Forex Factory- How To Prepare For Your Trading Session

(by Michael A Jones)

The Forex Factory web site is a very popular site among developing Forex traders as shown by an Alexa rating of around 5,400 most visited sites on the web. Any site within the first 100,000 gets serious traffic!

Forex Factory provides 3 main services listed in my personal order of importance:

- Calendar

- News

- Forum

Calendar

The main attraction of the Forex Factory calendar of upcoming economic reports and fundamental announcements is that it is so visual and easy to read.

A color coding system gives an indication at a glance as to how volatile the announcement is expected to be:

Yellow - Low Impact

Orange - Medium Impact

Red - High Impact

Another good feature of this calendar is the ability to customize the time to your own time zone. So instead of having to add or subtract a certain number of hours from GMT to arrive at the time of the economic report in your country, you can set the calendar according to your time zone and see the time accurately displayed.

This feature saves some confusion and prevents a newer trader from leaving a trade in around a volatile news report because of getting the time mixed up!

News

A number of news reports are featured daily from authorities and advisors in the financial markets.

Within a few minutes the trader can come up to speed on the latest economic factors that might impact the market.

Forums

The Forums at Forex Factory have a huge appeal as indicated by the thousands of users online each day.

The forums are divided into various themes including:

General Discussion

Trading Systems

Broker Discussion

Forex Beginner Questions and Answers

How To Get The Best From Forex Factory

For me, the calendar is by far the most useful feature at Forex Factory. I consult it each day in preparation for the next trading session and make sure I am out of the market around volatile news releases (flagged by the red icon) and also many times the medium impact reports (flagged by the orange icon). The News feature is also useful to get a broad overview of market sentiment. At the same time caution is needed if you use technical analysis as your main trading tool as the comments and opinions of others can sometimes blur your own analysis and lead to flawed trade entries.

You may have detected a perfectly good trade setup and the trade is going well. Then as it starts to stall the comments of a news analyst come to mind and you exit prematurely from what could have been a very profitable trade.

So it is good to view the News objectively and coordinate it with your own technical analysis.

Forums - Be A Little Cautious

For newer traders the discussion forums can be helpful in bouncing ideas off other newer traders. One of the main benefits is encouragement and motivation from hearing how others are getting on.

However, as to whether you can get good trading tips and strategies from the forums is in my mind a little doubtful.

After I attended a Forex seminar run by a licensed professional who trades the Forex every day and is a fund manager, I noted his comment that the really successful Forex traders rarely have time to visit online forums and participate in discussions. They are too busy making money on the Forex!

So as long as you approach forum discussions with the realization that most participants are also in the learning stage, you can evaluate their comments and suggestions accordingly.

There is no doubt Forex Factory (forexfactory.com) provides an excellent group of services for newer Forex traders. Definitely use the calendar to the full and depending on your level of expertise, use the News and Forums features to gain a better perspective of daily market activity.

Michael A. Jones is a writer, webmaster and Forex trader.

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Economic Calendar - April 23-27

A quiet start to the week this week with no major news announcements scheduled for Monday.

However, Tuesday will certainly be a busier day, starting at 4.30ET when we get two lots of data from the UK - MPC Treasury Committee hearings and public sector net borrowing figures. Then in the US later on we have existing home sales and consumer confidence numbers at 10.00ET which will probably have some impact on the markets.

Wednesday's another busy day this week with durable goods data at 8.30ET, followed by new home sales at 10.00ET, at which time Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will also be speaking. Finally we have crude inventories at 10.30ET.

On Thursday we only have one major news announcement - jobless claims at 8.30ET, although this is unlikely to have a major impact on the markets.

Finally on Friday we have a potentially lively day on the markets with some important figures scheduled. We have GDP and employment cost index data at 8.30ET, then we have consumer sentiment at 10.00ET.


(Disclaimer: the information provided above is intended to be as accurate as possible, but is only a guide and may subsequently change without notice. No investment advice is intended and readers should do their own research relating to the data given).

Economic Calendar - April 16-20

Monday looks set to be quite a busy day this week with several economic announcements scheduled. Firstly we have the Empire State manufacturing survey and retail sales reports out at 8.30ET which could well affect the markets, and then we have long term TIC (Treasury International Capital) flows and business inventories at 9.00ET and 10.00ET respectively.

Tuesday sees two important data releases at 8.30ET - CPI and housing starts. Then we have industrial production at 9.15ET.

On Wednesday we have less significant economic data releases with the MBA purchase applications at 7.00ET and the usual crude inventories at 10.30ET.

Thursday sees the jobless claims release at 8.30ET followed by leading indicators at 10.00ET which could both have an effect on the markets, but the biggest announcement of the day is the Philadelphia Fed Survey at 12.00ET.

Finally on Friday there are currently no important data releases scheduled.

Economic Calendar - April 9-13

Monday and Tuesday this week are both very quiet with no major economic releases scheduled to be released in the US.

Wednesday is the first day this week where we have potentially market-moving releases scheduled. Firstly we have crude inventories at 10.30ET, then we have Fed chairman Ben Bernanke speaking at around 13.00ET followed by FOMC minutes and the treasury budget at 14.00ET.

On Thursday we have an interest rate announcement from the ECB at 7.45ET, followed by two announcements scheduled for 8.30ET - import and export prices, and initial jobless claims.

Finally, on Friday we have probably the most significant economic releases of the week. At 8.30ET we have the trade balance and PPI announcements, and then at 10.00ET we have consumer sentiment figures.


(Disclaimer: the information provided above is intended to be as accurate as possible, but is only a guide and may subsequently change without notice. No investment advice is intended and readers should do their own research relating to the data given).