Founded in 2008 by Darrell Martin, a rancher and experienced day-trader, Apex Trader Funding is now one of the most respected proprietary firms with an international community of over 30,000 traders spanning across 150 countries. Its philosophy – “Traders Helping Traders” – comes from its creator’s success story: having achieved $300k payouts through one prop trading firm alone he sought to build an improved model with fewer restrictions on his earnings potential. Since then, the prop trading world has been revolutionized by this ambitious initiative!
Established in 2015, Apex Trader Funding is a prominent proprietary trading firm specialising in futures trading. The company has garnered a robust reputation within the industry as a result of its dedication to empowering traders to excel in the fiercely competitive arena of futures trading. Notably, Apex Trader Funding runs one of the most generous profit-sharing models in the field. Qualified prop traders enjoy an impressive profit share in which traders receive 90% of their earnings. This means that the more successfully you trade, the higher your potential earnings.
Since the start of 2022, Apex Trader Funding has paid out more than $48,000,000 to its traders, serving as a testament to the firm’s commitment to recognising and motivating accomplished traders.
This Apex Trader Funding review will dive into the specifics of the services the futures prop firm has to offer, highlighting their evaluation programs, trading software, rule sets, and more.
Apex Trader Funding offer traders a pathway to be successful funded trader, providing an alternative to risking your own capital. Their evaluation programs provide access to funding with minimal stipulations and requirements – giving you the opportunity to make returns without having to risk your own capital.
Be a successful trader and get funded by Apex Trader Funding; it’s that easy!
Here is a breakdown of their very simple funding programs, ranging from $25K to $300K in nominal account value:
Apex Trader account size or starting capital: $25K through $300K represents the starting balance in the simulated, live-trading data environment. That amount is roughly the funding you would need in your online brokerage account to cover the Initial margin for the maximum available position in the program. This provides an opportunity to leverage a small dollar amount into a significant money trading account.
Contracts: This is the maximum position size or most “futures contracts” tradeable in your trading exam account. You do not have to trade the full size at once, and you can trade just one at a time. If market conditions get too crazy, you can trade micro contracts (for example, MES/MNQ are 1/10th the size of ES/NQ). A maximum number of futures micro contracts is listed next to full contract size.
Profit Goal: This is fairly straight forward. As soon as you place a trade during ten trading days and have an account balance above the starting balance + profit goal, you will advance to a funded money account to trade for real money profits.
Daily drawdown: NONE! There is no daily drawdown. Competitors make you adhere to daily and sometimes weekly account drawdowns. With Apex Trader Funding, you have all the breathing room you need to trade with one drawdown or a trailing threshold.
Trailing Threshold: This is the maximum allowable drawdown for the trading exam account. The drawdown is the dollar amount trailing your highest reached balance. For example, suppose you have a 7.5k drawdown in a 300k account: When first starting, the balance cannot cross below 292.5K. As you make profits, the drawdown trails. If the balance reaches 303K, the level you can drawdown to becomes 295.5k.
Scaling: This is another big advantage of working with Apex Trader Funding as it helps traders achieve a real withdrawable money account. Many competitors ask you to scale your positions, sizing up as you make a profit, and then try to trap you for violating the contract sizing rules if the balance is in the wrong position sizing bracket. Here you have the freedom to trade maximum allowed contracts from the first trade.
NinjaTrader License: This is one of the most popular and powerful trading platforms and It comes included with the Apex Trader Funding from the start. Ninja Trader’s lease alone for the platform is $225 quarterly. So here, you get a chance to get funding for the cost of software. And that’s not all; you get more.
Real-Time Data: In the Apex Funding Program, you get immediate access to live data, Including the most popular programs from CBOT, CME, COMEX, NYMEX. In addition, you can earn funding by trading the products of the following futures:
- Index Futures – ES, NQ, YM, EMD, RTY American indexes and even get crazy with wild NKD Nikkei futures.
