Apteros Trading

Apteros is a futures-only desk. Forex, stocks and options are not tradable, though the major currency pairs are available through their futures contracts.

Permitted products. Equity index, currency, metals, fixed income, energy, agricultural and livestock futures, in both full-size and micro contracts. The published list runs ES, MES, NQ, MNQ, RTY, M2K, YM, MYM, NKD and MBT; CL, MCL, NG, MNG, RB and HO; GC, MGC, SI, SIL, HG, MHG and PL; the 6-series and micro currency futures; the ZT through UB rates complex; and the CBOT grains alongside live cattle and lean hogs.

Trading hours. Intraday accounts must be flat before 3:05pm CT, and earlier in markets that thin out sooner. CBOT agricultural products such as wheat, soybeans and corn must be closed before 1:15pm CT, and live cattle and lean hogs before 1:00pm CT. Swing accounts carry no time restrictions.

Holding positions. Overnight and multi-day holding is allowed on a designated swing account. Intraday accounts may not carry unrealized profit or loss through an exchange reset.

News. Trading around news releases is permitted. The firm discourages holding into a release unless it is a designed part of the strategy.

Automation. Algorithmic and automated strategies are allowed where the trader owns or manages the code. On the Live Desk the firm may request access to it for risk review.

Copy trading. Permitted between a trader's own evaluation accounts only. Copying between different users is prohibited.

Hedging. Opposite-side positions in the same or highly correlated markets may be held between a trader's own intraday and swing accounts. The firm reserves the right to treat hedging it judges to fall outside normal trading activity as a failure of every account involved.

Position sizing. Size is governed by exchange margin rather than a contract cap. A swing account must hold the full exchange margin requirement per contract, and an intraday account 60 percent of it.

Account limits. A trader may hold one login with Apteros. Up to five evaluation accounts may run at once in any mix of intraday and swing, and the Live Desk permits two, one of each type. Additional evaluation accounts must use the same platform connection as the existing ones, and that connection can only be reconfigured when no evaluation account is active.

Inactivity. An evaluation account that has not been actively and meaningfully traded for 30 days is suspended. Reactivating it requires buying a reset or a new account.

Resets. A failed or ineligible evaluation account can be reset, or a fresh one started, at the same one-time cost as the original. The firm publishes no limit on how many times a trader may do this.

Who may open an account. Traders must be at least 18 or the local age of majority. The firm does not accept anyone convicted of a felony, anyone disciplined by the National Futures Association or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or anyone carrying an outstanding balance with another trading firm.

Conduct that closes an account. Sharing an account, holding more than one login, reaching the service through a VPN or VPS, trading on behalf of others, pooling risk with other users, spoofing, wash trading, high-frequency strategies, trading outside the best bid and offer, exploiting bugs or system delays, and cycling accounts to evade risk limits are each grounds for termination and forfeiture of profit. The firm reserves sole discretion over what counts as abuse, and applies that judgement even where an exchange or platform would technically allow the conduct.

Live Desk obligations. Desk traders take on a working relationship rather than a rulebook alone. A stop is required on every open position, a daily review must be completed and shared for any session traded, and traders are expected to stay reachable and to follow risk permissions set by desk and risk management. The firm may reduce a trader's size and limits after a period of poor performance, and may promote an account to the desk at its own discretion.

Payment disputes. An unjustified chargeback results in immediate termination of all services and refusal of future service.