You’ll improve your forex trading success by using economic calendars as your roadmap to market-moving events. These calendars show you exactly when important economic news will hit, helping you time your trades better and avoid risky periods. Pay attention to the color-coded impact levels – red for high impact, brown for medium, and yellow for low impact events. The more you understand these calendar observations, the stronger your trading decisions will become.
Quick Overview
- Economic calendars provide critical timing for market entries and exits by highlighting major economic events and their potential impact.
- Color-coded impact levels help traders identify high-risk events and adjust their trading strategies accordingly.
- Time zone customization ensures traders never miss important announcements by aligning event schedules with local time.
- Historical data analysis reveals patterns in market reactions, enabling traders to develop more informed trading strategies.
- Currency-specific event tracking helps predict potential price movements and correlation effects between different currency pairs.
If you are a Forex trader that would like to trade Forex currency news, there’s one thing you can’t miss: the Forex Factory economic calendar.
Forex Factory has one of the best economic calendars and here’s why:
- The layout is easy to understand FX news calendar and is easy to find major news event release dates
- The update is quick when important news events are released
Why Forex Traders Need Economic Calendars
These are the 4 main reasons why Forex traders need economic calendars to help with their trading strategy:
- Forex news traders need to know know what kind of fundamental news is coming out that has a great chance of impacting the Forex market and they want to capitalize (make profit) on the resultant market move that happens when the news is released.
- Some traders are not Forex news traders and they need the Forex calendar for a different reason: to avoid trading during news release times and dates because the price move during news times is so volatile that they just don’t want to be in a trade when the news is about to be released. Only after the news is released and the market settles down then they start looking for trading setups to trade.
- Some Forex traders need to Forex calendar to move their stop loss closer to lock in a lot more profits when they know that a major news is about to be released because they know, the market can go either way, up or down and this can work against their current running trade and eat up whatever profits that they have accumulated so far.
- Some Forex traders simply want to see what time and date the Forex news is going to be released and as that time is being approached, they exit all their trades. Why? They may have made sufficient profits and don’t like the chance that the news might make the market go the other way and eat up their trading profits.
- Longer term traders who use swing trading strategies, probably won’t worry too much about the daily news events like a day trader would.
11 Forex Factory Calendar Features That You Should Know
Three essential sections make up the Forex Factory calendar‘s intuitive layout.
You’ll find the navigation tools at the top, letting you quickly jump between dates and customize your view.
The main calendar layout displays events in rows, with clear event categorization that helps you spot important news at a glance.
The bottom section contains detailed breakdowns of each event, including forecasts and historical data.
Each section’s designed to work together , making it easy for you to plan your trades around market-moving events and stay ahead of significant economic releases.
Now I will go through each one of the calendar features numbered as shown above.
Forex Factory Calendar #1: Time Management Features
Building on the Forex Factory calendar’s layout, let’s focus on the time management tools that’ll make your trading more precise.
You’ll find the time zone adjustments feature particularly helpful, as it automatically converts all event times to your local schedule. This eliminates confusion and ensures you won’t miss important market moves.
For effective event preparation, use the calendar’s navigation features to plan your trades days or weeks ahead.
You can quickly scan upcoming events, set alerts for high-impact news, and adjust your trading schedule accordingly. This proactive approach helps you stay ahead of market-moving events.
Forex Factory Calendar Feature #2: Navigation Column
On the navigation column, you can see that there are a few things there:
- a full calendar of the current month and clicking any of those those dates for the month will take you to a page where the you can see the schedule of what forex news is going to be released. Or you can also click dates in the past and it also takes you to a page where you can see what news was released on the certain date in the past.
- and then you have a few short cut links like”today, tomorrow, yesterday, Up Next” etc and when you click those, the do the same thing as above.
Forex Factory Calendar Feature #3: Currency Column
Understanding how currency pairs interact with market events is crucial for your trading success.
When you’re looking at an economic calendar, you’ll notice specific currencies highlighted for each event. This helps you identify potential currency correlation and market sentiment shifts before they happen.
The impact levels, usually shown in different colors, tell you how much an event might shake up the markets. Red signals high impact, brown means medium, and yellow indicates low impact.
