9.5 Weekend Holding and IP Rules

The Forex market officially closes on Saturday morning at 1:00 AM EAT (Kenyan Time) and reopens on Monday morning at 1:00 AM EAT. Over these 48 hours, the charts are completely frozen. However, the real world is not.

Geopolitical events, wars, central bank announcements, and natural disasters frequently happen over the weekend. When the market reopens on Sunday, the price doesn't just start moving smoothly; it 'Gaps'. It instantly teleports from the Friday closing price to a completely new price, entirely skipping everything in between.

The Weekend Gap Trap

If you hold a trade over the weekend and the market gaps completely past your Stop Loss, the broker cannot exit you at your Stop Loss price because that price never existed on Sunday. You are exited at the much worse opening price. This massive gap slippage can easily cause a $10,000 loss on a single trade, blowing your Prop Firm account instantly.

To prevent this, the majority of Prop Firms strictly enforce a 'No Weekend Holding' rule. You must manually close every single open trade by midnight (12:00 AM EAT) on Friday night. If you fail to do so, the firm's algorithms will auto-close your trades and flag your account.

IP Address and Copy Trading Strictness

Prop firms are hyper-vigilant about fraud. If you pay someone else to pass your challenge for you, the firm will find out via your IP Address.

IP Matching: If your Phase 1 was passed on an IP address in Nairobi, but your funded account is suddenly taking trades from an IP address in Dubai, the firm will flag your account for 'Account Management' and terminate you instantly without a payout.
VPN Rules: Because of IP tracking, most firms ban the use of VPNs. If you must use a VPS (Virtual Private Server) for an Expert Advisor, you must inform the firm beforehand.
Copy Trading: You are allowed to copy-trade between your OWN personal accounts. But if the firm's algorithm detects that you are executing the exact same trades at the exact same millisecond as another trader in their database, they will ban both of you for group trading.

Exness - Recommended Forex Broker in Kenya

Self-Evaluation Check

1. Why do the majority of Prop Firms strictly forbid holding trades over the weekend?

Because their servers need maintenanceTo protect the firm from 'Weekend Gaps' where major geopolitical events cause the Sunday opening price to instantly teleport past a trader's Stop Loss, causing catastrophic slippage and losses.Because trading on Sundays is illegalTo give the traders a rest

2. If you fail to manually close your trades by Friday evening on an account with a 'No Weekend Holding' rule, what usually happens?

The trade continues normallyThe firm's algorithms will auto-close the trades at the market price and flag your account for a rule breach, potentially terminating itYou get a warning email but keep the tradeYou pay a small fine

3. Why do Prop Firms heavily monitor your IP Address?

To target advertisingTo detect 'Account Management' (paying a professional to pass your challenge for you) by checking if the evaluation IP location matches the funded IP locationTo speed up your internet connectionTo see what websites you visit

4. What is the general Prop Firm rule regarding Copy Trading?

It is completely banned in all formsYou are allowed to copy trades between your OWN personal accounts, but copying trades from external signals or other traders will trigger the algorithm and get you bannedYou are required to copy the firm's master accountIt is only allowed on Gold

5. Why can using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) be dangerous when trading a Prop Firm account?

It slows down your MT4VPNs constantly bounce your IP address to random global locations, making the firm's security system think multiple different people are logging into your account (fraud)It is illegalIt increases the spread

9.5 Weekend Holding and IP Rules

The Weekend Gap Trap

IP Address and Copy Trading Strictness

Self-Evaluation Check

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