FundingPips Economic Calendar: How to Use the Built-in Tools

The economic calendar isn't optional on a FundingPips funded account. It's as important as your chart.

During evaluation, you can trade through any news event without consequence. CPI, NFP, FOMC—fire away. But the moment you activate your Master account, FundingPips enforces a news trading restriction: profits from trades opened or closed within 5 minutes before or after high-impact events won't count toward your payout. On Zero accounts, that window expands to 10 minutes.

Miss one event and your $400 winning trade becomes $0 in your payout calculation. Not a loss—just erased profit. I've seen traders on Discord lose an entire week's worth of gains because they didn't check the calendar before trading.

Platform setup tested firsthand: I've traded FundingPips accounts on MT5, cTrader, and Match-Trader—across evaluation and funded phases. The setup instructions here come from connecting these platforms to actual funded accounts, not from reading help docs.

If you're deciding which platform to use with FundingPips—or weighing the $20 cTrader surcharge against MT5's free access and Match-Trader's browser simplicity—my full platform compatibility guide covers all three options with honest pros and cons, setup walkthroughs, and my recommended pick for evaluation through Hot Seat. For the absolute latest, check FundingPips' website or their FAQ section.

How FundingPips' News Restriction Works

Let me be precise about the mechanic, because misunderstanding costs real money:

What's restricted: Opening or closing trades within 5 minutes before or after a high-impact economic event (10 minutes on Zero accounts).

What happens: The trade isn't cancelled or reversed. Your platform won't stop you. But profits from that trade won't count toward your payout. FundingPips removes the profit during payout calculation. You traded for free.

The exception: If you opened a trade at least 5 hours before the event, you can close it during the restricted window. The profit counts because the position was established well before the event.

Which events trigger it: High-impact economic releases. The exact list may vary, but typically includes: Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP), CPI (US, UK, EU), central bank rate decisions (FOMC, ECB, BoE, BoJ), GDP releases, employment/unemployment data, and retail sales.

What doesn't trigger it: Low and medium-impact events generally don't trigger the restriction. But the line between "medium" and "high" impact can be subjective. When in doubt, stay out.

Accessing Economic Calendar Tools

FundingPips Dashboard Calendar

FundingPips provides event tracking through their dashboard. After logging into your account, look for an economic calendar section or widget. This should display upcoming events filtered by impact level, along with the affected currency.

The advantage of FundingPips' built-in calendar: it's aligned with their own classification of which events trigger the news restriction. If an event shows as high-impact on their calendar, treat it as restricted.

TradingView Economic Calendar

If you use TradingView for charting (many FundingPips traders do, even if they execute on MT5/cTrader), TradingView has a built-in economic calendar accessible from the bottom panel.

How to access: Click the calendar icon in the bottom toolbar. Filter by "High" impact to see only the events that matter for FundingPips' news restriction. Events display in your local timezone, which eliminates the conversion errors that happen when calendars show ET or GMT.

Forex Factory Calendar

The most widely used economic calendar in the trading community. Forex Factory color-codes events: red (high impact), orange (medium), yellow (low).

For FundingPips funded accounts: red folder events are your restriction triggers. Filter the calendar to show only red events, and you have a clean list of times to avoid.

Set your timezone in Forex Factory settings to avoid conversion mistakes. A CPI release at 8:30 AM ET is 2:30 PM CET—confusing if your calendar shows one timezone and your brain thinks in another.

Investing.com Calendar

Another solid option with a clean interface and real-time updates. Investing.com adds "actual vs. forecast vs. previous" data, which is useful for understanding the magnitude of potential market moves (even though you're avoiding trading during the event).

My Daily Economic Calendar Workflow

I check the calendar at three points every trading day:

Morning Check (Before Market Open)

When: 30 minutes before I start trading (typically 7:30 AM ET for the London/NY overlap).

What I do: Open Forex Factory filtered to red events. Note the exact time and currency of each high-impact release for the day. Write them on a sticky note or set phone alarms.

Example output: "8:30 AM ET — US CPI. 10:00 AM ET — JOLTS. No GBP events today."

Decision: If CPI is at 8:30 AM, I either start trading after 8:36 AM (5 minutes post-release) or trade from 7:30-8:24 AM and then take a break until 8:36 AM. On my funded account, I do NOT have positions open that I might need to manage during the window.

