After you're funded · Stage 3 · Free
Most funded futures firms allow overnight holds on standard accounts. The mechanics of holding overnight are not the same as the mechanics of an intraday trade — and the differences are structural, not stylistic. On EOD trailing drawdown platforms, unrealized losses at settlement temporarily compress the floor-to-balance buffer whether or not the position ultimately recovers. The DLL resets at a firm-specific time that can split a single overnight trade across two separate DLL windows. A position held through a scheduled overnight news release carries DLL exposure the original entry did not plan for. This article covers what the session structure means for funded accounts, how the two trailing drawdown models handle overnight P&L, how DLL reset timing creates a split-DLL problem on crossing positions, and a five-question check for deciding whether a hold makes structural sense before session close.
Part 1 of 4 — The session structure funded accounts operate within
The funded account's risk framework (trailing drawdown, DLL, consistency window) was designed around the primary RTH session. Holding overnight stretches a single position across multiple settlements and DLL reset windows, each of which carries its own implications for how the risk metrics move.
CME futures run nearly 24 hours on weekdays, with a brief maintenance break. The trading day is structured in three overlapping sessions: the globex session (Sunday 6 PM ET to Friday 5 PM ET, pausing 5–6 PM ET daily for maintenance), the primary RTH session for equity index products (9:30 AM–4:00 PM ET), and the energy session structure for /CL (9:00 AM–2:30 PM ET pit close, then globex continues). For most funded futures traders, "overnight" means holding a position through the 5–6 PM ET daily maintenance window and into the globex overnight session that follows.
Two settlement events matter for funded accounts. The first is the 5 PM ET CME daily settlement — the official daily settlement price for CME products. On EOD trailing drawdown platforms, this settlement scan is when the platform captures the account balance including open position unrealized P&L. The second is the start of the following RTH session, which is often when the DLL resets on midnight-ET or RTH-start platforms. A position held overnight crosses one or both of these settlement events, which is why overnight holds carry structural overhead that the same position closed before 5 PM ET does not.
The CME globex overnight session (6 PM–8:30 AM ET for equity index products) runs with significantly lower volume than RTH. Bid-ask spreads are wider, liquidity is thinner, and single large orders can move the market more than they would during RTH. A position held overnight is exposed to this low-volume environment for 14.5 hours before the RTH open — including the Asia open (around 9 PM–11 PM ET) and the London open (3:00–4:00 AM ET), both of which can produce directional moves that resolve before the RTH session opens. For funded account traders, a gap at the RTH open in the direction against an overnight position is not theoretical — it occurs regularly, and it compresses the floor-to-balance buffer without the RTH volume to immediately reverse it.
For the full session timing framework — when each session opens, which news events fall during each window, and how to schedule trading around scheduled high-volatility events — see funded futures trading schedule. For the specific impact of news events on DLL exposure, including scheduled overnight releases that affect US futures before the RTH open, see how to handle news events on a funded futures account.
Part 2 of 4 — Trailing drawdown models and overnight unrealized P&L
On EOD platforms, unrealized losses at settlement advance the trailing drawdown floor whether or not the position ultimately recovers. This asymmetry — floor advances on unrealized loss but does not retreat on recovery — is the structural risk that makes overnight holds on an EOD platform different from the same-sized intraday loss.
On EOD trailing drawdown platforms, the firm runs a settlement scan at a specific time — most commonly 5 PM ET at CME daily settlement. The scan calculates the account balance including all open position unrealized P&L at that moment. If the open position is at unrealized -$600 at 5 PM ET, the platform records the account as $600 lower than the closed-trade balance for that settlement cycle. If that recorded balance is a new low for the account (lower than any prior EOD balance), the trailing drawdown floor advances upward by the shortfall — permanently tightening the floor-to-balance buffer by $600.
The asymmetry: the floor does not retreat if the position recovers. If the same position closes the next morning at +$400, the account balance is restored — but the floor that advanced at the 5 PM ET settlement scan is locked. The floor-to-balance buffer after recovery is $200 smaller than it was before the overnight hold, even though the trade ultimately made money. This is the structural cost of holding through a 5 PM ET settlement scan on an EOD platform with unrealized losses at that moment.
