Both ship a $3,000 trailing drawdown on the 100K class. Both stop applying their consistency rule once you reach the live-funded tier. But Apex 4.0 makes you pick the trail mechanic once at purchase and locks it forever, while TPT switches it on you three times as you walk the Test → PRO → PRO+ ladder. The governance is the wedge.
| Axis | Apex 4.0 | Take Profit Trader |
|---|---|---|
| Lifecycle | 2 phases: Eval → Sim-funded (PA) | 3 phases: Test → PRO → PRO+ |
| Eval structure | 1-step Eval; no consistency on eval pass itself (eval has no minimum days fixed; verify) | 1-step Test; 5-day minimum; 50% consistency at pass |
| Trail governance | Pick once at purchase: EOD or intraday — locked for account life | Forced shift: EOD → intraday → EOD across Test, PRO, PRO+ |
| Trailing drawdown (100K) | $3,000 | $3,000 (Test) |
| Lock archetype | Locks at SB + $100 ($103,100 on 100K) | Locks at SB ($100,000 on 100K) |
| Consistency rule | 30% lifetime — applies on eval pass AND every funded payout request | 50% Test only — dropped on PRO and PRO+ |
| Account sizes | 4 sizes: 25K / 50K / 100K / 150K | 5 sizes: 25K / 50K / 75K / 100K / 150K |
| Daily loss limit | Yes on EOD accounts only; intraday Apex accounts have no DLL | None firmwide — removed January 2025. Trail is the only hard guardrail |
| Activation / cost | Monthly subscription per account (Eval) + activation fee on first funded payout request (~$85–$140; verify current) | $130 one-time per account on Test signup; no monthly subscription |
| Capital backing | Simulated on PA — cash payouts from firm capital | Simulated on PRO (80/20 split) → live-funded on PRO+ (90/10 split, auto-promoted) |
| Profit split (funded) | 100% of first $25K profits to trader; 90/10 thereafter | 80/20 on PRO; 90/10 on PRO+ |
| Payout cadence | Every 8 days minimum once you've cleared 10 winning days each > $50; verify current Apex payout policy | Daily on PRO/PRO+ once buffer above SB cleared; 7-day minimum between payouts; 1–2 business days processing |
| Platforms | Rithmic-family (Tradovate, NinjaTrader, R|Trader, Quantower); no TradingView native | NinjaTrader, Tradovate, TradingView, Rithmic |
| News trading | Permitted (subject to platform-broker risk policies) | Banned on PRO/PRO+ — no trades 1 min before/during/after FOMC, NFP, CPI |
| Overnight holds | Banned — flat by 5 PM ET Mon–Fri | Banned — flat by 5 PM ET Mon–Fri |
| Max funded accounts | Up to 20 PAs allowed (verify current Apex cap) | 5 |
| Reset on bust | Eval reset allowed; PA bust = account closed | Test reset allowed; PRO bust = closed; PRO+ bust = closed permanently (no reset) |
Every prop firm decides three things about its trailing drawdown: which mechanic (EOD or intraday), who picks it, and when it can change. Apex and TPT diverge on all three.
At purchase you select either EOD trail or intraday trail. That choice is locked for the life of the account — Eval and PA both inherit it. EOD Apex accounts get a daily loss limit; intraday Apex accounts don't. The mechanic never shifts under you. If your style fits EOD, pick EOD and the floor only advances on session close. If your style fits intraday, pick intraday and accept that wicks above EOD advance the floor — in exchange for no DLL.
Test phase trails EOD — floor advances only on a new daily-close high. Pass the Test and get auto-promoted to PRO, which switches to intraday trail — floor advances on every live equity high during the session. Hit the PRO performance review and get auto-promoted to PRO+ (since 2026-03-18) — trail switches back to EOD. You make no decision; the lifecycle shifts the mechanic underneath you twice.
This matters because the trail mechanic determines which trade styles are safe at which stage of the funded ladder:
If you're already deep in one trail style and unwilling to retrain, Apex is the right shape — it respects your one decision. If you want to be force-marched through both styles as part of the lifecycle (and you trust your discipline to switch with it), TPT does that automatically.
Once the trail has advanced its full distance, both firms freeze the loss floor permanently. They freeze it in different places.
