The complete plain-English guide to Apex 4.0 — what changed in 2026, how the trailing drawdown actually works, when it locks, and how the consistency & payout rules apply. With free calculators.
Apex 4.0 was rolled out in March 2026 and is the version you're trading under today. The three changes that matter most to a funded trader:
The four eval-account sizes and their core numbers:
| Account | Starting Balance | Profit Target (eval) | Trailing Drawdown | Lock Point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25K | $25,000 | $1,500 | $1,000 | $25,100 |
| 50K | $50,000 | $3,000 | $2,000 | $50,100 |
| 100K | $100,000 | $6,000 | $3,000 | $100,100 |
| 150K | $150,000 | $9,000 | $4,000 | $150,100 |
The "safety net" formula: Lock Point = Starting Balance + $100. The trail follows your high-water mark up until your balance reaches that lock point — then it freezes there for good.
The trailing drawdown is a moving floor under your balance. It starts at Starting Balance − Trailing Drawdown and follows your high-water mark (HWM) upward, but never moves down. Hit it and the account is breached.
Your HWM updates tick-by-tick on unrealized P&L. Every time price ticks in your favor on an open position, your HWM moves up — and so does your trail. The painful corollary: if you let a winner run +$1,200 then it pulls back to +$300, the trail still moved up by $1,200, eating most of your buffer.
The HWM is calculated once at 4:59:59pm ET based on your closing balance. Intraday swings don't move the trail. This is enforced in real time — you can't go below the current trail mid-session — but the trail itself only updates daily.
Deep dive → Apex 4.0 EOD vs intraday: which trail to pick in 2026 — when EOD's extra DLL is worth it, when intraday's tick-by-tick burn is actually fine, and worked examples of both.
Once your EOD balance reaches Starting Balance + $100, the trail stops moving. Permanently. From that point you have a fixed floor at Starting Balance − Trailing Drawdown — your full drawdown is restored as a static buffer.
On a 100K Apex account that's:
Important: the lock check is on the EOD balance, not on an intraday HWM. Spiking to $102k mid-session and giving it all back at close does not lock the trail.
Deep dive → Apex vs Tradeify 2026: lock cousins, mirror wedges — Apex and Tradeify share the rare SB+$100 lock archetype, but Apex forces the EOD-vs-intraday trail-type choice at purchase while Tradeify forces the consistency-rule archetype at signup. Same lock family, opposite-axis landmine.
Apex 4.0 funded accounts have a 30% consistency rule on payouts: no single day's net profit can exceed 30% of your total payable profit. If it does, the payout amount is capped accordingly until the ratio is back in line.
Quick formula: to safely add a big winning day without breaking the rule, the maximum profit you can take that day is:
Max day P&L = 30% × Total Profit ÷ (1 − 30%) or equivalently 0.4286 × current Total
So on a $4,000 cumulative funded profit, your safe ceiling for a single new day is roughly $1,714. Go higher and you cap the payout.
Deep dive → Apex vs Topstep 2026: 30% vs 50% consistency, side by side — Apex's 30% is the tightest consistency rule among major firms; Topstep's 50% is the loosest. Same rule mechanic, opposite-end thresholds — worked examples of how the same trader's max-safe-day and payout look under each.
No login, no email — just punch in your numbers:
Where your drawdown line is right now, headroom remaining, and how far you are from the $100 lock — for both intraday and EOD trail.
Open calculator →Apex 4.0 is trail-forked on DLL: EOD-trail accounts have one, Intraday-trail accounts don't — the choice is permanent at signup. Cushion-remaining answer for EOD or a clear no-DLL notice for Intraday so you don't trade against a rule you don't have.
Open calculator →Check your 30% Apex consistency ratio in seconds. Tells you the largest day P&L allowed and extra profit needed to safely cash a big day.
Open calculator →Apex 4.0 preset built in (SB+$100 lock floor + DLL). Punch in your stop in ticks and risk per trade — get max contracts, % of account, and how many losses in a row blow the account.
Open calculator →30+ futures contracts preloaded. Entry / exit / stop → ticks moved, gross + net P&L, $ risk, R-multiple. Cross-check your Apex statement after the trade.
Open calculator →Aurafy is a futures trading journal built for prop-firm traders. It auto-tracks your trailing drawdown, lock distance, and consistency ratio in real time — plus screen-records your sessions so you can replay your mistakes.
Free tier: last 30 days of trades, 1 account, 3 playbooks, no credit card. First 50 founders lock in $19/mo for life.
See Aurafy Start freeNo. The trail type is chosen at purchase and is fixed for the life of the account. If you want EOD, buy an EOD account; you can't convert an intraday account afterward.
The trail only moves when your balance / HWM moves. Flat = trail stays where it is. Intraday accounts: unrealized P&L on an open position counts as HWM movement. EOD accounts: only closing balance counts.
EOD funded accounts also have a Daily Loss Limit set by Apex (separate from the trail). It's a hard intraday cap. Intraday-trail accounts do not have a DLL — the trail itself is the cap.
The trailing drawdown stops following your HWM and becomes a fixed floor at Starting Balance − Trailing Drawdown. Your full original drawdown is restored as a static buffer for the rest of the account's life.
Topstep funded accounts lock at the Starting Balance exactly (no $100 buffer) and only offer intraday trail. Topstep also uses a 50% consistency rule on payouts vs Apex's 30%.
Compared to TPT: TPT's trail mechanic shifts EOD → intraday → EOD across phases; Apex picks intraday or EOD at purchase and locks it for the account's life. Compared to Tradeify: same SB+$100 lock family, but Tradeify isolates trail and consistency per program (Growth / Select / Lightning) and supports Tradovate but not NinjaTrader 8 — Apex supports both. Compared to Bulenox: same SB+$100 lock family, but Bulenox's Option 1 vs Option 2 choice is permanent at signup and bundles trail type, DLL, and contract scaling into one decision — Apex bundles trail choice only. Compared to Earn2Trade: opposite lock family (Earn2Trade locks at SB exact, no buffer), and Earn2Trade defers the activation fee until first withdrawal while Apex collects monthly subscription upfront.
Compare side-by-side → All 21 prop-firm head-to-heads in one matrix — Apex sits in the SB+$100 lock family with MFFU, Bulenox, and Tradeify; the matrix groups every pairing by lock family so you can see which decisions are calibration vs which are bigger structural picks.