Evaluation can trade the print and funded Starter often cannot
The evaluation is allowed to participate in news. Funded Starter and sim-funded accounts pick up Tier-1 restrictions. Traders pass by fading CPI and then place the same order on the funded login. That is a conduct problem, not a bold read. Expert payouts run every 14 days and do not, by themselves, restore a news style the funded tier has limited.
Read the tier on the account before the morning of NFP. Open a Venasri account and store evaluation and funded as two calendars. One calendar that says news is fine will be wrong half the life of the relationship.
Futures slippage is in points, and points are large
One NQ point is $20. A stop that slips 15 points is $300 per contract. Two contracts are $600. A $750 slip is about 37 points on one NQ, or a smaller slip on two. ES is $50 per point, so 15 points is $750 on a single contract, the entire example, with the trail still $3,000. Micros cut those numbers by ten on Nasdaq and by ten on the S&P e-mini. The print does not get smoother because the account is simulated.
The loss counts at the end-of-day mark even if you never clicked a loser on purpose. Bot controls should refuse new risk into a Tier-1 release on any funded tier that restricts it, and should size evaluation news in micros unless the dollar math is already boring.
The 9:30 AM ET open and an 8:30 AM ET print are a pair
Many Tier-1 releases land at 8:30 AM ET, and the cash open at 9:30 AM ET is still digesting them. Expert attempts that try to make the 6% target, $6,000 on $100,000, in that window are how the $3,000 trail prints on the opening candle. You can be allowed to trade the evaluation release and still be unwise to use full size. The rule and the geometry are different tests.
Starter adds a 40% best-day cap and five winning days before payout. A news winner that makes most of the cycle can pass the trail and fail the payout. The green slip and the red slip are both news.
Be small before the number, not brave during it
Equity Guard should already be near $2,250 on a $100,000 trail of $3,000. A CPI slip will not wait while you arm it. The $750 buffer under the trail is exactly the size of a nasty one-contract ES slip, which means the buffer is not generous. Cut the contract count before the release so the guard is a backstop, not the strategy.
Friday still requires a flat book before the CME close. A news winner you hold into the weekend is a second rule on top of the Tier-1 question. Flat, then look at the next session. The first $10,000 of funded profit pays at 100% and the rest at 90%, which is a reason to keep the account, not a reason to stand in FOMC.
