FTMO vs Topstep vs Apex 4.0 — the exact rules, compared

Daily loss, trailing drawdown, locks, resets and consistency rules — verified against each firm's published terms, July 2026. Firms change rules; treat your firm's dashboard as final.

Most challenge failures aren't strategy failures. They're rule breaches — a daily-loss floor or trailing drawdown crossed mid-trade while your attention was on the chart. The rules differ between firms in ways that matter, and Apex's 4.0 restructure (March 2026) changed numbers most guides still have wrong.

The comparison

Rule	FTMO (2-Step)	Topstep Combine	Apex 4.0
Daily loss limit	5% of initial capital	$1,000 / $2,000 / $3,000 (50K/100K/150K)	EOD engine only: $500–$2,000 by size. Intraday engine: none
Daily reset time	00:00 CE(S)T (Prague)	5:00 PM CT (CME day start)	5:00 PM CT
Daily floor formula	Balance at 00:00 − 5% of initial	Day-start balance − limit	Day-start balance − limit (EOD engine)
Daily breach consequence	Account failed	Session lockout — not failure	Varies by engine/account
Max / trailing drawdown	10% of initial, static	$2,000 / $3,000 / $4,500, trails EOD balance	$1,000–$4,000 by size; EOD or Intraday engine
Trailing mechanics	n/a (static floor)	Level set from EOD balance, breach checked real-time incl. unrealized	Intraday: follows peak equity including open unrealized profit, immediately
Where the trail locks	n/a	At starting balance, permanently	Funded (PA): at initial balance + $100
Consistency rule	Best day < 50% of total profitable days	Best day < 50% of profit target	50% (PA only; was 30% pre-4.0)
Profit target (step 1)	10% (then 5% step 2)	$3,000 / $6,000 / $9,000	$1,500 / $3,000 / $6,000 / $9,000
Measured on	Equity (incl. open P/L, swaps, commissions)	Net P&L incl. unrealized	Balance/equity incl. unrealized (engine-dependent)

The traps that actually fail people

The Apex intraday trail eats open profit. An open +$1,500 that retraces to breakeven has still moved your threshold up $1,500 — you lost that room without banking a dollar. This is the single most misunderstood rule in funded futures trading. Post-4.0 drawdowns: $1,000 (25K), $2,000 (50K), $3,000 (100K), $4,000 (150K). Run your own numbers in the free Apex trailing drawdown calculator.

FTMO's daily floor moves every midnight Prague time. It's computed from your balance at 00:00 CE(S)T, not from initial capital. A profitable Tuesday raises your Wednesday floor in dollar terms — traders sizing off the original number breach a floor they thought was lower. And it's checked on equity: an open position can fail you before you close anything.

Topstep's DLL and MLL are different animals. Hitting the Daily Loss Limit liquidates your session but the account survives. Hitting the Maximum Loss Limit — which trails your end-of-day balance and is monitored in real time against unrealized P&L — ends the account. Know which line you're near.

Apex 4.0 (March 2026) rewrote the sheet. Legacy 75K/250K/300K accounts, the MAE rule and 30% consistency are gone. Guides written before March 2026 quote dead numbers.

Do the math per trade, or automate it

The discipline that passes challenges is knowing — before entry — the exact price where your position size hits the daily floor and the drawdown line. That's arithmetic, not judgment: floor distance ÷ (contracts × point value) from your current price.

We built an on-chart TradingView indicator that does exactly this: Nyxia Prop Guard tracks your equity against these exact rule sets (FTMO 1&2-Step, Topstep, Apex 4.0 EOD + Intraday engines), draws the breach price on your chart, and fires a phone alert at 50% and 80% of a limit — before the breach, not after. The free version handles generic limits; the Pro version has every preset on this page built in, kept current when firms change terms.

See the exact price where your challenge dies — before it does.

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Sources: FTMO trading objectives & academy; Topstep help center (articles 8284197/8284204/8284207); Apex Trader Funding help center + 4.0 change documentation. Educational content, not financial advice. Rule numbers verified 2026-07-12.