News Trading at Elite Trader Funding (2026 Policy)

News trading at Elite Trader Funding is explicitly and completely permitted as of May 2026. ETF's help center article on major economic releases states directly: "ETF does not impose any restrictions or limitations on traders during major economic news events." There are no blackout windows, no pre-release position close requirements, and no size restrictions that apply specifically to news events. Traders on any ETF plan may trade through CPI, FOMC, NFP, ECB announcements, and any other economic release under the same rules that apply to every other session.

This is not a default or a loophole. ETF made news trading permission explicit in documented help center content, distinguishing itself from a market segment where many futures prop firms impose pre-release restrictions or ban news trading outright. The September 2025 update at Elite Trader Funding that removed HFT, Martingale, and VPN/VPS restrictions is the same reform event that solidified news trading as a documented, unrestricted activity.

PTV research, sourced from ETF's help center as of May 2026, shows that news trading at ETF is fully rule-legal but not liability-covered for execution problems during high volatility. The strategic layer matters: trading through a news release still happens inside ETF's four core mechanics, the 23% ATD consistency rule, the 35% loss rule, the trailing or static drawdown, and the per-cycle ATD count. News trading permission means the policy gate is open. It does not eliminate the execution and rule-interaction risks that make news events a distinct trading context.

What ETF's help center actually says

Elite Trader Funding's help center article "Trading Major Economic Releases" at `/help/can-i-trade-during-volatile-times-do-you-restrict-trading-during-events` contains the following confirmed language as of May 2026:

"ETF does not impose any restrictions or limitations on traders during major economic news events."

This is the operative sentence. No position size cap during news. No pre-release window requiring flat positions. No instrument blackout (ES, NQ, CL, GC, and all other CME products available on ETF remain tradeable through news). The policy applies uniformly across all plan types and all account sizes.

The same article includes the liability disclaimer: ETF cannot be held responsible for platform malfunctions, data interruptions, or adverse execution during major economic releases. Slippage on a FOMC spike is not a firm-compensable event. A Tradovate data feed lag during NFP is not a rule violation or a compensable error. These are documented limitations that traders accept as part of the operating environment during high-volatility periods.

The critical distinction is clear from the text: the policy is permissive on trading activity, and the disclaimer is explicit on execution risk. ETF does not restrict you. ETF also does not insulate you from the mechanics of volatile markets.

How this differs from many competitors

News trading restrictions at futures prop firms exist on a spectrum. Apex Trader Funding has historically required traders to be aware of news periods and some traders have reported issues with execution around major releases, though restrictions vary by program version and period. Topstep, one of the most established futures prop firms in the US market, imposed news trading restrictions in certain periods of its program history that required flat positions during key releases. Neither firm publishes a help center article as unambiguous as ETF's explicit statement that "no restrictions or limitations" apply.

The competitive picture as of May 2026:

For a trader whose edge is news-driven, momentum trades on initial reaction, reversal trades on overshoot, or range expansion plays, ETF's documented position is a structural advantage. It removes a category of compliance risk entirely. A trader whose primary setups fire around FOMC and NFP does not need to watch a clock, flatten positions on a deadline, or manage around a firm-imposed restriction at ETF.

The September 2025 update at Elite Trader Funding that confirmed this policy sits alongside the removal of HFT restrictions, Martingale restrictions, and VPN/VPS bans. The broad direction of the update was toward fewer restrictions, not more. ETF's news trading policy is part of that documented trajectory. Full context on the September 2025 update is in the ETF 2025 update article.

What ETF disclaims liability for during news

Elite Trader Funding's disclaimer on news trading covers two practical categories: platform malfunctions and adverse execution. Both are worth understanding before sizing into a release.

Platform malfunctions during high-volatility news events are not unique to ETF. Tradovate, Rithmic, and NinjaTrader 8, the primary platforms used at ETF, can all experience data latency, connection instability, or brief outage conditions during major economic releases when the volume of simultaneous activity across the market spikes. ETF's policy is that these events are not the firm's fault and are not covered by any compensatory policy. A trader who is disconnected during FOMC and loses a position does not have a claim against ETF for that execution.

