PropFirmTest 
It’s 14:29 on a Friday, NFP drops in a minute. A 100 000 dollar account, a long opened two hours earlier, a clean stop 40 pips away. The number prints, the spread jumps from 1 to 18, price runs 60 points against you, the stop fills. Two weeks later you ask for your payout and the answer comes back: that trade was taken inside a restricted news window.
I have seen this a dozen times. Almost never because the trader was cheating. Almost always because the rulebook was read diagonally.
“News trading allowed” means almost nothing
That phrase is what winds me up in most comparisons. You read “news trading: allowed” on a prop firm page, you pay for the challenge, and three lines down you learn it is allowed except during the two minutes around high impact releases, and that the high impact list includes central banker speeches nobody tracks.
There are four different layers behind that word, and they are not equivalent.
A full ban during the evaluation. Simple: you do not trade the calendar, period. Wait for the release and work after it.
The buffer window. The most common setup. Say two minutes before and two minutes after the release, sometimes five. You cannot open or close a trade inside that interval. Watch the detail: close too. If your stop fills inside the window, it counts.
The paid add-on. A monthly fee for the right to trade news on the funded account. Standard practice now at firms that watched too many accounts blow up on the first Friday of the month.
A full ban on the funded account after it was tolerated in the evaluation. The nastiest one: you already passed, and you stopped re-reading the rulebook.
The trap that really costs you: the cancelled payout
Nobody covers this in the first page comparisons, and it is where everything is decided. Rule checks do not happen in real time, they happen at payout. You can trade for three weeks with a news trade in your history, everything looks fine, the account shows plus 7 %, you request a withdrawal. The review lands: that trade on 3 November was opened 47 seconds before CPI, so it is out of bounds, so the profits attached to it are gone. Sometimes just that trade. Sometimes the whole payout cycle.
It is brutal, and it is perfectly within the contract you signed.
My personal rule: if a trade can be contested, it is worth nothing. Profit you cannot withdraw is not profit, it is a green line on a dashboard.
What the firms actually check
| Checkpoint | What they look at | What gets you caught |
|---|---|---|
| Execution timestamp | Open AND close time | An open or a close inside the window |
| Stop triggers | Stop execution, not the entry | A stop hit during the release |
| Opposite positions | Same symbol, opposite side | Treated as hedging |
| Source of the profit | A winning trade inside a window | Profits removed, payout denied |
| Reference calendar | Their source, not yours | A surprise event you never listed |
That last one is the most unfair. You watch the calendar on your favourite site, an improvised Fed comment lands, the market takes off, you take the trade. On their list, it was there.
How to trade news without getting kicked out
First, stop trying to be in the first move. It is wrong a good share of the time, and it is the move that costs the most in spread. Let volatility settle, then work the structure that forms afterwards. You give up 20 pips of the move, you keep the account.
Second, cut your size inside the window instead of doubling it. A wider spread multiplies your real cost: a 10 pip stop with a 25 pip spread fires for nothing. On 100 000 dollars, 0.5 % risk is 500 dollars, slippage included.
And do not hedge. An opposite position on the same symbol to “neutralise” risk is banned in nearly every rulebook, and it is the fastest way to have both trades cancelled at payout. If you cannot take the risk, close before the release.
The real issue underneath all this is not technical, it is behavioural: the problem is not the news, it is the urge to be inside it.
My take: which firm for news trading
Honestly, if the economic calendar sits at the centre of your method, you do not need a firm that tolerates news. You need a firm that does not breathe down your neck on deadlines and lets a trade live.
That is why I stay on The5ers in that situation. No time limit on the model, and a philosophy closer to a trading floor that wants traders to last. Check the current conditions on high impact releases before you pay, because it moves, but the spirit is there.
FTMO is still the reference for stability and payout history. The thing to know: depending on the account type, the practice is restricted or goes through the swing option. It is written down, you just have to read it before clicking. FundedNext talked up flexibility for a long time, with sharp differences between models: the devil is in the name of the account you pick.
To place all of it, our prop firm ranking and the guide on drawdown rules give you the frame. And if you are starting out, understand how a challenge works before you worry about news.
My checklist before you pay
- Search for the word “news” in the full rulebook, not on the product page. The PDF, not the marketing table.
- Write down the exact window: how many minutes before, how many after.
- Check whether the rule covers stops hit, not just entries.
- Look for a funded-account add-on, and its monthly price. It changes the real cost of the challenge.
- Ask support, in writing, what happens if you hold a position through a release. Keep the answer.
News trading is not a shortcut. It is just a zone where the rules are denser and mistakes cost more.
The questions I get on repeat
“Can I trade NFP on a funded account?” Depends on the model and the firm. On some offers yes, with a window of a few minutes to respect. On others you need an add-on. On others again it is a no. Read the rulebook of the model you are buying.
“What if I make 3 000 dollars on an unauthorised news trade?” They can strip the profit on that trade during the review, and sometimes refuse the whole payout. The account can survive for weeks before it lands. Never count on that money.