On a 100K Apex account the trail starts at $100,000 − $3,000 = $97,000 floor. Each new high (EOD or intraday, whichever you picked) lifts the floor by the same delta. When the trail's tracking line hits $103,100, the floor freezes at exactly $103,100 (Starting Balance + $100 safety net). From that moment on, every dollar above $103,100 is real headroom; the lock is $3,100 ABOVE the starting balance, not at it.
On a 100K TPT account the trail starts at $97,000 and advances on every new high (EOD in Test, intraday in PRO, EOD in PRO+). When the trail's tracking line hits $100,000, the floor freezes at exactly $100,000 — the starting balance, no safety-net buffer. Every dollar above $100K is real headroom; every dollar below is a hard stop.
Our free Prop-Firm Trailing-Drawdown Calculator runs Apex 4.0 EOD, Apex 4.0 intraday, TPT Test (EOD), and TPT PRO (intraday) presets. No login, no card.
Open trailing-DD calculator See AurafyThis is the second high-leverage divergence after trail governance. Both firms apply a consistency rule, but they apply it on opposite shapes of the lifecycle.
Deep dive → Consistency rule explained: 30/35/40/50 threshold tiers + eval-only vs lifetime scope — Apex 30% and TPT 50% sit at the cluster's OPPOSITE ends of the threshold spectrum, and TPT also flips scope from eval-only to "dropped after Test" while Apex stays lifetime. This pair maps every dimension of the consistency-rule design space in a single comparison: tightest threshold + widest scope (Apex) vs loosest threshold + narrowest scope (TPT). The explainer walks where MFFU's 40%, Tradeify's 35%, and Bulenox's variants sit between them.
Translated to lifecycle pressure: Apex's 30%-forever forces a "grinder" cadence even on the funded side — payouts assume you've banked multiple modest days. TPT's "50% then nothing" lets a single PRO blowout day go straight to the next-week payout. Different risk shapes, different psychology.
The DLL is a third-axis divergence that compounds with the trail-governance choice.
If you pick EOD trail at purchase, your account has a daily loss limit (size-tier dependent). If you pick intraday trail, you trade without a DLL. Same firm, two different risk profiles depending on the one-shot choice you made at signup. The intraday-no-DLL trade-off is symmetric with the EOD-with-DLL trade-off: you accept one tight constraint to remove the other.
TPT removed the daily loss limit firmwide in January 2025. Test, PRO, and PRO+ all run without a DLL. The trailing drawdown is the only hard-loss guardrail across the lifecycle.
Deep dive → Daily loss limit explained: the 4-archetype taxonomy across the cluster — Apex 4.0 and TPT sit on TWO of the four DLL archetypes, and they're the two most-distinctive: Apex is the cluster's only "EOD-trail-coupled" DLL (only one trail pick gets the rule, the other doesn't), while TPT is one of the "deleted firmwide" archetype alongside MFFU. The explainer walks the other two archetypes (Topstep's platform-toggled DLL and the Bulenox/Tradeify "config-per-program" archetype) so you can place any new firm onto the map.
The way you actually get paid — and how often — differs sharply.
| Axis | Apex 4.0 | TPT |
|---|---|---|
| Funded capital type | Simulated (Sim-funded PA); cash payouts from firm | Simulated on PRO; live-funded on PRO+ |
| Profit split (initial funded) | 100% of first $25,000 profits to trader | 80/20 on PRO — trader keeps 80% |
| Profit split (top tier) | 90/10 after the first $25K is paid out | 90/10 on PRO+ — trader keeps 90% |
| Payout cadence | 8-day minimum gap; need 10 winning days each > $50 to qualify for first payout (verify current Apex rules) | Daily on PRO/PRO+ once buffer above SB is cleared; 7-day minimum gap between payouts |
| Activation timing | Activation fee paid at first funded payout request, not at eval signup (~$85–$140; verify) | Upfront on Test signup ($130 per account) |
| Cost model | Monthly subscription per Eval account, frequent reset/discount promos | One-time per Test account — no recurring monthly subscription |
| Reset on bust | Eval reset allowed; PA bust = account closed (open a new Eval) | Test reset allowed; PRO bust = closed; PRO+ bust = permanently closed (no reset) |
Same trader, same trade sequence, different firm. Numbers assume a 100K account class at each firm.
