day on a $50k account. But keep in mind, you’re really only trading with $2,500 padding. If you trade 5 accounts in NQ, you could lose $2,500 in one trade in a matter of minutes.
I have to admit, when the eval is on sale and only costs $15 or $20, it’s easy to be risky and not care.
The problem is when that cavalier attitude bleeds over to your performance account – which costs $140 per account – it is very easy to go through a lot of money quickly!
This is the lesson from my last attempt. I feel like I am invincible when I have success and it can quickly turn against you if you’re not careful!
