Market Events
What’s already on the horizon
The Trading Plan answers what matters today. Market Events answers what should I already know is coming. A rolling seven-day calendar of the scheduled releases and decisions worth preparing for.
Loading events for Sunday, 30 August 2026…
Preparation over prediction
This calendar is a planning tool, not a signal service. Knowing when a central bank decision or inflation release lands lets you size positions, set expectations and decide in advance whether to trade through it or stand aside. Times are shown in your local timezone, and every event name links through to a plain English explanation.
Today’s events are deliberately excluded — they belong in Today’s Trading Plan, where they sit alongside the session context and levels that matter for the day ahead.
What is an economic calendar?
An economic calendar is a schedule of planned economic releases, reports and central-bank decisions. Each entry carries a date, a time, the country or currency it relates to, and an indication of how much market attention it usually attracts.
Its job is to tell you when information will arrive. It does not predict which way price will move when it does. Where we recognise an event, its name links through to a plain-English Economic Calendar Glossary explanation so you can check what is actually being measured before the release.
Why use an economic calendar?
Preparation is the point. Seeing the week in advance lets you make decisions calmly rather than reacting to a candle you did not expect.
- Prepare for periods of increased volatility.
- Avoid entering immediately before an important announcement.
- Decide whether to trade through an event or stand aside.
- Understand why liquidity thins and spreads widen around releases.
- Plan the week as a whole, without treating any single event as a trading signal.
How to use this calendar
- Select a date from the rolling seven-day calendar.
- Narrow the list with the Currency, Country, Action and Impact filters.
- Check the event time in UK time.
- Read Previous and Forecast as context, not as directional predictions.
- Open an event’s Economic Calendar Glossary pop-up for its plain-English explanation.
- Note the important ones in advance, then review that day through Today’s Trading Plan when it arrives.
Ignore, Watch and Avoid
- Ignore — routine or low-consequence; no change to how you trade.
- Watch — expect a short-lived reaction; manage open risk and be deliberate about new entries.
- Avoid — stand aside around the release; spreads and slippage make normal execution unreliable.
Action versus Impact
Impact is the event’s general market importance — how much attention it usually attracts. Action is the behavioural guidance offered to you for that event. A high-impact release you have already planned around may still be a Watch rather than an Avoid.
Key economic indicators to watch
Central-bank interest-rate decisions
Policy rate announcements from the Fed, ECB, BoE and others. They set the price of money, so they move currencies, bonds and index futures more than almost anything else. The statement and press conference often matter more than the rate itself.
Inflation: CPI, PPI and related measures
Consumer and producer price indices track how quickly prices are rising. Inflation shapes what central banks are expected to do next, so a surprise here is really a surprise about future interest rates.
Employment: payrolls, unemployment, jobless claims
Labour data shows how much slack there is in an economy. US Non-Farm Payrolls is the best known; weekly jobless claims give a faster, noisier read on the same trend.
Economic growth: GDP
Gross Domestic Product measures total output. It is released late and often revised, so markets tend to react less to the headline than to whether it confirms or contradicts more timely data.
Business activity: PMI and surveys
Purchasing Managers' Indices and business sentiment surveys are forward-looking. A reading above 50 signals expansion, below 50 contraction. They arrive early in the month and often set the tone for it.
Consumer spending and retail sales
Household spending drives most developed economies. Retail sales and consumer confidence show whether that engine is still running, and feed directly into growth and inflation expectations.
Trade balances
The gap between exports and imports. Persistent deficits or surpluses influence longer-term currency demand, though single releases rarely cause large intraday moves outside export-driven economies.
Speeches, minutes and policy testimony
Central-bank officials speaking, meeting minutes and parliamentary testimony. There is no forecast number to compare against, but wording changes can reprice rate expectations within seconds.
Understanding the numbers
- Previous
- The figure published at the last release of the same indicator, sometimes revised since.
- Forecast
- The consensus expectation of surveyed economists — an average of opinions, not a certainty.
- Actual
- The figure that is finally published. Future events have no Actual yet; it becomes relevant once the release occurs and can be reviewed in the current-day calendar.
The gap between forecast and actual — the surprise — is usually what moves price, because the forecast is roughly what the market had already priced in.
Even so, price can react in the opposite direction to an apparently good or bad number: positioning, revisions to previous figures, the detail beneath the headline, or a larger release later the same day can all dominate.
See today’s actual valuesRelated tools and learning
Today’s Trading Plan
The day’s events, sessions and guidance in one place, with live status as releases land.
Full Economic Calendar
The complete current-day calendar, including actual values once a release has occurred.
Economic Calendar Glossary
Plain-English explanations of every indexed indicator, A to Z.
Trading Journal
Record how you handled event days and review what your rules actually produced.
Learning Library
Guides and reference material on preparation, risk and market structure.
Sign in to view My Rules
Your own written rules for news days — decide before the release, not during it.