Economic Calendar

Key takeaways

• An economic calendar lists scheduled economic releases and events that can move markets.
• Events typically fall into two categories: forecasts/projections and reports on recent data.
• Traders and investors use the calendar to time trades, manage risk, and watch for volatility around announcements.
• Calendars are customizable; build one around the countries, asset classes, and data sources that matter to your strategy.

What is an economic calendar?

An economic calendar is a schedule of upcoming economic data releases, central-bank actions, and other events likely to influence financial markets. Examples include jobless claims, housing starts, GDP releases, interest-rate decisions, central-bank statements, and sentiment surveys. Most financial websites publish free economic calendars, often with filters for country, event importance, and time.

What appears on the calendar

Events on economic calendars generally fall into two groups:
* Projections and guidance (e.g., central-bank rate signals, forecasts).
* Reports on recent data (e.g., employment figures, GDP, inflation, manufacturing indices).

Common entries:
* Employment reports (weekly or monthly)
Gross domestic product (GDP) estimates (typically quarterly)
Consumer price index and inflation measures (monthly)
Central-bank rate decisions and minutes
Industry-specific reports (energy inventories, retail sales, housing starts)

How traders and investors use it

• Timing trades: Entering or exiting positions ahead of or after releases to capture anticipated moves or avoid volatility.
• Risk management: Reducing exposure before high-impact announcements.
• Strategy signals: Using surprise beats/ misses to trigger short-term trades; some traders take pre-announcement positions when they have a view on the release.
• Research and correlation: Tracking which data points most influence a given asset or sector.

Note: Trading around announcements can generate large price swings and higher spreads; plan for increased volatility.

Navigating and customizing your calendar

• Use reputable free calendars from financial websites as a starting point.
• Apply filters to show only the countries, event types, and impact levels relevant to your assets.
• Build a custom calendar by subscribing directly to primary sources for the institutions that most affect your holdings (examples: central banks, national statistics offices, and energy agencies).
• Include non-government items if relevant—company filing dates, sector reports, or industry-specific releases—to make the calendar a tailored trading tool.

Practical tips:
* Set alerts for high-impact events and your preferred time zone.
Track historical market reactions to the same release to help set expectations.
Combine the calendar with position-sizing and stop-loss rules to manage announcement risk.

Economic calendar for Forex

Forex calendars include the same macro events as equity calendars but emphasize releases from the countries whose currencies are in the pair being traded. Interest-rate decisions, inflation, employment, and trade data for those countries are particularly important.

Release frequency of common indicators

• Monthly: Employment reports (e.g., payrolls), consumer price index, manufacturing surveys.
• Quarterly: Gross domestic product (GDP) estimates (reported with monthly or quarterly components depending on the source).
• Weekly: Some sector-specific reports (e.g., U.S. energy inventories, jobless claims).

Conclusion

An economic calendar is an essential tool for anyone trading or investing with sensitivity to macro events. Use it to plan trades, manage risk, and stay informed about the data and decisions most likely to affect your positions. Customize your calendar to focus on the regions, asset classes, and releases that matter to your strategy.