Trading through economic releases — NFP, CPI, central bank decisions — is still restricted or banned at a share of prop firms, usually across a window of a few minutes either side of the print. Three regimes exist in practice: full permission, restriction that applies only once funded, and an outright ban across every stage. The difference almost never appears on the sales page; it lives in the terms and conditions.
This page lists firms that explicitly permit news trading, separating evaluation rules from funded-account rules. The ranking weighs the exact wording used, the width of any blackout window, how slippage on orders filled during a release is handled, and what the penalty actually is: a voided trade, or a terminated account.
Coming in at number 1, FTMO has been operating since 2015 and scores 88/100 on our scale. Entry starts at €79 for a 1-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 10 %, with 3 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 90 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 14 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, expert advisors allowed, news trading allowed. Available on mt4, mt5, ctrader, dxtrade, tradingview.
Founded in Prague in 2015, FTMO reports more than $450 million paid to traders and closed its acquisition of broker OANDA in December 2025. The 2-Step challenge, static drawdown and no deadline, remains its core product, with fees fully refunded on the first payout. Price is the weak spot, and it rose again in 2026.
Coming in at number 2, City Traders Imperium has been operating since 2018 and scores 83/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $29 on an instantly funded account. The risk envelope is a trailing intraday drawdown capped at 6 %. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 7 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, no consistency rule, expert advisors allowed, news trading allowed. Available on mt5, match-trader.
City Traders Imperium has funded forex traders since 2018 through four routes — 1-Step, 2-Step, Instant Funding and Direct Funding — with no time limit and entry from $29. The profit split starts at 80% and can reach 100%, but the 1-Step allows only 5% trailing drawdown and every trade must carry a stop loss.
In third place, Bulenox has been operating since 2022 and scores 81/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $145 for a 1-phase evaluation. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 10 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, expert advisors allowed, news trading allowed. Available on ninjatrader, rithmic, quantower.
Bulenox is a futures-only firm run from Delaware since 2022. Accounts are sold as renewable monthly subscriptions, $145 to $325 for $25,000 to $150,000, payouts clear every Wednesday, and the first $10,000 goes entirely to the trader. It holds 4.7/5 across 1,761 Trustpilot reviews, but a 40% consistency rule gates withdrawals and drives recurring complaints.
Coming in at number 4, Alpha Capital Group has been operating since 2021 and scores 80/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $27 for a 1-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a trailing (end of day) drawdown capped at 4 %, with 3 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 90 % of profits. Notable freedoms: no time limit, news trading allowed. Available on mt5, ctrader, dxtrade, tradelocker.
Alpha Capital Group is a UK forex prop firm registered in 2021, running eight programs that span a $27 two-phase challenge through to accounts funded at purchase. The rulebook is permissive — news, weekend and overnight holding allowed, four platforms — but the tradable universe stops at forex, indices and metals, and Trustpilot has suspended the rating over fake reviews.
In 5th place, My Funded Futures has been operating since 2023 and scores 80/100 on our scale. The risk envelope is a trailing (end of day) drawdown capped at 4 %. Funded traders keep 90 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 1 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, news trading allowed. Available on ninjatrader, tradovate, tradingview, quantower, volumetrica.
Launched in late 2023 in Delaware, My Funded Futures posts the highest customer satisfaction in our futures database, at 4.9/5 across more than 21,000 reviews. Its four plans share a 6 % target and an end-of-day trailing drawdown that locks above the starting balance. The notable trade-off: over 80 countries are excluded.
Coming in at number 6, TradeDay has been operating since 2020 and scores 80/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $131 for a 1-phase evaluation. Funded traders keep 90 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 0 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, news trading allowed. Available on tradovate, rithmic, ninjatrader, tradingview.
TradeDay was founded in Chicago in 2020 by two former institutional market professionals, and that background shows in the rulebook: no daily loss limit, news trading and scalping allowed, and withdrawals available from day one. The May 2026 rework dropped static drawdown accounts in favour of two paths, Quick Pay and Fast Pass.
Coming in at number 7, Earn2Trade has been operating since 2016 and scores 79/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $150 for a 1-phase evaluation. Funded traders keep 80 % of profits. Notable freedoms: no time limit, news trading allowed. Available on ninjatrader, tradovate, tradingview, rithmic.
Earn2Trade does not fund traders itself: it is a US evaluation and education platform founded in 2016, with capital supplied by partner firms Helios, Appius and Kronos. Its TCP and Gauntlet Mini programs bill monthly, $150 to $550, cover CME futures only, cap the split at 80% and run a trailing EOD drawdown.
