Use a low-risk news trading approach for prop firm evaluation that prioritizes account rules, smaller size, post-release confirmation and drawdown protection.
Akash Mane is the Founder and CEO of Prop Firm Bridge, where he leads the company’s vision, platform growth, and long term strategic direction. He oversees operations across research, marketing, content systems, SEO, and product positioning while driving the platform’s mission of becoming a trusted authority in the prop firm industry. At Prop Firm Bridge, Akash plays a direct role in shaping educational frameworks, comparison systems, and trader focused resources designed to help users make informed decisions with transparency and confidence. His work focuses on building scalable organic growth systems, improving platform authority, and strengthening trust through accurate, structured, and search optimized content. In addition to leadership responsibilities, he actively manages growth strategy, social media marketing, search visibility, and brand development to expand the platform’s reach across global trading audiences.
Manoj Gholap is responsible for content accuracy, compliance, and factual integrity at Prop Firm Bridge. He acts as the final verification layer for all published content, ensuring that prop firm reviews, rules, and comparisons are clear, accurate, and aligned with transparency standards. Manoj plays a key role in maintaining trust and credibility across the platform.
A prop firm evaluation does not reward a trader for being the first person into an NFP, CPI or FOMC candle. It rewards the trader only if the account reaches its objective while staying inside the rules. That difference changes how a low-risk news strategy should be designed. The strategy should protect the evaluation first and treat the news event as information second.
There is no news trading strategy that can guarantee an evaluation pass. A release can surprise the market, spreads can widen, a stop can slip and a prop account can have rules that differ by stage or program. The useful goal is therefore not certainty. The useful goal is to remove avoidable risk: unclear rules, oversized positions, forgotten pending orders, time-zone mistakes, correlated exposure and impulsive recovery trades.
The strongest low-risk framework is often indirect. Instead of predicting the first spike, the trader prepares before the event, stays inside the formal restriction, lets the first information wave pass and then asks whether the normal strategy still has a valid setup. NFP, CPI and FOMC can then become context for later decisions rather than one-shot bets that consume a large part of the daily loss limit.
Author credibility: This article is written by Akash Mane, Founder and CEO of Prop Firm Bridge, using data-backed prop firm rule research, current 2026 event schedules and a risk-first evaluation framework. Manoj Gholap is the fact checker.
Table of Contents
Quick answer: A low-risk prop firm news strategy starts with rule clarity, not prediction. Trade only if the current account permits the intended action. Use smaller exposure, keep a personal daily stop below the hard limit, remove accidental pending orders and wait for the formal news window to end. Then require normal spreads and the same technical setup you would accept on an ordinary session. If those conditions never appear, do not trade the event.
An evaluation has a profit objective, but it also has a hard risk structure. Daily loss limits, maximum drawdown, minimum trading conditions and prohibited strategies can make survival just as important as return. A trader can make a large news profit and still have a poor evaluation process if the same method regularly risks a breach.
Personal-account traders can decide how much volatility they want to accept. Prop evaluation traders are operating inside an additional rule layer. The trade therefore has to satisfy the market strategy and the account framework at the same time.
This changes the definition of a good opportunity. A setup with a high theoretical reward but extreme execution uncertainty may be unattractive for a challenge. A smaller post-news setup with cleaner liquidity can be more useful because it preserves the account.
The objective should be written in plain language: “Reach the evaluation target without depending on one event, one day or one unusually large trade.” That sentence creates a filter for every news decision.
A major release can compress several ordinary trading hours into seconds. Price can move far enough to hit the planned stop quickly, while spread widening or slippage can make the realized loss larger. Several correlated positions can move together.
If a trader normally risks 0.5% per trade and takes several positions around the same event, the combined exposure can become much larger than the individual tickets suggest. The challenge's daily loss limit can then be threatened by one macro surprise.
A low-risk framework caps event exposure separately. The exact percentage is not universal; it depends on the account and strategy. The principle is to keep the event small enough that a poor fill does not define the whole day.
Risk should be measured against the remaining drawdown, not the advertised account balance.
Success can mean no rule breach, no impulsive trade, correct calendar timing, controlled exposure and one valid trade taken according to plan. It can also mean staying flat. Profit is only one part of the result.
