So like many I'm an undercapitalized trader, with many years of experience (which btw is why I'm 'undercapitalized'!). In recent years I've tried various combines to qualify for a funded account. Apex seemed the best so I was, until today, with them for a couple years. Couple weeks ago I failed a funded account, a so-called '$50K' which of course was really only a $2500 account since that's the maximum allowed drawdown. While trying to enter a 1-contract trade, the system (R Trader Pro platform/data) kicked me into 10 long nq contracts. I hit the flatten (panic) button, and nothing happened. I repeatedly hit it until it went from profit to large loss, only then did it let me out. I failed the account that day. Fast forward to a new evaluation account I just purchased, and something similar happened, only this time the system forced me into 10 short trades which I was able to exit quickly, but not before it failed the account. Apex's customer support people called it 'user error'. Impossible since I always set the default number of contracts/trade to 1. My internet was/is fine, and wired not wireless though I'd rarely ever had a problem even trading on a wireless connection. More interesting when my roommate told me that happened to her quite a number of months ago when she tried Apex/Rithmic, on a different computer - kicked into 10 contracts and the system wouldn't let her exit the trade, though she was eventually able to exit without an account fail. So, it wasn't the internet connection, and it wasn't a problem with a specific computer. I'm relaying this story so that anyone thinking of doing business with Apex may want to look elsewhere. If I was a conspiracy theorist I'd suspect that Apex might be colluding with the Rithmic folks to cause havoc, to increase their account failure rate to make more money from subscribers with more account purchases/reset fees. Until recently I would've never suspected this of them, since most of my experience with Apex has always been good, and professional, no complaints. I can't say for sure how these things happened however, but we're very confident we didn't make these 'user errors'. This is both a heads-up due to growing suspicion about the origin of these problems, and a request to the readers to report here any similar problems you may have had with Apex, or for that matter any combine company that has agreements with Rithmic. If you use a Rithmic platform and have experienced this kind of problem, it might be a good idea to use a different platform and data feed. Maybe a different combine company too.
it's 100% an Apex issue. This company is just a shithole and competes with the worst of the worst bucketshops from the '00 era. They refuse to payout winners again and again. There are countless complaints about them all over the web. Do yourself a favour and stop doing business with them. Even in the unlikely event that you make money, you won't get a dime. Good luck...and next time do your research before you put down money.
Had very few problems with Rithmic myself, have several accounts all over and compared to all the others I have used they are stellar. Rithmic only facilitates order execution that's what they do it's simple stuff.
Exactly right. @MrMuppet has essentially said all that needs to be said about Apex. You’ve presumably been with them for a while? Nowadays, surely, nobody who does any due diligence at all, anywhere online, would ever dream of doing business with them? I know they constantly give 80% or even 90% discounts on their evaluation fees, but even allowing for that, it’s pretty amazing that anyone would ever pay them a penny!
Did they ever connect to CFE and (IIRC) Nymex? It's like they are "almost institutional" but missing a couple key exchanges
Thanks to all who replied to my post. All I can say about researching these combine firms is, in my browser's search field I enter the name of the company, between the words 'is' and 'legit' or 'scam'. I then get the usual links to trustpilot and other similar review sites. I'd never actually survived the accounts long enough to request a withdrawal of funds so I don't know what they'd do or not do. All of these companies seem to essentially operate on the same business plan - using evaluation account revenue to fund those few who pass and get to the point of actually being able to withdraw profits. The drawdown limits and other restrictive rules make it very difficult to succeed. And trading is hard enough without the kind of major disruption that in my case has ruined what was on track to possibly be good trading sessions. I'm looking for another combine company now. Take Profit Trader is relatively new I think, and like Apex they do periodically have some deep discounts. But their rules are numerous to the point of confusion. On the surface they say 'withdraw profits from day 1', but you have to dig deep into their web site to get the devil in the details. One rule I find ridiculous is the requirement to post a minimum net profit of $200 in a trading session or it won't count as an 'active trading day'. No other combine company requires that. There are other 'gotchas' too, have to keep digging for them. To get their best deals on funded account fees they also require you to send info about their programs to at least four friends/family. As most people know that's the best way to send them running for the hills. It can cost friendships if they see you're just trying to sell them something for your own benefit, so I don't market shit to them. Especially something that has such a low probability of success at least for the newbies. There are an increasing number of these companies sprouting up these days, some seem reasonable cost while most are pretty expensive and full of roadblocks to successful trading. If I knew years ago when I had the funds what I know now about trading, with the benefit of hard experience on how the markets are manipulated every minute of every trading day, I'm convinced I'd be successful at that work now. But the money isn't there now, so have to make do with what's available to stay in this brutal game. Suggestions for combine company choices appreciated, thanks.
I am a live funded trader with Topstep for a while now and I am very happy with them so far. Compared to others Topstep does have end of day trailing draw down in all stages, which to me is a big plus. A downside might be that they require 5 days of at least $200 profit before you can withdraw 50% of the balance and 30 days of at least $200 before you can withdraw 100% of the balance. If you use their TopstepX platform there is no daily loss limit anymore and for now it's the only platform that can do 10X micros, so on the $50K account you can do up to 5 minis or 50 micros. The other platforms are still capped at 5 contracts for now, mini or micro doesn't make a difference, not sure why. There are a few firms I would consider if I would start over: Topstep, TradeDay, TakeProfitTrader and Earn2Trade. I think these 4 all put you in an actual live account if you are doing well. If I were you I would compare the rules between those and pick one based on that. You can also take into account the cost for one of the accounts, but I always prefer to pay a little more if the rules are more in favour of the trader. In the end these companies are there to make money and most of their revenue comes from failing traders, so before spending money with these firms I would recommend to setup a practice account somewhere and apply the same rules as these firms do and pass at least 3 times in your practice account, that way you know you can actually pass instead of throwing money at them not knowing you can even pass.
Few years ago I read a few bad reviews on TopStep - member traders getting nearly daily calls from their sales people pressuring them to try harder, trade more and make them more money. More recently I'm seeing better comments about them however, so maybe last year or two they may have changed their behavior. Six years ago I started with earn2trade, then after a couple years or so went with OneUp. Both were expensive compared to Apex which I started with two years ago. Thank you for the suggestions, the search commences anew!