Weekend Holding & News Trading in Prop Firms 2026: Which Firms Actually Allow It (And Where the Fine Print Bites)

The trader works for three weeks to become successful through prop firm evaluation, completes a perfect swing trade on Thursday and finds out that the mandatory requirements to close the position on Friday evening make him exit the trade. Everything is fine during the weekend since the market thesis turns out to be true, but unknown challenge parameters spoil the profit. This situation illustrates one of the main reasons why funded trading strategies do not succeed – the execution restrictions, which include weekend positions holding limitations and news trades, are not usually mentioned on fancy marketing websites. But they are hidden somewhere in the terms of use and differ a lot not only among the top prop firms but even among evaluation accounts within the same prop firm.

This guide breaks down what "weekend holding" and "news trading" actually mean on a funded account, and walks through how five widely used prop firms - The5ers, FTMO, FundedNext, Funding Pips, and FTM (Funded Trader Markets) currently handle both, based on publicly available information as of 2026. Rules at prop trading firms change often, so always confirm current terms directly on a firm's official website before purchasing an evaluation.

Why Weekend Holding and News Trading Rules Matter More Than Profit Splits

Profit split percentages get most of the attention when traders compare prop firms, but for swing traders and news traders, holding rules are often the deciding factor. A generous profit split is irrelevant if the account structure forces a trader to exit positions before they can play out.

What happens to an open position when the market closes for the weekend?

The closure of the financial markets on weekends results in the freezing of the price chart, but life continues to happen in the real world. It means that weekend gaps may result from breaking economic news and geopolitical shifts in the market. The inability to actuate stop-loss orders during market closure makes swing trading positions held by traders during weekends vulnerable to huge slippages and drawdowns. The main reason why the best prop trading companies impose restrictions on weekends' positions' keeping or provide traders with special accounts without overnight holding with limited leverage is that of the possibility of such gaps.

Why do prop firms restrict trading around high-impact news events in the first place?

High-impact news events, interest rate decisions, non-farm payrolls, CPI releases cause sudden spikes in volatility, wider spreads, and slippage. A firm managing risk across thousands of accounts has an incentive to limit exposure during these windows, since erratic price action during news can trigger unusually large, hard-to-predict losses.

Some firms address this by blocking trade execution for a short window before and after a scheduled release. Others allow trading through news but reduce the profit counted from trades opened in that window. A smaller group imposes no news restrictions at all. Understanding which model a firm uses and on which account type is essential before building a news-based or swing-based strategy around it.

The5ers: Weekend and News Trading Flexibility Across Programs

The5ers was founded in 2016 and became one of the prominent prop firms known for its flexible evaluation systems, scalability up to $4M and profit splits from 50% to 100%. In contrast to other proprietary trading firms that have evaluation timeframes, The5ers offers no deadline prop firm challenges and flexible trading conditions in its instant funding accounts and step-by-step programs. For swing traders and news traders, it is important to know the policy of The5ers regarding position holding during weekends and news events trading. The firm offers detailed risk management advice and flexible overnight conditions, which makes it a leading prop trading firm for funded traders.

Does The5ers allow holding positions over the weekend on Bootcamp, Hyper Growth, and High Stakes?

Yes. Based on publicly available program terms, weekend and overnight holding are permitted across The5ers' evaluation and funded accounts, including the Bootcamp, Hyper Growth, and High Stakes programs. This is treated as a standard account feature rather than an add-on restricted to a specific plan.

One practical detail worth flagging for traders: holding indices over the weekend can carry a noticeably higher swap charge than holding forex pairs, and instruments like crude oil have reported swap costs that increase substantially over a weekend hold. Traders planning to carry positions through Friday's close should check current swap specifications on The5ers' official asset specifications page rather than assuming a flat cost across instruments.

What are The5ers' rules on trading around high-impact news releases, and do they differ by program?

The5ers permits holding trades through news events, but the rules around opening new positions near a release differ depending on the program. On the High Stakes program, for example, orders cannot be executed within a window of roughly two minutes before or after a high-impact news release, and profits generated from trades placed inside that restricted window are typically deducted, while any losses remain the trader's responsibility. Hyper Growth and Bootcamp programs generally allow news trading but prohibit specific bracket-order strategies built around anticipated news volatility.

