Prop firm weekend holding: swing trading on a Core Funded account

Swing traders live and die by one question when they pick a prop firm: can I keep my position open over the weekend? Many setups take days or weeks to play out, and closing everything on Friday afternoon cuts them off halfway. At Core Funded, prop firm weekend holding is simply allowed. You can hold trades overnight and over the weekend without restrictions, in the challenge and on the funded account, on every account type. Crypto is tradable 24/7, weekends included.

This guide explains what that means in practice: how a position held over the weekend is treated by the drawdown and daily loss rules, which account suits swing trading, and which other rules you should plan around.

The rule: overnight and weekend positions are allowed

The rule is short:

• Overnight positions: allowed. You can hold trades overnight.
• Weekend positions: allowed. You can hold trades over the weekend without restrictions.
• Crypto: available 24/7, including weekends.

This applies to every account type: Instant, 1-Step, 2-Step and 2-Step Flex, during the challenge and after you are funded. You keep your position open as long as your setup needs and close it when you decide. You trade on your own schedule.

Why weekend holding matters for swing trading

A swing trade is built around a move that unfolds over days. If your firm forces you flat every Friday, you lose your position at the worst possible moment, pay the spread again on Monday and often re-enter at a worse price. Being able to hold through the weekend lets the trade play out the way you planned it.

It fits with the second thing swing traders need: time. Core Funded accounts have no time limit to reach the profit target. A strategy that only takes a few trades a month doesn't have to rush to beat a 30-day deadline.

How the risk rules treat a weekend position

Weekend holding is allowed, but your position is still part of your account the whole time. Two limits matter most.

The static drawdown

The maximum total loss is static. It is set once from your starting balance and does not follow your profits upwards. It includes losses, fees and open positions.

For a swing trader, a static floor is a big advantage. You know exactly where the line is before you open the trade, and it never moves closer because your account went up. The static drawdown page explains it in detail.

The daily loss limit at 00:00 UTC

The maximum daily loss is calculated at 00:00 UTC each day: Core Funded takes the higher of your balance or your equity and subtracts the daily percentage of the original account balance. Unrealized losses from open trades count.

For a weekend position, this means the reference level for the day is set at midnight UTC from wherever your equity stands at that moment. If forex and indices are closed, your equity doesn't change over the weekend, so the reference carries over from Friday's close. A price gap when the market reopens counts against that level.

Swaps and fees

Holding positions overnight usually comes with swap fees, and every instrument shows its swaps in Match-Trader (the small eye icon next to the order panel). Swap fees and commissions are deducted when profit is calculated, and the drawdown includes fees, so factor them into longer holds.

Worked example: holding a $100,000 2-Step account over the weekend

You trade a $100,000 2-Step Challenge. The daily loss limit is 5% ($5,000) and the static floor is $92,000.

On Friday you hold a swing position that is $1,500 in profit. Your balance is $100,000 and your equity is $101,500.

• Daily reference over the weekend: at 00:00 UTC the higher value is your equity of $101,500. Minus $5,000, your equity must not fall below $96,500 that day. With the market closed, that level stays the same through Saturday and Sunday.
• Monday gap: the market reopens lower and your open profit turns into a $1,000 open loss. Equity is now $99,000. That is $2,500 below the daily reference, so you are still $2,000 inside the daily limit, and $7,000 above the static floor of $92,000.
• Where it would end: if the gap had taken equity below $96,500, the daily limit would have been hit. That is why the size of a weekend position matters more than the fact that you hold it.

A rule of thumb many swing traders use: size the position so that a realistic weekend gap stays well inside the daily limit.

Crypto on the weekend

Crypto markets don't close, and neither does your crypto trading. You can open, manage and close crypto positions on Saturday and Sunday while forex and indices are shut. Leverage on crypto is 1:5, compared with 1:100 on other instruments.

Weekends count as trading days too. If you close a crypto trade on a Saturday with at least 0.5% net profit, that day counts toward your minimum trading days. More on trading digital assets is on the crypto prop firm page.

Which account suits swing trading

All four account types allow weekend holding, so the choice comes down to how your swing trades behave:

• 2-Step Flex has no daily loss limit and the widest static drawdown at 12%. If your trades swing hard intraday before they work, Flex removes the daily cap entirely. It is available up to $100,000.
• 2-Step Challenge gives you a 5% daily limit and an 8% drawdown, with a 10% target in phase 1 and 5% in phase 2.
• 1-Step Challenge is one phase with a 10% target, a 3% daily limit and a 6% drawdown.
• Instant Funding skips the evaluation, with a 3% daily limit and a 5% drawdown.

When you pass a phase, you keep the same account and login, reset to the starting balance. Account sizes run from $5,000 to $500,000, and you can compare all of them on the funded account page.

Other rules swing traders should plan around

Inactivity

If no trade is executed within 30 days, the account is closed automatically. Swing traders who take very few trades should make sure there is at least one trade in every 30-day stretch.

Minimum trading days and the consistency rule

You need a number of days with at least 0.5% realized net profit: 5 on Instant and 2-Step Flex, 3 on 1-Step and 2-Step. Only closed trades count, so a large open swing position doesn't count toward these days until you close it. At payout, the consistency rule caps how much of your total profit one day can contribute: 15% on Instant, 30% on 1-Step and 2-Step. Closing one big swing trade on a single day can exceed that share. You can keep trading until the ratio fits.

News on funded accounts

On a funded account, you may not open or close positions from 5 minutes before to 5 minutes after high-impact news, unless you bought the News Trading upgrade. Holding through news is fine; just don't close inside the window.

Position size and margin

Using more than 50% of your available margin is prohibited, and so is opening three or more positions on a losing trade. Both matter for swing traders who scale into positions over several days. The full list is in the trading rules.