Ticks-in-Flow

Apex Trader Funding  have now responded to my payout denial. They confirm that scalping  while in a trade is allowed, and this is not considered  DCA . Due to the way their system currently identifies DCA (more than one execution in red), these trades will initially be flagged as DCA. A manual review is required to look at each individual trade in depth, and the DCA flag will be removed for scalps . Once Apex becomes familiar with the trader's approach and stats, Apex mark the accounts so repeated denials should not occur. I am happy with this explanation and this has given me the confidence to continue with Apex.  As a result of this interaction I have decided to convert all my passed evals to  PAs. Before After

This is my first time trading with TopStep.  I purchased 5 x 50k Combines and will use a trade copier to take the same trades on all 5 accounts. Differences between the Apex and Topstep evaluations. Profit Target: Apex $3000, Topstep $3000 Max Contracts: Apex 10, Topstep 5 Minimum Trading Days: Apex 7 (sometimes 1 during promotions), Topstep 2 Consistency: Apex No, Topstep max day not to exceed 50% (plus a small buffer)  Daily Anti-Tilt protection: Apex No, Topstep $1000 Max loss: Apex $2500 trailing highest unrealised profit, Topstep $2500 fixed from previous end of day. Day 1 Trade : The trade number on this day. DCA : Dollar Cost Average - This increases each time a trade is added to a losing trade. AIP : Add In Profit - This increases each time a trade is added to a winning trade. Entry : Time in UTC. Exit : Time in UTC. Size : The number of ES contracts traded. Direction : Long or Short. MAE : Maximum Adverse Excursion.  This is the maximum number of ticks the trade moved against

UPDATE - See  https://ticks-in-flow.blogspot.com/2024/06/apex-trader-funding-dca-denial-review.html This chart shows the number of ticks each trade moved against me. For example, I had 14 trades where the trade immediately moved in my favour and did not pullback at all.  The majority of my trades moved just 1 tick against me. I always enter and exit with Limit Orders.  As a scalper, I cannot use market orders due to slippage. My trade size is 2 lots.  With 1 DCA allowed, my maximum size at any time has been 4 lots.  I only trade ES. The outlier (67 ticks) was on a day with Rithmic issues.  I did not DCA on that trade.  That trade was exited with a 5 tick loss. The next largest drawdown (33 ticks) was on a reduced size of 1 lot due to increased volatility. My payout was denied.

UPDATE - see  https://ticks-in-flow.blogspot.com/2024/06/apex-trader-funding-dca-denial-review.html My recent payout request of $22k was denied due to DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging). All my trades are logged in this journal,  where I have documented my entries, exits and trade reason. You can see I have never been in more than 2 positions at any time, and I have actively managed risk on  all positions exactly as Apex videos have asked. I'm proud of my trading over the past few weeks and I'm absolutely gutted my payout has been denied. After chatting with Apex mods in Discord, it seems the actual rule is now "You can only make one execution while in a losing position".  The original rule simply said 'no DCA', so it has previously been possible to enter a longer term position and scalp  order flow while waiting. I'm even more gutted to learn that if I exited my position only to re-enter immediately with double size (which is effectively the same thing), my pay

Just before the London Open, Order Flow showed a pulling of bids from the DOM (indicated by the 3 red triangles).  Immediately at the London Open, there was a large iceberg offer (indicated by the orange horizontal line).  The thesis is this could be the start of a trend lower, so the plan is to scalp with the trend. Trades 1-6 are all Order Flow scalps in the direction of the bearish bias. To comply with Apex DCA rules, a losing trade cannot be added to more than once. Green lines indicate winning trades.  Red lines indicate losing trades. Trade : The trade number on this day. DCA : Dollar Cost Average - This increases each time a trade is added to a losing trade.  As per Apex rules, this should never be greater than 1. AIP : Add In Profit - This increases each time a trade is added to a winning trade.  This can be unlimited. Entry : Time in UTC. Exit : Time in UTC. Size : The number of ES contracts traded. Direction : Long or Short. MAE : Maximum Adverse Excursion.  This is the maxim

Trade 1 is an exhaustion trade that fails.  Stop is executed at 20t. Trade 2 and Trade 3 are Order Flow scalps with a tight stop below the previous low (horizontal orange line). Trade 4 experienced Rithmic issues, and despite placing a 2-contract limit order, only 1 contract was filled by Rithmic on a number of my copy-trades.  My trading platform registered the correct fill on the lead account and incorrectly applied this to all copy accounts.  A 2-contract stop was applied to all copy accounts and this resulted in some accounts now being 1 contract short from 5338 instead of flat.  Apex sent the Rithmic logs for this event and I was able to identify the issue with the trade copier.  I have made adjustments to prevent this from happening in the future. Trade 5 was an attempt to fix the issue above, as my system was showing I'm short when I thought I was flat. Green lines indicate winning trades.  Red lines indicate losing trades. Trade : The trade number on this day. DCA : Dollar

The market has fallen significantly since the open and the expectation is price will now chop sideways, or rise in a bear flag, for the remainder of the session. Trade 6 consolidates below the initial entry but increasing higher lows give confidence to stay in the trade.  The exit is based on price being unable to re-enter the consolidation block to the left (see first orange line). Trade 7.  Once price enters the consolidation block and is supported by strong bids, this is a quick scalp to 1t below the top of the consolidation block. Trade 8.  In the consolidation block, Order Flow shows that price is likely to break higher.  A long is entered expecting a move higher.  This trade moves lower but Order Flow supports staying in the trade. Trade 9.  As price retests the breakdown area, this is a decision point - to cancel losing trade 8, or to add.  There is support below (the 3rd orange line) so if the trade is wrong, there will be an opportunity to exit all trades at 5328.  Trade 8 was