👀 Apex is Cracking Down on Traders Gaming the System

Hi guys, it’s Kieran! It’s a Tuesday newsletter this week due to Memorial Day in the US yesterday but we are back to business today so let’s get into it.

📢 Prop Firm Industry News

Apex Trader Funding is tightening its oversight considerably after paying out two traders over $2 million dollars each last month. They are now enforcing much stricter policy on traders to clamp down on “abuse”.

The key abuse types that they are monitoring include:

• Hedging within Apex accounts

• Hedging between Apex and External platforms

• Cycling/Churning simulated accounts

• Violations of risk management or scaling rules

• Use of automated ‘set and forget’ bots

• Holding trades over market close or weekend

• Following signals

• Exploiting the 8-day payout requirement (see screenshot below for full details)

Apex state that offending accounts may be placed under probation and subject to:

• Temporary Limitations on contract usage

• Payouts restricted to profit earned since last request

• Disqualification or previously accrued windfall profits for withdrawal over the next two payout cycles.

• Continued abuse may result in permanent account closure

Lots to digest here, but it does seem that no new rules have been implemented, rather they are warning that they will be enforcing their current terms more forcibly and clamping down on traders just gaming their rules. Lots more payout denials can be expected from the firm now but when you are paying out millions a month, it is a necessity that the rules of the model are respected otherwise it won’t last long!

From Payout Junction, here are the firms who paid out the most over the last 7 days 🏆️.

🔥 Monitor prop firm payouts LIVE on Payout Junction - https://payoutjunction.com.

🕜 Red Folder News

Here are this week’s red folder news events. Very quiet on the news calendar this week, however US preliminary GDP on Thursday and Core PCE (the Fed’s preferred gauge on Inflation) on Friday could have market moving implications. US/EU Trade Talks carry headline risk.

📈 The Macro View

The biggest day of retail buying on record

According to Goldman Sachs, last Monday saw the largest day of retail buying of US stocks on record. We have been tracking these massive retail flows for weeks now, and the trend continues, retail are going all-in here.

Whilst retail buy, institutions are still watching from the sidelines

Positioning on Goldman Sach’s Prime book remains light. Institutions still not buying this equity rally. We continue to see a fascinating divergence between retail and the ‘big money’. A further squeeze higher in the S&P500 and we’ll see if the FOMO kicks in.

Third biggest outflows ever from Gold.

Something to keep an eye on. Gold is still 4% away from all-time-highs but is now experiencing major outflows. The weakening US dollar is likely helping it stay afloat, so if the dollar reverses, this could come down fast.

Crypto inflows relentless

Barely a pullback to speak of. Crypto has held up incredibly well through this period of volatility and has done its job as a global uncertainly hedge. This will not have gone unnoticed by institutional asset allocators and these inflows are likely to grow substantially in the future imo.

OK guys, stay safe out there and i’ll see you next week!

Kieran

📚 Further Reading

Is It Possible to Be Profitable Day Trading? This week’s question to PerplexityAI includes:

• Success Rates and Statistics

• Profitable Trading Strategies

• Essential Risk Management

• Common Failure Factors

Click the link below!