Topstep News Trading: Can You Trade During CPI, NFP & FOMC?

Topstep is relatively straightforward when it comes to trading economic releases.

It does not require traders to flatten positions during economic releases in either the simulated or funded environments.

But that does not mean major news is risk-free.

Topstep specifically warns about extreme volatility and slippage around economic releases, and its current prohibited-strategy guidance says traders may not intentionally trade their maximum position size directly into major news events.

Can you news trade with Topstep?

Yes.

Topstep states that it does not require traders to close positions when economic releases occur.

That applies in both the simulated and funded environments.

But Topstep also says:

You own the outcome.

The reason is simple.

Major economic releases can produce extreme price movement and poor execution.

What releases does Topstep track?

Topstep's current economic-release guide highlights events including:

• Unemployment Rate

• FOMC Statement

• Crude Oil Inventories

• Natural Gas Inventories

• Crop Production

It also lists which futures products are affected by different releases.

For example:

FOMC Statement

can affect all products.

Crude Oil Inventories

primarily affect oil contracts such as CL, QM and MCL.

That is useful because news impact is not universal.

Different releases matter to different markets.

The big Topstep warning: slippage

Topstep specifically warns that slippage is common around economic releases.

Rapid price movement and lower liquidity can cause orders to execute at worse prices than expected.

This is one of the most important things to understand about futures news trading.

You can correctly predict the direction of the initial move and still experience poor execution.

For example, suppose an economic release causes ES to move rapidly higher.

You enter.

The order fills at a price significantly worse than the one you expected.

That difference is slippage.

The faster the market moves, the more relevant it can become.

Can you hold through CPI?

Topstep does not require traders to flatten positions during economic releases.

So holding a position through a release is not automatically prohibited.

But this is where the distinction between allowed and sensible becomes important.

A strategy can be permitted by the rules while still being exposed to enormous execution risk.

That is why Topstep recommends caution around major releases.

The maximum-position-size rule

Topstep's current prohibited-strategies page contains another important detail:

Traders are prohibited from purposefully trading their maximum position size directly into a scheduled major news event.

That means:

"Topstep lets me trade news, so I'll put on my maximum size right before CPI."

is not an interpretation you should rely on.

The rules specifically address that behaviour.

What this means in practice

A trader approaching NFP needs to think about more than:

Am I allowed to hold a position?

You also need to think about:

How much exposure am I carrying?

What happens if the market gaps or jumps?

How much slippage could occur?

How quickly could the position move against me?

That is why Topstep's economic-release page is less about banning the event and more about making traders aware of what can happen around it.

But the interesting part comes after the release

Imagine you are trading NQ.

FOMC hits.

NQ explodes higher.

You can see the candle immediately.

But what actually caused the move?

Was the statement more hawkish or dovish than expected?

Did Treasury yields move?

Did the dollar react?

Did other equity indices move?

Was the first move sustained or reversed?

The chart tells you what happened.

The news event tells you when it happened.

The broader market context can help explain why.

Using Echelon after major futures news

Echelon lets traders investigate fundamental context around a market move, including relevant news and related-market conditions.

For a technical trader, that can turn a large unexplained candle into something you can actually investigate.

See What Is Cross-Market Analysis? for a deeper explanation of how related markets can help explain price movement.

A simple Topstep news workflow

Before the release

Know what is scheduled and which products it can affect.

Check your exposure

Topstep specifically warns about maximum position size being used directly into major news.

Understand the execution risk

Economic releases can cause extreme volatility and slippage.

After the move

Go back to the candle and investigate what happened across the wider market.

That last step is where the news event becomes analysis.

FAQ

Can you trade news with Topstep?

Yes. Topstep does not require traders to flatten positions during economic releases in either the simulated or funded environments.

Does Topstep allow holding through economic releases?

Yes. Topstep states that traders are not required to flatten positions during economic releases.

Can you trade maximum size into CPI with Topstep?

Topstep's current prohibited-strategy guidance says intentionally trading maximum position size directly into a scheduled major news event is prohibited.

Does Topstep protect you from slippage during news?

No. Topstep states that slippage is a normal market condition around major economic releases and that losses attributable to slippage are not adjusted.

What is the biggest risk of news trading with Topstep?

One of the major risks is execution. Rapid price movement and reduced liquidity can result in fills that are materially different from the price you expected.

Final thoughts

Topstep's rules are comparatively simple:

News trading is allowed.

You do not have to flatten for economic releases.

But that does not mean you should treat major announcements like normal market conditions.

Slippage can become significant.

Position size matters.

And deliberately taking maximum exposure directly into a major event is specifically addressed in Topstep's rules.

Once the event is over, though, another question becomes more interesting:

Why did the market move that way?

That is where the economic release stops being a rule question and becomes a market-analysis question.