👀 Apex Limits New Evaluation Purchases for Profitable Traders

Hi guys, it’s Kieran! Another week is upon us, and lots going on, so lets get straight to it:

📢 Prop Firm Industry News

Apex Trader Funding continued announcing changes to its model, mainly for profitable traders and those who have made multiple payouts. They will be actively moving these traders from “Sim Funded” to “Live” environment. Apex states:

• As you move closer to Live Prop eligibility and move off of a Simulated Test Environment, you will no longer be able to add in / purchase new Evaluation (Test) Accounts. 

• You can continue trading your existing PA Accounts, any active Evaluation Accounts and request withdrawals.

• You may reset and complete current Evaluations and convert those into PA Accounts once passed. You will NOT lose any Evaluation Accounts you already have or are in the process of passing and converting, just will not be able to continually add more and more test accounts in the mix.

• No additional Evaluation Accounts can be added to your membership going forward.

Apex later (in the interview below), noted that this push from Sim to Live is due to “new reporting systems and industry changes”. The criteria for going to live is based on “Total payouts, number of funded accounts, and consistency.” They also hinted that payout caps on Sim Accounts are being considered to push traders to Live.

Interestingly they also appeared to contradict the earlier email by saying if you lose your live account you can in fact return to the evaluation stage after a review. This situation seems very unclear. Here is the interview if you want to know more. This is likely not the end of this saga.

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. Lots on deck this week starting with Powell later today, JOLTS on Tuesday, Unemployment numbers on Thursday and Non-Farm Payrolls on Friday.

📈 The Macro View

S&P 500 rangebound

Lots of conflicting data points and general uncertainty. The dips are being bought, but we can’t sustain a rally for more than a couple of days. Choppy conditions.

Fear & Greed Index - No change from last week

Still in ‘greed’ territory but we are not pushing ‘Extreme’ levels where the contrarian Sell signal comes. The market awaits new impetus.

June Seasonality - mid-way through chop season

As I mentioned at the beginning of last month, early May until the end of June is ‘chop season’ for equity markets. Chart shows the S&P500 on a 20 year lookback. If the seasonality is to play out, we’ll have more chop until the 3rd week of June, a nice sell-off, and then we’re off to the races.

The Trillion Dollar Club

There are currently nine stocks in the "$1+ Trillion Market Cap" club. Here’s how they rank now, and where they ranked 10 years ago. An interesting table from Bespoke Research.

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

Kieran

📚 Further Reading

What's the easiest way to pass a prop firm challenge? This week’s question to PerplexityAI includes:

• Understanding Challenge Rules

• Effective Risk Management

• Strategic Profit Targeting

• Maintaining Trading Discipline

Click the link below!