- Interest Rate Futures – ZB, UB, ZN, ZF, ZT, GE
- Currency Futures – Aussie Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Euro FX, Japanese Yen Futures (Inverse of USD/JPY), Swiss Franc, and New Zealand Dollar
- Agricultural Products – Lean Hogs (HE), Live Cattle (LE), Feeder Cattle (GF), Corn (ZC), Wheat (ZW), Soybeans (ZS), Soybean Meal (ZM), Soybean Oil (ZL)
- Energy Futures – CL, NG, QG (mini natural gas), HO, RB
- Metals Futures – GC, SI, HG, PL, PA, QI, and QO
Newly added micro futures that are 1/10th the size of full contracts:
- Index Micros: MES, MNQ, MYM, M2K
- Metal Micro: MGC
- Currency Micros: M6A, M6E
- Micro Crude Futures
As you can see, there is an array of financial instruments available with very flexible position sizes.
Commissions: Commissions are charged for trading during the Apex evaluation account, just like real-world trading.
Equity Index Futures: $3.98 bet round turn
Interest Rate futures: $3.12-4.02 / RT
Currency Futures are $4.72 per round turn trade.
AG Futures: $5.58 RT
Energy Futures: $3.96
Metals: $4.62 for full contracts and $3.02 for the minis
Micro Futures: $1.02/RT or less
Another place Apex Trader excels is in regard to commissions are in line with the lowest rates at online brokerages. Some competitors overcharge on commissions, especially punishing scalpers.
Reset: This happens if you reach the drawdown and fail the evaluation. You can reset it for only $80 and start over. Likewise, you can get aggressive with large accounts and restart for only $80. While this may not be ideal for a disciplined trader path, it is a viable approach with this program.
The team at Apex Trader Funding has put in a lot of work behind the scenes to improve their popular trader funding product. The dashboard covers all technical and account management needs for a trader’s full journey.
Most features are self-explanatory and new additions make the experience easier and even more stress-free.
You can view all subscriptions on the dashboard’s home page. The snippet contains all important information: expiration, profit goal, drawdown, and account ID for multi-account traders.
The Account Summary is a very welcome addition to the trader dashboard.
Prior, you had to enter the Rithmic dashboard and manually scroll to count how many days you have to trade. After reaching 10 days, the trader and profit target traders would have to manually submit advancement to funded account requests.
In the all-new Account Summary Tab, all accounts list the balance and days for each account. Traders can also review the chart with the running balance and location of the trailing drawdown. This represents a great improvement regarding quality of evaluation.
Payout requests can now be handled from the dashboard.
Flatten Accounts Feature: Unexpected things happen in the fast-moving trading world. Power goes out, volatility causes trading software to crash. Orders get stuck somewhere between your click and the data feed provider’s servers. No longer need to panic and scramble to figure out what to do with the hope of reaching support in time to avoid disaster.
All you have to do is simply log into your trader dashboard online and request to flatten the accounts. This feature can significantly time and potentially the entire account.
Data and second login management can be handled from the dashboard and can be activated in 15-30 minutes.
New account sign up can also be handled from the dashboard. Select a new account of your choice, enter Discount Code ONKAGNVZ to save 50% to start new evaluation.
Once the system detects that the Profit Target and Minimum Day Trade requirements have been satisfied, traders will receive a funded trader contract and a request for set-up and data fee payments.
The contract is fairly simple. It contains the funded account rules and payout Instructions. There are no super intrusive inquiries or disclosures required, as some competitors do. For the accounts we got funded In May, the contracts were filled out at 7am and live accounts were ready before the market opened at 930am. The process is very smooth. It is key to note: the contract must be completed within two business days from being sent out. The underlying reason for this timing is unclear but please pay attention to your email after completing the evaluation so you don’t miss the contract.
Good news: Apex Trader Funding is a very trustworthy company. Its low fee evaluations allow traders to be funded in 10 days and they will be on the way to trading for 100% profit split at first.
You keep 100% of your first $10,000 in profit withdrawals.
