Posted by The Forex Factory Calendar app provides you with technical resources and regular updates on happenings that may be crucial to you. A less-looked at aspect of trading is studying news events. While it isn’t vital to concentrate on the news, knowing when happenings are ordinary is beneficial. This is particularly valid for crucial events that can unfavorably influence the market.
Today, the Forex factory calendar is famous among forex traders. They rely on it to stay informed about market news and events that affect their daily operations. Luckily, this powerful tool gathers economic data, forex news, as well as trending FX events before systematically arranging them on an economic calendar.
What is a Forex Calendar app?
A Forex calendar application is a rundown of critical occasions that could influence the Forex market around the world. As the worth of a currency is associated with its country’s financial condition, it becomes crucial to know when the subsequent significant events and news releases will happen. This allows forex traders to prepare accordingly for developments in the business sectors.
Should I Use a Forex Calendar apps?
Regardless of whether you are simply starting Forex trading or you are an accomplished broker, you can, in any case, benefit intensely from the Forex calendar application. Having all of this fundamental data in a single spot removes the strain that should come with trading. Inexplicably, this helps you settle on more intelligent trading choices substantially and become more effective. For a newcomer, using the blend of the Forex calendar application and free forex programming, you will have a strong establishment for your exchanging choices, helping you to make more productive exchanges as you move along.
Over the years, the forex trading calendar app has remained an essential tool even the most seasoned traders rely upon for use. Consequently, newcomers must try and leverage the powers and opportunities these applications provide to create a healthy forex portfolio for themselves.
Getting started with the Forex Factory Calendar
When it comes to forex calendar apps, the Forex Factory Calendar is by a long shot the easiest to use. It provides an accurate calendar to monitor Forex-related news events. If you consider learning one to apply in your business, this is an excellent place to start. Forex trading is a dicey and tricky adventure, and if you don’t know how to use a calendar and how to peruse it practically to your trading, you might run into trouble.
Aside from this possibly affecting an open position, it can lead to a bear run and leave gaps that can unleash a downturn on pending orders. Thankfully, using the Forex Factory calendar app can help you navigate these murky waters. To get started, follow the steps highlighted:
Get On the Platform
Your first action point to using the forex factory calendar is navigating to the platform. Thankfully, registration is easy and should take you no time. Provide the necessary details, and you are ready to go. Upon completion, log in and click on the calendar column.
Once on the calendar page, it’s easy to get intimidated by the multitude of data presented to you. Fear not! All you need do is configure the calendar to work in a manner that suits you best.
Set Your Time Zone
On the calendar page, you must set your time zone. If you fail to set your time zone correctly, it becomes difficult for the app to know which time is relevant to each news event that might be of interest to you. So, take your time and click on the time stamp in the upper right corner of the page.
You will be redirected to the time settings page from which you can pick the appropriate time zone. The time will automatically update for each news event concerning your local time. Also, you can decide to toggle the Daylight Savings Time (DST) option to either on or off. In like manner, determine with time format is displayed either the conventional am/pm or the 24-hour format.
Upon completing the settings process, click on the “Save Settings” button to ensure your settings are applied. Upon completion, the correct time will be displayed in the top-right-hand corner of the screen. Keep in mind that your preferred settings will be the same on each visit as much as you don’t clear your browser’s cache.
Setting the Event Filter
The Forex Factory calendar displays a list of each news event in your local time. You can set the event filter to indicate your preferred type of news and currencies from this page. This can help you focus your attention on specific currency pairs as well as specific news events.
To use the filter option, click on the “Filter” icon in the top-right corner of the calendar tab. After clicking, a pop-up window allows you to select which filter option to use. You can filter by event type, currency, and expected impact. For more information on each event, you can hover your mouse over each colored box under “Expected Impact.”
For ease of understanding, the forex factory calendar uses different color codes to denote the severity of impact. The red color indicates high-impact, orange is medium-impact and yellow shows low-impact news. Depending on your situation, you will have to focus on any color code that applies to you. Regardless, ensure to focus on the impact that gives you a clear understanding of what to expect in the nearest future.
Once you’ve chosen your preferred filter, click on the “Apply Filter” button to save your settings. This will begin to display only the events and currencies you picked. If you wish to change your preference, start the entire process all over.
Set your Desired Time Frame
Next up that you want to set is your desired time frame. This is the length of time that will be displayed on the calendar. Right from the navigation plane, you can select how long from a couple of options. Your options include a single day, a week, or an entire month. The platform also leaves room for selecting predetermined time frames in the bottom half of the navigation pane.
Over the years, many have figured out that setting a week time frame is often the best approach if you are trading the higher time frames. This is because it allows you the opportunity to prepare for a couple of days ahead while basing your decisions on current events. A day time frame means you can only work with a day set of data, while a month holds a greater risk of data changing.
Digging Deeper
Aside from perusing the contents on display on the platform, you can also click on each event to get detailed information. A downside is that there is a flooding of too much information up to the point of confusion. As forex trading deals with price fluctuations, you need to focus more on events occurring on the chart.
