Prop firm news trading rules

Whether you may trade around high-impact news at each firm we track, per account type and stage. Every value comes from the firm's own pages; the source link opens the exact rule.

Forex and CFD firms

FirmAccountNews tradingDetails
Blue Guardian1 Step Standardwith limits

News trading is allowed in the challenge; on funded accounts no opening or closing trades 5 minutes before or after high-impact news and FOMC. Trades must be held at least 2 minutes. Funded accounts auto-close all trades at a 2% floating loss (Guardian Shield). Copy trading only between your own accounts.

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Blue Guardian2 Step Standardwith limits

News trading is allowed in the challenge; on funded accounts no opening or closing trades 5 minutes before or after high-impact news and FOMC. Trades must be held at least 2 minutes. Funded accounts auto-close all trades at a 2% floating loss (Guardian Shield). Copy trading only between your own accounts.

Source
Blue GuardianInstantwith limits

No opening or closing trades 5 minutes before or after high-impact news and FOMC; profit from them is removed. Trades must be held at least 2 minutes. Funded accounts auto-close all trades at a 1% floating loss (Guardian Shield). Copy trading only between your own accounts.

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Blue GuardianInstant Starterallowed

Trades must be held at least 2 minutes. Funded accounts auto-close all trades at a 1% floating loss (Guardian Shield). Copy trading only between your own accounts.

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FTMOFTMO Challenge 1-Stepallowed (evaluation)with limits (funded)

No news or holding restrictions during the evaluation. EAs are allowed unless they exceed 2,000 server requests per day; letting a third party trade the account is forbidden.

Standard accounts: no trades on targeted instruments from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after restricted news, and positions must be closed before the weekend. Swing accounts have neither restriction.

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FTMOFTMO Challenge 2-Stepallowed (evaluation, evaluation phase 2)with limits (funded)

No news or holding restrictions during the evaluation. EAs are allowed unless they exceed 2,000 server requests per day; letting a third party trade the account is forbidden.

Standard accounts: no trades on targeted instruments from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after restricted news, and positions must be closed before the weekend. Swing accounts have neither restriction.

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FundedNextStellar 1-Stepwith limits

News trading is allowed, but on funded accounts only 40% of profit from trades within 5 minutes of high-impact news counts. EAs need an add-on and are not available from $50,000. Copy trading only between your own challenge accounts. Maximum 3% open risk on funded accounts.

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FundedNextStellar 2-Stepwith limits

News trading is allowed, but on funded accounts only 40% of profit from trades within 5 minutes of high-impact news counts. EAs need an add-on and are not available from $50,000. Copy trading only between your own challenge accounts. Maximum 3% open risk on funded accounts.

Source
FundedNextStellar Instantwith limits

Only 40% of profit from trades within 5 minutes of high-impact news on a correlated pair counts. EAs need the EA add-on. Copy trading only between your own Stellar Instant accounts. Maximum 3% risk at any time. No daily loss limit.

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FundedNextStellar Litewith limits

News trading is allowed, but on funded accounts only 40% of profit from trades within 5 minutes of high-impact news counts. EAs need an add-on and are not available from $50,000. Copy trading only between your own challenge accounts. Maximum 3% open risk on funded accounts.

Source
FundingPips1 Step Flexallowed (evaluation)with limits (funded)

No news restrictions and holding is allowed during the evaluation; deliberately trading news is prohibited in every phase. The daily loss limit is 2% or 3% depending on the purchased configuration.

Profit from trades opened or closed within 5 minutes of high-impact news or speeches may be deducted (trades opened 5+ hours earlier are exempt). Open trades are closed automatically each day unless the Swing add-on was bought; this is not a breach. The daily loss limit is 2% or 3% by configuration.

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FundingPips2 Step Flex (80% split)allowed (evaluation, evaluation phase 2)with limits (funded)

No news restrictions and holding is allowed during the evaluation; deliberately trading news is prohibited in every phase.

