Prop firm news trading rules
Many firms restrict trading around high-impact releases such as NFP, CPI and rate decisions. Some ban opening or closing trades in a window around the release, others strike the profit afterwards. Every rule below is quoted from the firm’s own pages, with a link to where we read it.
What can this rule do to you?
Kind of rule
News
What you may do around a high-impact release.
Funding TradersCloses the accountNews trading banned on Instant accounts only
On Instant Funded accounts, opening, closing or holding a position inside the restricted window around high-impact news is not allowed. Evaluation accounts are treated differently, so the rule you read may not be the rule on your plan.
News trading banned on the larger CFD accounts
News trading is not permitted on $100,000 and $200,000 CFD accounts during either the challenge or the earning phase. The smaller accounts are not covered by the same restriction, so the rule depends on the size you bought.
ThinkCapital
Closes the accountNews trading is banned unless you bought the add-on
Trading is prohibited from two minutes before to two minutes after a scheduled news release unless you purchased the News Trading add-on, or your challenge permits news trading by default. The restriction applies to the funded phase as well as the evaluation. This is not a challenge-only rule, and their own help pages describe accounts being terminated for breaking it.
Five of the six routes ban news trading outright
One-Step, Two-Step, Instant Funding, Phoenix and Sprint all bar trading the news. Only Instant Pro permits it. Sprint goes further and bars trading around the market open and close as well. Which route you bought decides whether an ordinary news trade is a breach.
News trading is a hard breach once funded
Allowed freely during evaluation. On a funded account, orders executed 5 minutes either side of high-impact news or speeches on the affected instrument are prohibited and any profit in that window is voided; trading the news deliberately terminates the account. On FundingPips Zero the window is 10 minutes either side and holding through it at all is a hard breach.
Stop loss or take profit hit during the news window is a breach
On Standard funded accounts you may hold a trade through news but if its Stop Loss or Take Profit fills inside the 2 minute window it counts as a breach. That can terminate the FTMO Account.
USD red folder news is a hard breach on LucidDaily funded accounts
You must be flat from 1 minute before to 1 minute after high impact USD news. Holding or opening a position in that window breaches the funded account.
News profits are deducted rather than simply disallowed
Once funded, positions may not be opened or closed within 5 minutes either side of a high-impact red-folder event on the affected currency, and profits made from news are deducted. Trades opened more than 5 hours before the event are excluded from the restriction.
News trading is barred outright on accounts bought after 13 November 2025
The summary at the top of their own rules page says news trading is merely restricted to a five-minute window either side of red-folder events. Further down the same page: "We do not allow news trading on instant standard accounts purchased after 13th November 2025." Profits earned in a news window are removed "without any account violation". You keep the account and lose the money, which is why this does not show up in breach statistics.
Instant Funding Lite trades near news must close 5 minutes early
Orders must be closed at least 5 minutes before high-impact news or held until 5 minutes after. A trade that hits take profit inside the window is void and its profit is ignored while any loss stands.
Hedging around red news is banned for 15 minutes either side
Straddled, offsetting or equivalent hedged exposure on the same or correlated instruments is prohibited within fifteen minutes before or after Red or Amber events on the Forex Factory calendar, earnings and geopolitical events, where the purpose is to capture the volatility. Note the window is measured both ways: a hedge placed a quarter of an hour before the release is inside it.
Betting the account on a news event is named as abuse
Their terms describe a prohibited "Boom or Bust" approach, where the success or failure of the account rests on one trade, or a series of trades connected to a major news event, and separately name excessive risk taking exacerbated by news events. Both are assessed after the fact, on the shape of your trading rather than on a number you can watch.
News trades pay 40% less, funded and instant only
News trading is unrestricted during the evaluation. On a Funded or Instant account any trade opened within 5 minutes either side of a high-impact news event falls under a 40% news profit split. So the account you paid to reach is the one where the rule starts costing you.
News profits are deducted, news losses are not refunded
No restriction during evaluation. On funded accounts nothing may be executed on an affected instrument within 5 minutes either side of major news, pending orders and stop-losses and take-profits included. Profit made in that 10-minute window is deducted as a soft breach; losses in it are not compensated. Positions opened more than 5 minutes before may be held and modified, though an SL or TP filled inside the window still counts. Anything open 48 hours or more is exempt. The asymmetry is the point worth noticing: the window can only cost you.
News window on Elite Daily and Elite ACCESS funded accounts
On these funded accounts you may not open, close or modify orders from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after high impact news. A violation can remove the profit from that trade and get the payout denied.
You may not close a trade within three minutes of high-impact news
News trading is allowed in principle, with this restriction: avoid "opening, closing(TP, SL or manual) or adding to positions within 3 minutes before or after any high impact news release or speech". Read the bracket. Closing counts, and a stop loss or take profit counts as closing, so a position that is stopped out inside the window breaks the rule without the trader touching anything. The only way to comply is to be flat before the window opens.
Opening trades to catch a gap around scheduled news is forbidden
Gap trading ahead of major scheduled news, macro events or earnings is listed as a forbidden practice. FTMO can remove the trades, withhold Rewards or end the agreement.
Big leveraged bets around news count as a banned strategy
News trading is allowed but large leveraged positions around major releases are treated as gambling. FXIFY judges this case by case and it can end in termination and voided profits.
No full size positions into major news
Trading your full Maximum Position Size straight into a scheduled major release is a prohibited strategy. Topstep can respond with anything from a warning to a denied payout or a closed account.
Stop loss and take profit fills count inside the news window
On funded and instant accounts, any execution from 4 minutes before to 4 minutes after high-impact news is a violation, including a stop loss or take profit on a trade you opened earlier. FunderBlu's own economic calendar decides what counts as high impact, and violations are judged case by case.
This list is only as complete as our reading. 33 of the 83 firms we track have been through a rulebook pass; the rest are still to do, and a firm missing from here has not been cleared. It has not been checked. See which firms are next.