The practical implication: an overnight hold on an EOD platform is not just about whether the trade is profitable. It is about whether the unrealized P&L at 5 PM ET will be positive or near-zero — because the floor advance from a negative 5 PM scan is permanent. A position that is structurally sound with good overnight thesis but happens to be at -$500 at 5 PM ET carries a real floor cost even if it closes at +$300 the next morning. The net: the position made $300 of closed P&L but consumed $200 of trailing drawdown buffer (the delta between the $500 floor advance and the $300 closed gain). Most EOD-platform funded traders do not account for this when evaluating overnight hold decisions.
On real-time trailing drawdown platforms, the trailing drawdown floor advances continuously with the account's high-water mark — including ticks from open overnight positions. A position that goes -$300 overnight before recovering advances the floor by $300 at the moment the -$300 is hit, regardless of what happens afterward. The floor then stays at that level whether the position recovers or not.
On a real-time model, the overnight hold risk is most concentrated around gap opens. If the position gaps $400 against you at the RTH open, the floor advances $400 at the moment of the gap — compressing the buffer by $400 instantly before you have the opportunity to close the position. On a real-time platform, a gap-against on an overnight position is one of the fastest ways to unexpectedly compress the floor-to-balance buffer, because the floor advances to the worst tick of the gap before the market can reverse.
For the mechanics of how the trailing drawdown floor locks and what the floor-lock means for funded account decisions, see how trailing drawdown rules change after you pass.
Most funded futures firms specify the trailing drawdown model in the rulebook under "drawdown calculation," "end-of-day drawdown," or "maximum drawdown method." The key question to answer: does the firm's drawdown advance on unrealized open position P&L, and if so, at what time? If the answer is "at 5 PM ET CME settlement" or "at end of business day," it is an EOD model. If the answer is "in real time" or "tick by tick," it is a real-time model. A small number of firms use a closed-P&L-only model where the drawdown advances only on realized losses — on these platforms, unrealized overnight losses do not affect the floor until the trade is closed. These three model types produce meaningfully different risk profiles for the same overnight hold.
If the rulebook is ambiguous, the fastest test is to ask support directly: "Does my trailing drawdown advance at the daily settlement scan, in real time, or only on closed trades?" The answer determines whether your overnight hold carries a permanent floor-advance risk at 5 PM ET (EOD model), a continuous floor-advance risk on every tick (real-time model), or no floor-advance risk until the trade closes (closed-P&L model).
Part 3 of 4 — DLL reset timing and the split-DLL problem
The DLL is a per-session cap, not a per-trade cap. When the DLL resets while a position is still open, the remaining loss potential on that position begins counting against a fresh DLL window — which may be smaller or at zero if the session started flat.
The DLL reset time varies by firm. The most common configurations are: midnight ET (most common — resets at the calendar boundary between trading days), start of the CME globex session at 6 PM ET (the position crosses into a new DLL window at the evening maintenance close), or start of the primary RTH session (DLL resets at 9:30 AM ET for equity index products). A small number of firms use a rolling 24-hour window rather than a fixed daily reset. Confirm your firm's specific reset time before holding overnight — it is almost always in the rulebook under "daily loss limit" or "daily drawdown limit."
The split-DLL problem occurs when a position is open at the moment of the DLL reset. Example: a position is entered Monday at 2 PM ET and held overnight. The DLL resets at midnight ET. The trade produces $250 of unrealized loss before midnight, which counts against Monday's DLL. After midnight, the position continues running. Any additional loss after midnight counts against Tuesday's DLL — starting from zero, because Tuesday's DLL began fresh at midnight. If the position generates another $400 of loss between midnight and the Tuesday morning close, the entire $400 breaches Tuesday's DLL as if it were the first trade of the day. A single overnight hold can consume significant portions of two separate DLL windows if the position moves against you across the reset time.
The specific risk scenario that catches funded traders: a position is near the end of a profitable RTH session, the setup thesis is still valid (price has not reached the target), and the trader decides to hold through to the overnight session. The position was entered near the session low, Monday's DLL has been barely touched ($50 of gross loss all day), and the buffer appears large. At midnight, the DLL resets. By 2 AM ET, the globex session produces a reversal that drives the position -$700 against the overnight entry price. Tuesday's DLL is now $700 consumed before the RTH session opens. The trader has burned 58% of a $1,200 DLL before the primary session starts — with no RTH trades yet. This is the split-DLL problem in its most common form.