A trader who skips CPI because the account is close to the personal daily stop has made a strong evaluation decision even if the market later moves exactly as expected. A trader who wins a large unplanned position can make a poor decision even though the account balance rises.
This process-based definition makes news days less emotional. The trader does not need to capture every move to feel the day was useful.
Over enough samples, good process is easier to evaluate than the luck of one release.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: A news strategy fits an evaluation only when one failed event does not threaten the entire account plan.
Book insight: Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets, Chapter 1, is directly relevant because decision quality should be separated from one lucky or unlucky outcome. Page numbers vary by edition.
Verify opening, closing, holding and automatic execution separately. A rule may allow existing positions to remain open while restricting new entries. Another can allow entries outside a narrow blackout but treat stop or take-profit executions differently. A pending order can create a position even when the trader is not touching the platform.
The account stage also matters. Evaluation and funded rules can differ. Another account model from the same company can have a different policy. A trader should name the exact account in the rule sheet.
Write the formal event window with the reference timezone. Then convert it to local and server time. A correct risk plan with the wrong clock can still create a breach.
If any action is unclear, stay flat until official clarification is available.
The phrase is too broad. It does not say whether all events are allowed, whether the rule changes after funding, whether only certain instruments are affected or whether profits from specific executions are treated differently.
A usable note should read more like: “CPI on this evaluation model: holding status checked; new-entry status checked; close status checked; pending-order status checked; formal window X to Y.” That level of detail gives the trader an operational rule.
Marketing summaries, forum posts and old screenshots can lose context. The live account rules and current official support should take priority.
Do not build a strategy around the most favorable interpretation of an ambiguous sentence.
Ask a narrow written question. State the account model, stage, event, instrument and action. For example: “On my current evaluation account, can an existing gold position remain open through CPI, and can its stop loss execute during the restricted window?”
If the answer covers only one part, ask the missing part. Record the date because policies can change.
Do not ask for a general opinion about whether news is risky. Ask for the rule that controls the intended action.
The goal is to make the trade boring from a compliance perspective before the event arrives.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: Rule clarity is the first entry filter. If the intended action cannot be explained in one clear sentence, the trade is not ready.
Book insight: Mark Douglas, Trading in the Zone, Chapter 7, supports accepting uncertainty in market outcomes while removing unnecessary uncertainty from the operating process.
The first seconds after a major release contain the most concentrated information and execution risk. Algorithms can process headlines quickly, spreads can widen and price can jump through levels. A prop trader does not need to compete for that first move.
Waiting allows the market to reveal whether the first reaction is holding, reversing or becoming mixed. Spreads can move closer to normal. Technical structure can form. The trader can compare related markets without making a decision under extreme time pressure.
Most importantly, the trader can stay completely outside any formal blackout before looking for a setup. This reduces the chance that a timing or order-type mistake damages the account.
Waiting does not guarantee a winning trade. It simply changes the risk from “predict the release” to “trade the market after new information is visible.”
First, the account restriction must be over for the intended action. Second, spreads should be near the normal range for that session. Third, price should be moving in a way the normal strategy can interpret. Fourth, the remaining drawdown must support the planned loss.
Some traders may add a minimum time condition. Others may require a candle close, retest, breakout structure or return to a key level. The exact trigger should come from the tested strategy rather than a universal post-news template.
Do not create a special entry simply because the event was famous. If the normal system does not produce a setup, there is no trade.
A strong restart rule can be written before the release and followed without debate afterward.
A large candle shows that the market moved. It does not explain whether the move is sustainable, whether spreads were normal or whether the entry offers a reasonable stop. Chasing after a vertical move can create poor reward-to-risk.
The event can also contain conflicting details. NFP can include revisions and wages. CPI can contain headline and underlying inflation. FOMC includes a statement and later press conference. The first candle may reflect only the first information layer.
Wait for the strategy to tell the trader where risk is invalidated. If no logical stop exists after the spike, the setup is incomplete.
Evaluation traders should prefer clarity over urgency.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: Post-release trading turns news from a prediction problem into a context problem, which is usually easier to control inside an evaluation.
Book insight: Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money, Chapter 13, is relevant because waiting creates room for information and execution conditions to improve.
