A decision on interest rates in the U.S. or economic data can quickly become a make-or-break moment for traders across forex, stocks, and futures markets. However, news trading is highly regulated. Many prop trading firms do not allow it, or else put severe restrictions and claw-backs on your profits. 

That’s why it's important for traders to know which prop firms allow news trading. This guide explains the rules and regulations around news trading for some of the biggest prop firms out there.

Which Prop Firms Let You Trade News Events?

Most Prop trading firms put some restrictions on news trading. Breaking a single rule can sometimes lead to your entire funded account being terminated, so it's important to know the rules in detail.

Here’s a quick summary of some of the more popular prop trading firms.

SeacrestFunded (formerly MFFX)

SeacrestFunded is the most transparent among its peers. In the Challenge phase, news trading is allowed. Once you reach a Live Sim-funded account, it’s disallowed unless you’re in the special 2-Step News Plan. 

As for the timing rules, profits for any trade opened or closed within 3 minutes (before or after) of a red-label event will not be considered, unless you opened the position at least three hours earlier. 

Thankfully, it is only considered a soft breach, so doing this won’t cause you to lose the account. The rules are simple but precise, which gives a lot of comfort to experienced traders.

FTMO

FTMO allows restriction-free news trading during evaluation. But once funded, there’s a 2-minute blackout before and after big news on certain pairs. 

Swing accounts are the exception, letting you hold through both news and weekends. FTMO’s model is balanced, but the two-minute buffers may not be suited to every trading style.

Apex Trader Funding

Apex Trader Funding also allows news trades, but you can’t take opposing positions (both long and short) around the same event. 

They also have certain consistency rules, like not allowing more than 30% of profits in a single day to come from news only. 

The policy rewards discipline and helps prop traders from relying too much on one big event.

The 5ers

The 5ers are a mixed bag. In Hyper-Growth and Bootcamp programs, news trading is allowed (just no bracket strategies). 

In High Stakes, you’re blocked two minutes before and after high-impact releases. 

That means different trading styles will either work or struggle, purely depending on the choice of program you make.

FundedNext

FundedNext has a unique approach to news trading. While news trading is allowed, you only get to keep 40% of the profit if you are opening or closing the trade within five minutes of a high-impact event. 

For many prop traders, that 40% split may not be an attractive proposition.

Goat Funded Trader

Goat Funded Trader caps the potential for making profits on news trading. Profits in trades executed within two minutes of a major news event are restricted to 1% of your opening balance. 

While there’s no penalty, any profit higher than that 1% restriction is removed. The policy seems safer, but may not suit traders who try to generate profits by riding the full spike.

FundingPips

FundingPips has the most confusing rules. News trading is allowed in its evaluation accounts but, in the funded accounts, no profits are allowed unless the trade was opened less than five hours before the release and closed within five minutes of it. 

If you opt for their “On Demand” reward cycle, you’re free to trade news however you like. That flexibility makes it attractive for different trader preferences, but be careful to read the fine print before you commit.

QT Funded

News trading is allowed without any restriction during evaluation with QT Funded. Once funded, however, their Prime and Instant accounts do not allow trading five minutes before or after high-impact news.

OANDA Prop Trader

OANDA Prop Trader does not allow opening or closing trades two minutes before or after major events, excluding Stop losses and take profits. The policy is conservative, which discourages aggressive, event-driven trading strategies.

Why Seacrest’s Policies Make the Difference

Clear, Usable Trading Rules

SeacrestFunded is very upfront and clear about news trading rules, unlike some of the others that we have seen in our evaluations. Many proprietary trading firms use vague terms to convey that news trading is “allowed,” but put in hidden caps or profit adjustments which you only learn about once you start the program. 

For SeacrestFunded the rule is simple: no opening or closing within three minutes of red-label events, unless your position was opened at least three hours earlier. News trading is allowed without limits during the Challenge phase, so that you can hit the profit target more easily.

Violations Treated Fairly

At many prop trading firms, a single, inadvertent mistake can cause your entire funded account to evaporate overnight. But with SeacrestFunded, that’s not the case. They only treat these violations as a soft breach. 

They may remove the profit from that particular trade, but your account will not be terminated. It can be a big difference for those who are not experienced traders. 

Built for Real Traders

If you’re a swing trader, the three-hour carve-out at SeacrestFunded allows you to hold positions right through major events. On the other hand, for intraday traders, you just need to plan around the three-minute window. 

So for both trading styles, the rules are clear. Even if you are a news-focused prop trader, the rules push you to sharpen your trading skills and know exactly what to expect. This is why SeacrestFunded is one of the most reputable prop firms in the business.

How to Implement Risk Management for News Events

News events often cause major movements in the financial markets, causing spreads to widen, slippages to increase, and sharper price swings than normal. 

If you’re a prop trader who wants to trade a funded account, one wrong move in such volatile markets can cause huge losses in an instant. That’s why so many guardrails are put in place by most prop trading funds to manage event-driven trading. Quality risk management is extremely important in these circumstances — it’s what separates successful traders from those who suffer large losses.

Here are some things that you should keep in mind if you want to navigate major news events.

Position Sizing and Timing

The easiest thing to do is just scale down your size when you know a major news event is about to happen. Just like a small shrub can survive a strong wind but a big tree may fall easily, so does smaller exposure have less chance of blowing up your account during periods of high volatility. 

The other thing is knowing when to step aside, and what kind of trades, such as swing positions opened hours earlier, can safely ride through the storm. 

The three-hour carve-out that SeacrestFunded has put in its rule is a wonderful example of how trading rules can force traders to plan rather than gamble at the last minute.

