What is the Economic Calendar and How does it Assist me?
Becoming aware of good/positive and bad/negative news announcements, economic indicators, upcoming market events and governmental reports. The FX Economic Calendar is a powerful tool to assist traders and to help them track news events happening globally.
Knowing about these events in advance can help you research and evaluate the impact they might have on different financial instruments, such as Forex, Equities, Indices and Commodities.
Types of Impact News:
Low – Little to no impact, unless there is a major upset.
Medium – Can move the markets depending on the outcome.
High – Almost always produces big movements in the markets.
How to Read and Understand the Economic Calendar
It Is important you understand and know how to read and interpret what you see on the calendar. Otherwise, it is pointless to use it as a trading tool! This can give you an edge and inform you when to and when not to be in an open position.
Date – 1
Economic Events are showing in chronological order with the time and date the announcement will be or was released.
Time Left -2
Time left shows the exact time by minutes, hours or days before the event is made public. Done indicates the event has already taken place.
Event -3
The respective flags indicate the country the event will or could have an impact on, but some other countries or assets can be affected.
Impact – 4
An important indicator of how strongly the event can impact linked financial instruments.
Previous/Consensus/Actual – 5
With each economic event released, previous, consensus and actual numbers will be indicated on the top right of the economic calendar.
Actual: The actual released data.
Consensus: Expect number agreed on by experts.
Previous: The previous data results of the previous release.
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Customize Your Forex Economic Calendar
Click on the drop-down list where the calendar sets its default time zone to (GMT +0:00) Western Europe Time. Change the time zone on the top right of the Calendar to (GMT +2:00) South Africa or your current timezone based on your location and view the Economic Calendar South Africa.
Filter by Impact Event Types
Click on the drop-down list on the top right of the calendar to filter according to the impact of the events and the symbols you wish to have displayed. Then click save to update the information as per your inputs.
Important to Keep in Mind
The most influential events, in no particular order of importance.
Interest rate decisions
Non-farm Payroll (NFP)
Changes in Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)
Unemployment rate
Initial Jobless Claims
Important Economic News Events
ECB (European Central Bank)
US Fed
Bank of England
Bank of Japan
Swiss National Bank
Bank of Australia
Taking Everything into Confederating
Please consider taking all you have learned about the Economic Calendar Investing into consideration. It will greatly help and assist you with much success moving forward and become a powerful tool in your trading arsenal.