Course 09 · Lesson 08

How to Read an Economic Calendar

~8 min readLesson 08/14
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The economic calendar is the operational tool that connects all the macro concepts covered in this course to your actual trading week. Knowing that CPI is being released at 08:30 EST on Wednesday and that the forecast is 3.1% while the previous reading was 3.3% is actionable intelligence.

Key Takeaways
The economic calendar provides the schedule of high-impact macroeconomic catalysts.
The market reacts to the difference between actual numbers and consensus forecasts.
Never hold unhedged leveraged positions through high-impact releases without proper risk buffers.
KEY TERMS
Economic Calendar
A schedule of upcoming economic data releases, central bank decisions, and other market-moving events - showing expected timing, currency affected, and analyst forecasts.
Impact Rating
A colour-coded indicator of how likely an event is to cause market volatility.
Consensus (Forecast)
The median expectation of economists surveyed before a release - the baseline benchmark.

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