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News Restrictions and Other Hidden Rules in Funded Programs

Some of the most expensive mistakes in funded programs come from rules that traders overlook. News restrictions are a frequent example.

Several firms prohibit opening or closing trades within a set window around high-impact news, such as two to five minutes before and after. Some apply it only to funded accounts and not evaluations. Breaking the rule can void profits earned on that trade or end the account.

Other common restrictions include a ban on holding positions over weekends, limits on maximum lot size or number of open trades, rules against hedging, and prohibitions on certain types of automation or copying trades between accounts.

Rules about trading style also appear. Some firms forbid gambling-like behavior, such as oversized single trades relative to the account, and may enforce it with automated checks.

The problem is not the rules themselves but their interaction with your approach. A news-trading strategy fails under a news ban. A swing strategy fails under a no-weekend rule.

Keep a copy of each firm's rules, and re-read them before every payout request. Terms change, and the version you accepted may not match the current site.

When in doubt, ask support in writing and keep the response.

Build a checklist of the firm's specific prohibitions and add it to your pre-trade routine.

Practical step: create a one-page rules summary for your account, listing every prohibition and limit, and keep it beside your screen.

Watch out for trades opened well before the news that are still running during the window. Some firms count closing by stop or target inside the window as a violation, even if you didn't touch it.

Ask support in writing, yes. Live chat answers vanish. Email or a ticket gives you something to point to if there's a dispute later.

The definition of "high-impact" is the detail I'd check first. Most firms tie the restriction to a specific economic calendar and its red-flag rating, and different calendars disagree about what's red. A Fed speaker or a second-tier release can be restricted on one firm's list and absent from the calendar you normally use. It's also usually applied to both currencies in the pair, so a EURGBP trade is caught by UK and eurozone releases, and gold by every major US one.

So I'd use the firm's own calendar source for the pre-trade check, set to the same time zone the firm uses, rather than assuming my usual one matches.