Prop challenges and news rules: building a calendar filter

[FXS London Scalper]

a number of evaluation firms limit activity near major scheduled releases, typically a few minutes before and after. Breaking the rule by accident is a common way to fail.

A practical filter:

• Use one economic calendar and check that its time zone matches your platform or your local time.
• Each morning, list the restricted events for your pairs with exact times.
• Set alarms five minutes before each restricted window.
• Close or avoid trades as the rules require.

Things to clarify with the firm:

• Which calendar they use to define high impact.
• Whether the rule applies to all instruments or only those affected by the currency.
• Whether holding an existing trade through the window is allowed, or only opening new ones is banned.
• Whether pending orders filled in the window count.

For EAs, a news filter that reads a calendar file can enforce this automatically, but test it before relying on it.

A single missed alarm costs the challenge fee, so redundancy is worth it.

How do you handle news rules on prop accounts?