On new paid Axora accounts you cannot open new trades from 30 minutes before to 30 minutes after a high-impact economic release. Closing trades is always allowed. Holding a position through the release itself is not: an account with an open position at the moment of the release is suspended for review.
What counts as high-impact
Events marked high-impact on the economic calendar: US Non-Farm Payrolls, CPI inflation, FOMC rate decisions and press conferences, ECB and Bank of England decisions, and similar releases for the currencies you trade.
Why the rule exists
- Spreads widen sharply in the seconds around a release.
- Price can jump through stop losses (slippage).
- Trades placed seconds before the number are closer to a coin flip than to a strategy.
How to plan your week
- Every Sunday, open the economic calendar and write down the red events and their times in your time zone.
- Mark a 'no new trades' window from 30 minutes before to 30 minutes after each one.
- Close or reduce positions in the affected instruments before the window starts.
- Trade the reaction later, once spreads are normal and the market has chosen a direction.
What you can still do
You can close positions at any time, including inside the window. You can trade instruments unrelated to the release, as long as the event is not high-impact for them. And you can trade the move once the 30 minutes after the release have passed.