In forex and financial markets, major price movements often happen around news releases and economic events. An economic calendar is an essential tool that keeps traders updated about scheduled announcements, so you’re never caught off guard.

Why It Matters:

• Plan Your Trades: Know when key reports like interest rate decisions, inflation data, or employment figures are released.

• Measure Market Impact: Events are usually labeled as low, medium, or high impact, helping you prepare for possible volatility.

• Avoid Surprises: Being aware of news times helps you reduce unnecessary risk during unpredictable moves.

• Trade Opportunities: Many traders capitalize on high-impact events to catch strong market trends.

Examples of Key Economic Events:

• Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) – U.S. jobs report that can shake the USD and global markets.

• Federal Reserve & ECB Rate Decisions – Interest rate updates from central banks.

• CPI (Inflation Data) – Shows the strength of a currency’s economy.

• GDP Reports – Economic growth indicators.

💡 Most brokers and platforms (including TradingView, TradeLocker, and cTrader) integrate an economic calendar right into their interface, so you can follow news alongside your charts.

How to Read the Economic Calendar

The economic calendar shows upcoming financial news and events that may affect the forex and financial markets. Here’s how to read it in the correct order:

Date & Time ⏰
Shows when the news event is scheduled to be released.
Make sure the calendar time zone matches your trading session.

Currency 💱
Indicates which currency is most likely to be impacted.
Example: A US event will affect USD, a Eurozone event will affect EUR.

Impact Level 📶
Shows how strong the impact of the news could be.
On TradingView, it is displayed with bars (similar to mobile network bars):

• 📶 = Low impact (minor movement)

• 📶📶 = Medium impact (moderate volatility)

• 📶📶📶 = High impact (strong volatility expected)

Event:
This tells you what the news event is (e.g., US Non-Farm Payrolls, ECB Interest Rate Decision, CPI Inflation Report).
Each event usually affects the currency of that country.

Actual, Forecast, Previous 📊

• Previous = The last reported value.

• Forecast = What analysts expect.

• Actual = The newly released data.
  The market reacts strongly if the Actual number is very different from the Forecast.

Quick Tip:
If you’re a beginner, avoid trading during High Impact (📶📶📶) events because the market can move unpredictably.
Experienced traders sometimes look for opportunities during these events.