Prop Firm News Trading Rules: The Exact Minutes at 18 Firms

Most forex and CFD prop firms allow news trading during the evaluation but restrict it once you are funded, usually by banning the opening or closing of trades on affected instruments for two to five minutes either side of a high impact release. We checked the exact window at 18 firms; the full table is below. A minority restrict it in the evaluation as well, and several futures firms place no limit at all. The penalty ranges from losing the profit on the offending trades to losing the account, so the exact wording matters.

How news trading rules work

A news rule has five parts, and firms vary on each of them.

• Which events. Most firms restrict only high impact releases, often defined as the red folder events on the Forex Factory calendar, plus central bank decisions such as FOMC. Some publish their own list of selected announcements.
• Which instruments. The restriction usually applies only to instruments affected by the release. A US jobs report affects dollar pairs, US indices and gold, but not necessarily a trade on EUR/GBP.
• The window. Typical windows are two, three, four or five minutes before and after the release time.
• What counts as a trade. Opening and closing both count at most firms. Many also count pending orders that fill, and stop loss or take profit orders that trigger, inside the window. Positions opened well before the window can usually be held through it.
• The consequence. Firms either remove the profit from trades made in the window, record a soft breach, or treat it as a hard breach that ends the account.

Firms restrict news trading on funded accounts because prices can jump through several levels in a second. On a simulated account the fill can be better than a live market would give, so profits made in those seconds may not be repeatable with real capital.

Worked example

This example uses a made up $100,000 funded account at an imaginary firm. Its rule bans opening or closing trades on affected instruments from five minutes before to five minutes after a high impact release, counts stop loss and take profit fills, allows positions opened earlier to be held, and removes any profit made inside the window.

The US jobs report is due at 8:30am New York time, so the window runs from 8:25am to 8:35am. The trader has three positions on EUR/USD, where one standard lot is worth about $10 per pip.

The trader made $3,700 on the morning but keeps $600 of it. At a firm that treats the same rule as a hard breach, trades A and C would each end the account, and trade A would do so even though the trader did nothing at 8:31am except leave a take profit order in place. The simplest way to avoid that outcome is to have no orders on affected instruments that could fill inside the window.

The exact minutes, firm by firm

We read each firm’s own help centre or FAQ for the table below. Rows marked November 2026 were checked between 1 and 8 November 2026; the rest were checked in September 2026. Firms change these rules often, so open the linked source before you buy, and treat a firm that will not put its window in writing with caution.

What the table shows

Two minutes is the most common window. FTMO, Maven, ThinkCapital’s standard accounts, Blueberry, Orion and three futures firms (My Funded Futures, Alpha Futures and AquaFunded Futures) all use two minutes either side. Five minutes is the next most common, at FundedNext, Funding Pips, Blue Guardian, Moneta and ThinkCapital’s Bolt accounts. Funding Pips Zero is the strictest we found at ten minutes either side, and Take Profit Trader’s PRO+ the shortest at one minute.

The penalty matters more than the minutes. FundedNext still counts 40% of a profitable news trade and Blue Guardian simply removes the profit, so a mistake costs you one trade. ThinkCapital and Funding Pips Zero end the account. Maven goes further than most: a trade opened before the window that is still open during it counts, so holding through a release is not a way round the rule there.

Most forex firms only restrict the funded stage. FTMO, FundedNext, Funding Pips (apart from its ban on deliberate news trading), Blue Guardian and WSFunded leave the evaluation free. Maven, Blueberry, Moneta and ThinkCapital apply the same window from day one, which suits a trader who wants the evaluation to match the funded account.

Futures firms name the events. Instead of the red folder on Forex Factory, My Funded Futures and AquaFunded Futures list FOMC, the jobs report and CPI, with oil inventories and crop reports for traders in those markets. Funded Futures Family is the clear outlier with no restriction at all.

You can sometimes pay or pick your way out. ThinkCapital sells a news trading add on for Lightning and Nexus accounts, and FTMO Swing, ThinkCapital Dual Step Swing, Orion Swing and Alpha Futures Advanced accounts carry no news window. If news is central to your trading, choose the account type first and the firm second.

A ranked view of firms that suit news traders is in best prop firms for news trading, and the dates of next month’s big releases are in our news calendar posts.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting orders already in the market. A take profit, stop loss or pending entry that fills inside the window counts as a trade at many firms, even if you placed it hours before.
• Assuming the evaluation rules carry over. Traders often pass a challenge that allowed news trading, then keep the same habits on a funded account where it is restricted.
• Checking the wrong calendar or time zone. Firms name their source, often Forex Factory, and the release time must be converted correctly. A window of 8:25am to 8:35am in New York is 1:25pm to 1:35pm in London for most of the year.
• Ignoring which instruments are affected. Gold and US indices usually move on US data, so a rule that covers affected instruments can reach further than the currency pair you had in mind.
• Treating profit removal as harmless. Even where the account survives, repeated violations can lead a firm to review the account more broadly. How firms spot these patterns is covered in how prop firms detect rule violations.

How to trade within news rules

Start each week with the economic calendar your firm uses and mark every high impact release against the instruments you trade. Set alerts ten minutes before each one, which leaves time to close positions or cancel orders before the window opens.

Decide in advance what you will do with open trades. If your firm allows positions opened before the window to be held, and does not count stop or target fills inside it, you can hold with protective orders in place. If fills inside the window count, the only way to be certain of compliance is to be flat, or to have no orders that could trigger during it. Removing a stop loss to avoid a fill swaps a rule risk for a much larger market risk, which the funded account risk management guide explains.

If news trading is central to your approach, choose the account type to match. FTMO’s Swing type, the Dual Step Swing account at ThinkCapital and several futures firms allow it, while other firms sell it as a paid add on. Related rules often travel together: accounts that restrict news also tend to restrict holding over the weekend, covered in weekend and overnight holding rules, and the difference between losing a trade’s profit and losing the account is explained in soft breach vs hard breach. Firm by firm rules are listed in the forex and CFD and futures directories.

Checklist

• Does the restriction apply in the evaluation, the funded account, or both?
• How long is the window, and which calendar defines a high impact event?
• Does it cover only affected instruments or every instrument?
• Do pending orders, stop losses and take profits that fill in the window count?
• Can positions opened before the window be held through it?
• Is the penalty profit removal, a soft breach or loss of the account?
• Is there an account type or add on that removes the restriction?