Not so good news: It is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Traders are encouraged to grow accounts and not make large withdrawals at first. There are many views on this approach. While it is great for growing accounts and having sufficient cushion to work with, many traders prefer to retain the option to get paid for excellent performance. The fourth withdrawal is when things finally open and unlock full value of Apex Trader Funding:
- Low Fee
- Fast Funding
- Trusted Company
- High Available Leverage
- Trading software included in evaluations and live phases.
Withdrawals are paid out on the last day of the month.
Let’s look at our two favorite accounts: the $50K and $150k. In our opinion, these offer the best value.
50k Full 10 Contract Account | ||||
First | After 25 days where trades were placed | $52,500 | $1000 | $2000 |
Second & Third | 1x per month with 10 days where trades were placed | $52,500 | $1000 | $2000 |
Fourth On | 1x per month with 10 days where trades were placed | $52,500 | $1000 | No Max |
150k Full 17 Contract Account | ||||
First | After 25 days where trades were placed | $155,000 | $1000 | $2750 |
Second & Third | 1x per month with 10 days where trades were placed | $155,000 | $1000 | $2750 |
Fourth On | 1x per month with 10 days where trades were placed | $155,000 | $1000 | No Max |
Traders are required to satisfy multiple criteria successfully to make withdrawals at Apex Trader Funding:
- 25 Days Traded to request the first payment.
- Keep a cushion above which you will be withdrawing.
- Request a minimum of $1000 withdrawal.
- Make sure you request withdrawal under the max allowed amount.
- Request payout so it can be paid out on the last business day of the month.
After the first payout, things open up nicely. For the next two months only, there is a 10-day trading requirement with the same minimum and maximum amounts in place.
During the fourth month on trading live with Apex Trader Funding you are only required to trade 10 days and no maximum withdrawal limits are imposed.
This format is very common in the prop trading space. It allows companies to get a better sample size of trader performance to inform how to handle the live accounts on their back end. There is no need to worry, you will still get paid. Some prop firms might just let the reckless traders blow up without copy trading them.
First, when purchasing evaluations, use discount code ONKAGNVZ to pay half price for evaluations. This is a big savings right here!
Thanks to Apex Trader Funding allowing multiple evaluation accounts under one master account, there are multiple techniques and approaches to getting funded. Note that you cannot create multiple logins; only one per person is allowed.
Here are the two best funded programs at Apex Trader:
First, a $150K account is the best option If you would like to get a large drawdown and only operate a single account. A $25K account is a good starter account with a 1:1 profit target.
A $50K account bring the best value: a good drawdown to profit target ratio with a great low price.
Very important: for the sake of this exercise, traders need to be able to spread the risk among multiple accounts manually or use trade copier software.
For sake of this comparison, we are working with:
- Two $50k accounts vs a Single $150K account. The trader is performing well and has generated profits well in excess of the maximum withdrawal limit.
- Position sizing should not be an issue as $50k accounts allow more than half of $150k account position sizing (10 x 2 vs 17).
Total available drawdown:
$5,000 in both accounts
Profit Target to Funding:
$6,000 to $9,000
2x50k requires $3,000 less in profit target to get funded for the same amount of drawdown as the 150k account.
Once Funded:
Both scenarios require the same amount of cushion to be able to withdraw above – $5,000.
Now for withdrawals during the first 3 months:
$4,000 – Max Withdrawal for 2x50k
$2,750 – Max Withdrawal for 150k account
Traders will be able to withdraw $1,250 a month more and a total of $3,750 more over the first three months, while trader performance is the same. And let’s not forget that it takes $3,000 less in profit to qualify.
Trading and funding multiple accounts and strategies at once, under one main account!
Most will settle for one evaluation account, and it is common for the trader funding industry to limit traders to one evaluation or trading exam account at once. However, Apex Trader Funding allows you to trade multiple trader evaluation accounts at once. This allows you to tackle your trading goals in different ways and use more advanced trading strategies:
- Spread out the risk: if you want to trade large positions and lower the chance of hitting drawdown, scaling into multiple accounts is better than putting the same risk on in a single account. It is also much easier to look at $200 loss ten times than one $2000 loss and have plenty of room to trade out of the small drawdown.
