Trading the news is becoming a popular technique to trade the forex markets … and why shouldn’t it be? Time and time again you see currency pairs move 50 to 100 pips within minutes or even seconds after a major news release. When you see that, I bet you’re thinking, “50 to 100 pips!? That’s easy money!” Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. It all depends on how prepared you are to trade a news release.
The goal of this lesson isn’t to give you a specific “Trading the News” strategy. The goal is to point you in the right direction and show some of the risks involved with trading these events, because here at BabyPips.com, we want to help you help yourself in developing your own methods that fit YOU best.
Why Trade the News?
Trading news releases can be a significant tool in your trading arsenal. If you want, it can be your only weapon altogether. Economic news reports often spur strong short-term moves in the market, which are great trading opportunities for breakout traders. And with the forex being open 24 hours a day and a true worldwide market, there are plenty of opportunities almost every trading day to catch market volatility (aka a lot of pips!) kicked off by an economic news report.
hich Pairs Should I Trade?
Here is a list of the top currencies and countries in which you should focus on for news trading:
| Symbol | Country | Currency | Nickname |
| USD | United States | Dollar | Buck |
| EUR | European Union | Euro | Fiber |
| JPY | Japan | Yen | Yen |
| GBP | Great Britain | Pound | Cable |
| CHF | Switzerland | Franc | Swissy |
| CAD | Canada | Dollar | Loonie |
| AUD | Australia | Dollar | Aussie |
| NZD | New Zealand | Dollar | Kiwi |
Now, there are plenty more currencies available to trade, but this list is based on the size of each country’s economy, frequency of news releases and the trading liquidity of their currency.
When are News Releases uh Released?
The list below displays the times when the most important economic data are released for each of the countries. Make sure you know them or go broke.| Symbol | Country | Time (GMT) |
| USD | United States | 13:30 - 15:00 |
| EUR | Germany | 07:00 - 11:00 |
| EUR | France | 07:45 - 09:00 |
| EUR | Italy | 08:45 - 10:00 |
| JPY | Japan | 23:50 - 04:30 |
| GBP | Great Britain | 07:00 - 09:30 |
| CHF | Switzerland | 06:45 - 10:30 |
| CAD | Canada | 12:00 - 13:30 |
| AUD | Australia | 22:30 - 00:30 |
| NZD | New Zealand | 21:45 - 02:00 |