Once you click on the icon representing each event, additional information pops up to you. Details such as source, frequency, and history of the event can come in handy later. Remember that the Forex Factory calendar is to help you with specific actions. As a trader, knowing when the scheduled time and the potential impact of an event can help you build a successful portfolio. To this end, apply caution in using the added information provided when digging deep.
Pro-Tips to Help You Get More When Trading Forex Price Action
It takes more to get more from the Forex Factory calendar. And to assist you, here are some professional tips to guide you:
Picking the Right Headlines
While the Forex Factory calendar can help you make the right decisions, the results you get eventually depend on how well you understand and use the platform. With so much information up for consumption, you can be easily swayed to focus on irrelevant events. To get more positives from your use of the platform, you want to focus on the potentially significant events.
This means you have to set your filter preference to include only the medium and high-impact news events. If you are unclear of what major events to keep watch of, check out our list below:
- Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)
- Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP)
- Unemployment rates
- Final Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- Monetary policy announcements
- Any rate decision announcement from central banks
Trading With News Events
You are most likely using the Forex Factory calendar to help you understand when market-shaking news is about to happen. This can help you prepare adequately to avoid periods of high volatility altogether. There are different rules regarding the use of news events to trade. But below are a few scenarios that can apply to you:
No Open Trades Before a News Event
With this scenario, you are safe, especially from any significant events. You are not actively trading at this time and can use the news event to tailor your future trades based on objective analysis. In the case of a significant event not happening soon, getting the timing ideally is essential.
Getting the right timing can be tricky and depends on a few factors, including the reader, the time frame, and the distance to profit. While it’s not compulsory, most seasoned traders prefer having a 24-hour window free of any major news event before trading.
Open position with a small profit
This scenario means you have active trades that can likely see a turn in profits and, at the same time, can turn a loss primarily if the impact of the news event adversely affects it. In most cases, the temptation can arise for you to close the trade and take away your little profit. It now comes down to personal preference to either take profit or lose capital! When not sure of action, keep in mind, take a step back and reassess.
Note: Capital preservation should always come first as a trader in forex. In my own opinion, take your small profit and come back when the market becomes favorable.
Open position with significant profit
In this scenario, when expecting a major news event and having a trade that is well into profit, you certainly have more options to play around. One factor that will most likely influence your decision is your trade’s distance to its profit target. The closer you are to your target, the more urgency you should take profit.
Alternatively, you can decide to take a partial profit and leave a fraction to keep the trade alive. In like mind, you can choose not to take profit at all and keep the transaction on throughout the event. Just play around with what works best for you.
Top 10 Alternatives for Forex Factory Calendar
Yes! The Forex Factory calendar is incredible and can help you choose the best possible timing to trade. That said, it is not alone in this class of excellent forex calendars. Below is a list of the top 10 possible best alternatives to use in 2022:
1. Dukascopy
This is one of the most outstanding forex schedule applications that can be used as an alternative to Forex Factory. It clarifies fundamental markers, news discharge recurrence, information source, as well as the meaning of the event. You can also use its recorded chart with at least two years of data present, which incorporates future predictions.
2. Econoday
Another suitable alternative to using Forex Factory in 2022 for your trading activities is Econoday. It has virtually all the features of Forex Factory and more. You can leverage its “Why Investors Care” section to know the significance of the pointer for the economy.
3. FXStreet
Another awesome forex calendar application that characterizes the marker while also connecting to the authority report is a notable outline with projections.
4. Investing.com
We won’t talk of suitable alternatives to the Forex Factory calendar without mentioning this platform. Rich with needed metrics, it has more tools to help you understand forex trading activities.
5. MQL5
This is a popular calendar application for forex that fosters a clear description of possible events by connecting to the authority source page and referencing past occurrences.
6. TeleTrader
A software provided by Teletrader.com that gives traders overview and quotes of indices. It also has a section for latest news updates.
7. Trading Economics
This software touts itself as being able to provide free indicators, Historical Data, Charts, News and Forecasts for 196 countries to more than 20 million users.
8. BabyPips.com
From its name, it is clear that this platform caters to beginners and provides you with necessary details if you are just beginning to trade. In addition to these services, it also gives daily trading updates (pips) and you can get them on popular social media forums like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and more.
9. Myfxbook
Myfxbook is one of the most trustworthy Forex signal forums in the world. From an economic calendar, market, news, to a trade forum, and trade analysis; this platform has it all. In addition, it allows you to track forex and comes with an app of its own for easier use.
10. DailyFX
Provided by IG Group, a leading forex broker, DailyFX is sold as a financial market news platform covering forex, commodities, and indices. Also, it has charts, market forecasts, trade analysis, and other services that traders will find important.
Conclusion
The Forex Factory Calendar is awesome in helping traders make the most of important news events. It can help you manage your capital effortlessly and reduce your chances of running into loss. That said, it does not stand alone in this category, and our list of top 10 alternatives can help you choose the right Forex calendar for your analytical needs. Most importantly, you can always combine as many calendars as possible!
