Academy · Intermediate

Economic calendar and news

The calendar is the one genuinely predictable thing in trading: you know exactly when volatility is scheduled. What you do with that is the skill.

  • ✓ 16 lessons
  • ✓ 66 minutes end to end
  • ✓ Free in MarketPro
  • ✓ No sign-up to start reading

Last reviewed by the MarketPro research desk · Editorial policy

The economic calendar is the one genuinely predictable thing in trading. The date is known, the minute is known, and so is the number the market expects. Price then reacts to the gap between the release and that consensus rather than to the release itself, which is why an inflation print of 3.1 percent can be bullish, bearish or a non event depending entirely on whether 2.9, 3.1 or 3.3 was forecast.

This category covers impact ratings and which releases actually move a given pair, forecast against actual against previous, revisions to older data, central bank meetings and press conferences, earnings dates, and what happens to spreads, liquidity and slippage in the seconds either side of a release.

It sits between fundamental analysis, which explains why a number matters, and orders and execution, which explains why a stop set before a release can fill a long way from where it was placed.

The 16 lessons in order

  1. What Is an Economic Calendar A calendar tells you when something is scheduled to happen. It tells you nothing about the number or the direction, and that… Beginner5 min
  2. Understanding Impact Ratings A star count tells you which releases have the capacity to move price. It cannot tell you whether this particular one will. Beginner4 min
  3. Reading Forecast, Previous, and Actual Data The actual figure is not the news. The distance between the actual figure and what was already expected is the news. Beginner4 min
  4. How Consensus Estimates Shape Market Reactions The size of a reaction is proportional to how wrong the consensus was, multiplied by how confidently the market held it. Intermediate4 min
  5. Understanding Data Revisions The first print is what you trade. The revised figure is what was true. Those are two different jobs and they should not be mixed. Intermediate4 min
  6. Time Zones and Scheduling Around Releases Every release time on your calendar is a conversion, and a conversion that is one hour wrong puts you in the market at exactly… Beginner4 min
  7. How Markets React to News Releases Price moves in jumps for the first few seconds, whips for five minutes, and only then settles into something you can place a… Intermediate4 min
  8. Spread Widening and Slippage During News Two separate charges land at the same moment, they stack, and neither of them appears in a backtest. Intermediate4 min
  9. The Risks of Trading the News The direction can be right and the trade can still lose, because a release changes the price, the spread, the fill and sometimes… Intermediate5 min
  10. Central Bank Speeches and Forward Guidance Policy is a path, not a single decision, and speeches are where the path gets revised without anything being announced. Intermediate4 min
  11. Scheduled Vs Unscheduled News Events One category gives you known timing and unknown content. The other gives you neither, and that decides which defences are even… Beginner4 min
  12. Earnings Season and Earnings Calendars The reaction is driven by the gap between the result and the expectation, and the move usually happens while the market is shut. Beginner4 min
  13. Building a Pre-Market News Routine A short fixed sequence run before you look at a single chart, whose output is a decision about size rather than a feeling about… Beginner4 min
  14. Separating Signal From Noise in Headlines Sorting headlines is not a matter of reading more. It is a short test, and the fast version takes about thirty seconds. Intermediate4 min
  15. Rumors and Speculation Around Events Prices move on unconfirmed stories because positioning is a race, and that same fact is why the reversals are so abrupt. Intermediate4 min
  16. Using the Calendar for Risk Management Used properly the calendar changes exactly one number in your day, the lot size, and it changes it before the event rather than… Intermediate4 min

Guided paths that use these lessons

A path is an ordered run through lessons from several categories, which is how the app sequences them. One path draws on economic calendar and news.

Trading News Like a Pro

Reading the economic calendar, impact ratings and the real risks of trading around scheduled releases.

8 lessons
Trade · Learn · Earn

Take economic calendar and news with you

All 16 lessons in this category, plus the other 304 in the academy, with a quiz on each one and your place kept. Free on any MarketPro account, in the app or your browser.

In your browserContinue on webor continue on web Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

Same account as the app · No install · Free to start

Not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.