FundingPips has caused controversy after changing its news trading rules to include Donald Trump’s posts on X, before removing the specific reference and replacing it with an even broader rule covering “Significant Unscheduled Market Events” . The original change was detected by Capital Critic, which archives prop firm rule pages and compares them for changes. FundingPips’ Zero account rules had been updated to say that high-impact events and speeches were restricted, including “Trump speeches and tweets.”
I criticised the rule on X, as traders have no way of knowing when Donald Trump will post something that moves the market. Unlike CPI, interest-rate decisions and other scheduled economic releases, a tweet is completely unscheduled. Traders can avoid a known news window, but they can’t avoid an event that appears without warning.
Why The Trump Tweet Rule Was Unfair
FundingPips has specific restrictions around scheduled news events. On its standard Master Accounts, profits from trades opened or closed within five (or ten) minutes before or after high-impact news can be deducted, while trades opened at least five hours earlier are protected by the swing-trader exception. These rules may be restrictive, but at least traders can see the events on the FundingPips economic calendar and plan around them.
Trump tweets are different. A trader could open a position during normal market conditions, then have Donald Trump unexpectedly post about tariffs, interest rates, a war or another market-moving subject. If the market moved in the trader’s favour, FundingPips could deduct the profit, but the policy did not offer any equivalent protection if the same surprise tweet caused a loss.
That creates a one-sided rule where the trader carries the downside, while FundingPips can remove the upside. It’s impossible to trade responsibly around an event when you don’t know when it will happen.
FundingPips Removes The Trump Wording
Later that day, FundingPips Community and Partnerships Manager Avikk responded to the criticism, saying:
“This was already changed and removed.”
The specific reference to Trump speeches and tweets was removed from the FundingPips Zero rules, but this wasn’t a complete reversal.
The following day, FundingPips had replaced the Trump wording with a new exception for a “Significant Unscheduled Market Event,” shortened to SUME. The current FundingPips news policy states that profits from trades made during a SUME that causes “extreme volatility, abnormal price movements, liquidity issues, widening spreads, or price gaps” may be subject to profit deduction.
This wording applies to all FundingPips master accounts.
What Is A Significant Unscheduled Market Event?
FundingPips doesn’t clearly define what qualifies as a SUME. The rule mentions extreme volatility, abnormal price movements, liquidity issues, widening spreads and price gaps, but it doesn’t provide an objective threshold for any of them.
The wording that profits “may be subject” to deduction also gives FundingPips considerable discretion over when the rule is enforced. A Trump tweet could still qualify as a SUME, but so could an unexpected geopolitical headline, a military escalation, an emergency government announcement or almost any other sudden event that moves the market.
This arguably makes the new rule broader than the Trump-specific wording it replaced. At least the original change identified a particular source, while SUME can potentially cover any unscheduled event FundingPips later decides was significant enough.
There Is No Clear Restricted Window
FundingPips provides exact timing rules for scheduled economic news. Standard Master Accounts have a five-minute restriction before and after high-impact events, while FundingPips Zero has a longer ten-minute restriction on either side. SUME has no equivalent window, and the rules don’t explain when an event officially starts, when it ends or which trades are considered to have been made “during” it.
This matters because an unscheduled event can affect the market for seconds, minutes or several hours. Traders need to know whether FundingPips will only deduct profits made during the initial price spike, or whether any trade closed during the wider period of volatility could be affected. The public rules also don’t explain whether traders will be shown the exact event, timestamp and evidence used when a profit is deducted.
Has The Rule Been Applied Retroactively?
The current FundingPips help pages don’t give the SUME policy an effective date or explain whether older accounts are protected under their original conditions. This is important because introducing new restrictions for future purchases is one thing, while applying them to Master Accounts that traders have already paid for and passed would be much more serious.
Retroactive rule changes triggered the downfall of FundingPips’ sister firm, FundingTicks.
FundingPips should clearly confirm whether the SUME rule applies to existing accounts, new accounts or both. Any material rule change should also be sent directly to affected traders. Quietly updating a help-centre page is not enough.
Conclusion
FundingPips was right to remove the specific reference to Donald Trump’s tweets. It was impossible for traders to avoid an unscheduled post, making the rule fundamentally unfair. Unfortunately, replacing it with SUME hasn’t fixed the problem. The new wording potentially gives FundingPips even more discretion to deduct profits after any unexpected period of volatility, with no clear definition, objective threshold, restricted window or published process for challenging a decision.
The SUME rule needs to be removed. Until that happens, traders are being asked to avoid events they cannot predict and punished when they fail to do so.