Normal size assumes a normal relationship between stop distance and realized loss. News can break that relationship. A stop can slip, the spread can expand and correlated positions can move together. The technical distance stays the same while account-level risk increases.
A low-risk news strategy therefore starts with smaller exposure. The exact reduction is personal and should be tested. The objective is not to guess the exact future slippage but to leave enough room that a worse fill does not threaten the daily limit.
Position size should also reflect current account health. A trader with a large remaining buffer can tolerate more uncertainty than a trader already close to the personal stop.
No percentage should be copied blindly from another trader or account.
Calculate the planned loss at the technical stop, then estimate a worse execution scenario. The estimate can use recent event observations, but it should remain conservative because the next release can be larger.
If the worse scenario would move the account too close to the hard daily or total limit, reduce size or skip the trade. The plan should not depend on a perfect fill.
For several positions, apply the stress test to the combined exposure. If all are driven by the same event, assume they can move together.
Slippage is not a reason to trade without a stop. It is a reason to leave more account-level room.
A hard loss limit is the account boundary. Operating directly against it leaves almost no room for slippage, spread changes or mistakes. A personal stop below that boundary creates a safety zone.
The exact personal stop depends on the strategy and account. Once it is reached, the trader should stop taking new risk. A major release should not become an attempt to recover earlier losses.
This approach is especially important on news days because execution can be less predictable than during an ordinary session.
The goal is to preserve tomorrow's opportunity rather than use every last unit of today's drawdown.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: The hard account limit should function as an emergency wall, not as a normal target for daily risk.
Book insight: Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money, Chapter 13, “Room for Error,” directly supports maintaining a margin between normal risk and the account's failure boundary.
Confirm the official date and 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time release from the BLS schedule. Convert it into local and server time. Check the exact account rule. Review every open position, pending order and automated entry path.
Then calculate combined dollar exposure. USD pairs, gold and U.S. indexes can react to the same labor surprise. Several small positions can become one large event bet.
Decide the personal no-trade period and post-news restart condition before the report. If the account already has little daily room left, the simplest playbook is no trade.
The preparation should be complete before the final minutes.
The Employment Situation includes payroll growth, unemployment, average hourly earnings and revisions. A headline beat can arrive with weaker revisions. Wage growth can change the inflation interpretation. The unemployment rate can surprise in another direction.
This can create a fast first move and reversal. A trader reading only the payroll number can enter before the broader market has processed the package.
A lower-risk approach waits for the market response rather than trying to decode the full report in seconds.
The data can then be used to understand the session's macro context.
The setup should look like the trader's normal setup. It might be a retest of a broken level, a pullback in a confirmed trend, a range break after consolidation or another tested pattern. The important point is that the event itself is not the signal.
Spreads should be near normal and the formal account restriction should be finished. The stop should have a logical technical location and the position size should fit the remaining drawdown.
If price never forms a clean setup, skip the session. The move already happened and chasing does not improve the evaluation.
Journal whether waiting improved execution compared with past event trades.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: NFP is scheduled enough to prepare for, but complex enough that the first headline should not replace a tested trading system.
Book insight: Mark Douglas, Trading in the Zone, Chapter 7, fits NFP because the trader can know the data and still face uncertainty about the price response.
CPI contains headline and underlying inflation measures. Markets compare the result with expectations and then translate the surprise into interest-rate probabilities. Different components can support different interpretations.
The dollar, Treasury yields, gold and equity indexes can react together. The first move can be strong, but a later read of the details can reverse part of it.
This makes the first seconds difficult for a tight-risk evaluation strategy. A trader may correctly predict the inflation direction and still enter at a poor price.
Waiting allows policy expectations and technical structure to become clearer.
Long EUR/USD, long GBP/USD and long gold can all express some degree of weaker-dollar exposure. A hot CPI surprise that lifts yields and the dollar can pressure all three at once. The account sees the combined loss.
Group every position by event driver, not only symbol. Add the planned losses together and consider a worse-execution scenario. Reduce exposure if the total is too large.
For gold specifically, spread and volatility can expand quickly. A tight stop should not be assumed to fill exactly at the trigger.
The account rule should also be checked for every instrument involved.
