How to pass an Apex Trader Funding evaluation: the rules and the math
- Apex sells two evaluations: the Intraday Trail Eval, whose floor follows your highest balance including open profit, and the EOD Trail Eval, whose floor follows your end-of-day closes.
- On a 50K you need $3,000 of profit. The floor starts $2,000 below your starting balance and never stops trailing during the evaluation.
- There's no consistency rule to pass either evaluation. The Intraday eval has no daily loss limit; the EOD eval has one ($1,000 on a 50K) that ends your day without failing you.
- Consistency arrives later: on the funded PA account, no day may be 50% or more of your profit since your last payout.
- These are Apex's published rules as of September 25, 2026. Apex's current help center always governs.
Apex's evaluations look simple next to other firms'. There's no consistency rule to pass, and the Intraday version has no daily loss limit. The catch is the drawdown: during the evaluation it never stops trailing, and on the Intraday version it trails open profit. This guide works through the 50K numbers for both.
The rules at a glance
| Size | Profit target | Max drawdown | EOD eval daily loss limit | Max size | List price (Intraday / EOD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25K | $1,500 | $1,000 | $500 | 4 minis or 40 micros | $167 / $490 one-time |
| 50K | $3,000 | $2,000 | $1,000 | 6 minis or 60 micros | $249 / $590 one-time |
| 100K | $6,000 | $3,000 | $1,500 | 8 minis or 80 micros | $790 / $1,190 one-time |
| 150K | $9,000 | $4,000 | $2,000 | 12 minis or 120 micros | $1,190 / $2,190 one-time |
You get 30 days of access from purchase and must be flat by 4:59 PM ET. On the standard option, the PA account carries a one-time activation fee of $59 (Intraday) or $90 (EOD); Apex also sells a pricier version with no activation fee. Full Apex rules and sources.
Intraday trailing: open profit moves your floor
On the Intraday Trail Eval, your floor sits $2,000 below the highest balance you've reached, counting open profit, in real time. It never stops trailing during the evaluation.
That's the rule that surprises people. On a 50K, the floor starts at $48,000. Say a trade runs up $800 and you close it for $100. Your balance is $50,100, but your floor moved up to $48,800 at the peak and stays there. Your room is now $1,300, not $2,100. Every run-up you give back permanently shrinks your room.
TradeHarbor tracks closed trades, so on an intraday account the real floor can sit higher than a closed-trade estimate. Keep a cushion and check Apex's dashboard.
EOD trailing: only your closes count
On the EOD Trail Eval, the floor follows your end-of-day balance instead. The same run-up-and-give-back doesn't raise it; only where you close each day does. It also never stops trailing during the evaluation. The trade-off is a daily loss limit of $1,000 on a 50K. Hitting it ends your day without failing the account. See trailing drawdown, explained.
No consistency rule to pass, and the 30-day window
Neither evaluation has a consistency rule, so in principle one strong day can reach the target. What limits you is the drawdown, and the 30 days of access you get from purchase.
The math of the race: $3,000 up before $2,000 down, with the floor trailing you the whole way. You need 1.5 times the drawdown in profit before you lose it once, and on the Intraday eval a trade's peak counts against you even if you don't bank it.
One way traders reason about this is a daily risk budget sized against the room they have. With $2,000 of room:
- a $500 budget allows four full losing days,
- a $1,000 budget (the EOD eval's daily limit) allows two.
A smaller budget survives more bad days but takes longer, and the 30-day window caps how long you have. Which balance fits depends on your win rate, average win and loss, and trade count.
Check it against your own trading
The pass rate calculator runs your numbers against both Apex evaluations and every other firm's, showing how often you'd pass and what it's likely to cost. Intraday and EOD often come out quite differently for the same trader. In TradeHarbor, the Pass simulator runs the same test on your real imported trades.
After you pass: the PA account
The funded Performance Account (PA) changes three things:
- The floor stops trailing once it reaches $50,100, the starting balance plus $100.
- A daily loss limit applies, starting at $1,000 on a 50K and rising in tiers as you make profit.
- A 50% consistency rule governs payouts: no day may be 50% or more of your profit since your last payout.
Payouts also need your balance at least $2,100 above the starting balance, and five winning days of $250 or more (EOD PA) or $200 or more (Intraday PA) on a 50K, up to 6 payouts per account. Details are on the Apex rules page.
This guide explains Apex Trader Funding's published rules and the arithmetic behind them. It isn't trading or financial advice, and it doesn't recommend any firm or strategy. Apex changes its rules from time to time; check its help center before you buy.