Economic Calenders

When it comes to economic calendars you will find an assortment of them on-line. There are only two online calendars that I use on daily basis. They are the Forex Calendar @ Forex Factory and Bloomberg Calendar the screenshots of these calendars shown below:

Out of these two calendars my favourite would have to be the Forex Calendar it has more features and has a much easier workflow then Bloomberg. 

Forex Calendar Features

The first thing you will want to do with both these calendars is adjust your time zone. After I have done this I like to get out my trading notebook and I enter  the announcements that will be relevant to me on that given day. To get more detail about a specific announcement simply click on the detail button. The detail window gives you the following information:

• Source
• Measures
• Usual Effect
• Frequency
• Next Release
• FF Notes
• Why Traders care
• Derived via
• Acro Expand
• History
• Related items

The screenshot below shows the Forex Calendar detail feature in action:

The other unique feature the Forex calendar has is the ability to chart historical release data. Like the detail feature you simply click on the chart icon and an interactive chart will be generated within the same window.  The image below shows the chart feature in action:

Software Tools

I use the free tool FF Calendar to news software as it provides an easy way for me to build a database of future and historic news events on my local computer. This is very handy for some system design work I do. The screenshot below shows my news events history database:

Once my database is populated I can then run a script that overlays each of the economic events on the appropriate chart. This allows for me to graphically view the impact if any on the underlying markets. The screenshot below shows the auto generated chart content on the EUR/USD 1 minute spot chart:

In my next post I will talk about the classic reference book that I often refer to surrounding news releases The Secrets of Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to Future Economic Trends and Investment Opportunities.

The first of the magazines is Currency Trader. The Currency Trader magazine is delivered monthly after you subscribe (By providing your email address). The areas currency trader covers include:

• Analysis and news
• Trading strategies
• Systems and more

Articles in November 2007 currency trader include:

• Japan: Politics, carry trades and the yen
• Japanese Inflation and the yen
• Trading FX pattern breakouts
• Triennial BIS Forex survey

One of the extremely helpful features of the Currency Trader magazine is the global economic calendar and the trading events and conference section usually located at the rear of the magazine.

The second magazine also produced by the same company is Futures & Options Trader. The subscription and delivery method for both magazines is the same. Futures & Options Trader covers analysis, news, trading strategies and systems however the articles relate directly to futures and options trading.

Articles in the November 2007 Futures & Options Trader include:

• Trading Bid-Ask volume data
• System test: Reverse trade equity management
• System Test: Ratio butterfly
• Trading diagonal spreads
• Collar Trades
• Interview: Money Manager Klaus Schatz

When a new issue of these magazines is ready to be downloaded you will be sent a link to download the current issue and the previous months issue. The download format for both of these magazines is PDF which makes it easy to download, store and archive. I have found that many of the articles presented in these magazines to be useful and I often refer back to them.

Topics 

• The mechanics of futures trading
• Who trades futures and why : hedgers and speculators
• Forecasting prices
• Electronic trading and the trading environment

For the Foreign currency or Forex trader there are two courses offered by the CME. The first being the:Dynamics of Foreign Exchange

Topics 

• History and concepts of FX
• Trading CME FX futures and options
• Currency pricing – spot, futures and cross-rates
• How to use CME E-quivalents®
• Hedging with FX
• Concepts of fundamental and technical analysis in FX markets
• Basic FX trading strategies

After Completing this course you can then move on to:Advanced Strategies for Foreign Exchange Traders

Topics  

• FX market concepts
• Trading strategies using futures and options
• Spreading strategies
• Futures trading strategies with cross-rates
• Advanced hedging strategies
• 20 futures strategies examined

All of the CME courses are very well structured and offer interactive exercises, email contact with instructors, online quizees and ability to earn a certificate of achievement. It should be noted that each one of these courses has a time limit of 90 days to complete.