- Push the leverage – a trade copier is available to copy the trades into multiple trading accounts from one DOM. You could get multiple accounts on a great sale, hook up the trade copier, and you would be ready to go. You can trade as many accounts as you want.
- However, Apex reserves the right to limit the number of live accounts one trader can have. So, to be safe, they recommend not going over ten accounts. Read high trading leverage breakdown only if you are an extremely aggressive trader. Look away if having more than two futures contract position makes you queasy.
- 10x 300k Full accounts cost $657; with this great funding program sale, you can get 10 of these programs for $3285; using the trade copier, you can trade up to 350 futures contracts with a drawdown across all accounts of $75,000.
- That is massive leverage and an opportunity that would require well over $1,000,000 in even the most aggressive margin brokerage accounts. On top of that, you do not even need to succeed right away. You can reset all those accounts for only $80 each or $800 total. You get 350 contracts and a $75,000 drawdown account which gives you another chance to get funding.
This type of extreme aggressive leverage is not for everyone. To be honest, it is for almost no one. Leverage is a double-edged sword with extreme downside risk, and that risk almost always catches up with over-leveraged traders. But if you are going to take such substantial risks, it is probably favourable to do it for $3,285 after passing the trading test, rather than in a $1,000,000+ account.
It is fair to be concerned if a company seems like it is offering deals that seem too good to be true, especially given the number of funding companies that have come and gone.
Apex Trader Funding, though, has been around for almost 14 years in the trader education and trader development space. They have a massive community of over 30,000 traders, spanning most of the world. Founder Darrell Martin has worked with many funded trader funding programs and has used that experience to gather the best features. He has created a simple trader funding opportunity without adding too many hoops to navigate.
We believe that Apex is a good route for anyone who wants to get funded to trade futures as the prop firm as established itself, so we’ve partnered with Apex and they’ve agreed to give our members and readers a big discount on their evaluation. To get started, simply register for your Apex account here, and use coupon code: ONKAGNVZ to receive the current promotional 50% Lifetime Apex Trader Funding Discount. Please make sure to clear your cookies or use an incognito browser so it recognizes that you were referred by us or the discount code may not work.
- Commissions in the Tradovate plan are the lowest in the industry
- Ongoing specials with heavily discounted pricing (save 50% by clicking on the button in the table)
- Wide range of available products including, CME Group, EUREX indices/bonds and ICE US commodity futures with Tradovate plan
- Tradovate web and desktop software is macOS/iOS compatible for iPhone, iPad and Mac users
- 100% payout of first $25,000 in profit
- Minimum funding of up to $25,000 for a starter account with large account sizes on offer as you gain experience
- Flexible trading hours, including the ability to trade on holidays
- Very fast and high payout ratio once the profit target is reached.
- Live trailing drawdown from unrealized profit can be tricky (fixed drawdown option is available)
- You only get a maximum of ten days to hit your profit targets which can be very short in modern-day trading.
- Does not offer forex trading
Apex Trader Funding stands out as a prop firm for futures traders with its unique features and benefits. With generous profit splits, quick and reliable payouts, and flexible trading rules, Apex Trader Funding provides an enticing opportunity for traders of all levels and styles. The access to trading tools, including a trade copier, educational resources, and mentoring programs, further supports traders in their journey.
However, it’s important to note that Apex Trader Funding focuses exclusively on futures trading, which may not appeal to those looking to diversify their portfolio with other asset classes.
Despite this consideration, Apex Trader Funding has built one of the best reputation in the industry and offers a solid platform for futures traders to pursue their trading ambitions.
For those looking to kickstart or elevate their trading career, now is the perfect time to join Apex Trader Funding. We offer a time-limited apex trader funding discount with the Coupon Code “ONKAGNVZ”, slashing prices by an incredible 50%. This opportunity is too good to miss, particularly to maximize profits while minimizing the upfront costs.
To take advantage of this extraordinary offer, click here and enter the Discount Code “ONKAGNVZ”. Don’t let this opportunity slip away. Act now and invest in your future with Apex Trader Funding. Good luck with your trading journey!
