Economic calendar

An economic calendar lists scheduled data releases — inflation, employment, GDP, retail sales, business surveys — and central-bank decisions, with the time, the country, the previous value, the consensus forecast and, once published, the actual figure. Most calendars also tag each event by expected impact.

For short-term traders its main use is defensive: knowing when not to trade. In the minutes around a high-impact release, prices on the affected pairs can jump several times their usual range and reverse just as fast. If your method was tested in normal conditions, these moments lie outside its experience.

What moves markets is the surprise — actual minus forecast — rather than the figure itself. A good number can still weaken a currency if traders expected better.

A simple routine: check the day's calendar before you start, note the high-impact events for the currencies you trade, and write into your trading plan how many minutes before and after you stay out. The calendar concerns Sky Trade's market pairs only; OTC prices are generated by the server and ignore news. More in economic calendar basics.