Key tips to use Admirals' economic calendar

The forex calendar can help traders monitor what is going to be announced in the market and thus prepare their trading plans accordingly.

The forex economic calendar is one of the most essential tools used by traders and investors to gain an edge when trading the financial markets. It contains a calendar of important news and data releases related to various sectors and economies. This information can help traders analyse fundamental aspects that can have a significant impact on markets and asset prices.

However, some traders prefer to ignore the forex calendar despite its huge potential to protect them from unpredictable market movements and potential losses that may occur after news releases. Typically, traders who ignore the importance of the forex calendar are either technical traders who only focus on technical analysis, or complete beginners who are only oblivious to the situation. Below, we aim to explore the benefits of using the forex calendar.

What is the forex calendar?

Generally speaking, the forex calendar summarises the exact date and time of important announcements as well as economic events during the upcoming trading sessions.

In a forex calendar, each news release contains several items that you can use in your analysis. Here are the details:

Time and place

The forex calendar contains two of the following basic information items:

  The publication time in your local time.
  The country where the announcement is released

It is important to know that the calendar contains a wide range of data on various industries that can affect a country's economy or the global economy. Therefore, you can choose to focus on a specific asset or area that is relevant to your trading. For example, if you're trading the EUR/USD, you'll want to stay on top of the economic calendar relating to the USA and Europe.

Level of importance

Each news has a different level of importance for the market. While some can have a significant impact on prices and cause great volatility, others will only have a small impact. To help you identify the information relevant to you, the economic calendar uses different colors for each press release.

The level of importance is indicated by the following colors:

  Green: unimportant.
  Yellow: moderately important.
  Red: very important and likely to cause large movements in the market.

Description of the news

Each news release also comes with a short description to help you judge the relevance of the data specifically for your trading. For example, Christine Lagarde's speech from the ECB may be very relevant for euro traders, but less so for other traders. This is why you need to assess your portfolio and pay attention to relevant factors that can directly affect your trades.

Forecast statistics and previous results

The economic calendar provides information on future and past results. By combining the two results, you can assess the differences between the data and compare it to the market consensus. This allows you to follow real-time market trends and take advantage of opportunities highlighted by the forex calendar.

When to open a position

The economic calendar can be used and interpreted in different ways. The upcoming timeframes and past statistics provided by the calendar can definitely help you locate and find the best time to enter the market. Here are some possible approaches:

   -  Expectation of results: In this approach, the trader would open a position before the news, in accordance with the market consensus. This method is more suitable for swing traders, but it is not recommended for short-term traders.
   -  Buy/Sell Approach: The trader uses the volatility caused by the news release, so he places orders above and below current market prices to enter the market at the same time as the news announcement.
   -  Pure Performance Tracking: Open trades based on the announcement to benefit from the impact of the news and the price direction caused by the new fundamentals.
   -  Expectation: Once the impact of the news has passed, you can follow the previous trend or the new trend triggered by the publication of the news.

With all the above being said, you can open a position before, during or after a news announcement.

Good luck!