Wait for the formal restriction to end. Check whether spreads are near their ordinary session range. Observe whether yields and the dollar are confirming or rejecting the initial interpretation if those markets are part of the trader's normal analysis.
Then require the usual technical setup. Do not enter solely because the first CPI candle retraced or extended. A large move can remain unstable for longer than expected.
If the market remains chaotic, wait for the next setup or the next session.
A low-risk framework gives the trader permission to miss the first move.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: CPI risk is often hidden in correlation. Several apparently different symbols can become one inflation trade.
Book insight: Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets, Chapter 1, supports waiting until the decision has enough context rather than reacting to one headline.
The policy statement communicates the rate decision and policy language. The press conference allows the Chair to explain the outlook and answer questions. The market can move in one direction at 2:00 p.m. and reverse at 2:30 p.m.
For September 16, 2026, the Federal Reserve lists both scheduled times. A low-risk evaluation plan should put both on the calendar. If the account has a formal restriction, verify how it covers each event.
Entering after the statement but before the press conference can expose the trader to a second information shock within minutes.
A conservative plan can simply wait until the communication cycle is substantially complete.
FOMC occurs later than the common 8:30 a.m. U.S. data releases. In September 2026, 2:00 p.m. EDT equals 11:30 p.m. in India and 3:00 a.m. in Tokyo on the next day. Traders outside the United States may be operating far outside normal hours.
Fatigue can reduce discipline and increase impulsive size changes. A strategy tested during the London or New York morning may not have the same behavior during a late policy event.
A low-risk trader can choose not to participate and instead trade the next normal session after the market has digested the event.
The fame of FOMC does not create an obligation to stay awake or trade.
The formal restriction has ended, the press conference risk has passed or is understood, spreads are normal, and the trader's normal technical setup is present. The market should not be moving only because of one new answer every few minutes.
Some traders may wait until the next session. Others may trade later in New York if the strategy supports it. The decision should be pre-planned.
Do not use a fixed minute count as the only signal. FOMC volatility can last longer than ordinary data releases.
The safest trade can be the one taken after the event is no longer the main driver of every tick.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: FOMC is a communication sequence, not one timestamp. A low-risk plan should reflect both stages.
Book insight: Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money, Chapter 13, supports allowing more room when uncertainty arrives in several waves.
A trader can decide to stay flat manually and still open a position if an old pending order remains active. A major release can move price far enough to trigger an order that looked remote minutes earlier.
If the account restricts new entries, the execution timestamp can matter even if the pending order was placed before the blackout. If the trade is allowed, the execution can still occur with severe slippage.
A low-risk plan therefore includes a mandatory pending-order review before every Tier 1 event. Cancel any order that should not become a position during the window.
Do not rely on memory. Put the check on the written routine.
Know whether the system uses server time, UTC or local time. Verify the current server offset. A daylight-saving change can move a fixed filter by one hour.
Test whether the EA can open new trades, modify orders, place pending entries or copy positions during the no-trade period. If the behavior is uncertain, disable the system before the event.
A news filter should use a reliable calendar source and current event data. Automation can reduce human error only when its own assumptions are correct.
The trader remains responsible for the account behavior.
A source trade and copied trade do not always execute at exactly the same second. Network, bridge or platform delay can move the destination execution across a news boundary.
For multiple accounts, server offsets can also differ. A source timestamp can look outside the restriction while another account records the copied execution inside its own relevant clock window.
Use a wider personal buffer when permitted copying is part of the strategy. Stop the source early enough that destination accounts have room.
Do not assume identical execution across accounts.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: A low-risk manual decision is incomplete until every automatic execution path has been checked.
Book insight: Mark Douglas, Trading in the Zone, Chapter 4, fits automation because consistent rules need to be executed by the system as well as the trader.
A news loss can happen quickly, which creates the feeling that the money can also be recovered quickly. The trader may increase size, take a lower-quality setup or enter before the market stabilizes. At the same time, the account has less remaining daily room.
This combines emotional pressure with higher execution uncertainty. A second loss can then move the account much closer to the hard daily limit.
The low-risk rule is simple: after a news loss, recalculate remaining drawdown before taking any new trade. Do not use the next candle as a rescue attempt.
