Importance of News

Importance of News

It's not enough to only know technical analysis when you trade. It's just as important to know what makes the market move.

Just like in the great Star Wars world, behind the trend lines, double tops, and head and shoulder patterns, there is a fundamental force behind these movements. This force is called the news!

To understand the importance of the news, imagine this scenario (purely fictional of course!)

Let's say, on your nightly news, there is a report that the biggest software company that you have stock with just filed bankruptcy.

What's the first thing you would do? How would your perception of this company change? How do you think other people's perceptions of this company would change?

The obvious reaction would be that you would immediately sell off your shares. In fact, this is probably what just about everyone else who had any stake in that company would do.

The fact is that news affects the way we perceive and act on our trading decisions. It's no different when it comes to trading currencies.

There is, however, a distinct difference with how news is handled in the stock market and the forex market.

Let's go back to our example above and imagine that you heard that same report of the big software company filing bankruptcy, but let's say you heard the report a day before it was actually announced in the news.

Naturally you would sell off all your shares, and as a result of you hearing the news a day earlier, you would make (save) more money than everyone else who heard it on their nightly news.
Sounds good for you right? Unfortunately this little trick is called INSIDER TRADING, and it would have you thrown in jail.

Martha Stewart did it and now she has a nice mug-shot to go along with her magazine covers.
In the stock market, when you hear news before everyone else it is illegal. In the forex market, it's called FAIR GAME!
The earlier you hear or see the news, the better it is for your trading, and there is absolutely no penalty for it!
Add on some technology and the power of instant communication, and what you have is the latest and greatest (or not so greatest) news at the tip of your fingers.

This is great... Uhmmm... "news" for retail traders because it allows U.S. to react fairly quickly to the market's speculations.
Big traders, small traders, husky traders, or skinny traders all have to depend on the same news to make the market move because if there wasn't any news, the market would hardly move at all!
The news is important to the Forex market because it's the news that makes it move. Regardless of the technicals, news is the fuel that keeps the market going!

Why Trade the News
The simple answer to that question is "To make more money!"
But in all seriousness, as we learned in the previous section, news is a very important part to the market because it has the potential to make it move!

When news comes out, especially important news that everyone is watching, you can almost expect to see some major movement. Your goal as a trader is to get on the right side of the move, but the fact that you know the market will most likely move somewhere makes it an opportunity definitely worth looking at

Dangers of trading the news
As with any trading strategy, there are always possible dangers that you should be aware of.
Here are some of those dangers:
Because the market is very volatile during important news events, many dealers widen the spread during these times. This increases trading costs and could hurt your bottom line.
You could also get "locked out" which means that your trade could be executed at the right time but may not show up in your trading station for a few minutes. Obviously this is bad for you because you won't be able to make any adjustments if the trade moves against you!

Imagine thinking you didn't get triggered, so you try to enter at market... then you realize that your original ordered got triggered! You'd be risking twice as much now!
You could also experience slippage. Slippage occurs when you wish to enter the market at a certain price, but due to the extreme volatility during these events, you actually get filled at a far different price.

Big market moves made by news events often don't move in one direction. Often times the market may start off flying in one direction, only to be whipsawed back in the other direction. Trying to find the right direction can sometimes be a headache!
Profitable as it may be, trading the news isn't as easy as beating Pipcrawler at Call of Duty. It will take tons of practice, practice and you guessed it... more practice! Most importantly, you must ALWAYS have a plan in place. In the following lessons, we'll give you some tips on how to trade news reports.

Which News Reports are Trade-Worthy?
Before we even look at strategies for trading news events, we have to look at which news events are even worth trading.
Remember that we are trading the news because of its ability to increase volatility in the short term, so naturally we would like to only trade news that has the best market moving potential.

While the markets react to most economic news from various countries, the biggest movers and most watched news comes from the U.S.
The reason is that the U.S. has the largest economy in the world and the U.S. Dollar is the world's reserve currency. This means that the U.S. Dollar is a participant in about 90% of all Forex transactions, which makes U.S. news and data important to watch.

In addition to inflation reports and central bank talks, you should also pay attention to geo-political news such as war, natural disasters, political unrest, and elections. Although these may not have as big an impact as the other news, it's still worth paying attention to them.

Summary: Trading the News

There you have it! Now you know how to trade the news! Just keep these things in mind when trading:
When you have a directional bias, you are expecting price to move a certain direction, and you've got your orders in already.

It is always good to understand the underlying reasons why the market moves in a certain direction when news is released.
When you have a non-directional bias, you don't care which way price heads. You just want to get triggered.
Setups for the non-directional bias are also called straddle trades.
That's pretty much it...
Is it really that easy???

You'll have to practice and trade many different reports before you get a feel of which news reports will make the market move, how much of a surprise is needed for the market to move, and which reports to avoid trading.

Like in any other trading method, your success depends on your preparation.

This will take time and practice. Do your homework and study the economic indicators to understand why they are important.

Remember, nothing worth having comes easy, so stick with it and you'll find that trading news report will be very rewarding once you get the hang of it!