Prop firm news trading rules, firm by firm

It depends on the firm and on the account stage.

• Tradeify says it has no news rules.
• Apex allows news trading, but not “chasing” the market or two-sided orders.
• Topstep blocks new opening trades for 10 minutes around Tier 1 releases, in the Trading Combine and the Express Funded Account. It caps micros.
• MyFundedFutures and Take Profit Trader allow news in evaluations. On their restricted funded accounts they require flat books around named releases.

Each firm’s own words are below, with the source and the date I read it.

This is a summary of published rules, not legal or trading advice. Rules change, and some firms list events on a calendar I could not read as text. Read the firm’s page before you rely on a window.

The firms side by side

	Evaluation	Funded stage	Window	Hold through a release?
Topstep	Opening trades restricted around Tier 1 events	Same restriction on the Express Funded Account	10 minutes (5 before, 5 after)	Yes, if opened before the windowS1
Apex	Page names no account stage	Page names no account stage	Not published	Page is silent
Tradeify	“No restrictions”	Page names none	Not published	Page is silent
MyFundedFutures	Permitted	Prohibited on Rapid Sim Funded and Pro Sim Funded	2 minutes before and after	No, on Rapid Sim Funded and Pro Sim FundedS5
Take Profit Trader	“Allowed to trade the news”	No open positions or orders on PRO accounts	1 minute before and after	No, on PRO accountsS7

Topstep

Topstep limits new trades, not holding. “Ahead of Tier 1 News Events (for example, CPI, FOMC, NFP, PPI), Topstep temporarily restricts new opening positions on equity index products and metals in SIM to protect Traders from extreme volatility.”^S1

• Window. For minis (ES, RTY, YM, NQ, NKD, GC, SI, HG, PL): “No new opening transactions permitted during the 10-minute window surrounding the release (5 minutes before, 5 minutes after).”^S1

• Micros are capped, not blocked. The Trading Combine table shows the 50K as “Capped at 3 micros” while minis are blocked^S1. Express Funded Accounts have their own table, where limits “scale with balance”^S1.

• Times on the page (Central Time)^S1:

  Event	Window
  CPI, jobs report (NFP), PPI	7:25 to 7:35 AM
  FOMC rate decision	12:55 to 1:05 PM
  FOMC press conference	1:25 to 1:35 PM

• Existing positions. “Traders holding existing positions in equity index products and metals prior to 5 minutes before the news event may keep them open and manage them through the Tier 1 News Events window.”^S1

• Orders. “Pending orders are not open positions. They will not fill during the 10-minute window”, and “TP/SL brackets that are reducing/closing positions will be accepted during the window.”^S1

• Other products. “Other products (energies, rates, FX, etc.) are unaffected.”^S1

• Enforcement. “TopstepX automatically enforces these limits.” The page states no penalty for a violation^S1.

Apex

Apex allows news trading with a condition on how. “Trading during news is allowed for your normal trading strategy. Using ‘news trading’ strategies that ‘chase the market’ or place orders on both sides but to be lucky or gamble the outcome of news is not allowed.”^S2

The page publishes no window, no list of events, and no account stage: it sits in a list of prohibited activities and does not say which account stage it covers. I found no flat-book rule around releases. The same page separately bans holding both long and short positions on the same or a correlated instrument^S2, which matters for two-sided news orders. It was read from an archive snapshot.

Tradeify

Tradeify’s news page says it has no news rules. “We do not have any rules against or guidelines around trading news events.” It adds: “You trade news AT YOUR OWN RISK.”^S3 It warns about slippage and says “NEVER use the Daily Loss Limit as a stop loss”, because “system protection may not be effective during extreme volatility”^S3.

One rule still applies on funded accounts: “over 50% of your trades must be longer than 10 seconds AND over 50% of your profit must come from trades held longer than 10 seconds”, which “does not apply during an evaluation”. Missing it means no payout request^S3.

Where Tradeify’s pages differ. The Essential Trading Rules Overview lists news trading as “Allowed: Yes, but at your own risk” and then “Restrictions: Specific rules around major economic events”^S4. The news page says there are none. I read the Overview from an archive snapshot and did not find the “specific rules” on a page I could read. Ask Tradeify which applies.

MyFundedFutures

MyFundedFutures separates plans. “Unrestricted Accounts: Trading on T1 News events is permitted for the following: All evaluations; Builder Plans.” “Restricted Accounts: Trading on T1 News events is prohibited for the following: Rapid Sim Funded; Pro Sim Funded.”^S5

• The restriction. “No positions or orders (including limit orders) can be open 2 minutes before and after the release.” Its example: “if news is at 8:30, positions must be closed by 8:28:00 or earlier, and may only be reopened after 8:32:00.”^S5
• Events. For all traders: “FOMC Meetings, FOMC Minutes, Employment Report, CPI”. For energy traders: EIA. For agricultural traders: agricultural reports^S5. The page’s full calendar is an image, which I could not read as text.
• Other releases. “You may trade through other news releases if it aligns with your regular trading strategy.”^S5
• Strategies. The page prohibits “strategies that exploit immediate news bursts, such as straddles or strangles” and “masking news trades as standard strategies”, and says these prohibitions are “in effect for all news releases”^S5.
• A tension on the page. It also says “As News Trading is not simulated 1:1 with live markets, it is not allowed.” That sits beside the permission for evaluations; the page does not reconcile them^S5.
• Penalty. The page states none.

Take Profit Trader

Take Profit Trader’s FAQ separates its test (evaluation) accounts from its PRO accounts. For test accounts: “You’re allowed to trade the news.”^S6 For PRO: “no news trading on specific major events”, and the FAQ says PRO+ has the same rule^S6.

The PRO rules page names the events: “All PRO Accounts must be out of all open positions and have no open orders one minute before, during and one minute after any prohibited news event.” The list is FOMC statements and announcements (Wednesdays at 2:00 PM ET; Fed speakers and FOMC minutes are allowed), the jobs report (NFP, monthly, Fridays at 8:30 AM ET) and CPI, for which the page gives no time^S7. It points to the red-folder USD events on a public calendar and to its own trader calendar. The page states no penalty. It was read from an archive snapshot.

Where the pages are silent

• Apex and Tradeify publish no blackout window, and neither says anything about holding a position through a release.
• Penalties. None of the five pages I read states what happens if you break the news rule, apart from Tradeify’s payout condition on its microscalping rule.
• Take Profit Trader’s CPI time and MyFundedFutures’ 2026 calendar are not in readable text on the pages I saw.
• Bots. I did not look for news rules aimed at automated strategies. The bots guide covers what the firms say about automation.

If you test a strategy against these rules

A news rule is a time window. To test against one you need the release time and each firm’s window: 10 minutes at Topstep for new opens, 2 minutes either side at MyFundedFutures, and 1 minute either side at Take Profit Trader.

A test that only checks bar closes can hold a position through a window the firm would call a breach. Check the account stage too, since the rule can change between an evaluation and a funded account.