Adverse execution covers slippage and fill quality. During a news release, bid-ask spreads on CME futures can widen sharply for a brief period, and limit orders may not fill at expected prices. Market orders may fill at unexpected prices. This is a function of liquidity conditions during the release, not a policy failure at ETF. The 48-hour payout guarantee at ETF covers qualifying payout approval delays, not execution quality events during trading.

The practical implication is the same in both cases: position sizing during news releases should be smaller than standard sizing to absorb execution variance. A trader who normally trades 3 micro contracts on ES should consider 1-2 micros during CPI or FOMC. A trader who normally trades 1 mini should consider micros for the release itself and scaling back up on the follow-through candle when liquidity normalizes.

Major events ETF traders trade through

As of May 2026, the unrestricted news trading policy at Elite Trader Funding covers all scheduled economic releases. The events that generate the highest intraday volatility on CME futures, and therefore represent the highest-opportunity, highest-risk news contexts for ETF traders, include:

CPI (Consumer Price Index): Monthly inflation reading that drives the sharpest intraday moves in ES and NQ. Released on a set schedule by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, usually 8:30 AM ET. Frequently produces 20-50 point moves in ES within the first 5-10 minutes. Fully tradeable at ETF.

FOMC (Federal Reserve decisions and minutes): Fed funds rate decisions and the subsequent Powell press conference. The decision itself comes at 2:00 PM ET on FOMC meeting days; the press conference begins approximately 30 minutes later. Produces layered volatility, initial spike on the rate decision, secondary movement on forward guidance language, tertiary movement on press conference interpretation. Fully tradeable at ETF.

NFP (Non-Farm Payrolls): Monthly labor market report, released first Friday of each month at 8:30 AM ET. Among the highest-impact macro events for futures traders. ES and NQ can move 15-40 points in the first minute on a significant beat or miss. Fully tradeable at ETF.

ECB (European Central Bank decisions): Rate decisions and press conferences from the ECB affect CL (crude oil), GC (gold), and US index futures. Released on ECB meeting days, typically 1:15 PM ET for the decision and 1:30 PM ET for the conference. Fully tradeable at ETF.

BoE (Bank of England decisions): Less impactful on CME futures than ECB or FOMC but relevant for traders in GC, CL, or leveraged cross-market plays. Typically 7:00 AM ET on announcement days. Fully tradeable at ETF.

All other Tier 1 and Tier 2 economic releases, PPI, retail sales, GDP revisions, ISM, jobless claims, are equally unrestricted under ETF's documented policy. Traders should maintain an economic calendar for release timing and expected market impact.

Strategy: news trading within the 23% rule

The 23% ATD consistency rule at Elite Trader Funding does not change during news events, but news events can interact with it in ways that constrain future ATDs if not managed deliberately. The rule: every Active Trading Day must produce realized profit of at least 23% of the trader's best ATD P&L to date to qualify toward payout cycles.

A news-event trading day that produces a large result can permanently set a high ATD floor. A $4,000 day on FOMC creates a $920 minimum for every future qualifying ATD. If the next seven sessions produce $400-$700 each, they bank realized profit but contribute zero qualifying ATDs toward Cycle 1's 8-ATD requirement. The payout cycle stalls.

The structured approach for news-event ATDs: set a target for the day before the release that is consistent with where the best ATD currently sits. If the best ATD is $800, the 23% floor is $184, and the session target is somewhere in the $300-$600 range, large enough to be meaningful, small enough to preserve the ATD floor at a reachable level for future days.

If a news event fires a strong setup that exceeds the target organically, the decision point is whether to take the larger result or scale down. Taking the full result (say $2,500 on a $800 best-ATD-to-date) raises the floor to $575. That is still manageable on most trading days. Taking a $6,000 result raises the floor to $1,380, which requires strong, consistent follow-through days to bank ATDs. The full mechanics of the 23% rule and how to optimize daily P&L distribution around it are in the ETF consistency rule article.

The summary rule for news event sizing within the ATD framework: do not let a single news-event day set the best ATD so high that 23% of it becomes a stretch goal on normal trading days.

Strategy: news trading within the 35% loss rule

Elite Trader Funding's 35% loss rule activates once an Elite Sim-Funded account reaches +20% profit above starting balance. After that trigger, the total accumulated profit cannot draw down by more than 35% across the lifetime of the account. Payouts do not reset this calculation, the running total continues.

