In this article we will review and compare forex news calendars, and features that are available to traders. We will review what features and functionalities are best to have when selecting the best news calendar to meet traders needs.
A forex news calendar is an important tool for forex traders. If you combine a good quality news calendar with other tools listed below, a trader can be on the road to successfully trading forex news drivers. Traders will always be in front of the computer when news is potentially creating volatility and price movement.
Features to Look for In A Forex News Calendar
Some features in a forex news calendar are important to have, others we do not believe are needed. Probably the most important news calendar feature is the interface. If an news calendar is easy to read, with well spaced text, and easy to read controls, The end user experience will be positive. News events should have color coding for better visibility.
Forex News Calendar Selecting
Most forex news calendars have a set of controls for customizing the news calendar features. With most calendars, traders can add or remove currencies that they want to see scheduled news drivers for. We suggest setting up the news calendar for reporting scheduled news drivers for the 8 major, most liquid currencies: US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Swiss Franc, British Pound, Japanese Yen, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar. These 8 currencies combine into 28 different pairs, and these are the pairs we track with the Forexearlywarning trading system.
Another calendar control or filter would be to set up the news calendar for the most volatile news drivers only. Look at the above news calendar. It has one volatile news driver on the schedule from the GBP that is upcoming. You can set up and customize the calendar to show only high impact news drivers, color coded in red. High impact news crivers can drive substantial price movement. You can also customize for red and orange color coded news drivers only. Orange news drivers are medium impact news drivers.
This way the calendar is more compact. Most forex news calendars also come with adjustable clocks. Users can set the calendar clocks to local time or the GMT time clock, whatever the end user prefers.
Make sure the news calendar you choose has a look ahead calendar for planning your trading week. Click on the “this week” to see the entire week of important news drivers on one screen. This helps with planning your trading schedule if you are on a tight schedule. You can also use the look ahead schedule to see when major bank holidays are. USA bank holidays are good days to take a day off from trading or take a long weekend. Every trader needs an occasional mental break.
Forex news Calendar Settings, Weekly View
Make sure the forex news calendar you are using is on a website that is fast and the pages load quickly on your laptop or any mobile device like Android or Ios device. Many news calendars have a lot of popup advertisements that make the pages load very slowly. Choose a calendar with little or no advertisements on the page to improve page loading speed on mobile devices.
Some news calendars have alert systems news alerts, alarms, and or apps. These features are fine but not necessary because you will always know when the important news drivers are in advance. Traders can also use other professional forex alert systems with the news calendar to know when the market is moving on any pair.
How To Use A Forex News Calendar For Trading
A forex news calendar will pinpoint exact times to be in front of the computer in local time or GMT time clock. With this knowledge a trader can be in frot of the computer at the proper time for a potential trade and market volatility.
To complete your tool set for trading, you would need a forex trading demo account, an entry management confirmation system like The Forex Heatmap®, and a set of simple and easy to set up trend indicators. You can find all of these trading tools on the Forexearlywarning website and a demo trading account is available from any forex broker.
With this tool set you are ready to start demo trading, almost immediately. After any scheduled news driver on the 8 currencies we follow, you can check for consistent strength or weakness in one currency, then if the movement is in the direction of the major trends on the higher time frames, you can enter a demo trade.
JPY Weakness
If there is a JPY news driver on the news calendar, wait until the news is announced, then start monitoring the JPY for consistent strength or weakness using The Forex Heatmap forex heatmap, our real time trade entry indicator. If the signals are consistent JPY weakness then you can buy the USD/JPY or on of the other JPY pairs. Use the same strategy to buy or sell 28 different pairs. Ifthe USD/JPY is in an uptrend on the higher time frames, more pips are possible going forward.
Forex News Price Chart Movement
Forex News Calendar Selection
The news calendar selection process is simple. Just do a google search for “forex news calendars”. Some popular calendars will appear on the first two pages of search results. Dailyfx Babypips, Forexlive, etc. all have news calendars to review. Forexearlywarning also has a great world economic calendar on our website, along with the other tools like trend indicators, price breakout alerts, and The Forex Heatmap®, for trade entry management. The documentation how to use these tools is also on our website. After reviewing some calendar options pick one you like that has the features you need.
Conclusions about forex news calendar selection: After you select the best news calendar for your needs, set up the features you like and you will have an important piece of your forex trading system. Then continue building your trading system and test the system with some demo trading. Then the final step is trading profitably with real money, micro lots and mini lots.