## Essential Resources for Forex Traders

If you are active in the Forex trading field, remember that **economic calendars** are tools you will use daily. Just spend a few minutes each day monitoring upcoming economic events, but those minutes can determine the success or failure of your long-term trading strategy.

## What Is an Economic Calendar?

An **economic calendar** is a tool that manages information about financial and political events that can impact asset prices or the entire market. These events include the release of new GDP data, interest rate adjustments by central banks, or the schedule of the European Central Bank (ECB) meetings.

Economic events are published through **economic calendars** weekly, and sometimes during peak periods with more frequent releases. The calendar is continuously updated, helping traders and investors plan, allocate capital wisely, and forecast the impact of these events on price charts to make timely buy or sell decisions.

## How to Read an Economic Calendar

When opening an **economic calendar**, you will see information arranged by chronological order, issuing country, event name, impact level, previous data, forecast, and actual results for the current period.

Events are categorized by impact level:

- **Low impact**: Events with little influence on the market, often marked with a star or no symbol
- **Medium impact**: Events with a significant potential impact, marked with two stars
- **High impact**: Major events with strong influence on market movements, marked with three stars

An important point to remember: not all countries have equal weight in the global market. The US accounts for the majority of global currency trading, so economic events in this country will create waves not only on USD-related currency pairs but also affect other pairs.

## Differentiating Two Types of Economic Events

On an **economic calendar**, there are two types of events you need to distinguish clearly:

**Leading events** are major economic and financial adjustments used to predict future market trends. A typical example is the **Retail Sales** index (Retail Sales).

**Lagging events** are changes that are only recognized after a trend has formed, often reflecting past economic performance. The unemployment rate is a clear example.

## Most Important Events

When monitoring an **economic calendar**, pay special attention to the top events:

- **GDP** (Gross Domestic Product): Measures the value of all goods and services produced by a country
- **PMI** (Purchasing Managers' Index): A highly impactful event as it directly relates to manufacturing activity
- **Interest rate decisions**: Adjustments from central banks
- **Annual monetary policy**: The overall direction of the central bank
- **Non-farm payrolls** (Non-farm payrolls): An important US employment report

Additionally, do not overlook medium-impact events such as unemployment claims, unemployment rate, consumer confidence index (CCI), current sales figures, and durable goods orders (DGO).

## Practical Benefits of an Economic Calendar

An **economic calendar** focuses on financial and economic reports of each country. These events are divided into two types: current situation reports and future forecasts.

Traders use the **economic calendar** to:

- Assess market trends
- Detect potential trading opportunities
- Manage risks effectively
- Develop trading strategies

On trading platforms, you will often see traders opening **buy/sell** positions (mua/bán) with large volumes around the time of an important event announcement or just before. Those trading Forex in short positions will have a particular advantage if they accurately predict market movements after a report—they can open positions before the announcement and close them a few hours later to realize immediate profits.

## Analyzing Data on the Economic Calendar

To use the **economic calendar** effectively, compare three figures: current period data, previous period data, and chart analysis. From there, you can evaluate how the event might impact the market and decide on your next step.

Some professional traders use the **economic calendar** to monitor economic and political announcements that could influence specific exchange rates within a very short timeframe. This approach helps them detect price fluctuations faster and act more promptly than others.

When you know an announcement is upcoming, the first step is to determine the impact level and volatility of that event on your current position. Depending on the situation, you will continue to buy or set stop-loss orders. Therefore, tracking leading events on the **economic calendar** is extremely important—those with early information and accurate forecasts are the ones who can consistently profit in the market.