How to read forex Economic calendar?

Column Importance indicates how much influence the associated economic data is expected to bring about.

It is important to know the time of High impact data release if you trade affected currency pair. During actual news release market becomes volatile. The strength of the volatility depends on the "factor of surprise" brought in the news.

"Factor of surprise" can be defined as a level of unexpectedness, where traders compare Forecast data to actually released data.

Medium impact economic data should also be kept in mind in case the factor of surprise turns to be high. Low impact data most of the time do not shift forex market significantly.

Column Previous in Forex Calendar provides data from last release.

Column Forecast indicates numbers that economists are predicting and expecting for the upcoming release today.

Column Actual is updated only after the data is out. At the very second when data becomes available it is instantly compared against.


Forecast values depending on the following:

1. Overall positive or negative impact of the news for a currency pair.

2. Take into consideration that the news impacts are likely to create fluctuation that last for 1-3 minutes (if importance is high ie:- high market volatility, if importance is anything other than high fluctuations are likely negligible).

3. Market corrections are likely to last anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes before price settles.

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