News events are one of the most common mechanisms for a trader to cross the +20% threshold without planning to. A strong FOMC trade or NFP play can move a funded account from +17% to +22% in a single session. That jump activates the 35% rule immediately, and the trader is now operating under a different loss framework than they were at 8:29 AM.

The strategic response: know where the +20% threshold sits before each news event. On a $50K 1-Step Elite Sim account, +20% means the account balance has reached $60,000. If the account is at $58,000 entering a news release, a $2,500 news-event profit pushes it past the trigger. From that point, 35% of total accumulated profits becomes the lifetime drawdown ceiling.

The disciplined pre-news checklist:

1. Confirm current account balance relative to starting balance
2. Calculate the distance to the +20% trigger in dollars
3. If a single news-event trade could realistically cross it, model the 35% loss rule on the post-trigger accumulated profit
4. If preferred, bank a payout request to reduce the accumulated-profit base before the event

The full 35% loss rule documentation, including the Payout Adjustment figure calculation and why breach is permanent, is in the ETF 35% loss rule article.

Position sizing for news events

Position sizing for news events at Elite Trader Funding follows from two constraints: ETF's plan-level position limits and the execution risk specific to high-volatility market conditions.

ETF plan position limits are documented per plan type. The 1:10 micro-to-mini ratio applies on 1-Step, EOD, Static, and Diamond Hands plans: 1 mini equals 1 position, and 10 micros equal 1 position. The Fast Track plan caps at 1 mini or 10 micros total. The specific maximum contract counts for each plan size are not published in extractable text format (JS-rendered on the evaluations page), but the scaling ratio is confirmed.

For news events specifically, PTV research from ETF's help center and documented risk practices suggest the following:

Use micros, not minis, on tighter plans during news. A trader on the Static $25K or $50K plan, where drawdown tolerances are extremely tight (the $25K Static has a $1,000 max drawdown), cannot afford adverse fill on a news spike. Micros on ES have smaller absolute P&L per point than minis (1 micro ES = $5/point; 1 mini ES = $50/point). Trading 2-3 micros on a CPI release risks 1/5 to 1/10 the absolute drawdown of trading 1 mini on the same move.

Size down by 50% from standard for the release candle, then scale back up. The first candle after a major release (first 30-60 seconds) carries the highest slippage risk as the market reprices and liquidity restores. Entering or holding a full position through that period exposes the position to the widest spreads and the most uncertain fill. Many experienced news traders take their primary position on the second or third candle after the release, once initial volatility normalizes, at the cost of some of the opening range.

The 1-Step plan's absence of a daily loss limit creates more flexibility during news. On the 1-Step plan, only the trailing drawdown ceiling applies. On EOD, Static, and Diamond Hands plans, the daily loss limit calculated from the prior day's closing balance is a hard breach constraint. A news-event adverse move that hits the DLL fails the account immediately, regardless of whether the position recovers. On the 1-Step, the same adverse move eats into the trailing drawdown buffer, which is more manageable.

The position limit mechanics and the 1:10 micro-to-mini ratio are covered in the ETF position limits article.

Diamond Hands and DTF can hold news positions overnight

Diamond Hands and Direct To Funded accounts at Elite Trader Funding are the two plan types that permit overnight and over-weekend position holding. This creates a distinct news-trading application: entering a position ahead of a scheduled release and holding it through the announcement.

The most common overnight-hold-into-news scenario: a trader on Diamond Hands or DTF who has analyzed the upcoming CPI print enters a directional position in ES or NQ the evening before, based on market positioning, options data, or prior session context. The release fires the following morning at 8:30 AM ET with the position already live. The overnight hold into news is explicitly allowed on both plans.

The rules governing this interaction:

Diamond Hands ($100K EOD trailing drawdown): The EOD drawdown trails only to the highest end-of-day closing balance. An overnight hold that moves against the position intraday does not move the drawdown floor until end-of-session. A pre-news overnight entry that experiences adverse pre-release positioning does not fail the Diamond Hands plan unless the end-of-session balance falls below the trailing floor. Daily loss limit applies during evaluation and Elite Sim-Funded phase until the safety net is achieved. Full Diamond Hands mechanics are in the ETF Diamond Hands article.

