Apex Trailing Drawdown: The Three Points Where It Stops

Apex's intraday trailing drawdown has a reputation, and it earns it: the threshold rises behind you and never comes back down. What most traders never find out is that it does eventually stop rising. Just not everywhere, not at the same moment, and not at the same level. There are three stop regimes, and which one applies depends on the execution platform tied to your evaluation, then on the move to a funded account. Here they are, with figures pulled from the official help center.

What the threshold actually tracks

Before talking about the stop, be clear on what moves. The intraday threshold, called the Intraday Trailing Threshold, is the lowest balance your account is allowed to reach at any moment. It follows the Peak Balance, your highest balance in the session, and keeps a fixed dollar distance behind that peak, set by account size.

Three official details change everything in practice:

• Peak Balance includes unrealized gains. A trade that runs to plus 900 and comes back to flat has moved your floor up by 900, even though you never banked a dollar.
• The threshold never moves down, even when the balance falls back afterward.
• It is enforced in real time, open PnL included. Touching it or falling below triggers automatic liquidation of all positions. In an evaluation, the account fails immediately. In a funded account, it closes immediately.

That combination is what makes the format demanding: it is not your loss that takes you out, it is the distance between your highest print and your current balance. The general concept is covered in the trading glossary, under trailing drawdown.

Regime 1: Tradovate evaluations, the threshold never stops

On a Tradovate evaluation, the official wording is short and has no exception: the intraday drawdown trails the account peak indefinitely. No cap, no stop, no level where you get to breathe.

The direct consequence: every new high, even an unrealized one, permanently tightens your room. A trader who lets a winner run and then watches it come back to entry did not make a flat trade. They made a flat trade in dollars and a losing one in room to operate. On this regime, managing the unrealized high is a permanent constraint, not an end-of-run concern.

Regime 2: Rithmic and WealthCharts evaluations, stop at the profit target

On those two platforms, the threshold stops following the peak once it reaches an amount equal to the profit target balance. The official example uses the 50K: the threshold freezes at 53,000, which happens once the highest balance, realized or not, reaches 55,000. The official formula is explicit: profit target balance plus the max drawdown.

Once frozen, the floor equals the profit target balance exactly. In other words, the account can no longer drop back below the level that passes the evaluation.

Here is the part worth doing the arithmetic on: that stop arrives at a level you only reach after clearing the target by one full drawdown. So it does not apply during the stretch where the account is most fragile, the one where you build the first few thousand with the tightest room. It is an end-of-run safeguard, not a starting net.

Regime 3: funded accounts, stop at starting balance plus 100

In a Performance Account, trailing stops once the threshold reaches the starting balance plus 100. On a 50K, the threshold locks permanently at 50,100, which happens when the highest balance, realized or unrealized, touches 52,100, that is starting balance plus max drawdown plus 100.

Apex has a name for that level, the Safety Net, and it shapes the entire life of a funded account. Until it is cleared, every new high pushes the floor up. Once cleared, the floor never moves again, and profit stacked above it becomes a real cushion. That is what the glossary calls the buffer.

All four account sizes

The official parameters give the drawdown distance and the profit target for each size. The stop levels follow from the two official formulas above. Apex publishes the worked example for the 50K; the other three columns apply the same formula to each size's published parameters.

Two things jump out once the three regimes sit side by side.

First, the harshest regime and the mildest one go by the same name. Two traders who both describe their setup as an Apex intraday evaluation can be living two different realities depending on the platform tied to their account. On one, the floor freezes one day. On the other, never.

Second, the funded account stop arrives far earlier than the evaluation stop, in dollars and in effort. On a 50K, it takes a 52,100 peak in a funded account versus 55,000 in a Rithmic evaluation. The funded account is tighter on contracts and on the daily loss limit, but it is the only one whose floor truly settles early.

What it changes inside a session

These three regimes are not a rulebook curiosity. They drive three concrete decisions.

• What you do with an open profit. On a regime with no stop, letting a trade run far and then giving the gain back costs room permanently. Whether to lock in or let it run is not only a read on the market: it is also a read on what that new high will do to your floor.
• Your real distance before the open. The only measure that counts is not the headline drawdown of your account size, it is the gap between your current balance and your threshold right now. That gap moved yesterday, on gains you may never have banked.
• Sizing around the stop level. Once you know where your floor settles, you know which phase of the account is the most fragile. That is the phase that deserves the smallest size, not the other way around.

None of this gets decided mid-position. These are risk parameters: they get read and set before the open, like every other constraint on the account.

What to check on your side

Three checks are enough, and they are one-time work.

• Which execution platform is tied to your evaluation. That is what decides regime 1 or regime 2. The answer is in your account parameters, not on a forum.
• The exact dollar level where your threshold locks, for your account size. The table above gives the math; your official statement gives the number that counts.
• Where your threshold sits today. Not yesterday, not at purchase. An intraday floor recalculates continuously.

For the general framework of prop firm rules, start with the guide to prop firm rules. For the full parameters of all four sizes, in evaluation and in funded accounts, the detail is in the Apex drawdown table. Turning these thresholds into execution rules you can hold session after session is what the Ephore Prop System is about.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Apex trailing drawdown ever stop moving up?

Yes, in two of the three regimes. On Rithmic and WealthCharts evaluations, the threshold locks at the profit target balance. On funded accounts, it locks at the starting balance plus 100. On Tradovate evaluations, it never stops.

Where does the threshold lock on a Rithmic or WealthCharts evaluation?

At the balance matching the profit target. On a 50K, the threshold freezes at 53,000, which happens once the highest balance, realized or not, reaches 55,000. The official formula: profit target balance plus the max drawdown.

When does trailing stop on an Apex funded account?

Once the threshold reaches the starting balance plus 100. On a 50K, the floor locks at 50,100 as soon as the highest balance, realized or unrealized, touches 52,100. Apex calls that level the Safety Net, and it never moves again.

Why does my threshold rise when I have not banked any profit?

Because the Peak Balance includes unrealized gains. A trade that runs to plus 900 and comes back to flat still moved your floor up by 900. And the threshold never moves down, even when your balance falls back.

Is the stop level the same in an evaluation and in a funded account?

No. On a 50K, a funded account locks its floor at a 52,100 peak, versus 55,000 on a Rithmic or WealthCharts evaluation. The funded stop arrives earlier, in dollars and in effort. And a Tradovate evaluation never locks at all.

Figures reviewed on the official Apex Trader Funding help center on August 7, 2026. These rules change often: always check the official source before you trade.

Futures trading involves substantial risk of capital loss. This article is educational and does not constitute investment advice.