What’s the Schedule Like?

So how are you going to keep up with all these events, announcements, and releases? We all know that knowledge is power, and this remains true when it comes to knowing the schedule of the events that move the forex market. Those are the times you want to check in your calendar and make sure you are trading! A successful Forex Diva pays close attention to the economic gossips because of the probability that what they say will affect the direction of the forex market. The Kardashians may be entertaining and the media make a lot of noise about the family’s every move, but paying close attention to that kind of gossip won’t make you any money.The most important information you need on an economic calendar is the schedule of each country’s economic figures announcements (duh!). You need a calendar that shows you the previous result of each event and the forecast figure. It is very helpful if the calendar points out the importance of each particular event, as well as which currency or currencies are going to be influenced by it.For a short-term trade, the moment the actual number of the announcement appears on the calendar, you can decide on the direction of your trade by analyzing the gap between the forecast and the actual result.

“Can I use my Facebook calendar?” you ask. Yeah, there probably is a Facebook app for this purpose out there, but there are also simpler ways. If you just Google (or Bing) the term “Economic Calendar,” the windows of endless economic calendars will open in front of you. Different websites offer slightly different events on their economic calendars, so following a number of economic calendars will enable you to get more knowledge, and, eventually, more power!

What Does a Forex Economic Calendar Look Like?

These are the kinds of things you will typically see in an economic calendar’s columns.(See figures below)

• Event. The event’s name, including the data released and the organization that will release them, usually in an abbreviated format.
• Time. The date and time of the event. In most economic calendars, this is automatically set to the GMT time zone, but you can usually change it back to the time zone of the city that you are currently in.
• Currency. Which currency will be most influenced by these data.
• Importance. How much influence these data will have on the currency.
• Previous. Data from the last release.
• Actual. This number is updated once the data are out.
• Forecast. A speculated number by the economists whose job it is to wonder about and predict the markets all the time.

As you can see, even in one day, there are tons of events that affect almost all the major currencies. And this is not even a complete list!

The events may seem to be written in a secret language that only finance geeks would understand. But there’s no need to worry. A strong economic calendar will provide an option that expands underneath the title of the event and explains what exactly is going to happen during the event and what to expect. Such calendars even tell you what kind of results will lead to what kind of a movement in the market, so you don’t really need to be an economist to use the fundamentals in your Invest Diva Diamond analysis.