The structure offers the trader excellent flexibility, which includes the ability to trade news events while at the same time having accurate execution control to ensure that there is no manipulation by using high frequency news and to ensure that the funded account is protected. Together with The5ers' unlimited time limit evaluation system and increasing scaling up to 100% profit split, this firm offers an ideal platform for swing traders and multi-day traders. Since the risk management system is the same for both evaluation challenge and funded accounts, the trader is able to scale his/her strategy with confidence. Always check on the news trading rules on weekends through The5ers' website.

FTMO's Standard vs. Swing Account Split: What Changes for Weekend and News Traders

FTMO is one of the most established names in the funded-account industry, and its rule structure reflects a firm managing a very large number of accounts across different trading styles. Rather than applying one policy to every account, FTMO splits weekend holding and news trading permissions primarily along account type: Standard and Swing.

Why do FTMO funded Standard accounts require positions closed before the weekend?

In the case of the funded FTMO Account (Standard account type), traders need to ensure that all their trades have been closed prior to the weekend closure of the markets, and any rollover duration should not exceed two hours. Although both the FTMO Challenge and Verification phases allow overnight and weekend holding as well as news trading periods prior and post any high impact macroeconomic announcements, the funded Standard account imposes stringent conditions for execution, including a two-minute restriction period for news trading before and after high impact macroeconomic announcements. This means that an investor's swing trading strategy that may be successful during the evaluation period might need to undergo a considerable change upon funding.

How does the FTMO Swing account removes news trading and weekend closing restrictions?

The FTMO Swing account type, available on the 2-Step Challenge, is specifically built for traders who want to hold positions for multiple days or trade through scheduled news events. Swing accounts are generally exempt from both the weekend closing requirement and the news trading restriction that apply to Standard accounts. According to publicly reported pricing information, Swing accounts are typically priced the same as Standard accounts at equivalent sizes, which removes cost as a barrier to choosing the Swing structure.

The trade-off reported across several public sources is reduced leverage on Swing accounts compared to Standard, a reasonable exchange for the added flexibility, but one that changes position-sizing math and is worth factoring into a strategy built around this account type. The 1-Step Challenge does not currently offer a Swing variant, so traders who specifically need weekend or news-event holding on FTMO would need to evaluate through the 2-Step Swing path.

FundedNext: CFD Flexibility vs. Futures Restrictions

FundedNext runs two largely separate product lines, its CFD offering (Stellar 1-Step, Stellar 2-Step, Stellar Lite, Stellar Instant) and FundedNext Futures and the two lines handle weekend holding and news trading in almost opposite ways. Treating them as a single firm with one rule set is a common mistake.

Which FundedNext CFD account types permit weekend holding, and how does the News Reward Share Rule work?

According to the help center information of FundedNext, weekend holding is fully allowed in FundedNext CFD accounts, which include Evaluation Challenges and Express funded accounts with respect to overnight swaps and triple-swap days. In addition, news trading is permitted for all CFD accounts in FundedNext, yet the funded accounts have a different rule called the News Reward Share Rule. The ratio of the split of profits for the trades done in the period of five minutes before and after news release is set at around 40% for such trades. This is rather different from a news trading ban since the company uses this approach to regulate the volatility risk.

Why does FundedNext Futures prohibit both overnight and weekend holding entirely?

FundedNext Futures operates under a different structure entirely. According to the firm's help center, overnight and weekend holdings are not permitted on FundedNext Futures accounts, and traders must close all positions by a set time each trading day (reported as 3:10 PM Central Time), after which any remaining open positions are automatically closed by the system. Trading resumes later the same day, and after the weekend, on Sunday evening.

Despite this holding restriction, FundedNext Futures reportedly imposes no dedicated news-trading blackout windows, meaning traders can generally trade through scheduled economic releases within the daily session, separate from the standard price-limit and extreme-volatility protections that apply regardless of news. This is a useful distinction for futures-focused traders: FundedNext Futures is built around same-day, intraday risk management rather than multi-day holding, which is a fundamentally different structural approach than its CFD sister product.

