Recently I have been noticing a huge influx of newbies entering the market who do not bother checking for news releases. This can be a critical mistake as news releases can turn a good trade bad in seconds.
I realise many of you reading this blog are not absolute newbies so you may already check news releases daily. However, there are a lot of newbies here that do not know how to check news. So this is what I do at the beginning of every week to prepare myself for news releases.
Set your time on Forex Factory
1. Log on to forexfactory.com
First of all I make sure I set the clock to match my local time. This way the report releases match my clock, making them easier to keep track of.
2. Filter out useless data
ForexFactory has a great filter system which allows you to remove data you do not need. I keep USD reports as they have a market wide impact. I then keep any reports for countries related to the pairs I trade. So if I trade EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY and EUR/CHF I will keep all EUR, GBP, JPY and CHF reports. I also filter out low impact reports (yellow).
3. Print it
I print the calendar and keep it beside my keyboard all week.
Hopefully this articel some of the less experienced traders. You should always know whats going on with the market you trade. Only Forex losers enter trades blindly!