Direct To Funded (all three sizes): DTF uses either static or EOD trailing drawdown depending on size ($25K and $100K DTF are static; $50K DTF is EOD trailing). The static drawdown on the $25K and $100K DTF means adverse overnight movement does not shift the drawdown floor at all, it is permanently fixed below the starting balance. This is actually the most protective structure for overnight-into-news positions because there is no trailing floor to be knocked upward by a favorable intraday move earlier in the hold. Full DTF mechanics are in the ETF Direct To Funded article.

Plans that cannot hold overnight, 1-Step, Static, EOD, and Fast Track, require all positions to close before the market close session (1 minute before). These traders participate in news events during the session only, not via pre-release overnight positioning. The overnight trading policy across all ETF plans is documented in the ETF overnight trading article.

Common news-trading mistakes at ETF

Four documented failure patterns appear consistently across news-trading contexts at Elite Trader Funding, based on how ETF's rule set interacts with high-volatility trading behavior:

Setting an unreachable ATD floor with a single news-event day. A trader who produces $6,000 on FOMC and treats it as normal daily capacity has set a $1,380 ATD floor on every subsequent qualifying day. If the edge produces $600-$900 on typical days, the ATD count stalls and the payout cycle drags. The fix: scale down on news-event days deliberately, or accept that the cluster needs follow-through consistency to match the floor.

Crossing the +20% threshold during a news event without planning for the 35% rule. A trader who hits +19% going into NFP and produces a $3,000 result crosses the +20% trigger during the session. The 35% loss rule is now active on all accumulated profit. If the next four sessions produce losses, the 35% calculation fires before the trader realizes the threshold was crossed. The fix: know the account balance relative to starting balance before every news event and model whether the session could cross the +20% line.

Oversizing through the news candle on plans with daily loss limits. EOD, Static, and Diamond Hands plans all have hard-breach DLLs calculated from the prior day's close. An adverse news-event spike of 30 ES points in the first 30 seconds with a full-size position can breach the DLL before the trade can be exited. On the 1-Step plan (no DLL), the same adverse move eats trailing drawdown buffer, which is more recoverable. The fix: reduce size to micros for the release candle on any plan with a DLL.

Attributing execution problems to firm policy violations. ETF's disclaimer is clear that platform malfunctions and adverse fills during major news events are not covered. A trader who experiences slippage on NFP and files a complaint expecting remedy is misreading the policy. The firm's position is documented and explicit. The fix: treat news-event execution risk as the trader's cost to manage, not the firm's liability to cover.

How news permission ties to the September 2025 update

The September 17, 2025 update at Elite Trader Funding was the most significant rule change in the firm's documented history. The update removed restrictions on HFT strategies, Martingale-style strategies, and VPN/VPS use, reduced the maximum active Elite Sim-Funded accounts from 20 to 5 for new accounts, accelerated payout review to daily, and confirmed that scratch trades, contract scaling, and dollar-cost averaging are all permitted without limitation.

News trading unrestricted policy sits within the same framework that guided the September 2025 update: ETF's documented direction was toward fewer categorical bans on trading techniques and more explicit permission of activities that other prop firms restrict. The explicit help center article confirming news trading permission, "ETF does not impose any restrictions or limitations on traders during major economic news events", reflects the same editorial decision as removing HFT and Martingale bans.

The practical read for traders as of May 2026: ETF's current rule set is the post-September 2025 version. Older articles, forum posts, or third-party comparisons that describe ETF as restricting certain trading behaviors may be describing pre-update rules. The September 2025 update is the canonical current baseline. The ETF 2025 update article documents every specific change from that update and its effective date of September 17, 2025.

The convergence of news trading permission, HFT permission, Martingale permission, and DCA permission in a single update creates a rule environment where ETF is more permissive than most futures prop firm competitors on trading technique restrictions. For a trader evaluating prop firms specifically on what is allowed, not what is required, ETF's post-2025 rule set ranks among the least restrictive in documented comparison.

The bottom line

Elite Trader Funding is the right futures prop firm for news traders who need explicit, documented permission to hold positions through major economic releases. The help center statement is unambiguous: no restrictions, no limitations during major economic news events. For a trader whose primary setups fire around FOMC, CPI, NFP, ECB, or BoE, and who has been restricted or risk-managed out of those setups at other prop firms, ETF removes that policy barrier entirely.