Coming in at number 8, Goat Funded Trader has been operating since 2023 and scores 78/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $36 for a 2-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 10 %, with 4 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits. Notable freedoms: no time limit, expert advisors allowed, news trading allowed. Available on mt5, tradelocker, ctrader.
Goat Funded Trader launched in 2023 out of Hong Kong. It publishes a full price grid, runs static drawdown across its three evaluation models, and pays every 14 days with a profit split from 80 % up to 100 %. The counterweight: its Trustpilot score is suspended over fake reviews, rules tightened in summer 2026, and 29 countries are excluded.
Ranked 9 on this list, Top One Futures has been operating since 2025 and scores 78/100 on our scale. Entry starts at $39 for a 1-phase evaluation. Funded traders keep 90 % of profits. Notable freedoms: no time limit, news trading allowed. Available on tradingview, tradovate, ninjatrader.
Launched in Wyoming in April 2025, Top One Futures built its name on fast payouts and a 4.8/5 Trustpilot rating. Its four programs span monthly subscription, $39 access and instant funding. Two reservations: displayed prices include a permanent promotion, and a rules revision was applied to already-open accounts.
In 10th place, BrightFunded has been operating since 2023 and scores 76/100 on our scale. Entry starts at €47 for a 2-phase evaluation. The risk envelope is a static drawdown capped at 8 %, with 4 % allowed per day. Funded traders keep 100 % of profits, with a first withdrawal available after 30 days. Notable freedoms: no time limit, no consistency rule, news trading allowed. Available on mt5, ctrader, dxtrade.
Set up in 2023 by a Dutch team and operated out of Dubai, BrightFunded keeps its rulebook short: no consistency rule, no time limit, static drawdown on both 2-Step plans. The model leans instead on paid add-ons — fee refund, 90% split, waived minimum days — and the first payout only lands 30 days after the first trade.
The first regime permits trading through releases without restriction, at evaluation and once funded. The second permits it during the challenge and restricts it on the funded account — internally consistent, since that is the stage where the firm carries genuine risk. The third prohibits any open position inside a window around high-impact prints, typically a few minutes either side and wider for monetary policy decisions.
These rules rarely appear on the product page. They sit in the terms, in a help-centre article, or hidden inside a general clause about “strategies exploiting abnormal market conditions”. Where a firm stays vague, assume the restriction applies: at payout, the burden of proof falls on the trader, not on the firm.
What the firm is really protecting against
The restriction is not arbitrary. During a release, spreads widen, book depth collapses, and fills happen at prices that no longer represent the market. A firm genuinely hedging its traders’ flow with a liquidity provider absorbs those conditions; a firm that does not hedge absorbs the result directly. Either way, profit taken on an aberrant fill is a cost it declines to carry.
Two practical consequences follow. First, even at firms that allow news trading, slippage is almost never compensated: a market order sent at the moment of the print can fill far from the displayed price, and the result stands. Second, the penalty differs sharply between operators. Some void the disputed trade and leave the account running; others terminate the account entirely. That distinction changes the cost of a single mistake completely, and it is worth confirming before purchase.
Who the restriction genuinely blocks
A trader building setups around the macro calendar — positioning ahead of the print, reacting to the initial move, fading the false break — has no room to work around a ban, and a wide blackout window removes exactly the most liquid part of the move.
A swing trader or a technical intraday trader, by contrast, can live with the constraint, provided they track the calendar and close beforehand. That is in fact the most mundane source of invalidation: a position opened the previous day, forgotten, sitting through a prohibited release. At restrictive firms the rule covers holding a position during the window, not when the order was placed — a distinction that costs accounts every month.
Frequently asked questions
Can you trade NFP with a prop firm?
At some firms, yes, without restriction. At others, permission applies during the evaluation but disappears once the account is funded. A third group prohibits any position inside a window around the print. The applicable rule sits in the terms and conditions, rarely on the sales page — verify it before buying, not after the trade.
What is a news blackout window?
It is the interval during which no position may be opened or held around a high-impact release. It is expressed in minutes before and after the print, and often widens for central bank decisions. At restrictive firms, simply holding a position that was opened earlier is enough to trigger the penalty, even if the order was placed the day before.
What happens if you break a news trading rule?
Two outcomes exist depending on the firm. The lenient version voids the profit on the trade in question and leaves the account active. The severe version terminates the account entirely, including prior gains. That difference is almost never highlighted in marketing, yet it determines the real cost of one calendar oversight.
Is slippage during a release compensated?
Almost never. Even at firms that permit news trading, a fill far from the requested price is treated as a normal market condition during a release. The result stands as recorded, including when it pushes the account through the daily loss limit. Reducing position size ahead of the print remains the only reliable protection.