Forex Factory Calendar Feature #4: Impact Column
This column simply tells the potential severity of the impact a forex news is going to have on a currency pair. The impacts are color coded into 3 colors:
- Red=Forex news with high impact expected
- Brown=forex news with medium impact expected
- Yellow=forex news with low impact expected
Forex Factory Calendar Feature #5: Name Of News
This column simply lists the all the names of the news that are scheduled to be released.
Forex Factory Calendar Feature #6: Detail Column
In the detail column in the Forex Factory news calendar, you have a yellow folder icon. When you click that icon, a page opens up you can read a lot more detail about the particular news, details like:
- Source of the forex news
- what that forex news measures
- what kind of effect it has on the currency
- past history of the actuals and forecast
- when the next date of release of similar news
Forex Factory Calendar Feature #7: Actual Column
The actual column shows you the actual figures figures that were released during the news. For example, if the Australian unemployment rate released was 5.8 %, then you will see 5.8% there:
Feature #8: Forecast and Actual Figures
Successful Forex traders rely on two critical numbers during news releases: forecast and actual figures. You’ll find these numbers essential for real-time market analysis and quick decision-making during volatile periods.
- Compare forecast analysis with actual impact to spot trading opportunities
- Watch for significant deviations that often trigger strong market movements
- Use actual figures to validate or adjust your existing trading positions
- Monitor forecast trends to anticipate potential market reactions
When you’re tracking economic releases, these numbers help you understand market expectations and reactions.
Forex Factory Calendar Feature #9: Previous
The previous column simply shows you what the previous “actual” figure was for that particular news.
Forex Factory Calendar Feature #10: Graph
When you go to the graph column and click the graph icon, a page will show up showing you a graph of the actuals vs the forecast figures of the news from the past dates that were released:
Forex Factory Calendar Feature #11: Legend
I should have placed the Forex factory calendar legend in the #1 spot but hey, I got distracted whilst writing this post so that means its going to make the last of the list.
Right, on the legend on Forex Factoryy calendar simply tells you what each of the objects, symbols and colors that you see on the calendar means:
So in the legend, you have:
- High, Medium and Low Impact news are represented by objects looking like a folder top that has been eaten by a caterpillar. You also have a grey color non-economic legend.
- actual pending is a green round circle with a rotating white arrow inside, you see this when it is just a few minutes to seconds from the news being released.
- Related stories symbol looks like an open folder with a white paper sticking out.
- FF Alert Inside looks like a brown folder with a star sticking out of it. You see this when Forex Factoryy want to alert you about something that you may not know about, so its always better to check this FF Alert out by clicking on that icon.
- Green numbers on the calendars represent better than forecast or revised better figures.
- Red numbers mean worse than forecast or revised worse.
There are few others under the legend as you can see which I have mentioned here but are really self explanatory. This is way more involve than the calendar your forex broker my offer.
They are not really important except for the ones I just mentioned above.
You may also be interested to read about the 8 Amazing Facts About Forex Factory that Not Many Forex Traders Know About.
Your Questions Answered
How Can I Set up Custom Alerts for Specific Economic Events?
You can configure custom notification settings through your economic calendar platform, select specific events you want to track, and set up event-specific reminders for timely alerts before news releases.
What’s the Best Strategy for Trading During Conflicting Economic News Releases?
When facing conflicting news, you’ll want to wait for both releases to settle, focus on the higher-impact event, and keep wider stops. Don’t rush into trading positions immediately.
How Reliable Are Economic Calendar Forecasts From Different Data Providers?
You’ll find forecast accuracy varies among providers, but top platforms like Forex Factory and Bloomberg consistently deliver reliable predictions. Always cross-reference multiple data providers for better trading decisions.
Can Economic Calendars Predict Long-Term Currency Pair Trends Effectively?
You can’t rely on economic calendars for long-term forecasting since they focus on short-term events. While they influence currency trends, broader factors like geopolitics and monetary policies drive long-term movements.
Which Economic Indicators Have the Strongest Impact on Emerging Market Currencies?
You’ll find interest rates, GDP growth, inflation data, and commodity prices drive emerging market volatility most significantly. These currency correlation factors heavily influence trade balances and investment flows.
Conclusion
You’re now able to take advantage of the power of economic calendars in your forex trading journey. By understanding how to read and interpret the calendar’s data, you’ll make more better trading decisions. Remember to check it daily, stay alert to high-impact events, and always consider how news releases might affect your chosen currency pairs. With practice, the economic calendar will become your trusted guide to smarter trading.