Setup: Day 1, equity opens at $100,000, runs to +$1,800 unrealized, closes at +$0.
Apex 4.0 EOD (you picked EOD at purchase): Closing EOD equity = $100,000. No new EOD high. Floor unchanged at $97,000. Intraday wick ignored.
Apex 4.0 intraday (you picked intraday at purchase): Floor advances on the +$1,800 intraday high. New floor = $100,000 + $1,800 − $3,000 = $98,800. The wick taxed $1,800 of headroom despite closing flat.
TPT Test (forced EOD): Same as Apex EOD path. Closing equity = $100,000. No new EOD high. Floor unchanged at $97,000.
TPT PRO (forced intraday): Same as Apex intraday path. New floor = $98,800. The PRO phase taxes the wick the Test ignored.
TPT PRO+ (forced EOD again): Same as Apex EOD path. Floor unchanged at $97,000.
Read: on the EOD path the wick is invisible at both firms. On the intraday path, the wick gives back $1,800 of headroom at both firms. The mechanic determines the math — the difference is who chose it: at Apex it's you, at TPT it's the lifecycle.
Setup: Day 1: +$1,000 (EOD close). Day 2: +$1,200. Day 3: +$800. Day 4: +$1,000. Cumulative +$4,000. No intraday spikes above the close.
Apex 4.0 (either trail pick): Profit target is $6,000 (on 100K Eval) — not yet hit at $4,000 cumulative. Largest day = $1,200; consistency = $1,200 / $4,000 = 30% — exactly at the threshold. One more $1 day above the average would push consistency over — the trader needs to keep the largest day under 30% all the way through. The trail has advanced through $3,000 of EOD distance; floor now sits at $100,000 (still climbing toward the $103,100 lock since SB+$100 family).
TPT Test: Profit target is $6,000 (on 100K Test) — not yet hit at $4,000. Largest day = $1,200; consistency = $1,200 / $4,000 = 30% (well under TPT's 50% threshold). The trail has advanced $3,000 of EOD distance; floor sits at $100,000 (which is also the Test lock point). On TPT, the floor would lock here if the trail had advanced its full distance. For Apex, lock is still $3,100 of equity away.
Conclusion: On a clean grinder pattern, both firms behave nearly identically except for the consistency-rule pressure (Apex's 30% threshold is the binding constraint, not TPT's 50%) and the lock floor (TPT locks $3,100 earlier than Apex). The intraday vs EOD shift doesn't matter on this no-spike pattern — but it matters on every other pattern.
Setup: You've passed Eval/Test and accumulated $4,000 of total profit on the funded account. You want to withdraw $1,500. Today you had a $1,200 day — your single biggest yet.
Apex 4.0 PA (30% lifetime consistency): $1,200 / $4,000 = 30% — exactly at the threshold. If today's day had been even $1 higher, you'd fail the consistency check on the withdrawal request. You can submit the $1,500 payout but the largest-day ratio is on the line.
TPT PRO+ (no consistency post-Test): Same $1,200 day, same $4,000 cumulative — no consistency rule applies. Submit the $1,500 payout without a largest-day check. PRO+ doesn't care what your biggest day was.
Closest cross-comparison → Apex vs Topstep — same lock-family fork as Apex vs TPT, but Topstep is the Apex of consistency-rule numbers (50% eval, none on funded) while TPT is the Apex of phase shift (3 phases vs Apex's flat lifecycle). Two different ways the cluster forks.
Plan your payout sizing → Consistency-rule calculator — model the largest-day ratio for your account size and threshold before submitting the withdrawal. The 30%-lifetime math at Apex is where most traders get caught.
No — this is a structural divergence. Apex 4.0 locks the trail at Starting Balance + $100 safety net (so on a 100K Apex PA the locked floor sits at $103,100). TPT locks the trail at the Starting Balance exactly (so on a 100K TPT PRO+ the locked floor sits at $100,000). Apex sits in the "SB + $100" family alongside MFFU, Bulenox, and Tradeify. TPT sits in the "SB" family alongside Topstep and Earn2Trade.