If the personal daily stop has been reached, the session is finished.
Risk should not automatically increase. It may stay the same or decrease depending on the plan. The remaining drawdown is now smaller, so the same dollar risk consumes a larger share of the available buffer.
If the event environment is still unstable, waiting is logical. A second setup should meet every normal entry condition, not a relaxed version created because the trader is down.
Track whether the first loss involved abnormal slippage. If execution was worse than expected, that is another reason to reduce subsequent exposure.
One losing trade should not change the evaluation strategy.
The same emotional control applies. A fast win can create overconfidence and tempt the trader to increase size. The account may be in profit, but the process can deteriorate.
Return to normal risk. Recalculate the daily buffer and follow the next setup exactly as planned. Consider stopping for the day if the profit already satisfies the personal objective.
Do not treat one news win as evidence that the strategy can safely use larger size next time. Build conclusions from a meaningful sample.
The low-risk framework should survive both wins and losses without changing character.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: The most dangerous risk change after news is often emotional rather than mathematical.
Book insight: Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money, Chapter 3, “Never Enough,” is relevant because a good result can create the urge to take unnecessary additional risk.
Track planned risk, realized risk, slippage, maximum adverse excursion, maximum favorable excursion, spread at entry, entry time relative to the event, account stage, rule compliance and whether the normal technical setup was present.
Also record whether the trade was pre-news, during an allowed event window or post-news. Mixing all event trades together can hide which part of the process actually works.
Track rule near-misses. A forgotten pending order that was cancelled in time should still become a process lesson.
Profit alone is not enough to judge an evaluation strategy.
Compare average realized loss, win rate, reward-to-risk, slippage, drawdown and rule mistakes. If news trades produce larger execution errors or more emotional behavior without improving the overall expectancy, they may not belong in the evaluation.
A trader can still use news as context while avoiding event exposure. The strategy does not need a separate news entry to benefit from the information.
Use enough samples. One large NFP win or one bad CPI loss should not define the whole conclusion.
The purpose of measurement is to decide whether the event process adds value under prop constraints.
Entering inside an unintended rule boundary, increasing size without plan, chasing the first candle, forgetting a pending order, using the wrong timezone or taking a setup that does not exist in the tested strategy are all process failures.
Record them even if the account made money. A profitable mistake is dangerous because it can teach the trader to repeat behavior that eventually causes a breach.
The best journal separates outcome from execution quality.
Over time, process scoring can be more useful than remembering the largest wins.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: A news strategy should be evaluated by how it changes account risk and process quality, not only by headline profit.
Book insight: Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets, Chapter 1, directly supports recording profitable mistakes as mistakes rather than allowing the outcome to rewrite the quality of the decision.
A week can contain PPI, CPI, central-bank communication and other important releases close together. Each event can create volatility, and losses early in the week reduce the buffer available for later events.
A weekly risk budget prevents the trader from treating every day as a fresh invitation to use the same maximum risk. If the account has already taken meaningful drawdown, later event exposure should be reduced.
The exact weekly budget is strategy-specific. The important principle is that event density should influence the amount of capital placed at risk.
Preserving the account across a volatile week can be more valuable than taking every setup.
Mark the Tier 1 events before the week starts. Decide which events the strategy is actually willing to trade. Some traders may choose only post-CPI setups, avoid NFP entirely and use FOMC only as next-session context.
This creates selectivity. The trader does not need identical exposure to every famous event.
If the first Tier 1 day creates a loss, reduce the remaining event budget. If it creates a win, do not automatically spend the profit on larger later trades.
The budget should protect consistency rather than maximize activity.
A daily stop protects one session. A weekly stop can protect the trader from repeatedly trying to recover across several days. After a defined amount of drawdown, the trader can pause event trading or reduce all size.
This is a personal risk control, not a universal prop firm rule. It should sit well inside the account's hard maximum drawdown.
The pause gives the trader time to review whether the losses came from market variance, rule mistakes or poor execution around events.
A challenge can survive a quiet week. It may not survive a desperate recovery sequence.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: News risk should be budgeted across the week because major events often arrive in clusters rather than isolation.
Book insight: Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money, Chapter 13, supports preserving enough room to remain in the game after a difficult sequence.
