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Firstrade Clearing Firm (APEX)
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Firstrade and Apex Clearing
Key Points:
• Firstrade, which is an introducing broker, uses Apex Clearing Corporation as its clearing firm.
• Apex is responsible for processing and delivering account documents, such as trade confirmations and monthly statements.
• All cash and securities in Firstrade accounts are held by Apex.
If you have a brokerage account at Firstrade, you need to be aware of a second company: Apex Clearing Corp.
Overview of Apex and Firstrade
Firstrade is an introducing broker. This means its primary responsibility is in attracting and retaining customers. Introducing brokers are responsible for opening new accounts and providing customer service.
Firstrade is not a clearing broker. That's where Apex Clearing comes in. Firstrade delegates a lot of back-office work to a second brokerage firm, who is Apex in this case. A clearing broker has a different set of responsibilities; these tasks include trade execution, settlement, custody of funds, and the generation of account documents (such as trade confirmation, statements, and tax forms). Basically, all the bureaucracy associated with managing securities accounts are handled by the clearing firm and not the introducing firm.
Whenever you receive an account document, such as a trade confirmation or statement, you'll see both Firstrade's logo and Apex's name on the document. You might also see something such as "APEX CUST." This means that Apex has custody of all assets in the account. Cash and securities are not actually on deposit at Firstrade; they are held by Apex. That's a really important job that Apex performs.
Apex is also responsible for ensuring that all trades go smoothly and settlement takes place correctly and on time. If anything in this department goes awry, it is up to Apex to fix it. You can think of Firstrade as the exterior of a building, while Apex is the interior. Although Firstrade is better known, Apex is actually responsible for the lion's share of the really important stuff.
Insurance and Regulation
Although Firstrade and Apex have a symbiotic relationship, they are independent companies with their own registrations with America's governing bodies. They both are independent members of SIPC, for example.
Firstrade is registered with FINRA with ID # 16843 and the SEC with ID # 8-34642. Apex has FINRA ID # 13071 and SEC ID # 8-23522. Because they have independent registrations, oversight and sanctions can take place independently as well.
Apex is also a member of many other self-regulatory bodies, including:
- Nasdaq
- NYSE Arca
- CBOE Exchange
- NYSE
These registrations are important as many trades inside a Firstrade account will take place on these exchanges.
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Updated on 9/12/2025.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
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