Forex news calendar — every release that moves your pair
Every scheduled release for yesterday, today, this week and next week, with its actual, forecast and previous value. Filter by impact and currency, and every time is shown in your own timezone. The calendar runs on the same feed as the news markers inside the FxBacktest chart, so any release you read here is one you can replay bar by bar in a backtest.
Three numbers decide how hard price moves
A release almost never moves a market because the number was good or bad. It moves because the number was different from what the market already expected — and the calendar shows you that gap directly.
Previous
What the same indicator printed last time. It is the baseline the forecast is built on, and a revision to it can move price on its own even when the new number lands exactly as expected.
Forecast
The consensus estimate. This is what is already priced in — if the actual matches it, the release usually passes with a spread widening and little else.
Actual
The published number. The distance between actual and forecast is the surprise, and the surprise is what the market repositions around — which is why the table flags it with an arrow the moment it lands.
Which way does a release usually push your symbols?
Knowing that US inflation came in hot is only half a read. The half that matters is what it conventionally does to the dollar, and therefore to EURUSD, to gold, to the Nasdaq. The panel beside the table answers exactly that, one pill per instrument — and it is the part that opens when you log in.
The read is mechanical, not predictive. It takes three things — whether the number beat or missed, whether a higher number conventionally strengthens or weakens that currency, and which side of the pair the currency sits on — and combines them into a direction. Nothing is estimated and nothing is forecast.
Polarity is not always the obvious way round, which is the whole reason the panel exists. A higher unemployment rate, more jobless claims or a bigger import bill are all higher numbers that conventionally weaken a currency. Equity indices flip again: a hot CPI strengthens the dollar and tends to hurt the Nasdaq, while strong jobs data lifts both.
When a release has no standard read — a speech, a bond auction, a vote split, a positioning report — the panel says exactly that instead of inventing a direction for it. That is deliberate. A calendar that claims to know which way a central banker's press conference will go is not telling you anything.
Then prove it instead of believing it
The point of a direction read is not to trade it on sight. It is to give you something specific to test: load that pair on the day of that release in the backtester, replay the candles around it, and find out what actually happened to your entry, your stop and your spread. The calendar tells you where to look — the backtest tells you whether it is worth trading.
What the red, orange and grey dots actually mean
Impact is the feed's estimate of how much a release typically moves price. Filter the table down to high impact only and you have your day's real risk schedule on one screen.
| LEVEL | TYPICAL RELEASES | WHAT IT USUALLY DOES |
|---|---|---|
| HIGH | Interest rate decisions, CPI, non-farm payrolls, GDP | Moves a major pair tens of pips in seconds, widens spreads sharply and can take out stops on both sides of price before settling. |
| MEDIUM | PMIs, retail sales, trade balance, sentiment surveys | Produces a visible move that is usually absorbed within the hour. Worth knowing about if you are already in a position. |
| LOW | Minor indices, second-tier surveys, weekly stock reports | Rarely moves anything on its own. Shown so the calendar is complete, and easy to filter away. |
Stop guessing whether news helps or hurts your strategy
Every trader eventually argues with themselves about news. Trade through it and catch the move, or stand aside and keep the account calm? The honest answer is that it depends on your strategy, your timeframe and your stop distance — and you can measure it in an afternoon instead of arguing about it for a year.
- Note the high-impact dates for your pair on this calendar.
- Replay those sessions bar by bar in the backtester, with the same entry rules you always use.
- Run the same period again, skipping any trade within thirty minutes of a red release.
- Compare expectancy, drawdown and win rate between the two. Now you have an answer that is yours.
The chart carries the same calendar inside it, so releases appear as markers on the candles while you replay — you see the bar the number landed on, not a date in a separate tab. Related reading: how to backtest forex properly and risk and reward explained.
What economic data is out this week
The THIS WEEK and NEXT WEEK tabs above answer that live, but the more useful habit is knowing what shape a week has before it starts. Most weeks follow a recognisable rhythm, and five minutes on a Sunday deciding which sessions you will sit out is worth more than any intraday decision you make in a hurry.
- Interest rate decisions are the immovable objects. A central bank meeting dominates its currency for the day, and often the day before it as positions are squared.
- Inflation prints — CPI above all — are the most reliable volatility events outside rate decisions, because they are what the rate decision will be based on.
- Employment data, and US non-farm payrolls in particular, lands on the first Friday of most months and reliably moves every dollar pair, metals and the indices at the same time.
- PMIs and sentiment surveys are mid-tier. They move price, usually briefly, and are often the reason an otherwise quiet session produces one sharp candle.
- Everything grey is context rather than a trading event. It is worth reading and rarely worth planning around.
Filter the week to high impact only and to the currencies you actually trade, and the list usually collapses from forty rows to four or five that matter. Those are the ones to note — and then, if you want to know what they really do to your strategy rather than what they are supposed to do, we measured it: the Fed decision hour runs several times a normal EUR/USD hour, and the size of an NFP surprise turns out not to predict the size of the move. The full numbers are in what US economic releases actually do to price.
Economic calendar questions
What is a forex economic calendar?
Where does this calendar's data come from?
What do high, medium and low impact mean?
What time zone are the release times in?
How do I know which way a release pushes my pair?
Should I trade through a high-impact news release?
Is a forex news calendar the same as an economic calendar?
What is on the forex calendar today?
What economic data is out this week?
Is the economic calendar free?
Replay the release instead of reading about it
Open any of 26 markets on the day of any release and step through it candle by candle, placing real trades with real spread, real commission and real drawdown. Free account, no card required.
START BACKTESTING FREE →For educational and practice purposes only. Calendar data is provided by a third party and may be delayed, revised or incomplete; the direction read describes a conventional reaction, not a prediction. Nothing here is financial advice.