Funding Pips' 2026 Rule Change: What Traders Need to Know About the Temporary Weekend Restriction

Funding Pips is a useful example of how quickly prop firm rules can shift, and why a rule confirmed six months ago should not be assumed to still apply today. As of publicly available information in 2026, the firm has an active, explicitly temporary restriction that traders evaluating or currently holding a funded Funding Pips account should be aware of.

What is the temporary weekend-holding block on Funding Pips Master accounts, and when did it take effect?

Based on the help center documentation provided by Funding Pips, the company has executed an operational change by enforcing a new rule for weekend holding in funded accounts with respect to all evaluation models offered by the company, which include 1-Step Flex, 2-Step Standard, 2-Step Flex, and 2-Step Pro challenge models. In the new rule, any position that is held by the trader is automatically closed on Friday during market hours. It is important to note that the rule is not enforced as a violation but rather as a soft rule since it does not terminate the account of the trader. The restriction applies to all Master accounts temporarily until notified otherwise, hence explaining the importance of knowing updated weekend holding rules from prop firms for swing traders.

How do evaluation-phase rules differ from funded Master account rules for weekend and news trading?

During the evaluation stage, Funding Pips reportedly places no restriction on holding trades over the weekend or through news events across its standard models, and this remains unaffected by the Master account restriction described above. The exception is the Funding Pips Zero account, which has reportedly prohibited weekend holding on both evaluation and funded stages as a standing rule, with violations resulting in account termination.

On funded Master accounts (excluding Zero), news trading is generally permitted, but trades executed within a short window around a high-impact release commonly reported as ten minutes before and after are typically excluded from counting toward payout eligibility. This creates a two-layer rule set at Funding Pips: a stable, long-standing news-trading framework, and a separate, dated, and explicitly temporary weekend-holding restriction that traders should verify is still active before funding a strategy around it.

Comparing Weekend Holding and News Trading Policies Side by Side

Bringing these firms together highlights a clear divide: some firms apply one consistent policy across account types, while others split their rules sharply between evaluation and funded stages, or between account variants built for different trading styles.

Which prop firms offer unrestricted weekend holding on funded accounts as of 2026?

Considering the policies that govern the industry as of 2026, prop trading companies such as The5ers, FundedNext (CFD accounts), FTMO Swing accounts, and FTM (Funded Trader Markets) offer unlimited weekend holding for the funded accounts, thereby becoming excellent options for swing trading. On the other hand, FTMO Standard accounts, FundedNext Futures, and Funding Pips Master accounts (with temporary restrictions) do not permit weekend holding of positions. Since the terms for proprietary trading company, news trading, and weekend gap change from time to time according to risk management requirements, funded traders are required to check live challenge criteria and rules through the company website.

What should swing and news traders check in the terms before buying a challenge?

Before purchasing any evaluation, a trader planning to hold positions over weekends or trade through news should confirm three things directly on the firm's official rules page: whether the weekend or news rule differs between the evaluation phase and the funded stage, whether it differs by instrument (forex, indices, crypto, and futures are often treated differently), and whether the rule is a hard breach (account termination) or a soft rule (automatic close-out without penalty). These three distinctions explain most of the confusion traders report after funding, since a rule that felt permissive during the challenge can tighten considerably once real capital management applies.

Summary

Weekend holding and news trading rules vary significantly across the prop firm industry, and even within a single firm's own product lineup. The5ers applies a consistent, documented policy across its evaluation and funded programs. FTMO and FundedNext split their rules by account type or product line rather than by evaluation stage. Funding Pips currently has an active, explicitly temporary restriction on its Master accounts that traders should verify before relying on it. Because these rules are updated periodically in response to firm-level risk management decisions, the only reliable approach is checking a firm's official, dated terms directly before funding a strategy that depends on holding through weekends or news events.

For more prop firm comparisons, scaling guides, and trader education, explore Prop Firm Insider.

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