The eval target dollar amount is the same on 100K (both $6,000 vs $3,000 distances modeled differently — Apex eval $6K target / $3K DD, TPT Test $6K target / $3K DD). The structural difference is consistency: Apex's 30% lifetime is much tighter than TPT's 50% Test-only, but Apex doesn't enforce a 5-day minimum where TPT does. If you tend to win in a single big day, TPT's looser threshold is structurally easier to pass. If you prefer steady grinders, both work but Apex starts pressuring you toward the same 30% shape that will follow you onto the funded side.
Apex: yes — the 30% threshold is checked on every payout request, lifetime. TPT: no — consistency applies on Test only and is fully dropped on PRO and PRO+. This is one of the sharpest funded-experience divergences between the two firms: Apex traders must keep their largest-day ratio under 30% forever; TPT traders are free to take a single blowout day as their best withdrawal source.
Because Apex 4.0's "pick once at purchase" model spans both the trail mechanic and the risk-cap structure. EOD accounts get a DLL because the trail is loose (won't fire mid-session); intraday accounts skip the DLL because the trail itself fires mid-session. It's a symmetry: you pick which constraint structures your sessions. TPT made the opposite choice in January 2025 — remove the DLL firmwide and let trail be the only stop, regardless of phase.
PRO+ is the live-funded promotion (auto-applied since 2026-03-18). A bust on PRO+ closes the account permanently — no reset is permitted on PRO+. Test resets are allowed and PRO bust closes that PA, but PRO+ is one-way. Apex's analog is the Sim-funded PA — bust the PA and you open a new Eval (which costs the monthly subscription again), but the firm structure stays intact.
Yes — both allow multiple funded accounts (Apex up to 20 PAs; TPT capped at 5). Many traders use Apex on Rithmic-family platforms for the SB+$100 forgiveness and TPT on TradingView for the daily-payout cadence. The combined-portfolio play is real, but be aware the trail mechanics will diverge between accounts (your Apex EOD-pick stays EOD forever; your TPT account walks through three trail types). Aurafy is built to journal across this kind of mixed-firm setup — every prop firm's trailing line is pre-modeled.
No — they're optimized for different traders. Apex is best if you want one-shot trail-mechanic governance, the SB+$100 lock-family forgiveness, and you don't mind 30% consistency for the rest of the account's life. TPT is best if you want a forced-phase ladder, no DLL anywhere, and consistency to die at the funded gate. Pick the one whose governance philosophy (one decision vs three forced shifts) matches the way you make decisions.
Aurafy auto-imports your trades from Tradovate, NinjaTrader, Sierra Chart, and Rithmic. Every prop firm's trailing-drawdown line is pre-modeled — including Apex's EOD/intraday split and TPT's Test → PRO → PRO+ shift. Free tier never expires. No card.
Try Aurafy free Open the calculatorFull breakdown of Apex 4.0 — EOD vs intraday pick at purchase, SB+$100 lock, 30% lifetime consistency, Rithmic-family platforms.
Read the Apex guide →Test → PRO → PRO+ phase walkthrough, the EOD/intraday/EOD trail shift, news bans, daily payouts.
Read the TPT guide →The canonical trail-mechanic explainer under Apex's one-shot choice and TPT's phase shifts — how intraday trail moves on wicks, how EOD trail ignores unrealized give-back, and why the same lock binds harder under one shape than the other.
Read the trail-mechanic deep-dive →Sibling-family pair — both SB-lock, both 50%-then-none consistency. The cleanest read on TPT's phase-shift mechanic against a same-family firm.
Read the comparison →SB+$100 vs SB lock at its cleanest — the cross-family math without TPT's phase shift, so the lock fork shows up isolated.
Read the comparison →Same lock family (both SB+$100), divergent consistency design (30% lifetime vs 40% on both eval and funded). Apex's consistency twin within its own family.
Read the comparison →TPT shifts the trail mechanic across phases; Tradeify shifts the consistency rule across programs. The "pick-your-archetype" axis at both firms.
Read the comparison →Cross-family pair where the lock cousins also fork the trail-philosophy axis — Topstep auto-shifts intraday Combine into EOD XFA; Bulenox forks at signup and never moves.
Read the comparison →