Apex Trader Funding Daily Reset Time & Drawdown Rules
Last updated: September 2026
Prop firms / Apex Trader Funding
Apex Trader Funding runs futures evaluations on the CME session clock, so the trading day begins at 17:00 Chicago rather than at midnight.
Its trailing threshold follows your account value intraday, which means the level you must stay above can move during a single session — including on a peak you held only briefly.
When the Apex Trader Funding trading day resets
The daily limit resets at 17:00 in Chicago time (America/Chicago). That zone observes daylight saving, so the equivalent time in your own timezone moves by an hour twice a year — which is exactly why working it out once and writing it down goes wrong.
How Apex Trader Funding measures drawdown
Intraday trailing drawdown — follows your peak equity in real time.
The distinction matters more than the percentage. A static drawdown sits under your starting balance and never moves, so your worst case is fixed from day one. A trailing drawdown climbs behind your profits, which means the level that breaches you is a moving target — and where a firm lets that floor climb past your starting balance, you can fail while still showing a profit.
Why Apex Trader Funding accounts actually fail
- An intraday trail punishes round trips: running up and giving it back raises your floor without improving your balance.
- The threshold typically stops trailing once it has climbed to a set point relative to your starting balance — know exactly where yours locks.
- Holding a position across the session boundary needs care when you are close to the threshold.
Track it without doing the arithmetic
The Pips Project keeps a live count of the headroom left on each limit, measured on Apex Trader Funding's own reset clock rather than your local midnight, and follows a trailing floor when the firm trails one. It also tells you which limit binds first, because that is the number that actually stops you. See how it works, or read our guide to journalling a prop-firm challenge.
Frequently asked
When does the Apex trading day reset?
At the 17:00 Chicago futures session open rather than at midnight. The corresponding UTC time changes twice a year with US daylight saving.
Does the Apex trailing threshold follow intraday highs?
Yes. It tracks your account value as it moves rather than only at the daily close, so an intraday peak can raise the level you must remain above even if you gave the gain straight back.
Why is an intraday trail harder than an end-of-day trail?
An end-of-day trail only looks at where you finished each day, so a spike you gave back before the close never counts. An intraday trail sees the spike itself. In practice that means a fast move you scaled out of, or a position that ran deep into profit before reversing, can permanently raise your floor without leaving any profit behind to show for it. The same trading produces a tighter account under an intraday rule.
How should position sizing change on a futures evaluation?
Futures move in ticks with a fixed value per contract, so risk scales in discrete, often large, steps rather than smoothly as it does with forex lot sizes. One extra contract can be a substantial change in exposure rather than a marginal one. Work out the currency value of your stop distance per contract before the session, not while a trade is moving against you.
Not affiliated with Apex Trader Funding. Rules change — always confirm the current terms in your own Apex Trader Funding dashboard. Nothing here is financial advice; see our disclaimer.