The mitigation for the split-DLL problem is the same as the pre-hold check: verify the overnight DLL room accounts for the new DLL window that opens during the hold. If the DLL resets at midnight and the position has loss potential that extends past midnight, the question is not "how much DLL room is left in today's window" but "how much of tomorrow's DLL am I willing to expose on this overnight hold?" For the full DLL mechanics and how the DLL interacts with position sizing, see how to set a funded futures daily profit stop and funded futures position sizing.
Part 4 of 4 — The overnight hold decision
The funded account's risk structure was designed for intraday discipline. Overnight holds are permissible on most firm types, but permissible is not the same as structurally sound. The five-question check applies the funded account's constraints to the specific hold decision.
The default for funded futures traders should be to close positions at or before session close. The overhead from overnight holds — EOD floor-advance risk, split-DLL exposure, and gap risk in thin globex volume — is structural overhead most funded accounts are not optimized to carry. The case for holding is built by working through five questions in order. A "no" on any question is a close signal.
Confirm the firm's rulebook for your specific account tier. Some firms offer intraday-only evaluation or funded tiers that prohibit carrying positions past the close of the primary session. Standard funded accounts at most firms permit overnight holds, but some firms charge a per-contract overnight fee. If your firm does not allow overnight holds on your account type, this question ends the decision — close before session close.
If the firm allows overnight holds but charges a fee, include the fee in the trade's expected value calculation. A fee of $5 per contract per night on a 2-contract position is $10 — negligible on a multi-day trend trade, not negligible on a position that was marginal at entry.
A hold is only justified when the position's thesis has not yet resolved — the target has not been reached, the setup structure is intact, and the thesis requires more time to play out than the current session provides. If the thesis has already played to its defined target and the remaining potential is speculative extension, that is not a hold — it is a new decision to run beyond the original plan. Close the original position and re-evaluate the next session.
The second part of this question: does the thesis require overnight exposure? A position entered at 1:30 PM ET on a 5-layer setup targeting a higher timeframe level may resolve before the 4 PM close. Holding through session close because the target has not been reached — when the setup's normal resolution window is 30–90 minutes — does not make structural sense. If the thesis has a natural intraday resolution window and that window is closing without resolution, that is information about the setup quality, not a reason to extend into overnight.
Calculate two numbers before committing to hold. First: at the current position size and unrealized P&L, what is the worst-case P&L at the 5 PM ET settlement scan? If the position is at breakeven or better at settlement, the EOD trailing drawdown exposure is minimal. If the position could be -$400 at settlement due to normal session volatility, that -$400 will advance the floor permanently on EOD platforms even if the position recovers. Decide whether that permanent floor-advance is acceptable given the account's current structural position (how wide is the current floor-to-balance buffer?). If the account is in or near drawdown recovery mode, the answer is almost always no — see how to recover from a drawdown on a funded futures account.
Second: what is the maximum overnight loss against the next DLL window? At the worst-case overnight move (a 2 AM gap, a London open reversal), what is the position's P&L against tomorrow's DLL starting from zero? If the overnight stop is at -$600 and tomorrow's DLL is $1,200, the hold consumes 50% of the next day's DLL before the primary session opens. That is not a structural overnight hold — it is betting half of tomorrow's daily risk budget on a single overnight position.
Check the economic calendar for the overnight window: NFP is released at 8:30 AM ET on the first Friday of each month. CPI is released at 8:30 AM ET monthly. FOMC decisions are announced at 2 PM ET, with the press conference at 2:30 PM ET — both during RTH, but FOMC minutes releases and other Fed speaker events can occur overnight. Flash PMI releases, BOJ and ECB interest rate decisions, and major overseas economic releases occur during the London or Tokyo sessions — and for US-listed futures products, these can produce significant moves that arrive as a gap at the 6 AM ET or 9:30 AM ET RTH open.
If any scheduled event falls within the overnight hold window, the question is whether the position was sized and structured for event-level volatility. Most positions entered on an intraday technical setup were not — the stop was placed at a structural level appropriate for the instrument's normal RTH volatility, not for a 150-tick NFP spike. Holding through a scheduled event without a pre-planned reduced-size protocol (or without closing first) is exposing the funded account to a category of risk the original setup did not anticipate. For the full events list and the three-decision framework for news days, see how to handle news events on a funded futures account.