Stop Losses, Tools, and Discipline

As we grow more experienced with trading, we often tend to lose sight of the basics, like stop losses and discipline. Tight stops alone are not enough, because spreads can go up quickly and skip right past them. 

Use trading tools like volatility filters and limit orders to make sure that big events do not ruin your plans. These advanced trading tools help you navigate news risk easily.

Match Strategy to the Firm’s Rules

By now, you must have realized that firms differ in the kind of trading strategy they prefer. For heavy scalpers, OANDA’s four-minute blackout window can be problematic.  However, swing traders would love SeacrestFunded’s three-hour carve-out policy. 

Find a prop firm that aligns with your trading style. This is one of the most important risk management decisions to take. If you choose the wrong fit, no amount of stop losses or copy trading ideas will save your evaluation.

What Platforms and Tools Matter For News Trading?

A solid, reliable trading platform is key to enabling traders to execute their strategies without facing a rejected order or a frozen chart, especially when the market is exploding around you after a news drop.

News-driven prop traders need a trading platform that’s reliable, can offer high execution speed, and gives the necessary features that are important for real risk management.

What SeacrestFunded Offers

With SeacrestFunded, prop traders get access to MT5, with support for MatchTrader and cTrader. Note that some traders who were formerly on cTrader are now being transferred to MT5.

MT5 is a natural upgrade to MT4; it’s faster, supports more order types like Buy Stop Limit, and comes with good tools for backtesting. 

It’s stable and widely supported for manual trading. Its MQL5 environment makes building and testing event-driven setups very easy for algorithmic trading.

cTrader offers a powerful Depth of Market view that displays real liquidity levels. That’s a great feature to have during major news announcements. It has a cleaner integration with automated trading bots and offers a solid order entry system. 

MatchTrader has a nice-looking, modern web-based interface and gives you a lot of flexibility.

Important Features To Note

More than the choice of the platform, it's the small features that provide protection when you are facing a major news event. Trailing stops let you lock in gains without closing early. Partial closes let you take profit while leaving some exposure in play. Stop-limits let you avoid slippage, ruining your entry.

Funding Programs and Payout Models

Getting funded is the goal of every prop trader. Different prop trading firms offer different approaches to how you get there. Some, like FTMO and SeacrestFunded, use structured evaluations. 

Others, like Goat Funded Trader and FundingPips, use a variety of flexible funding programs like fast-track models, on-demand accounts, and even instant funding options. Traders should pick programs that match their trading style.

After being funded, the profit share split is very important. Most prop trading firms like SeacrestFunded, FTMO, and The 5ers will give you an 80/20 split to start with. 

In the case of news trading, the profit splits sometimes come with strings attached. FundedNext reduces news profits by 40%, while Goat Funded puts a 1% profit cap.

Scaling is another thing that matters once you are funded. SeacrestFunded starts with account sizes ranging from $5,000 and up. You can scale right up to $1 million in simulated capital.

But none of it actually matters if the payouts don’t come on time, so it's important for traders to only choose reputable prop firms that ensure reliable payouts. 

SeacrestFunded pays on biweekly cycles. FTMO also offers scheduled withdrawals, while Apex has a large base of futures traders that always report smooth cash-outs. Do not get misled by aggressive marketing like “fast funding.”  The track record of the firm is what really matters the most.

Moving Forward in 2025: What Traders Should Look For

Prop trading is becoming more competitive day by day, so traders need to value clear trading rules, fair profit targets, and reliable profit sharing. 

A strong prop trading firm that offers the tools to leverage your trading style in the best possible manner and pays on time without hassles is highly preferred. SeacrestFunded meets these criteria, and may be considered a suitable option for traders seeking clarity and structured conditions.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What happens if I accidentally trade during a news blackout period?

The consequences vary significantly between prop firms. With SeacrestFunded, violations are treated as "soft breaches" - they'll remove the profits from that specific trade but won't terminate your account. However, many other prop firms have much stricter policies where a single violation can result in immediate account termination.

2. Can I hold swing trades through major news events?

Yes, but it depends on your prop firm's specific rules. SeacrestFunded allows you to hold positions through news events if you opened them at least 3 hours before the announcement. FTMO offers "swing accounts" that are specifically designed to hold through news and weekends without restrictions.

3. Are news trading restrictions different during the evaluation phase versus live funded accounts?

Yes. Most prop firms are more lenient during evaluations and stricter once you're funded. For example, FTMO has no news trading restrictions during their challenge/verification phase but implements a 2-minute blackout on funded accounts. SeacrestFunded allows unrestricted news trading during challenges but prohibits it on live accounts (except for their special 2-Step News Plan). QT Funded follows a similar pattern.

4. Why do some prop firms reduce profit splits for news trades?

Prop firms view news trading as higher risk due to increased volatility, wider spreads, and potential for large, sudden losses. FundedNext only allows you to keep 40% of profits from trades opened or closed within 5 minutes of high-impact news. Goat Funded Trader caps news trading profits at 1% of your starting balance. These reduced splits are the firm's way of managing risk while still allowing some level of news trading.

5. Which trading platforms are best for news trading with prop firms?

The platform choice can significantly impact your news trading success. MT5 is widely supported and offers faster execution than MT4, plus advanced order types like Buy Stop Limit that are crucial during volatile news periods. cTrader provides excellent Depth of Market views showing real liquidity levels, which is invaluable during major announcements. SeacrestFunded offers MT5, MatchTrader, and cTrader options. Look for platforms that support trailing stops, partial closes, and stop-limit orders.