FOMC Press Conference
30 minutes after each FOMC statement · 14:30 ET
The Fed Chair's Q&A after the statement. Unscripted answers regularly move markets more than the statement itself — a single hawkish or dovish phrase can flip the post-statement trend entirely.
Volatility arrives in bursts tied to specific answers rather than one impulse, which makes stops especially vulnerable through the first half hour of the conference.
What it measures
The Fed Chair's prepared remarks and ~45 minutes of unscripted Q&A, starting 30 minutes after the statement.
Why the economy cares
The statement is a committee compromise; the presser is where the market hears how the Chair actually weighs it. Guidance nuance delivered here has repeatedly outweighed the written text.
How it maps onto the chart
Same directional logic as the statement — hawkish tone lifts USD, pressures risk — but delivered in bursts tied to specific answers rather than one impulse.
Price behavior around the release
Before
The 30-minute gap after the statement is positioning, not information: the statement move often stalls or partially retraces as the market waits for the Chair to confirm or undercut it.
During
Volatility arrives answer by answer for the first half hour. Stops resting near the post-statement extremes are the fuel; both extremes getting tagged during the Q&A is common.
After
Whatever direction survives the full conference tends to be the week's direction — the composite read of decision, statement and tone is finally complete, and positioning unwinds toward it.
Who lets you trade it
News-trading policy of every firm in our verified catalog, read off the firm's own pages. Details and per-program exceptions live in the firm's rules.
| Firm | Policy | Window | If violated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha Capital | Restricted (funded) | ±5 min | Profit removed |
| Apex Trader Funding | Allowed | — | — |
| AquaFunded | Allowed | ±5 min | Profit share reduced |
| Atlas Funded | Restricted (funded) | ±5 min | Profit removed |
| Blue Guardian | Restricted (funded) | ±5 min | Profit removed |
| BrightFunded | Restricted (funded) | ±5 min | Profit removed |
| Bulenox | Allowed | — | None |
| E8 Markets | Allowed | — | — |
| Earn2Trade | Allowed | — | None |
| FTMO | Restricted (funded) | ±2 min | Account breach |
| Funded Trading Plus | Allowed | — | None |
| FundedNext | Allowed | ±5 min | Profit share reduced |
| FundingPips | Restricted (funded) | ±5 min | Profit removed |
| FXIFY | Allowed | — | — |
| Lucid Trading | Allowed | — | — |
| MyFundedFutures | Restricted (funded) | ±2 min | — |
| Take Profit Trader | Restricted (funded) | — | — |
| The5ers | Allowed | — | — |
| Topstep | Allowed | — | — |
| Tradeify | Allowed | — | — |
Policies verified 2026-08-22 and re-checked weekly. Restricted usually applies to funded accounts only — evaluations are commonly exempt; open the firm's rules for the exact split.