Overnight holds carry structural overhead that is independent of the individual trade's quality. The question is whether the funded account's current structural position can absorb that overhead. The two conditions that disqualify overnight holds regardless of trade quality: (1) the account is in drawdown recovery mode — the floor-to-balance margin is already compressed, and an EOD settlement scan with unrealized losses or an overnight gap will compress it further at the moment the account is least able to absorb it; (2) the account is within one or two weeks of a payout request — the consistency window, buffer cushion, and minimum trading days are all at their most sensitive, and an overnight loss that advances the trailing drawdown floor or consumes significant DLL can require additional sessions to rebuild those metrics before requesting the payout.
When all five questions pass — the firm allows overnight holds, the thesis requires overnight exposure, DLL math supports it, no scheduled news events fall in the window, and the account's structural position supports additional risk — holding is defensible. When any one question fails, close the position before session end. The trade opportunity cost of closing a position that would have continued profitably overnight is recoverable; the floor compression from an adverse overnight settlement scan on an account already in drawdown recovery is not.
Most standard funded futures accounts permit overnight holds. Some firms offer intraday-only tiers that prohibit it, and some charge a per-contract overnight fee on accounts that do allow it. Confirm your specific account tier's rules before holding. The more important question to answer before the first overnight hold is not whether you can hold, but whether your firm uses an EOD trailing drawdown model that captures unrealized P&L at settlement — because that model creates a permanent floor-advance risk on overnight positions that are at unrealized loss at the 5 PM ET settlement scan.
It depends on your firm's trailing drawdown model. EOD model platforms capture the account balance including open position unrealized P&L at a daily settlement time (usually 5 PM ET). Real-time model platforms advance the floor on every tick, including overnight ticks. A small number of firms use a closed-P&L-only model where unrealized overnight losses do not advance the floor until the trade closes. The asymmetry on EOD and real-time platforms: the floor advances on unrealized losses but does not retreat when the position recovers. Confirm which model your firm uses — the answer changes the structural risk of every overnight hold.
The DLL reset time is firm-specific. The most common configurations are midnight ET, start of the CME globex session at 6 PM ET, or start of the RTH session. A position held overnight crosses the DLL reset, meaning P&L before the reset counts on the current day's DLL and P&L after the reset counts against the next day's fresh DLL. A position with significant remaining loss potential that crosses the reset can consume a large portion of the following day's DLL before the primary session opens. Confirm your firm's exact reset time and account for it in the DLL math before committing to hold overnight.
On EOD trailing drawdown platforms, the 5 PM ET settlement scan records the account balance including open position unrealized P&L at that moment. If the position is at unrealized -$500 at settlement, the platform records the account as $500 lower for that settlement cycle. If that recorded balance is a new account low, the trailing drawdown floor advances by the shortfall — permanently. The floor does not retreat if the position recovers the next morning. The closed P&L gain restores the balance, but the floor-to-balance buffer is permanently smaller by the amount the floor advanced at settlement. This is the structural cost of holding through a negative 5 PM ET scan on an EOD platform.
The default should be yes. The structural overhead of overnight holds — EOD floor-advance risk, split-DLL exposure, and gap risk in thin globex volume — makes intraday discipline the natural fit for funded accounts. The exception is a position that passes all five questions in the hold check: firm allows it, thesis requires overnight exposure, DLL math supports both the settlement scan exposure and the next DLL window worst case, no scheduled news events fall in the overnight window, and the account's structural position (not in drawdown recovery, not near a payout request) supports additional risk. When all five pass, holding is defensible. When any one fails, close before session end.
The overnight hold framework, trailing drawdown mechanics, and session structure — built from 9 years managing funded futures accounts.
Most funded traders do not lose accounts to bad trades — they lose them to structural overhead they did not account for: overnight floor-advance on EOD platforms, split-DLL on positions that cross the reset, gap risk from news events they forgot were scheduled. The method builds the recognition habits and the pre-session checklist discipline that catch these before they compound. First 100 founding seats at $19/mo — locked for life.