Profit from trades opened or closed within 5 minutes of high-impact news or speeches may be deducted (trades opened 5+ hours earlier are exempt). Open trades are closed automatically each day unless the Swing add-on was bought; this is not a breach.

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FundingPips2 Step Flex (95% split)allowed (evaluation, evaluation phase 2)with limits (funded)

No news restrictions and holding is allowed during the evaluation; deliberately trading news is prohibited in every phase.

Profit from trades opened or closed within 5 minutes of high-impact news or speeches may be deducted (trades opened 5+ hours earlier are exempt). Open trades are closed automatically each day unless the Swing add-on was bought; this is not a breach.

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FundingPips2 Step Proallowed (evaluation, evaluation phase 2)with limits (funded)

No news restrictions and holding is allowed during the evaluation; deliberately trading news is prohibited in every phase.

Profit from trades opened or closed within 5 minutes of high-impact news or speeches may be deducted (trades opened 5+ hours earlier are exempt). Open trades are closed automatically each day unless the Swing add-on was bought; this is not a breach.

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FundingPips2 Step Standardallowed (evaluation, evaluation phase 2)with limits (funded)

No news restrictions and holding is allowed during the evaluation; deliberately trading news is prohibited in every phase.

Profit from trades opened or closed within 5 minutes of high-impact news or speeches may be deducted (trades opened 5+ hours earlier are exempt). Open trades are closed automatically each day unless the Swing add-on was bought; this is not a breach.

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FundingPipsFundingPips Zeronot allowed

No position may be opened, closed or held from 10 minutes before to 10 minutes after restricted news; weekend holding is a hard breach. A combined floating loss of 1% of the account size is a hard breach.

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Goat Funded Trader1 Stepwith limits

News trading is allowed in the challenge and funded phases, but a trade opened or closed within 5 minutes of high-impact news can keep at most 1% of the initial balance as profit; the excess is removed. Only self-developed EAs; no HFT or gold arbitrage EAs. Copy trading only between your own accounts; hedging across accounts is prohibited.

Source
Goat Funded Trader2 Step GOATwith limits

News trading is allowed in the challenge and funded phases, but a trade opened or closed within 5 minutes of high-impact news can keep at most 1% of the initial balance as profit; the excess is removed. Only self-developed EAs; no HFT or gold arbitrage EAs. Copy trading only between your own accounts; hedging across accounts is prohibited.

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Goat Funded Trader2 Step Standardwith limits

News trading is allowed in the challenge and funded phases, but a trade opened or closed within 5 minutes of high-impact news can keep at most 1% of the initial balance as profit; the excess is removed. Only self-developed EAs; no HFT or gold arbitrage EAs. Copy trading only between your own accounts; hedging across accounts is prohibited.

Source

Futures firms

FirmAccountNews tradingDetails
Alpha FuturesAdvanced Evaluation + Qualifiedallowed

No news restrictions on evaluations. All trades must be closed before 4:20 PM ET. AI, bots and full automation are prohibited; semi-automated signals are fine if you place and manage the trades yourself. Copy trading is allowed between your own accounts only; hedging and group trading are prohibited.

Source
Alpha FuturesDirect (instant Qualified)with limits

No orders within 2 minutes before or after high-impact (red folder) news for the traded asset. All trades must be closed before 4:20 PM ET. AI, bots and full automation are prohibited. Copy trading is allowed between your own accounts only.

Source
Alpha FuturesStandard Evaluation + Qualifiedallowed (evaluation)with limits (funded)

No news restrictions on evaluations. All trades must be closed before 4:20 PM ET. AI, bots and full automation are prohibited; semi-automated signals are fine if you place and manage the trades yourself. Copy trading is allowed between your own accounts only; hedging and group trading are prohibited.

No orders within 2 minutes before or after high-impact (red folder) news for the traded asset. All trades must be closed before 4:20 PM ET. AI, bots and full automation are prohibited. Copy trading is allowed between your own accounts only.

