Apex vs Topstep funded rules, in plain math

Prop-firm rule pages are written by marketing departments. This one is written in arithmetic. Below: how Apex 4.0 and Topstep actually compute your trailing drawdown threshold, where the threshold locks, how the 50% consistency rule blocks payouts, and what replacing a blown account really costs — every claim shown as a number you can recompute by hand.

The rules, side by side

Rule	Apex 4.0 (PA)	Topstep (Express Funded)
Trailing mode	Your choice at purchase: intraday (peak = highest live equity, open PnL included) or EOD (peak = highest end-of-day settled balance)	EOD only. Threshold moves once per day, off the settled close — open-trade spikes never count against you
Threshold lock	Locks at start + $100 — e.g. a 50K stops trailing at $50,100	Locks at start — the max-loss line never rises above your starting balance
Consistency	Flat 50% cap, evaluated including today: no single day (best prior day or today) may exceed 50% of total profit at payout time	No flat-% cap. Payouts gate on winning days instead — you qualify by stacking green days, not by keeping any one day small
Sizes & trailing drawdown	50K / $2,500 100K / $3,000 150K / $5,000	50K / $2,000 100K / $3,000 150K / $4,500
Cost of blowing it	PA replacement ≈ ~$120 in fees (eval + activation, with the perpetually-running discount codes) plus ~3 weeks of re-evaluation time	Paid reset or a fresh Combine pass; dollar cost varies with promos, but the re-qualification time is the real bill

Drawdown figures above match the presets in our drawdown calculator — same numbers, live.

Three places the math bites

Worked example 1 — the threshold lock

An Apex 50K needs a +$2,600 peak to lock

The threshold is min(peak − 2,500, 50,100). It stops trailing only when peak − 2,500 ≥ 50,100, i.e. peak ≥ 52,600 — +$2,600 above start.

peak 50,000 → threshold 47,500 (trailing) peak 51,200 → threshold 48,700 (trailing) peak 52,140 → threshold 49,640 (trailing — still $460 of climb to go) peak 52,600 → threshold 50,100 (LOCKED — never moves again)

Until that lock, every new equity high drags the tripwire up behind you. Check your own peak/equity pair in the drawdown calculator.

Worked example 2 — intraday vs EOD, same trades

Identical trades, $1,400 of different room

Apex 50K, drawdown $2,500. You spike to $51,800 in open profit mid-session, give most back, and settle the day at $50,400.

INTRADAY peak = 51,800 (live spike counts) threshold = min(51,800 − 2,500, 50,100) = 49,300 room at 50,400 = 50,400 − 49,300 = 1,100 EOD peak = 50,400 (only the settled close counts) threshold = min(50,400 − 2,500, 50,100) = 47,900 room at 50,400 = 50,400 − 47,900 = 2,500 same trades → EOD holds $1,400 more room

This is the whole intraday-vs-EOD debate in six lines: intraday mode charges you for profit you never banked. Topstep is EOD by rule; on Apex it's a checkbox at purchase.

Worked example 3 — the consistency block

$900 banked on $1,500 total = payout blocked

Apex's flat 50% rule: your biggest day (including today) divided by total profit must not exceed 0.50 at payout.

best day = 900 total = 1,500 share = 900 / 1,500 = 60.0% → BLOCKED (cap 50%) grind target = 900 / 0.50 = 1,800 total → you need $300 more profit, in days smaller than $900, before that $900 day stops being >50% of the pile

The trap: one great day raises the bar for the payout it just earned. Before a big session, run the consistency calculator to see your headroom — how much you can bank today without tripping the cap.

Check your own numbers

Live — recomputes as you type. Same engine as the full drawdown calculator.

Firm preset

Trailing mode

Peak (highest live equity)

Current equity

Instrument

Contracts

Threshold

—

Room

—

equity − threshold

Room in ticks

—

How this is calculated

threshold = min(peak − drawdown, start + lockOffset) room = equity − threshold roomTicks = floor(room / (tick$ × contracts)) lockOffset: Apex = +100 · Topstep = 0 peak: intraday = highest LIVE equity (open PnL included) EOD = highest end-of-day settled balance tick$: NQ 5.00 · MNQ 2.00 · ES 12.50 · MES 1.25

Worked example (the calculator's defaults): Apex 50K intraday, peak 52,140, equity 50,250.

threshold = min(52,140 − 2,500, 50,000 + 100) = min(49,640, 50,100) = 49,640 room = 50,250 − 49,640 = 610 roomTicks = floor(610 / (5 × 2)) = 61 ticks at 2 NQ

This exact vector runs as a console self-test on page load — open devtools and look for the PASS line.

The honest fine print

Firm rules change quarterly (sometimes faster). Numbers above match published Apex 4.0 and Topstep rules as of mid-2026 — verify in your firm's dashboard before risking a payout on them.
Payout gates not covered here (minimum trading days, safety-net balances, payout windows) also apply and also change.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or compensated by Apex, Topstep, or any prop firm. This page exists because the math was scattered and we wanted it in one place.

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