The same scalper passes 98% of evaluations in an account with no time limit and 17% in one with 30 days. They don't blow up more: they run out of time. Before you look at the discount, look at the time limit.
Five traders, four 50K accounts
We simulated 3,000 evaluations of five fictional traders in the four 50K accounts whose rules we checked on each firm's website in October 2026: APEX with intraday trailing, APEX with end-of-day trailing, Lucid Flex and Lucid Pro. Amounts net of costs.
| Trader | APEX intraday | APEX end of day | Lucid Flex | Lucid Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High win-rate scalper $84 a day on average | 17% 1% · 82% | 17% 1% · 83% | 98% 2% | 98% 2% |
| Balanced trader $50 a day on average | 16% 23% · 61% | 16% 17% · 66% | 59% 41% | 59% 41% |
| Low win-rate trend follower $89 a day on average | 33% 13% · 54% | 33% 9% · 58% | 80% 20% | 80% 20% |
| One big trade a day $100 a day on average | 44% 34% · 22% | 45% 28% · 26% | 63% 37% | 63% 37% |
| Big-day hunter $225 a day on average | 51% 49% · 1% | 63% 34% · 3% | 61% 39% | 64% 36% |
In bold, % of evaluations passed; below, % blown and, if there is a time limit, % expired.
1. The time limit weighs the most
APEX's 2026 accounts give you 30 calendar days, about 21 sessions, to make $3,000. That requires about $143 per session on average, and quite a bit more to have a margin against bad luck. Lucid has no time limit on these two accounts.
- The scalper makes $84 a day on average. With no time limit they almost always pass; with 30 days, 83% of the attempts run out of time without blowing anything.
- The trader making $50 a day goes from 59% to 16%.
First rule: work out your expected profit per session. If it's below about $150 on a 50K, an account with a short time limit is not for you, however good its other rules. And with no time limit, size decides almost everything: how many contracts to trade.
2. Intraday or end-of-day trailing
With intraday trailing, the floor also rises with profits you never close (explained with charts in trailing drawdown explained). It punishes anyone who lets big trades run and then gives part of the move back.
- For the big-day hunter, switching to end-of-day trailing raises passes from 51% to 63% and cuts blow-ups from 49% to 34%.
- For one big trade a day, blow-ups fall from 34% to 28%.
- For the scalper it barely changes: their trades are small.
Second rule: the larger your trades relative to the cushion, the more end-of-day trailing suits you.
3. Consistency
Lucid Flex requires your best day to be no more than 50% of total profit. Going over doesn't fail the account, but it forces you to keep trading until it evens out. For four of the five traders it changes nothing. For the big-day hunter it does: they take 12 sessions instead of 7, and in the extra sessions some accounts get blown: they pass 61% versus 64% on Lucid Pro.
Third rule: if your profit depends on a few very big days, look for an account with no consistency rule or reduce the size of those trades.
4. Choose by cost per passed account, not by price
cost per passed account = price per attempt ÷ probability of passing
With made-up prices, just to see the math: if an APEX evaluation cost you $40 with a big discount and a Lucid one $150, the trader making $50 a day would pay about $247 per passed account at APEX (6.2 attempts on average) and about $253 at Lucid. Almost the same. For the scalper, with the same prices, $241 versus $153.
Add up everything you pay until you get paid: evaluation, resets, funded account activation and monthly fees if any. And use the price you will really pay.
5. What nobody tells you: the funded account doesn't last long
Passing is half the way. We simulated the funded phase of a Lucid Flex 50K with a small portfolio of strategies that did survive our tests (we don't say which ones or with what weights):
- Between 85% and 94% of funded accounts were blown before 250 sessions (a year of trading), usually after one or two payouts.
- Buying one 50K a month for two years, the median result was +$8,600 if the market behaved like 2019-2026 (with losses in 23% of scenarios) and −$300 if it behaved like 2006-2019 (losses in 52%).
- With the same strategies in a personal account, the two-year median result was +$15,500 and +$7,800 in those two scenarios, in exchange for needing your own capital and enduring drawdowns of about $7,800 in the worst 5% of cases.
Read coldly: for strategies with a proven edge, a personal account pays more. The funded account wins on two things: your maximum loss is what you pay for evaluations, and you have the chance of a very good result if you get lucky early. Those are valid reasons, but it's worth choosing them knowing what they cost. (Figures from a specific portfolio, with prices and rules from October 2026: yours will differ.)
What to check at each firm
Before buying, write down for each firm, with the date you checked it (October 2026's are in the rules table):
- Time limit to pass, and whether it counts calendar days or sessions.
- Type of trailing (intraday or end of day), its size and where it stops rising.
- Daily loss limit: whether there is one, how much, and whether it pauses the day or fails the account.
- Consistency, in the evaluation and in the funded account.
- Minimum trading days.
- Mandatory close time and whether overnight positions are allowed.
- Whether it allows bots, trade copiers and news trading.
- How many accounts you can hold at once.
- Payout rules: minimum, frequency, split and requirements.
- Total cost until the first payout.
How it was calculated
The FondeoReal simulator engine with the rules checked on the APEX Trader Funding and Lucid Trading websites in October 2026. 3,000 evaluations per trader and account, independent trades generated at random with each trader's win rate, average win and average loss. The 30-calendar-day time limit is counted as 21 sessions. Fictional traders and made-up prices. APEX Trader Funding and Lucid Trading are trademarks of their owners; FondeoReal is not affiliated with them.
Simulated and hypothetical results, with the limitations that implies. Not investment advice. Firm rules change: check them on each firm's website. This article contains no affiliate links.