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Alpha FuturesZero Evaluation + Qualifiedallowed (evaluation)with limits (funded)

No news restrictions on evaluations. All trades must be closed before 4:20 PM ET. AI, bots and full automation are prohibited; semi-automated signals are fine if you place and manage the trades yourself. Copy trading is allowed between your own accounts only; hedging and group trading are prohibited.

No orders within 2 minutes before or after high-impact (red folder) news for the traded asset. All trades must be closed before 4:20 PM ET. AI, bots and full automation are prohibited. Copy trading is allowed between your own accounts only.

Source
Apex Trader FundingEOD Evaluation + PAwith limits

Trading news with your normal strategy is allowed; bracket orders on both sides of a news release are not. No automation or algorithms. Trade copying with other traders and hedging between accounts are forbidden.

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Apex Trader FundingIntraday Evaluation + PAwith limits

Trading news with your normal strategy is allowed; bracket orders on both sides of a news release are not. No automation or algorithms. Trade copying with other traders and hedging between accounts are forbidden.

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Lucid TradingLucidDaily (end-of-day evaluation)not confirmed (evaluation)not allowed (funded)

High-impact USD news is a hard breach on LucidDaily funded accounts; the evaluation rule is not stated separately. Automated strategies and trade copiers are permitted.

Must be flat from 1 minute before to 1 minute after high-impact USD news; trading it is a hard breach. Automated strategies and trade copiers are permitted.

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Lucid TradingLucidDaily (intraday evaluation)not confirmed (evaluation)not allowed (funded)

High-impact USD news is a hard breach on LucidDaily funded accounts; the evaluation rule is not stated separately. Automated strategies and trade copiers are permitted.

Must be flat from 1 minute before to 1 minute after high-impact USD news; trading it is a hard breach. Automated strategies and trade copiers are permitted.

Source
Lucid TradingLucidDirectallowed

Open positions are closed automatically at 4:45 PM ET; holding past it does not fail the account. News trading is allowed on Pro and Flex. Automated strategies and trade copiers are permitted.

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Lucid TradingLucidFlexallowed

Open positions are closed automatically at 4:45 PM ET; holding past it does not fail the account. News trading is allowed on Pro and Flex. Automated strategies and trade copiers are permitted.

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Lucid TradingLucidProallowed

Open positions are closed automatically at 4:45 PM ET; holding past it does not fail the account. News trading is allowed on Pro and Flex. Automated strategies and trade copiers are permitted.

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My Funded FuturesBuilderallowed

T1 news (FOMC, employment report, CPI; EIA and agricultural reports for those markets) may be traded on evaluations and Builder plans; news-burst strategies such as straddles are prohibited everywhere. Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited. Copy trading across your own accounts is allowed; copying another trader is not.

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My Funded FuturesBuilder ($1,500 MLL option)allowed

T1 news (FOMC, employment report, CPI; EIA and agricultural reports for those markets) may be traded on evaluations and Builder plans; news-burst strategies such as straddles are prohibited everywhere. Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited. Copy trading across your own accounts is allowed; copying another trader is not.

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My Funded FuturesProallowed (evaluation)with limits (funded)

T1 news (FOMC, employment report, CPI; EIA and agricultural reports for those markets) may be traded on evaluations and Builder plans; news-burst strategies such as straddles are prohibited everywhere. Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited. Copy trading across your own accounts is allowed; copying another trader is not.

Rapid, Rapid EOD and Pro sim-funded accounts must have no positions or orders from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after T1 news (FOMC, employment report, CPI; EIA and agricultural reports for those markets). Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited. Copy trading across your own accounts is allowed; copying another trader is not.

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My Funded FuturesPro (1 Day add-on)allowed (evaluation)with limits (funded)

T1 news (FOMC, employment report, CPI; EIA and agricultural reports for those markets) may be traded on evaluations and Builder plans; news-burst strategies such as straddles are prohibited everywhere. Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited. Copy trading across your own accounts is allowed; copying another trader is not.

Rapid, Rapid EOD and Pro sim-funded accounts must have no positions or orders from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after T1 news (FOMC, employment report, CPI; EIA and agricultural reports for those markets). Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited. Copy trading across your own accounts is allowed; copying another trader is not.