Mid-Session Check

When: Before opening any trade during the 10 AM - 2 PM ET window.

What I do: Quick glance at the calendar to make sure I haven't forgotten a late-morning or early-afternoon event. FOMC decisions are typically at 2:00 PM ET—easy to forget during an active trading session.

Weekly Preview (Sunday Evening)

When: Sunday before the trading week starts.

What I do: Review the entire week's high-impact calendar. Identify "danger days" where multiple events cluster. Plan my weekly trading schedule around them.

Example: Monday—clean, no red events. Tuesday—UK employment at 2:00 AM ET (affects GBP/USD). Wednesday—US CPI at 8:30 AM ET (affects everything). Thursday—ECB rate decision at 7:45 AM ET. Friday—clean.

Decision: I might trade EUR/USD and GBP/USD on Monday and Friday, but only trade EUR/USD on Tuesday (avoiding GBP during UK employment), and focus on post-event setups on Wednesday and Thursday.

Building News Restriction Into Your Trading Routine

The 5-Minute Buffer Strategy

The restriction is 5 minutes before and after. But markets are volatile for longer than 5 minutes around high-impact events. Even if you open a trade at 8:36 AM (technically outside the window), the market may still be whipsawing from CPI.

My approach: I add a personal buffer of 15-30 minutes on each side. No new positions 15 minutes before or 15 minutes after the event. This keeps me compliant with FundingPips' rule AND avoids the worst of the post-news volatility.

The 5 minutes immediately after an event are typically the most dangerous anyway—spreads are wide, liquidity is thin, and the initial reaction often reverses. Avoiding this window isn't just compliance—it's good trading.

The "5-Hour Open" Loophole

If you opened a position at least 5 hours before the event, you can close it during the restricted window and the profit counts. This is useful for swing traders who enter positions in one session and may need to manage them during a later session's news event.

Example: You open a EUR/USD long at 3:00 AM ET during London open. CPI releases at 8:30 AM ET. Your position has been open for 5.5 hours. You can close it at 8:31 AM and the profit counts.

However, I'd still be cautious. If the event moves against you and you close for a loss during the window, that loss still affects your drawdown. The exemption protects your payout calculation, not your account balance.

Platform Alerts and Automation

MT5: Set price alerts near your stop loss and take profit levels. If a news event is approaching and your position is in profit, close it before the window opens.

cTrader: Use the built-in alert system or set a time-based alarm on your phone.

Match-Trader: Browser-based—keep a calendar tab open alongside your trading interface.

No platform will automatically close your positions before a news event. This is entirely your responsibility. If you forget and leave a position open through a news window, any profit from that trade may be stripped during payout calculation.

What Counts as "High-Impact"?

FundingPips defines which events trigger the restriction. The standard high-impact events include:

US events: Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP), Consumer Price Index (CPI), Federal Reserve (FOMC) interest rate decisions, GDP, Retail Sales, ISM Manufacturing/Services PMI, Durable Goods Orders, JOLTS Job Openings.

UK events: Bank of England (BoE) rate decisions, CPI, Employment data, GDP, Retail Sales.

EU events: European Central Bank (ECB) rate decisions, Eurozone CPI, GDP.

Other: Bank of Japan (BoJ) decisions, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decisions, and other G7 central bank announcements may also qualify.

What about medium-impact events? Generally not restricted, but FundingPips' classification may differ from Forex Factory's. When in doubt about a specific event, check FundingPips' own calendar or contact support.

Calendar Strategy for Evaluation vs. Funded

During Evaluation (No Restrictions)

News events are unrestricted during evaluation. Some traders deliberately trade through NFP and CPI for the volatility—big moves can help hit profit targets faster.

My take: even during evaluation, I treat high-impact events with caution. Wild volatility can move against you just as easily as it can move in your favor. I'd rather hit my 8% target through consistent daily gains than gamble on one NFP print.

If you DO trade through news during evaluation, journal those results separately. You'll need to know your "non-news" win rate for the funded stage when those trades are no longer available.

During Funded Trading (Restricted)

The calendar becomes mandatory. Every morning, check. Every event, respect. The 5-minute window isn't optional. One forgotten CPI release can erase a week of careful trading from your payout.

Build the calendar check into your pre-session routine like checking your broker balance or reviewing your watchlist. It takes 60 seconds and protects every dollar of profit you generate that day.

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