An economic calendar helps you identify scheduled news before placing a trade. This guide shows how to set its time zone, filter relevant releases and record forecasts, revisions and actual figures. You will also build a plan for observing a release and checking execution conditions afterward.

What an economic calendar actually is

An economic calendar lists scheduled economic releases and policy events. Read the country, series, reference period, unit and publication time before comparing figures. A row may show previous, forecast and actual values, but a speech or policy event need not have all three. The calendar is an aggregator; the issuing institution is the primary source.

The ForexFactory calendar is one way to organise events. Check its legend, selected time zone and event details rather than assuming a colour predicts a fixed move. A second calendar can help identify discrepancies; confirm an important timestamp with the publisher. The twelve key macroeconomic releases guide explains the series behind commonly watched rows.

Set your time zone before you do anything else

Check the time zone displayed by the calendar before relying on any release time. Providers may use account settings, browser settings or a selected zone. For example, a release at 8:30 a.m. US Eastern is normally 14:30 in Warsaw, but 13:30 during periods when US and European daylight-saving schedules differ.

Open the calendar settings and select a named zone where supported. For a dated clock example, New York changes daylight saving on 8 March and 1 November 2026; Poland changes on 29 March and 25 October. A hypothetical 08:30 New York timestamp converts to 14:30 Warsaw on 6 March, 13:30 on 16 March and 14:30 on 30 March. These are time conversions, not claims that a particular report is scheduled on those dates. Recheck settings and the event date; broker server time is separate.

Read the impact rating and filter out the noise

Calendar providers often classify expected impact as high, medium or low. The categories and methods differ between providers, so read the calendar’s legend. A rating helps prioritise attention but does not specify a guaranteed price move, and a low-rated item can matter when it changes the broader outlook.

Filter for the currencies you follow and the event types relevant to your plan. For EUR/USD and GBP/USD this may begin with US, euro-area and UK releases. Review the remaining rows for the coming week rather than relying on a fixed number of daily events; filtering makes the list shorter without making other news irrelevant.

When did this release actually reach your data?

Official publication time and receipt of its contents are separate records. In the model, the calendar says 14:30:00, but our file receives the value eight seconds later.

Scroll sideways to see the full diagram

Publication, research window and receiptIn the fictional example, publication is at 14:30:00. The action window ends at 14:30:05. Receipt is at 14:30:08, three seconds after the window ends. The contents are unavailable during seconds zero to five.PUBLICATION ≠ RECEIPTFictional record on one clock, secondsResearch window: 0–5 s0 s5 s8 s14:30:00 · publication14:30:05 · window ends14:30:08 · value receivedReceipt is 3 s after this window ends.We do not know the value at 0–5 s.

Times, delivery method and delay are fictional; all timestamps use one synchronized clock. There is no other access before receipt. We report neither a measured provider delay nor a universal transmission standard. St. Louis Fed: FRED API Real-Time Periods confirms that realtime_start and realtime_end specify availability periods as YYYY-MM-DD dates; the need for separate second-level records follows from those fields’ scope.

The marked window ends before receipt. Later information cannot be assigned to an earlier decision.

If a rule uses the actual value, its earliest possible use in this model is 14:30:08. A daily vintage does not reconstruct the second of access. FRED documents realtime_start and realtime_end as YYYY-MM-DD dates; those dates alone are not proof of receipt at a particular second.

Three figures: previous, forecast and actual

Keep the provider and capture time of the forecast as well as the actual release. Check whether consensus means a median, mean or another measure; the statistical publisher does not necessarily supply it. Compare the same series, reference period, seasonal treatment and unit. An actual inflation rate of 0.3% against a 0.2% forecast is a +0.1 percentage-point surprise.

Example: US CPI inflation, month-on-month
Previous (last month's reading)0.3%
Forecast / consensus (provider’s forecast; check its method)0.2%
Actual (fills in at release time)[reading]

The actual-minus-forecast difference identifies a surprise relative to that saved forecast. It does not measure everything already priced into the exchange rate. Components, revisions, other news and market positioning can affect the response. Keep the previous value as it was known before release and the revised previous value published alongside the new result.

  • Actual 0.3% against a 0.2% forecast: +0.1 percentage point. This is above that forecast; it does not by itself determine the dollar’s direction.
  • Actual 0.1% against a 0.2% forecast: −0.1 percentage point. Inspect the series and other information before interpreting the response.
  • Actual in line with the headline forecast — the headline adds little surprise, but components, revisions, other news or positioning can still produce a substantial move.

A hypothetical payroll example uses monthly changes in thousands of jobs: old previous +200, forecast +160, new actual +180 and revised previous +150. The new surprise is +20, the revision is −50, and the new monthly increment exceeds the revised preceding increment by 30. These describe different comparisons; do not turn their sum into a dollar signal. The CPI inflation reading applies the same discipline to inflation units and components.

If that +180 estimate is later revised to +140, comparing +140 with the old +160 forecast gives −20. That was not the +20 surprise available at the first release. Save each vintage and when your file received it. ALFRED can recover historical date-based versions, but its daily dates do not prove access at a particular second.

Which releases really move the market

Major US releases include FOMC decisions, the Employment Situation report containing nonfarm payrolls, CPI, GDP and activity surveys. Employment Situation releases are scheduled at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time, often on a Friday, but the exact date must be checked in the BLS calendar. Convert that timestamp to your local zone for that date; the European offset changes around daylight-saving transitions.

Policy decisions, statements and press conferences may arrive separately. Check which material is available at the end of your observation window. The guide to the impact of Fed decisions on the forex market explains this distinction; our fundamental analysis guides cover other releases. In a fictional single-zone record, a report appears at 14:30 and a speech starts at 14:35. A four-minute window ends at 14:34, before the speech; a ten-minute window ends at 14:40 and overlaps it. Neither window alone proves that the report caused the whole price move.

Your next step with the calendar

You do not need to buy or sign up for anything. Open a calendar and run through these four steps in order.

  1. Check the event’s time zone. Select a supported named zone, verify the conversion for the event date, and recheck the displayed setting when you return. Do not use a permanent six-hour offset.
  2. Apply currency and impact filters. Select the releases relevant to the pairs you follow and use the provider’s impact categories to prioritise them. Check the resulting weekly list and add other events that matter to your position; there is no fixed number that remains after filtering.
  3. Record the releases relevant to your window. Save the publisher’s link and time zone, forecast provider and capture time, reference period, actual value, old previous and revised previous. A reminder is optional; its lead time is a planning choice, not a proven trading rule.
  4. Plan for the release before placing orders. Check whether you need to reduce exposure or observe without trading. Wider spreads, gaps and slippage can make the realised loss differ from the planned stop risk. If you later consider an entry, check current execution conditions and recalculate its size; a fifteen-minute wait does not guarantee normal conditions.