10 Economic Indicators and Events All Forex Traders Need to Watch

Many external factors can have an impact on the global markets, including interest rates, inflation and unemployment; the list is endless. The key to the success for most traders is a frequently updated economic calendar. The calendar covers all important events and releases that affect the forex markets as well as the economy of a specific country. A great understanding of why markets do what they do, can be found on these calendars while traders are able to anticipate market moves based on previous, actual and forecasted numbers. With the release of key economic data such as NFP, GDP, etc figures present excellent trading opportunities. These factors influence a trader’s decisions and ultimately determine the value of a currency at any given point in time.

If the FOMC makes any change to the rate of the federal funds, it can make a significant difference to the value of the USD. The fiscal and monetary policies of any government are the most critical factors in its economic decision making. Central bank decisions that impact https://day-trading.info/ interest rates are keenly watched by the forex market for any changes in key rates or the future outlook of policymakers. Similarly, PPI measures changes in producer prices generally – but traders tend to watch PPI excluding food and energy as a market driver.

Classification of News Reports and Economic Indicators

Most traders believe that all the available information is priced into a currency pair, and only new information such as economic data will significantly alter the value of a currency pair. Their importance lies in the correlation with the GDP, as strong corporate profits reflect a rise in sales and encourage job growth. Corporations use their profit to raise financing, pay dividends to the shareholders or to re-invest in their business. In addition, investors look for good investment opportunities, therefore they increase the stock market performance. As with other indicators, the difference between the actual NFP data and the expected figures will determine the overall effect of the data in the market. In the non-farm payroll is expanding, it is a good indication that the economy is growing and vice versa.

Forex is a real global marketplace, with buyers and sellers from all corners of the globe participating in trillions of dollars of trades each day. The fact that foreign exchange trading has become such a global activity means that macroeconomic events everywhere play a https://bigbostrade.com/ greater role in forex than ever before. Traders don’t have to stick to popular currencies anymore, but they are a good place to start. Below, we’ll discuss some economic trends and events that will help those who are new to the market to become successful forex traders.

– Stock Market Performance

If you own the currency with the lower yielding interest rate, you will need to pay to hold the currency pair. The interest rates of each country are embedded into the forward rates that you will pay or receive if you transact beyond the spot rate which is 2-business days. The Manufacturing PMI is an indicator the economic health of the manufacturing sector of a given country.

It is important to analyse changes and trends within the markets to keep on top of your positions. Traders can use these economic indicators to their advantage and build an effective event-driven investing strategy. These may be 10 of the highest impact economic releases but there are literally hundreds each month released by all global economies that can affect foreign exchange rates.

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The business circle consists of the expansion period and the retraction period. As we have said already, looking at the calendar, two pieces of data should be of interest one is the analysts’ and traders’ forecast and percentage change in the FED data from the previous data. Every one of the economic indicators falls into one of the above-mentioned categories and they have their uses and benefits.

An economic calendar will focus on economic events, and it will also show you when there are central bank meetings, political elections as well as bond auctions. Policy makers often use leading economic indicators to make changes to their monetary or fiscal policy. Examples of leading indicators are stock indices, retail sales, https://trading-market.org/ and consumer expectation surveys. Fundamental analysis tries to measure the equilibrium exchange rate based on macro-economic statistics. This is why fundamental traders are more long-term traders compared to technical traders. One way to use economic indicators in forex market analysis is to use a calendar of economic events.

Consumer price index (CPI)

Any trader, beginner or experienced, should familiarise himself with the economic calendar, and learn which indicators are relevant to his trades and how. Once this information is acquired traders will find out how their trades become more successful and their earnings can surpass their expectation. Exchange rates are among the top factors that distinguish the health of a country’s economy.

Inflation rates measure the change of prices in goods and services over a specific period of time. Just like labour market statistics and GDP reports, inflation data is a major market-mover in Forex. You must know that what determines the effect the economic indicator data would have on the financial market is not the Data itself but the percentage change in the data. What this means is the percentage difference between the previous economic data and the one just released recently is one of the factors that would directly affect the market. One thing that has a huge impact on a country’s currency and its foreign exchange rate is the rate of inflation within the country in question.

International Trade: Goods & Services

There are a plethora of great financial calendars, on reputable websites such as Reuters, Bloomberg and Forex Factory. If you want to customize one, you can enter the information yourself on a spreadsheet to make sure you are capturing all the information that you deem crucial to your trading decisions. Consumer sentiment can be used so as to see how optimistic or pessimistic people are towards the current market conditions. The preliminary and final reports are then released one and two months after the advance report.

There are a number of different economic reports and indicators put out throughout the year, and each can have a very significant impact on your forex trading efforts. In this guide, you’ll find clear definitions of the 10 leading economic indicators, as well as information on how they affect the forex market. Coincident indicators are economic indicators that provide information about the current state of the economy. They are used to measure the current level of economic activity, such as changes in industrial production or retail sales. The market may pay attention to different indicators under different conditions. A forex economic calendar allows both novice and experienced traders to stay informed about potential price moves that can occur due to fundamental news reports.

Hopefully this has helped you realize the importance of watching economic indicators – and knowing which data are most likely to move markets and impact currency traders. For example, many new traders watch the headlines of the employment report, for example, assuming that new jobs are key to economic growth. That may be true generally, but in trading terms non-farm payroll is the figure traders watch most closely and therefore has the biggest impact on markets. You need not understand every nuance of each data release, but you should try to grasp key, large-scale relationships between reports and what they measure in the economy.

• This factor is usually more important that lagging indicators and gives a clearer picture of the state of the economy in any country.
• Traders use a range of tools and techniques to gather information about the market, including economic indicators.
• They are all key determining factors of a country’s foreign exchange rates.
• For example, many new traders watch the headlines of the employment report, for example, assuming that new jobs are key to economic growth.
• Some are good indicators alone while others should be used together for accurate Forex predictions.

Traders should also consider the reliability of the data and any potential biases that may exist. There are several housing-related economic indicators which are released every month including Housing Starts, Building Permits, New Homes Sales, Existing Home Sales, and Pending Home Sales. Housing prices along with employment numbers are a strong reflection of inflation.