You passed the challenge. The news and weekend rules did not come with you.
By Axelrod
You read the rules before you bought the challenge. Then you passed, and a new account arrived with the same logo and a different rulebook.
Not every firm does this, and not every rule moves. But on the pages of six firms, read on 5 October 2026, the same five things kept changing at the line between evaluation and funded. This post takes the two that cost you a trade: the news window and the weekend hold. The next one takes the three that cost you the account, which are consistency, the drawdown floor, and what a payout does to it. Each rule below has a firm’s own sentence behind it, with a link. Rules change under you covers the other half of this, how to keep a dated copy of the terms you signed up under.
What “funded” means on these pages
Funded is a word each firm defines for itself. FTMO calls the stage an FTMO Account, FundingPips a Master Account, Alpha Capital a Qualified Analyst account. This post uses “funded” for whatever comes after the evaluation. The rules that bind you are the ones on the page for your plan and your stage, and nothing else.
News: free in the evaluation, walled in afterwards
Three firms let you trade through news in the evaluation and then draw a window around it.
FTMO. In the evaluation: “You may trade freely during all macroeconomic news releases.” On a Standard FTMO Account it is “not permitted to open or close any trades, including the execution of pending orders (such as Stop Loss or Take Profit), within a time window starting 2 minutes before and ending 2 minutes after” selected releases. The Swing account type has no such restriction.
FundingPips. On 2 Step Standard: “There are no news trading restrictions during the Evaluation phase.” On the Master Account the window runs 5 minutes either side of high-impact news and 10 minutes either side of speeches, and profits from trades opened or closed inside it “may be deducted.” A trade opened 5 hours or more before the event is exempt.
Alpha Capital. “During the evaluation phases, you can trade freely during all news releases.” As a Qualified Analyst the window is 5 minutes each side, and a take-profit that fills inside it is classed as a soft breach, “and any profits earned will not be eligible for a performance fee.”
The part that is easy to miss is the exit. On FTMO’s page and on Alpha’s, a stop or a take-profit that fills inside the window counts as a trade you made. You did not place it, and it still counts.
MyFundedFutures draws its line differently. Its news page lists Rapid and Pro sim funded accounts as restricted on Tier 1 events (FOMC meetings and minutes, the employment report, CPI), with no positions or orders open two minutes either side, and lists all evaluations and Builder plans as unrestricted. The same page also carries a general two-minute protocol for every release. Read both before you trade through a print.
The window moves by firm. The idea behind it does not.
The weekend: allowed until it is not
FTMO. In the evaluation: “You are allowed to keep your positions open overnight and over the weekend.” Once you trade a Standard FTMO Account you are “required to close your positions shortly before the markets close for the weekend or if the rollover (market break) lasts longer than 2 hours.” Swing accounts are exempt.
Alpha Capital, Alpha Pro 8%/10%. “Phase 1/2: Holding trades over the weekend is allowed. Qualified Analyst Account: Holding trades over the weekend is not allowed.”
The evaluation trains a habit and the funded account taxes it. If you passed on four-hour swings held across a Friday, the first funded Friday is the one to plan in advance.
Two beliefs that cost accounts
“If I did not place the trade, it is not my trade.” On FTMO’s and Alpha’s pages a stop or take-profit fill inside the window is a violation.
“I will read the funded rules after I pass.” The funded page is the one that binds you, and it is the page you are least likely to have read. Reading it in the week before the challenge ends costs ten minutes.
Mistakes and red flags
- Timing a trade to your own news calendar. FundingPips names its dashboard calendar as its official news source, Alpha publishes a table of targeted instruments, and MyFundedFutures lists its Tier 1 events. The firm’s list is the one that counts.
- Leaving a position open into a Friday close on a plan that forbids it.
- Acting on a support chat reply you cannot quote.
Red flags in a rule page, which are not a verdict on a firm: no date on the page, a rule stated without saying which stage it applies to, and two pages from the same firm that read differently. Several of the pages checked for this post had that last one. Trade to the stricter reading, then ask support in writing and keep the reply.
Tonight: 15 minutes with your own account
- Write down the stage each account is in: evaluation, funded, or live.
- Open the firm’s page for that exact plan and stage. Copy two lines into a note with the URL and today’s date: the news window and the weekend rule.
- Pull the last 30 days from your statement. Count the trades and the stop or take-profit fills that landed inside the window around a release, and the positions open at a Friday close.
- Put your pass date in the calendar with one line: “re-read the funded page.”
If step 3 finds nothing, good. If it finds three fills inside a window you did not know about, that is the cheapest lesson on this page.
Which market, which country
On these pages the news and weekend changes sit mostly with the forex and CFD firms (FTMO, FundingPips, Alpha Capital). The futures firms move different rules at the line, the drawdown shape and what a payout does to it, and that is the next post.
Before the first funded trade, ask one question out loud: which stage is this account, and which page did I read for it?
Firm terms as published and read on 5 October 2026. Firms revise them, and some rules apply by plan or signup date. Confirm against your own account’s terms before you trade on them.