List the major events relevant to the instruments traded. Verify official dates and times. Mark the current account restrictions. Convert the events into UTC, local time and server time where necessary.
Set the weekly event risk budget. Identify which releases the strategy may trade directly, which will be post-news only and which will be skipped. Review any account stage change.
Map correlated exposure. A gold trader and USD-pair trader should recognize when several symbols share the same macro driver.
Set alerts before the personal no-trade period.
Confirm the event has not moved. Check open positions, pending orders, stop and take-profit treatment, EAs, copy systems and remaining drawdown. Verify the correct account and clock.
Know the exact formal restriction and the wider personal buffer. The final minute should be a verification, not a research session.
If any rule is unclear, stay out. If the personal daily stop is already close, stay out. If the trader is tilted, stay out.
A complete checklist must include “no trade” as a valid result.
The formal restriction is over, spreads are normal, the normal strategy setup exists, the remaining drawdown supports the planned loss and no second event is about to arrive.
For FOMC, check whether the press conference is still ahead. For a clustered U.S. data block, make sure all relevant releases are complete.
Use the reduced news-day position size if that is part of the plan. Record the trade separately in the journal.
If the conditions never become clean, end the news plan without a trade.
Related Prop Firm Bridge reading: See How to Trade News Events Without Breaking Rules, High-Impact vs Medium-Impact Events Ranked, and News Across London, New York and Tokyo.
Prop Firm Bridge research note: A low-risk strategy becomes useful when the trader can execute the same checklist on an exciting event day and an ordinary day.
Book insight: Mark Douglas, Trading in the Zone, Chapter 4, fits the final checklist because consistency comes from repeating the process rather than changing behavior with emotion.
The structured FAQ summarizes the low-risk framework. No strategy can guarantee a challenge pass. The purpose is to reduce avoidable account-rule and execution mistakes while keeping news exposure small enough to survive an unfavorable event.
About the Author: Akash Mane
Akash Mane is the Founder and CEO of Prop Firm Bridge. His work focuses on data-backed prop firm research, verified rule analysis and practical risk education that helps traders make informed evaluation decisions without hiding important constraints. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
A low-risk news strategy for a prop firm evaluation is not a promise to predict NFP, CPI or FOMC. It is a process for making sure one event does not control the fate of the account. The trader verifies the rule, reduces exposure, removes accidental orders, protects the daily drawdown and waits for a normal setup after the market has received the information.
The approach is intentionally selective. Some releases will produce no trade. Some weeks may be skipped almost completely. A trader can still use the information to understand the market without taking the highest-risk seconds of the event.
Prop Firm Bridge helps traders understand evaluation rules, economic-event risk and drawdown mechanics through verified, data-backed research. Visit propfirmbridge.com for current prop trading education and practical rule-focused guidance.
No. No strategy can guarantee passing. A low-risk approach can reduce avoidable rule, execution and drawdown mistakes, but market outcomes and account rules still create uncertainty.
A conservative approach is to verify the account rule, avoid the first release spike, reduce position size, wait for spreads and structure to normalize, and trade only if the normal strategy produces a valid post-news setup.
Only if the current account rules allow the intended action and the trade fits the risk plan. Many traders may prefer to use NFP as context and wait for a post-release setup rather than predict the first move.
Reducing size can create more room for slippage and spread widening. The exact size is strategy-specific and should be judged against the remaining daily and total drawdown.
A practical condition can require the formal restriction to end, spreads to return near normal and the trader's usual technical setup to appear. A fixed time delay can be added as a personal buffer.
Avoid assuming a fixed direction, verify the account rule, reduce correlated exposure and wait for the first inflation reaction to settle before considering a normal setup.
Treat the policy statement and press conference as separate risk windows. A conservative trader may wait until the communication cycle is substantially complete before considering new exposure.
Yes. A pending order placed earlier can trigger during a restricted or highly volatile window. Every pending entry and automated order path should be reviewed before the event.
Do not use the next release or the next candle as a recovery trade. Recalculate remaining drawdown, respect the personal daily stop and return to normal size only when the plan allows it.
Track news trades separately from normal-session trades, including planned risk, realized risk, slippage, drawdown, rule near-misses and whether each trade followed the normal strategy.