The rule interactions that demand strategy are not restrictions on news trading. They are the standard ETF mechanics that apply every session: the 23% ATD floor that can be permanently raised by a large news-event day, the 35% loss rule that activates the moment a news trade pushes the account past +20% profit, and the daily loss limit on EOD, Static, and Diamond Hands plans that makes the release candle a sizing risk. Managing those mechanics is the trader's work. ETF's policy is simply that the news calendar itself is not one of the constraints.

For traders on Diamond Hands or DTF who also want overnight-hold-into-news capability, ETF offers that in a single firm. For traders on the 1-Step who want news-event flexibility without a daily loss limit, the 1-Step plan structure supports that. For traders who trade a clean range-based strategy unrelated to news events, the news policy is irrelevant to daily operations, but it represents zero downside and potential optionality on high-opportunity sessions.

For a full understanding of the ETF rule set within which news trading operates, see the ETF strategy pillar, the ETF rules overview, and the ETF main review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Elite Trader Funding allow news trading?

Yes. Elite Trader Funding explicitly permits news trading with no restrictions. ETF's help center states: "ETF does not impose any restrictions or limitations on traders during major economic news events." Traders may hold positions through any release without size limits or time-window blackouts.

Can I trade FOMC announcements at Elite Trader Funding?

Yes. FOMC announcements are fully tradeable at Elite Trader Funding. There are no pre-announcement position close requirements, no blackout windows, and no size restrictions during Federal Reserve decisions. ETF disclaims liability for slippage or platform issues during the volatility spike.

Can I trade NFP at Elite Trader Funding?

Yes. Non-Farm Payroll releases are unrestricted at Elite Trader Funding. Traders may hold or enter positions before, during, and after NFP without any rule-based restriction. Position sizing during NFP should account for expected slippage in volatile market conditions.

Can I trade CPI at Elite Trader Funding?

Yes. CPI releases are fully permitted at Elite Trader Funding. No restrictions apply to position size, entry timing, or hold duration around Consumer Price Index announcements. ETF is not liable for execution issues that arise from high-volatility conditions during the release.

Did Elite Trader Funding previously restrict news trading?

The September 2025 update at Elite Trader Funding removed a range of previously restricted trading behaviors, HFT, Martingale strategies, and VPN/VPS use, alongside confirming unrestricted news trading as explicit policy. The current help center article makes no mention of prior news restrictions, but the 2025 update is the documented change event.

How does news trading at ETF interact with the 23% ATD rule?

News trading at Elite Trader Funding does not change the 23% ATD consistency rule. Any profit earned on a news-event day counts toward ATD qualification, but if that day becomes the best ATD on record, future days must clear 23% of that figure. A $4,000 news-event ATD sets a $920 floor on every subsequent qualifying day. News-event days should be sized to avoid creating an unreachable ATD floor.

How does news trading interact with ETF's 35% loss rule?

Elite Trader Funding's 35% loss rule activates once an Elite Sim-Funded account reaches +20% profit above starting balance. A large news-event winning day can push a trader into the +20% trigger zone, activating the 35% accumulated-profit drawdown ceiling. Traders approaching the +20% threshold should model whether a single news-event session could cross that line and whether banking profits first is preferable.

Is news trading allowed on all ETF account types?

Yes. Elite Trader Funding's news trading policy applies across all account types: 1-Step, Static, EOD, Diamond Hands, Direct To Funded, and Fast Track. The help center makes no account-type distinction in its news trading policy. Position size limits for each plan type still apply during news events.

Can Diamond Hands and DTF traders hold positions through news events overnight?

Yes. Diamond Hands and Direct To Funded accounts at Elite Trader Funding permit overnight and over-weekend position holding, which means traders may enter a position ahead of a scheduled news event and hold it through the release the following morning. This is explicitly permitted on those plans only. 1-Step, EOD, and Static traders must close all positions before market close.

What platform risks should ETF traders know about during news releases?

Elite Trader Funding's help center states ETF cannot be held liable for platform malfunctions during major economic news events. Practically, this means slippage, brief disconnection from Tradovate or Rithmic data feeds, or delayed fills are possible during CPI, FOMC, or NFP and are not covered as rule violations. Sizing down for news events directly mitigates execution risk.