What "Flatten Friday" means for your strategy
Why the rule exists, what it applies to (and what it doesn't), and how to structure your week around the Friday close requirement.
Flatten Friday is one of the most-misunderstood rules in the Coinhub Funded program. Most of the confusion comes from not knowing what it applies to and what it doesn't.
What the rule actually says
Flatten Friday requires that all open positions in FX, indices, metals, and commodities be closed by the Friday market close. Crypto positions are exempt — they can stay open through the weekend.
- Applies to: FX pairs, equity indices, gold & silver, oil & commodities
- Does not apply to: Bitcoin, Ethereum, altcoins, stablecoins, crypto-crypto pairs
- Trigger time: Friday 5pm ET / 9pm UTC (FX/metals/commodities) or instrument-specific session close (indices)
- Enforcement: Open positions auto-flatten if you don't close them yourself
If you forget to close, the platform closes positions for you. The closes happen at whatever market price is available at that moment, which during low Friday-close liquidity can mean noticeable slippage.
Why the rule exists
Two reasons. First, the simulated trading environment we run benefits from mirroring real-market behavior, and in real prop trading, weekend gap risk is taken seriously. Most institutional desks flatten their books on Friday for the same reason we ask you to.
Second, drawdown rules don't work well over weekend gaps. If your max daily DD is 4% and a position gaps 6% against you Sunday night, you've technically breached before you ever had a chance to manage. Flatten Friday prevents that whole class of situation.
The crypto exemption exists because crypto markets trade continuously — there's no "gap" risk in the same way, because the market is always open. A weekend move in crypto is just a regular move that happens to fall on Saturday.
Practical strategies around the rule
For most traders, Flatten Friday creates a natural rhythm: Monday-Thursday for position-taking, Friday for closing and reset. This is actually closer to how successful traders structure their week anyway.
Specific strategies that work well with the rule:
- Intraday FX/indices. No conflict. Most intraday strategies close positions same-day anyway.
- Swing trades with 1-3 day horizons. Enter Monday or Tuesday, exit by Thursday. Friday is for review and planning.
- News-driven entries. Avoid taking new FX positions in the last hour Friday — you don't want to be auto-flattened at adverse prices.
Strategies that conflict with the rule:
- Weekly swing trades. If your typical hold is 7-10 days, Flatten Friday will repeatedly close positions before your thesis plays out. Consider crypto-based versions of similar themes (e.g., BTC instead of XAU as an inflation hedge).
- Carry trades. Holding for swap interest doesn't work if positions auto-close weekly.
Crypto strategy under Flatten Friday
Because crypto is exempt, some traders treat the weekend as crypto-only trading time. This works, but with a caveat: weekend crypto is statistically more volatile per dollar of volume than weekday crypto, because professional market makers are less active.
The right approach for funded crypto over weekends: size positions roughly 30-40% smaller than your weekday default, and make sure your stops sit outside likely weekend volatility ranges. If you'd normally use a 1.5x ATR stop, use a 2x ATR stop for weekend holds.
In summary
Flatten Friday is a constraint, but it's a useful one. It forces weekly position discipline, eliminates weekend gap risk in traditional markets, and aligns with how professional discretionary traders structure their books anyway.
Plan your week around it from the start and it disappears as a friction point. Treat it as an afterthought and it'll bite you with auto-flattened positions at bad prices, repeatedly.
