www.informedtrades.com/38799-economic-releases-move-us-dollar-where-find-them.html

As you can probably imagine, we could spend many lessons and multiple hours going over each of the economic indicators that affect the price of the US Dollar. It is for this reason, that before getting into any of the actual indicators, I wanted to give everyone an overview of the broad things that move the market. As we have discussed in previous lessons the two broad categories that pretty much everything that moves the forex market fits into, are trade flows and capital flows, as covered in module 3 of this course.

Once you have an understanding of this, all that is necessary to understand how economic numbers move the dollar, is to understand which numbers are important to the market at the time, whether those numbers fit into the trade flows or capital flows category, and how they should affect the dollar as a result.

As we learned in module 8 of our basics of trading course, how the market reacts to economic releases is generally determined by two factors:

1. How important the market considers a particular release to be.

2. How close to market estimates the number comes in at. Remember that markets anticipate news, so generally if an economic release comes out as expected, there is very little if any market reaction to that release.

How important the market considers a particular economic release to be, is something that changes over time depending on what is happening from a US Dollar fundamentals standpoint. If there are worries that the economy is going into recession, then the market is going to be extra sensitive to any numbers, such as non farm payrolls and consumer spending, which may provide early warning signs that this is the case. Conversely, if the economy is heating up and the markets are worried that inflation may become a problem, then the most market moving numbers may be price data releases, such as the CPI and the PPI. For your reference, according to Dailyfx.com the most market moving indicators for 2007, in order of importance were:

1. Non Farm Payrolls
2. FOMC Releases
3. Retail Sales
4. ISM Manufacturing
5. Inflation
6. Producer Price Index
7. The Trade Balance
8. Existing Home Sales
9. Foreign Purchases of US Treasuries (TIC Data)

We have discussed most of these indicators already, and for those which we have not, a quick google search, and review of the indicator in the context of whether it fits into trade flows or capital flows, should answer the question of why they move the market.

Although I am probably a little biased since I used to work with the people who run the site, I am a very big fan of Dailyfx.com as the place where I go to find out what economic data is due for release, and for commentary on the number after the release. They have a great global calendar which you can find at the top of the site as well as tons of both technical and fundamental commentary on everything that affects the US Dollar and forex market in general.

For this lesson specifically, if you click the calendar button at the top of the site you will see they have all of the economic data releases from the major countries of the world with the time of the release, the previous number, the forecasted number and the actual number which is updated after the release. You will also notice here they have links for the more important numbers giving a definition of the release, the relative importance of the release, and the latest news release relating to that release.

If you click back to the homepage of the site you will see lots of fx related reports which the Dailyfx staff puts out throughout the day. Two of my favorite reports are the Daily Fundamental report by Kathy lien, and the US Open Market Points by Boris Schlossberg which you can find in the middle of the page.

As we discussed in module 8 of our basics of trading course, the best way to get a feel for how economic numbers affect the market, and which numbers are in focus, is to start following the market on a daily basis and seeing how it reacts to various news events. As this is the case, I highly recommend following the commentary on Dailyfx.com as well as the forex commentary on InformedTrades.com, and start putting your analysis to practice on your real time demo accounts. If you have not registered for a free realtime demo account I have included a link above this video where you can do so.

That's our lesson for today, and that wraps up our discussion on the US Dollar. In the next lesson we are going to look at the next most traded currency in the world, the EURO so we hope to see you in that lesson.

1. An Overview of the Forex Market
2. The Difference Between Over the Counter (OTC) and Exchange-Based Markets
3. Who Really Controls the Forex Market?
4. The Role of the Retail Forex Broker
5. How Central Banks Move the Forex Market
6. How Banks, Hedge Funds, and Corporations Move Currencies
7. A Breakdown of the Forex Trading Day
8. Forex Trading - Characteristics of the Main Currencies
9. Setting Up Your Forex Trading Software
10. Forex Trading - How to Read a Currency Quote
11. Forex Trading - Understanding Currency Rate Movements
12. Forex Trading - Understanding the Bid/Ask Spread
13. How to Place Your First Forex Trade
14. How to Determine Your Position Size in the Forex Market
15. Forex Trading - Pips and Fractional Pip Pricing
16. How to Calculate Forex Trading Profits and Losses
17. An Introduction to Leverage in Trading
18. How Trading on Margin Works
19. How to Calculate Leverage in the Forex Market
20. How to Calculate Leverage in the Forex Market Part 2
21. How to Place a Market Order in the Forex Market
22. How to Place a Stop Loss and Take Profit Order in Forex
23. How to Place A Pending Entry Order in the Forex Market
24. How Rollover Works in Forex Trading
25. How Rollover Works in Forex Trading Part 2
26. Free Forex Charts Userguide
27. What Moves the Forex Market? - Trade Flows
28. How Capital Flows Move the Forex Market
29. The Current Account: How Forex Traders Can Use it to Identify Opportunities
30. Interpreting the Capital Account and Measuring Capital Flows
31. Fundamentals that Move Currencies - Balance of Payments
32. How Interest Rates Move the Forex Market Part 1
33. How Interest Rates Move the Forex Market Part 2
34. How To Trade the Carry Trade Strategy Part 1
35. How To Trade the Carry Trade Strategy Part 2
36. How To Trade the Carry Trade Strategy Part 3
37. Fundamental Analysis Vs. Technical Analysis in Forex
38. Forex Trading Fundamentals Quiz - Test Your Knowledge
39. Why the US Dollar is Still King
40. Determining the Fate of the US Dollar
41. Determining the Fate of the US Dollar Part II
42. Determining the Fate of the US Dollar, Part III
43. Economic Releases that Move the US Dollar
44. A Trader's Introduction to the Euro
45. A Trader's Introduction to the Euro, Part II
46. A Trader's Introduction to the Euro, Part III
47. A Trader's Introduction to the Yen
48. A Trader's Introduction to the Yen, Part II
49. A Trader's Introduction to the Japanese Yen, Part III
50. A Trader's Introduction to the British Pound
51. A Trader's Introduction to the Swiss Franc
52. A Trader's Introduction to the Canadian Dollar
53. A Trader's Introduction to the Australian Dollar
54. A Trader's Introduction to the New Zealand Dollar
55. Why Choosing a Forex Broker is so Confusing
56. Choosing a Forex Broker: Regulation and Financial Stability
57. Choosing a Forex Broker Part III: Transaction Costs
58. Choosing a Forex Broker, Part IV: Technology & Add-ons
59. Choosing a Forex Broker: Evaluating Customer Service
60. An Introduction to Forex Capital Markets (FXCM)
61. An Introduction to DailyFX Plus

This 61-video series is an introduction and in-depth look at the forex market, including how to place trades, the fundamentals of the forex market, profiles of the main currency pairs, and factors to consider when choosing a forex broker.



This is a continuation of The Basics of Trading course by Informed Trades.