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My Funded FuturesRapid (intraday sim funded)allowed (evaluation)with limits (funded)

T1 news (FOMC, employment report, CPI; EIA and agricultural reports for those markets) may be traded on evaluations and Builder plans; news-burst strategies such as straddles are prohibited everywhere. Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited. Copy trading across your own accounts is allowed; copying another trader is not.

Rapid, Rapid EOD and Pro sim-funded accounts must have no positions or orders from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after T1 news (FOMC, employment report, CPI; EIA and agricultural reports for those markets). Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited. Copy trading across your own accounts is allowed; copying another trader is not.

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My Funded FuturesRapid EODallowed (evaluation)with limits (funded)

T1 news (FOMC, employment report, CPI; EIA and agricultural reports for those markets) may be traded on evaluations and Builder plans; news-burst strategies such as straddles are prohibited everywhere. Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited. Copy trading across your own accounts is allowed; copying another trader is not.

Rapid, Rapid EOD and Pro sim-funded accounts must have no positions or orders from 2 minutes before to 2 minutes after T1 news (FOMC, employment report, CPI; EIA and agricultural reports for those markets). Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited. Copy trading across your own accounts is allowed; copying another trader is not.

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My Funded FuturesStudioallowed

News trading is allowed on Studio. Open positions are closed automatically at 4:10 PM ET. Studio runs on Hyperprop only. Automated strategies are allowed if they do not exploit simulated fills; high-frequency trading and hedging the same underlying are prohibited.

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Take Profit TraderPRO+with limits

Flat with no open orders from one minute before to one minute after FOMC statements, NFP and CPI. Only approved instruments during permitted trading hours. At least one traded day per calendar week.

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Take Profit TraderPRO+ Developmentwith limits

Flat with no open orders from one minute before to one minute after FOMC statements, NFP and CPI. Only approved instruments during permitted trading hours. At least one traded day per calendar week.

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Take Profit TraderTest + PROallowed (evaluation)with limits (funded)

Open positions are closed automatically at 4:55 PM ET. Opposite positions in the same or related products are not allowed.

Flat from one minute before to one minute after FOMC statements, NFP and CPI. No bots or algorithms.

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TopstepTrading Combine + Express Funded (Consistency)with limits

All positions must be closed by 3:10 PM CT each weekday. Trading your full maximum position size into a scheduled major news event is prohibited. Automated strategies and trade copiers are allowed across your own accounts.

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TopstepTrading Combine + Express Funded (Standard)with limits

All positions must be closed by 3:10 PM CT each weekday. Trading your full maximum position size into a scheduled major news event is prohibited. Automated strategies and trade copiers are allowed across your own accounts.

Source
TradeifyGrowth Evaluation + Fundedallowed

News trading is allowed at your own risk. Positions open at the 5:00 PM ET close are closed automatically. Opposite positions on the same or correlated products count as hedging and are prohibited.

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TradeifyLightning Fundedallowed

News trading is allowed at your own risk. Positions open at the 5:00 PM ET close are closed automatically. Opposite positions on the same or correlated products count as hedging and are prohibited.

Source

"With limits" means news trading is allowed outside a window around high-impact releases or with other conditions; the details column says which. Rules verified 2026-10-11.

Questions

Which prop firms allow news trading?

Among the firms we track, Alpha Futures, Blue Guardian, FTMO, FundingPips, Lucid Trading, My Funded Futures, Take Profit Trader, Tradeify allow news trading on at least one account type. Many of them restrict it on funded accounts only, so check the stage in the table.

What does a news trading restriction usually mean?

Most firms ban opening or closing trades within a few minutes (often 2 to 5) before and after high-impact releases for the instrument you trade, using an economic calendar such as Forex Factory. Holding a position through the news is often allowed. Breaking it usually voids the profit of those trades or denies a payout rather than failing the account at once.

Is news trading allowed in the evaluation?

Often yes: several firms only restrict news trading on funded accounts. The table shows evaluation and funded stages separately where they differ.